Hanging computer - arrrgggghhhhhh

StockportGerbil

Hi!
My other halfs built from 'scrap' PC is driving me potty.

It was built for her from components other people were chucking out at the time and she was more than happy with it. Since I've come on the scene I've added to it as and when necessary but it's recently statrted hanging up for no readily apparent reason.

My usual strategy is to strip the PC right down, remove unnecessary cards, reset BIOS settings to the safe default then slowly add bits until the crashing or haning starts - when I know which is the failing component. Unfortunately I stripped the thing right down and it still hangs. I've tried a different graphics card and hard disc with no joy. I've tried reinstalling windows with what is now a partially built windows.

I tried swapping the memory around with mo joy. (It has 3 simms - I've tried all three combinations of 2 out of the 3 simms.) In the end I concluded it had to be the motherboard, so I bought another one off ebay which happened to include a processor. After a good deal of swearing both the motherboard and the processor are installed and .... the system is still hanging while I try and complete one of the XP installs. Now the only components left that have not been replaced are the case / PSU and the CD-ROM.

I am running out of ideas and patience. does anyone have any sage words of advice under these circumstances?

Thanks

Kevin

cheets99

After reading that, the thing you did not mention was the Power Supply, these are one of the first things to go on a PC.

What is the wattage and how old is it.

You can pick up a 400 watt PSU for under £15

pks00

With the new mobo you got, is the memory you have for it compatable? Check the manufacturer's website.
I had a similar problem few years back when I got my first ASUS S-ATA mobo. I used my old memory and it kept hanging on windows install. It turned out to be incompatable memory.

StockportGerbil

Hi!
Thanks for the replies - the case / 400 Watt PSU is relatively new as the on-off switch went on the the old one and the switch was inaccessible within the case. OK the PSU is generic, but it should be plenty good enough for this application.

I think the memory should be OK, it's Crucial manufactured 256Mb SD100 stuff going into an Abit VA6 motherboard. Looking at the Crucial Website it suggests SD133 as being compatable, (maybe because Crucial don't manufacture them any more?), but notes on the left hand side of the page the motherboard can take SD100.

Regards

Kevin

StockportGerbil

Hi!
I've found one stick of 128Mb PC133 RAM - stuck that in and it's failed again doing a windows repair with a "PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA" blue screen.
Regards
Kevin

boogiemaster

Power supply for £15????? Then your pc goes bang becouse your a cheap skate.

yelac21271

this sounds like a memory problem, seen it many times before

go here http://www.memtest86.com/ and download Pre-Compiled Memtest86 v3.1a installable from Windows and DOS, you create a floopy and boot from it, the tests take anything from around 20 mins to 40 mins depending on the speed of your CPU.

StockportGerbil

Folks :-
Thanks for the advice and guidance so far.

The only components which weren't new were the hard discs, but by this stage I'd tried installing XP on both of them with no joy. So on the off chance both were suffering from the same problem I bought a new and bigger hard disc. Installation of XP onto the bigger hard disc fails. It then occurs to me that both the Pentium IIIs I've got were passively cooled and they were getting a bit hot - so with the aid of 4 cable ties a slightly outsize fan gets strapped on and half way through the installation another blue screen.

Looking at the failure in more detail it suggests one option is to flash the BIOS. So I do the appropriate downloads and halfway through the flashing process the machine hangs. Not surprisingly I now have a very dead Abit VA6 motherboard.

By this stage I'm getting pretty good at swapping motherboards. So back goes the old QDI motherboard. Another XP installation fails so I try memtest (even though I've tried swapping out the memory.) It works for 3 hours solid.

Arrrggggghhhhhhh.

Thanks again

Kevin

Nomee

Thanks for your patience kevin. if i were you I would have done something really bad to this computer.