getting on my nerves

tychotycho Santa Barbara, California!
edited November 2003 in Hardware
Okay, not sure where this belongs, but i guess this is as good a place as any... heres the problem

I have had this current windows install for about a month now and every now-and-then my computer will just randomly freeze. Most of the time I will come home from class or wake up or something and I will come home to see find that the compy won't wake up from the monitor's power save mode. The computer is clearly frozen because the caps-lock button won't do anything. Unfortunatly, this problem occured again today while i was sitting right here. Winamp stopped playing and the computer was stuck.

In addition, when i reboot from these freezes the computer just doesn't seem to want to do anything. Recently I clicked on IE and it took about 60 seconds before the window opened. Also AIM has a very difficult time completing its log-on procedure without getting frozen.

Possible culprits? Well I am overclocking, but i have tried slowing down the OC in the past without seeing any real improvements. Today I ran chkdsk and nothing was found. Natuarally I am folding 100% 24/7 on this rig, but i wouldn't expect that to really be the problem (although i guess it could be).

Anyways, here are my specs... any help would be greatly appreciated
2500+ (Barton) OC'd to 2.0GHz (on air, temps are about 50*-52* C)
ABIT NF7 v2.0
512 MB ram
Radeon 8500

Oh also, almost forgot... my apartment has some really poor wiring and often the circuit breaker that my computer is on flips. This has happened probably about 5 times in the last month and a half... could this be hurting something?

Comments

  • WuGgaRoOWuGgaRoO Not in the shower Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    it could be sooo many things...check out the RAM...or the powersupply...or the graphics card.....comp freezes...
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    memtest86.com

    memtest86.com

    memtest86.com

    One of my mantras that I meditate with on a daily basis ;)
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited November 2003
    Memory, maybe a small UPS just for clean power, or power supplu would be my guess.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    Memory.
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    I dont think that's a ram problem really. F@H doesn't use much ram at all and generally, you need to run apps that uses a lot of ram to get it to freeze. Go up .1 volt on the chipset and see.
  • tychotycho Santa Barbara, California!
    edited November 2003
    hmm okay, i am now looking at this memtest thing... honestly its a little confusing but i will give it a shot... also i'll try upping the chipset voltage

    we'll see what works
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    No, it's RAM. Heh.

    RAM errors can occur anywhere. That is right in the OS's boot portion (Bluescreen on boot), login portion (Bluescreens/freezes on login), or just after where it begins to load programs into resident memory (Heeeeello AIM!)
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    MemTest86 in a nutshell:

    Download either the .ISO version or the boot floppy creator. Use the program that you download to make a bootable floppy or burn the ISO to a CD. Boot off the thing you made. MemTest86 has 7 tests. Let them all run - it may take a long time (up to an hour sometimes). If you get a single error on any test, you have bad memory.

    If you have more than 1 dimm and you get any errors, re-run the test 1 dimm at a time to identify the bad one.
  • tychotycho Santa Barbara, California!
    edited November 2003
    thanks prime, fortunatly i discovered how to run memtest as it simply runs once it boots :-P memtest86.com could do us all a favor and simply put that on the stupid webpage

    anyways, the test didn't find anything wrong, no errors on any tests. I have upped the chipset voltage to 1.7V and lower the OC to 1.9G... i'll guess its just wait and see if the comp will stop freezing

    thanks for all the help guys, ill let you know if anything goes awry.

    ah yes, after these restarts my computer has been much more responsive... IE doesn't take a minute to run, AIM signs on properly, etc...
  • ketoketo Occupied. Or is it preoccupied? Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    I'm guessing the power outages on the circuit MAY have done some damage, if you have another power supply I would try it out.

    Also, you don't mention what voltage you are running on the 2500+, tho it's not much of an OC and default may suffice, if it IS @ default, maybe try upping vcore by .50 or .75v
  • tychotycho Santa Barbara, California!
    edited November 2003
    Unfortunatly I don't have another PS i can try
    I never did take a look at the core voltage, but i suspect that it is probably upped by .5V already. I'll check next time i restart (which hopefully won't be for a long time if this thing stays stable)
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    Is it still alive tycho? (Cough-Cough, Thrax)
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    Chances are that if the circuit breaker keeps tripping the problem is in that circuit of the apartment. If the power supply is still OK that circuit is delivering some real unstable power. I would try another plug and please don't use any of those little K-Mart extension cords.
  • tychotycho Santa Barbara, California!
    edited November 2003
    Well it has been about 12+ hours and it is still running... i will be going to class soon so i'll just hope that it is alright when i get back

    The thing with the circuit breaker is that this apartment was wired poorly. All four bedrooms in this place as well as a number of outlets and lights in the family room are all on the same breaker. When there are 4 computers running, plus lights, plus a tv or something, the breaker just flips. I don't think i am getting bad power, its just that this place has inadequet wiring. Unfortunatly i can't switch to another outlet because they are all on the same line anyways.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    Ah hah! so no matter what You are :screwed:
  • tychotycho Santa Barbara, California!
    edited November 2003
    mtgoat had this to say
    Ah hah! so no matter what You are :screwed:

    yes precisely

    so far so good, no freezing yet. Just have to keep my fingers crossed :skeptic:
Sign In or Register to comment.