Pc keeps freezing...any advice??

demonicangel

My pc is almost two years old now and keeps freezing for no reason.

Yesterday, it froze 8 times throughout the day.

My exdp plays a online game on here and it started freezong whenever he closed the game but now it is doing it anytime.

Most of the time it will do it when someone is reading forums.

We have macaffe (however its spelt!!) installed and done a virus scan to see if anything came up....nothing. Done a spyware scan....nothing. My ex installed a trial of system machanic 7 and that says the pc is working as it should.

All in all there is no logical reason for the pc to freeze as much as it should.

Does anyone have any ideas why it may be doing so and what we can do to fix it? We have the pc performance thing that we got with the pc from pcworld so may end up taking it there to sort out.

TIA

Sorry about the spelling, typing quick as i have to pick my dd up from nursery!

Jamangie

My money is on one of the fans not working and it's overheating or the power supply is failing. Google an ap called speedfan, that will tell you if it is your fans.

BillScarab

take the side off and check if the fans are working, also if you run it with the side off and it doesn't lock up it suggests it's a cooling problem. If you run it with the side off just be careful as you don't want to electrocute yourself/a child/a pet. Also you don't want to damage any components.

While the side is off clean out the PC, it's amazing the amount of dust they get in them and this can lead to overheating. You can buy cans of compressed air to blow the dust out. Obviously do this with it switched off at the mains.

Does your PC make any unusual noises? Mine is playing up at the moment because the hard disk is on the way out, every now and again the disk starts clicking and then it locks up. It may be worth backing up your data if you don't back it up regularly already.

williamrobb88

Unplug all cables and take side off computer. You MUST blow ALL of that dirt and dust off the board. There will be loads! dust is excellent at conducting electricity, so there's a small chance it could be that. I normally take a brand new paint brush and brush the board while blowing the dust out. Unseat the momory chips and re seat them. this seems to help in about 20% of cases. But, as the other user said, while the case is off Look at the fans and see if they are spinning ok. If you suspect either the case fan, or CPU fan is faulty, replace them ASAP. Case fan is about £10, CPU fan is about £7. This resolves the issue in a lot of scenarios. Please let all users know if this info was helpfull or not.

demonicangel

The pc has been cleaned out quite recently as it needed a new graphics card, so there shouldnt be much in the way of dust there.

There is a temp thing on the new graphics card that tells you how hot it is but that is in the normal range.

There are no strange noices coming from it.

thanks for the suggestions.

Jamangie

So are the Case and CPU fans ok? Why do you need a new graphics card? Maybe you have just solved your own problem in one sentence there Try it if it isn't the fans or power supply.
HTH

demonicangel

The graphics card was replaced about four months ago, because it stopped working properly.

Havent tried the fans yet but will do when my ex comes round.

Fizog

Do you defrag regularly?

demonicangel

yep all the time. The history is also cleared regulary

Alfonso_Skinarelli

Such a simple thing but make sure you've got the latest drivers installed for the graphics card.

DrSmutt

Update your GFx card drivers. quite often causes lockups/poor performance.

duff memory can cause problems like this as well.

http://www.memtest86.com/memtest86-3.2.iso.zip

this makes a bootable CD.

close all applications that arent required and see how what happens then.

Some more information please.

Version of windows?
Powersupply rating (in watts might say 300W)
Power supply rating needed for the GFX card. (on the side of the box.see spec)