The "Hostessess" bedroom browsing desktop has suddenly started randomly freezing, I`ve checked all the usual stuff - hard drive for malware, rootkits, etc and it seems absolutely fine! `ve tried removing each of the two ram modules one at a time and it doesn`t matter which one is in, so i`ve also ruled that out!
That leaves a motherboard fault?? its not running hot, and i`ve "waggled the end of the Hoover pipe about in there, so its not heat related.
I`ve noticed that the clock is always slow, so this indicates the cmos battery is on its way out, but would this be enough to cause the freezes?
cheers chaps!
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A dying CMOS battery can cause issues, I've seen laptops which can freeze if its the CMOS battery is faulty but haven't seen it on desktops. They cost 50p so is worth replacing anyway.
Anyway as for faults:-
1) Hard drive - what test did you do?
2) Motherboard - have you checked for leaking capacitors? if they are they will be bulging and often have rust coloured stuff on the caps.
3) RAM - One of the most frequent causes of this - do a proper test with Memtest86.
4) Power supply - have you measured the voltages to make sure they are within tolerances?
5) If all these check out, then try a different video card if you have one spare, unlikely but I have seen that fault.
6) Check it with a linux CD such as Ubuntu, browse on it for a few hours, see if it still crashes.
7) Try replacing IDE/SATA cables.
If you do all that and it still freezes it could be a bad driver but that is more difficult to diagnose.
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Check the windows event logs, timestamped up to the moment of the freeze.
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Most the time though, in the event of freezing the event logs don't really give much helpful information. Although to me that is usually because the client can't tell me exactly when it last froze.
If it was a BSOD then the event logs are a lot more helpful.
How old is this PC by the way, if its pre 2007 there is a good chance it is the motherboard as a lot of them used poorly copied fake Chinese capacitors before then. The chemical make up of them was wrong, as they stole the recipe but it was incomplete, as a result the capacitors starting leaking at a very early age.
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Yes they do rats, you can see immediately prior to the freeze, and see what was the last significant event.
Ignore the logs at your peril.
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But if it is just a lock up you can't always tell when it froze if the client can't tell you. Although if they restart straight after that would be the clue.
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Wow! - theres alot here that i haven`t done!
checked the h/drive with a battery of different utilities, some minor spyware but no viruses or anything particularly nasty.
tested the ram simply by running with each stick in independently of the other, - will try memtest86.
Power supply, not tested the different voltages for 2 reasons, 1. i haven`t got a multi-meter, and 2. even if i had i wouldn`t know what voltage should be on each wire! let alone the tolerances! ;-) but.... i do have a goodly spare one so will try a like for like swap. same with the cables!
Tis a 2005 machine, so if its leaky capacitators, I may have to treat here to a new toy, and put this one on one side as a cold-winter evening project and try and make one up out of my "spares" boxes! - twill be a bit like Johnny cash`s Cadillac!!!
Anyway thanks for the info and pointers chaps... appreciated!
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Try and check one thing at a time.
I'd start with the CMOS battery. Then if its still doing it think about what she's doing when it happens - is there a programme, website or mouse/kb action that triggers it.
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Might be worth getting a multi meter anyway, you can get a basic one for less than £10, they are very handy to have if you have problems with your electrics too or even car.
Also the BIOS can give you an idea.
Download a program called Speccy, it might give you a clue of what is going on.
www.piriform.com/speccy
What tests have you done on the hard drive itself? Have you done a surface scan on it? SMART is very unreliable and have seen drives test SMART when they are extremely faulty.
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Cheers R, will download that and try it, apart from very basic "house-keeping" type checks, i haven`t had time to be too thorough yet, as I only started "investigating" just before dinner! and as she knows i like tinkering with them she classes it as my hobby! I am not allowed to " play" before i`ve done my chores! so i will "play" properly if/when i get time ;-)
thanks tho`!
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You could try keeping Task Manager open with the list of processes sorted by CPU, then see what's at the top when it freezes. Might not tell you anything, but it might show something interesting.
Last edited by: Focus on Sun 30 Oct 11 at 17:48
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I've been asked to look at someone's computer that freezes shortly after you login. But start it up in safe mode (or disable most of the services) and it does not. So it's a case of finding the service(s). Has Devonite tried the machine in safe mode?
Finding and fixing the service is the complex bit. I've not looked for too long but sometimes you can enable a service and then it doesn't always shutdown cleanly. If I had a copy of Vista I'd just do a reinstall but I sadly don't. And SP2 won't install either - the machine hangs before it has a chance.
I've backed it up so might just restore it to factory install from the restore partition.
That's the problem when friends/family have PC problems and ask you to get involved - for free.
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Chaps! - I think we may have diagnosed and cured it! ;-)
Looks like it may have been the power-supply! - I swapped it over this morning, and "She" reports that it is behaving perfectly!
Silly me without thinking, blurted out "Well that saves me buying you a laptop!"
"You can still buy me one" she replied, - "but i`ll have it for Xmas!"
How considerate she is really!! ;-)
thanks folks!
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>> But if it is just a lock up you can't always tell when it froze
of course you can tell, stuff is always going on and clicking up stuff in the event logs, when the thing froze there is no more stuff.
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freezing computer - RattleandSmoke
