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Help Computah - Lockup problem

S

Spector

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 16, 2002
Messages
128
Ok the problem -

It started with (I think) my secondary drive dying with just misc data on it or maybe it was just a crazy coincidence. I left the dead drive plugged in in my system because I was too lazy to take it out but then came the system lockups. My system started to constantly lock up while I was away. If I used the computer for hours it would be fine but if I left for a while (sleep/work ect) and came back later it would be frozen. Sometimes even before the screensaver had come on (30min).

So, I delt with this for a while ignoring the problem but then one time after I restarted from a lockup, the system kept freezing at the windows loading screen. Finnaly I get scandisk loaded (which I hadnt run ever since the original format.. 2+ years) and it deletes a boat load of files and the system starts up fine, although my video drivers, monitor drivers, favorites, firefox plugins ect all had disappeared. I again, delt with this and the lockups that still occured. Then one day, the system starts locking up a lot, even while I'm using it and especially before it finishes restarting. The hard drive decides to do a lot of spinning up and down so I assume its my main drive dying this time.

So I grab a spare 120GB, unplug the old drive and slap this bad boy in there. I go to install windows but now during the windows installation I'm getting constant lockups. Sometimes after I enter the cd key and hit enter but most of the time somewhere between the 29-33minute mark.

The only thing I've really tried is taking out 1 stick of memory at a time thinking that it might be some kind of memory problem but that hasnt helped. Also i've tried 2-3 different Windows XP disks.


Any suggestions would be great because I'm stumped.

System specs -
AMD A7N8X-Deluxe
AMD 2500XP (was at 3200XP but put it back down thinking it might be the issue)
9800Pro
XMS 512mb Corsair x 2
 
You don't mention the age of the computer, or the HSF used but grab a can of air and try blowing out your CPU heatsink. Usually the culprit of lockups.
 
Well all the parts are a different age really. the A7N8X-Deluxe + 2500XP is about a year old. THe powersupply, 330watt Antec Truepower, is about 4 months, the 9800Pro is probably around the same age. One stick of ram is about a year old, the other maybe 8 months or so.

The HSF is a hacked up Volcano 7. I cut the top off and bought a quite fan and just mounted it right on top of the HS and its just a few weeks old (the fan). If it was a heat problem you'd figure it would crash during games ect not during start or windows installation (especially in the same spot almost every time).
 
It sounds like your mobo is shorting somewhere. See if it is touching anything metal on the case. It should only touch the standoffs. Or it could be a bad mobo.

EDIT: does it lock up in bios? do that and report back?
 
As far as I know it does not freeze in the bios, just now I left it running in the bios for about 35-45 min and its still going fine. A motherboard short would be odd since the problem came up at random and the system hadnt been moved in weeks.
 
hmm.. what are you voltage readings.. I'd suggest trying different PSU or trying a different (less power consuming) vid card.. are you positive that your system isn't overheating? why don't you try running knoppix (linux distro that runs off a cd..)
 
This is getting even more weird..

I switched out the 9800Pro with my 4400 and now when trying to boot into setup it gets some kind of "Not enough virtual memory error" I cant read the rest because it restarts too quickly.
 
The HSF is a hacked up Volcano 7. I cut the top off and bought a quite fan and just mounted it right on top of the HS and its just a few weeks old (the fan).
Click to expand...

Maybe this is your clue.....Is the paste between Heatsink & Processor OK matched ?

What is your temp in BIOS compared to the room temp ?
 
The HSF is fine. The temps are very low in the bios and I even had the system underclocked to ~1100mhz at one point to make sure.

I'll have to try out this 350watt Enermax I have here. Without the 9800Pro in there and just 1 cdrom and 1 HD there really isnt much power being used.
 
Maybe you must pull BIOS battery and restore defaults so that it's no overclocked or underclocked....

You might as well take whole thing out of case and see if you can make it work outside on a flat table. ;)
 
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