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Computer locking up/freezing

Knuckle-Head

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 22, 2004
Messages
510
I built a computer a few weeks ago for a friend of mine.
Asus P5Q Turbo planar
Asus GeForce 9600 w/ 6 pin pci-e connection
Intel e5300 cpu
G.Skill 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 ram
Samsung sata 1TB 7200 hdd
PC Power&Cooling Silencer 370
CM ATX case
2 x sata DVD writers

Computer loaded W7 Home 64 fine. Updated all drivers and loaded some video ripping/encoding programs. Ran fast and cool.

Fast forward...

I get a call that the computer is randomly freezing or locking up. Unresponsive keyboard and mouse. Must be reset or powered off to 'unlock'. He said it happens anytime. I take a look at it and see a USB hub and a USB camera card reader. And he has added 2 x ide hdds and another sata hdd. All the drives are from his previous computer. He decided to add them to the new computer, rather than throw them away.

I believe the power supply is overloaded now. I had him unplug the card reader and hub to see if that made any difference. The computer still freezes up I'm told. I see nothing 'off' in the bios.

Any input?

Thanks!!
 
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Unplug all drives aside from the main OS drive and see if it still freezes. If so, check temps. If nothing's overheating, he can run hardware tests listed in the troubleshooting faq to rule out a hw issue. if those all pass, he can try clearing the cmos. next would be updating bios. once those are done, or before those are done, he can also make sure he has the latest drivers for everything.
 
Like above, best thing to do is strip all hardware down to what is just required to boot then add devices as neccessary. Give some time between adding things to allow time for any issues to crop up. You can always use a Kill-O-watt like the one I have (listed below), to ascertain your power needs. You could also test the drives he has for errors Salvation works good for IDE, and DFT (IBM's Drive fitness test) for the sata drive, and also chkdsk etc. Other than that could be the operating sysem, but you won't know for sure unless you strip away things down to just the bare essentials, or the original components to test.

Good luck



(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ctronic+Gadgets-_-P3+International-_-82715001)
 
I have this same issue. I am able to fix the problem by unplugging my hard drive for 10 seconds (after power hold off) and the re-booting.

Most of the time it works, sometimes it hangs in the bios screen when it is detecting drives.

This lock up occurs at random times too, sometimes while gaming, somtimes just on the desktop and sometimes surfing the net.

I have a suspicious feeling it is Vista which is the root cause. Only way to know for sure is to go for Windows 7 but that involves a $1,500 upgrade. Weird thing is usually the problem starts early in the session. Once I do this reset I rarley have trouble afterwards. It is like Windows did not shut down properly and still has all it's junk in the trunk.
 
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