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A friend's PC has been having a random freezing issue for a while now and I have no idea what is causing it.
The first time I went to check out her PC, she asked me to reformat the Windows for her since it was badly infected with virus. So I reinstalled windows, then installed all the drivers from the motherboard CD and shortly after that, the computer freezes when I was just moving the mouse on the desktop.
From this I would say that it is most probably a hardware issue since Windows shouldn't freeze right after a fresh reinstall with only the original motherboard drivers.
I have run both memtest86 and seatools, just to make sure the RAM and HDD are fine. Both tests passed without any error.
CPU temperature was around 30-40 degree and she uses onboard graphics so I don't think it's an issue with overheating.
I have also given her a Corsair VX450 (way overkill for her system but that's beside the point) as her old generic PSU was giving out some strange noise.
All cables inside the case are properly plugged in (I help people build PC's at work).
She said the freezing can occur only once a couple of days, or several times a night. She also said that the problem happens more often when she's using a mic to chat on MSN or Skype which made me thinks that the onboard sound could be faulty, so I put in another soundcard and disabled the onboard sound, but the freezing problem still occurs.
The only devices that are plugged into the system are a USB mouse, keyboard, speakers, headset and monitor.
Specs of the system is:
Intel E4400 CPU
A Gigabyte mATX motherboard, forgot the model number
1GB generic transcend DDR2 RAM
ASUS DVD writer
Western Digital 250GB HDD
A creative soundblaster sound card
Corsair VX450 PSU
The only other piece of info I can give is that the computer was freezing at POST screen intermittently when it was trying to detect the ODD. I changed the ODD SATA slot to another one and there was no more freezing during POST. (one of her friends told her to knock the HDD when it happens and I was like
)
Next time I go to her place, I will change the HDD and RAM just to eliminate the possiblity that memtest or seatools failed to detect an error (I have seen memtest failed to detect errors a few times already).
So my question is, if the computer still freezes randomly after the HDD and RAM have been changed, what do you think is the next thing I should look at? The only things left are motherboard, CPU and SATA cables. Or could the onboard graphics be faulty?
My friend said the problem started to happen shortly after she bought the PC brand new in 2007 but she ignored the problem until now. If I also change the mobo and CPU then that's like changing to a completely new system...
Sorry the post is quite long but I want to give as much info as possible.
The first time I went to check out her PC, she asked me to reformat the Windows for her since it was badly infected with virus. So I reinstalled windows, then installed all the drivers from the motherboard CD and shortly after that, the computer freezes when I was just moving the mouse on the desktop.
From this I would say that it is most probably a hardware issue since Windows shouldn't freeze right after a fresh reinstall with only the original motherboard drivers.
I have run both memtest86 and seatools, just to make sure the RAM and HDD are fine. Both tests passed without any error.
CPU temperature was around 30-40 degree and she uses onboard graphics so I don't think it's an issue with overheating.
I have also given her a Corsair VX450 (way overkill for her system but that's beside the point) as her old generic PSU was giving out some strange noise.
All cables inside the case are properly plugged in (I help people build PC's at work).
She said the freezing can occur only once a couple of days, or several times a night. She also said that the problem happens more often when she's using a mic to chat on MSN or Skype which made me thinks that the onboard sound could be faulty, so I put in another soundcard and disabled the onboard sound, but the freezing problem still occurs.
The only devices that are plugged into the system are a USB mouse, keyboard, speakers, headset and monitor.
Specs of the system is:
Intel E4400 CPU
A Gigabyte mATX motherboard, forgot the model number
1GB generic transcend DDR2 RAM
ASUS DVD writer
Western Digital 250GB HDD
A creative soundblaster sound card
Corsair VX450 PSU
The only other piece of info I can give is that the computer was freezing at POST screen intermittently when it was trying to detect the ODD. I changed the ODD SATA slot to another one and there was no more freezing during POST. (one of her friends told her to knock the HDD when it happens and I was like
)Next time I go to her place, I will change the HDD and RAM just to eliminate the possiblity that memtest or seatools failed to detect an error (I have seen memtest failed to detect errors a few times already).
So my question is, if the computer still freezes randomly after the HDD and RAM have been changed, what do you think is the next thing I should look at? The only things left are motherboard, CPU and SATA cables. Or could the onboard graphics be faulty?
My friend said the problem started to happen shortly after she bought the PC brand new in 2007 but she ignored the problem until now. If I also change the mobo and CPU then that's like changing to a completely new system...
Sorry the post is quite long but I want to give as much info as possible.
