computer freezing..

hey guys..
not sure this is a hardware prob .. but thats what i'm guessing
in the last few days i've been getting "freezes" on my comp.. and
i'm unable to do anything. sometimes this is accompanied by strange yellow lines on the screen.
i have an AM/ athlon 64 3000 proccessor (939 venice)
with a MSI RSM-IL X300 939 board
and windows XP sp2 operating system
untill recently i had 2 ceon 256MB DDR 400 mhz memory cards.
and a 80mb hard drive

recently i've bought a 1 GB DDR 400 mhz ceon card whcich replaced my
previous memorey
as well as a LG DVD sata burner
and a new wester digital 160GB sata2 hard drive.
since about then i've been getting these computer freezes which
have been doing my head in

i read some posts and tried a memory test which came out ok..
and just to make sure replaced the new memory .. with another identical card.
besides that i've followed your instructions on malware removal and ran
several antispyware programs as well as ccleaner and replaced my antivirus to nod32.

thats about it i think... i truely have no clue what to do...
please please help... i really have to finish my thesis for uni

thanks so much in advance..

 

When exactly is it freezing? What programs are you running when it occurs?

Make sure you have all the latest drivers for your hardware and have updated your BIOS. Check if this fixes your problem. If it's a case where you've already updated your drivers, then try rolling them back to the drivers that worked previously

 

it happens randomly
i can be in the firefox or explorer .. playing a game or doing nothing at all...
the memory i bought is a 1 gb ceon ddr400 cl 3 which replaced 2 - ceon 256mb ddr 2.5. could that have done it? though i switched back
and i still get the freezes..

about the hardware . the drivers are updated.


and how do i go about to update my bios? can you be a bit more specific.. (sorry i'm not extremely good at this)

thanks very much for your help.

 

The RAM shouldn't be a problem unless you are trying to run both types of RAM at once. Different model and brand memory don't communicate well with eachother. If you're running with both your 1G and the 256MB then turf the 256MB. It could be causing the problem. Also, you could try changing back to your previous RAM arrangement (2x256MB) and see if you are still having problems.

Make sure all your hardware is secured and connected properly, allowing no freedom for any of it to move. Push all your cables in hard.

Take the opportunity while your case is open to clean out any dust with a can of compressed air. This will help keep your system cool

Uninstall all of your drivers and install the latest ones.

Another thing to try is performing a hard disk scan.

Click Start>Run... Type cmd

this will open the command prompt.

In the window type: chkdsk c: /f /r

with c: being the drive you want to scan so if it's not c: adjust it accordingly. The /f command automatically fixes any errors it encounters. The /r command locates bad sectors and recovers readable information.

A reboot is normally required to start the disk scan. It's pretty obvious when it happens. Depending on how bad your disk is will depend on how long it takes. It could take from a couple of minutes to a couple of hours.

Updating the BIOS should be one of the very last things you try since sometimes the update is worse than what you already have. Only do it if nothing else works, including reformatting your hard disk