Computer randomly freezes...can't figure it out...

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by captaincharisma, Nov 13, 2005.

  1. captaincharisma

    captaincharisma Private E-2

    I just put together a new rig, here are the specs..

    AMD Athlon 3800+
    ECS nForce a939 Mobo
    Aspire 520w PSU
    4 x 512mb PC 3200 Corsair Value Select (I know...I know...:))
    200gb SATA Maxtor HDD
    Power Color ATI Radeon x800GT 256mb DDR3 PCI-E 16x
    ATI TV Wonder Pro PCI
    NEC 16x +/- DL DVD Burner
    4 Case Fans
    Stock Heatsink/Fan w/ Thermal paste applied
    (Nothing is overclocked)

    I got the system up and running fairly quickly with no problems. Installed XP Pro with SP2. Everything was running cool, then I installed World of Warcraft and everything was fine and dandy for about 30 minutes, until my computer just froze, no sound/beep, no keyboard control, had to hard reboot to get back into windows. Didn't think anything of it until it happened again while playing Counter-Strike : Source, same thing basically. It has frozen in basic Windows operations as well. There really no set action that will do it, I've had this thing running through the night recording TV, just to have it do something and it's good for 6-7 hours. Sometimes it'll go an hour and lock up.

    So first thing that popped into my mind was overheating so I ran 3d Mark 2005 and monitored the temps while that was running and got these...

    3721 3DMarks

    Idle - CPU 38 / System 35
    Max Temps - CPU 47 / System 37

    So I don't really thing overheating is the problem. Next thing was the video card, and just for the record, the computer has frozen in Windows, just browsing with FireFox, not only in 3d games. I installed the newest Catalyst drivers, still freezing...so I removed those tried the drivers that came with the card, still freezing, removed and tried Omega with no luck. This motherboard itself only has PCI-E/PCI slots, no AGP and those are the only other cards I have so right now, I can't swap out cards.

    Next thing was the memory, I ran memtest for about 2 hours with no errors. However, I did kind of skimp on the memory, but couldn't pass up the deal I got and I've had good luck with Corsair in the past.

    And this brings me to my finaly suspect...the PSU. I have posted my problem in my main forum, and the majority said the culprit was my PSU. It's an Aspire (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817148008) that my friend had purchased but couldn't use as it wouldn't fit in his case. I was referred to a few links that basically said Aspire PSU's were on a list of basically "shitty" PSU's. I've tried two, albeit, off brand PSU's in this system...the first being this one, and the second being the 480w that came with my case.

    Sooo with all the being said (thank you to anyone that read all that) I just really want to get some more opinions on what the problem could be. I've done numerous fresh-XP installs, some being with no SP packs. I've collected any dual-core drivers available online (one being from AMD and another "hotfix" from microsoft.com).

    I'm pretty much struck out, and would really like this system to be up and stable. Thank you guys for any help in advance.
     
  2. captaincharisma

    captaincharisma Private E-2

    Looks like I missed the edit time. It's actuall an AMD Athlon X2 3800+.
     
  3. Bobomoomin

    Bobomoomin Specialist

    Well, have u checked in the mobo manual to se if the mobo supports a cpu that speed? It's unlikely, but worth a try. :eek:
     
  4. ~Pyrate~

    ~Pyrate~ MajorGeek

    This smells of a chipset driver issue, make sure you have the latest ones. Also ECS isn't really known for their quality. I tend to doubt the PSU as it would probably be restarting and not freezing if it was, but wouldn't discount it either. Plus, if you've tried two power supplies makes me doubt it further.

    Also might try removing everything but what is vital to running the system, one ram stick, the video card, and the hard drive.
     
  5. spaz

    spaz Specialist

    Did you try re-seating all the cards and RAM? Maybe move the PCI cards to new slots... Reason I say is that I've experienced this problem caused by a connection that became intermittent once the board reached a temp high enough to expand the metal/affect the connections.
     

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