Computer Freezing, Need Help

LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, Alaska Icrontian
edited July 2004 in Hardware
My sister is having problems with her computer freezing. Specs follow:

Abit KX7-333
2X256MB TwinMoss PC2700
Athlon XP 2000+, Vantec Aerocool HSF
ATI Radeon 8500 LE
PSU - Don't remember brand or rating
Not Overclocked

Symptoms - mouse freezes or disappears, can't open two separate windows in browser, Windows Explorer won't open or won't render the complete window. These problems are intermittent. The computer will run just fine, then problems start for seemingly no reason.

Steps taken:

The room with the computers is hot so I removed the side panel of her case. Even after temps dropped to 30*C case, 53*C CPU, the computer would still freeze after a while. Next I increased CPU, IO, and DRAM voltages a notch, thinking that perhaps there was a voltage starvation issue. I also turned off Folding. Next step was running a full scandisk op. No smiles - problem still persists intermittently.

PSU voltages seem to be pretty good - 12v/12.10, 3.3v/3.5, 5.0v/4.84.

I ran a complete Adaware/Spybot/NAV/HijackThis scan - all clean.

All I can think of is to disassemble the computer and reassemble, reapplying Arctic Silver to the CPU, NB, and vid card heatsinks. If that doesn't work, reinstall WinXP Home in repair mode. I'm interested in any diagnostic steps to take before the heavy duty steps.

I built this machine for my sister about a year ago, and it has run nearly perfectly since this new problem cropped up. I have not changed its original hardware configuration.

Comments

  • ArmoArmo Mr. Nice Guy Is Dead,Only Aqua Remains Member
    edited July 2004
    Xp?
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2004
    WinXP Home, with all MS updates
  • dragonV8dragonV8 not here much New
    edited July 2004
    As prime would say: Memtest?

    Sure hope you get it sorted.
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited July 2004
    The KX7's were built around the time that Abit was still selling boards with defective capacitors on them if I remember right. You might take a close look at all the big caps on the mobo and see if any are swollen or leaking, Leo. I've also seen them start leaking on the bottom side of the cap next to the mobo too, so check them carefully.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2004
    Good suggestions - I'll follow them up. If any more suggestions though, please let me know. It'll be a few days before I get back to my sister's place.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited July 2004
    It could also be power related. Not PSU but power from the wall even. You could add another clean XP install next to the old one where you could dual boot and see if its the software or hardware causing the lockups.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2004
    It could also be power related.
    Nope, I don't think so. When I built the computer for her, I convinced her to purchase an APC BackUPS, 500VA. She doesn't have it overloaded.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited July 2004
    most the reasonable priced ups's monitor the line and switch when it drops long enough. They don't handle surges and other spikes and stuff.

    I run big voltage regulators and skip the UPS's. I want perfect locked in voltage going into my systems and thats not what 90 percent of the UPS's do. They look for a drop long enough and try and switch over to batteries before the computer craps out. Really good ones run off the batteries all the time. Or thats what the really expensive ones used to do. So the power is converted and alwasy perfect.

    I also have not lost a PSU of any kind in all the systems I run and have huge dual cpu systems and stuff and run them off cheaper psu's. I lost a pair of huge antec's and a pair of huge enermax's before switching to the voltage regulators two years ago. I don't think its a coincidense either. I think most people would be shocked at how nasty the power is coming out of the wall in their house.

    I also paid peanuts for the 1200 and 1800 watt voltage regulators. best money I ever spent.

    Tex
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2004
    Update:

    This may have turned out to be a very simple solution. I'm betting there was nothing wrong with the hardware or software. I've got her computer at my home now and am running test after test. In fact, I'm posting now using my sister's computer.

    Well anyway, when my sister told me of the problem, freezing, I had immediately suspected overheating, as the room her computer is in is very warm. I had opened her computer and peeked at the CPU HSF, which appeared OK. My sister had assured me that she had recently cleaned the machine.

    Muddoktor, I did inspect the motherboard thoroughly for swollen or ruptured capacitors. No problem. This KX7-333R has the high quality Rubycon caps; all in excellent condition.

    Tex, concerning undervoltage. We pulled up the APC UPS log, and it showed that there had been no significant over or undervoltages for over a month.

    Yeah, yeah, I'm getting to the fix. Well anyway, I pulled the motherboard from the computer for a close inspection. I went ahead and did a thorough computer cleaning. The vid card, ATI Radeon 8500, was very dirty. The stock GPU heatsink was clogged with dust, I think its heat dissipation ability was very, very low.

    After I reassembled the computer, I performed a number of tests. With Folding running in the background, I'm multitasking with several Mozilla windows open, and Memtest running. (I'll let Memtest run overnight just to be sure.) So, it appears the freezing problem was due to an overheating video card.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2004
    Ah nuts. Spoke too soon. Right when I finished my last post the computer started freezing again. I couldn't navigate in Mozilla, couldn't open Windows Explorer, and couldn't even shut down the computer through Windows. In short the computer quit responding. No BSOD, though.

    What's the next step, assuming I don't get errors on Memtest? Windows installation in repair mode?

    Temperatures are all good. Votages are all good. I just don't get it. Could this have anything to do with read and write errors with the hard drive? Bad cable? Or would the problems manifested be different?
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited July 2004
    If you haven't reinstalled windows yet, i'd try that.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2004
    I just got done with about 65 Windows updates after the repair install. So far, no freezing. I'll probably know tomorrow morning if the repair installation was the fix.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2004
    I ran the computer for 15 hours after the Windows repair install - flawless operation. My sister's had it back at her now for over 24 hours with no problems at all. I guess Windows got corrupted somehow. Believe it or not, I think the cause of the corruption may have been Spybot's resident protection. My sister always answered "no" to any Spybot request to change the registry, including legitimate changes for software programs and updates she was using. I don't know how else her Windows installation would have been corrupted. Her computer was completely free of viruses, malware, and spyware. She hadn't had any power failures for over a month, and the APC UPS log showed no significant over or under-voltages.

    Oh well, it's fixed now.
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