PC Freezes Randomly

uberboy

I wonder if somebody can help me.

My laptop has begun a rather annoying habit of freezing randomly, and I then have to reboot the PC manually (CTRL+ALT+DEL doesn't even work - nothing responds)

It had been running fine up until recently when I upgraded the computer's memory from 512RAM to 2Gig or RAM.

So naturally I wondered whether this was to blame, but I ran a RAM memory diagnostic tool and no error's popped up! (see http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp )

I have since reinstalled windows XP and the problem stil ocurrs, seemingly at random!

It is extremely annoying.

Can anybody advise me as to what the issues may be, or what kind of diagnostic methods I can use to try and work out whats up?

(I have all the latest drivers for my devices and Windows Update is up to date, and no viruses or spyware too...)

Any help is gratefully appreciated!

The_Geek

Have you installed any new programs?

If not then it could be that the memory you have is not 100% compatible. Try taking the memory out and seeing if the laptop is stable.

uberboy

nah, no new programmes, i think i'm going to take one module out, see if it works fine, then swap with the other see how that works, to see which if the modules is potentially defective

monterey_2

I'm guessing that if you upgraded to 2gb of RAM, that will be 2 separate 1GB sticks.

Take out one stick and see if the problem goes away.
If the problem is still there swap the sticks over and see if that fixes it. Damaged RAM can cause just the sort of problems you are having (erratic freezing of the PC)
You could even put the original 512MB of RAM back in just to try and diagnose the problem.

Just out of interest did you buy a well knows brand of RAM (Like crucial or Kingston) or just the cheapest you you could find?

M

uberboy

monterey wrote:

I'm guessing that if you upgraded to 2gb of RAM, that will be 2 separate 1GB sticks.

Take out one stick and see if the problem goes away.
If the problem is still there swap the sticks over and see if that fixes it. Damaged RAM can cause just the sort of problems you are having (erratic freezing of the PC)
You could even put the original 512MB of RAM back in just to try and diagnose the problem.

Just out of interest did you buy a well knows brand of RAM (Like crucial or Kingston) or just the cheapest you you could find?

M

I bought from crucial and was on the phone to them earlier, they suggested the swap the stick solution which i am trying. so far no probs running on one of my 1gig sticks...

monterey_2

uberboy wrote:

I bought from crucial and was on the phone to them earlier, they suggested the swap the stick solution which i am trying. so far no probs running on one of my 1gig sticks...

Good to know that Crucial are supporting you. That's just one of the advantages or buying the right brand....good end user support if you are unfortunate enough to have problems.

M