PC freezing up

Legacy_user

Hi, have taken on my mum's dodgy pc in the hope that I can fix it as its a much better pc than mine (well, would be if it worked!). She gave up on it and bought a new one.

Its an Athlon and there is plenty of memory free. Windows ME is installed plus a lot of unneeded applications that came on the machine when she bought it.

After about 20 mins or so of being switched on, whether on internet or not (although outlook and internet explorer seem to bring it on quicker) it will just freeze up and neither keyboard nor mouse will do anything - base unit still whirring away, but nowt will help but to switch it off and back on again. Thereafter, you get 5 mins max before it freezes again.

A mate has checked it over for me (as well as pc world) and says that he can't find anything wrong as he has downloaded software to check the various components and all works fine. The temperatures are absolutely fine too, so it isn't an overheating issue.

He has suggested wiping everything and going back to the factory restore cd. Could this help?

Also, may be worth mentioning that not long after my mum bought it, it was plugged in during a storm with no surge protector and must have been affected. PC world replaced various parts under warranty, modem, motherboard, cd drive I think it was, and gave it a clean bill of health, but can't help thinking it might be that.

Oh yes, just to confirm that there are definitely no viruses on there either. My mate checked all that.

Any advice anyone can give would be gratefully received. You will need to give it in plain english as whilst I'm not totally techie ignorant, I'm no Bill Gates!!

woo

do you have any USB devices?

System

Yes, I've got adsl modem plus printer. My mum had keyboard and mouse. Is it something to do with that then?

woo

it could be one route of investigation. I used have real problems with ME and a USB modem.

you could try unplugging your USB stuff playing with your pc for a while and seeing if it still locks up.

possibly less drastic action than wiping everything

System

Thanks, will give it a try. Formatting it isn't too bad as everything worth keeping was transferred to the new pc anyway. There's an awful lot of rubbish on there, so probably worth doing in any case.

Joe_Bloggs

@maridley
Do you know the motherboard you have ?
You say it is not temperature related but what temperature does your system fail at ?
What system diagnostic software did your mate use. It might be useful to know for other people.
Watch out for leaky capacitors on the motherboard. They are contagious it appears.
Memtest86 can be run from a floppy or CD and test your system for memory errors without relying on windows.http://www.memtest86.com/
If your mother board is supported you might try motherboard monitor 5 (MBM5) http://mbm.livewiredev.com/ development has stopped but it was good upto June 2004. You can observe those temperatures and power supply voltages with this. You can also modify Athlon power saving/idle temp states.
J_B.

System

Sorry no idea about the motherboard or what software he used.
I know it was MBM5 that we used for the temperature monitor and the temps were 41 and 28 degrees celcius from memory which he said were well within.
Will try the memtest86 later tonight.
Thanks.
ps you've lost me with the leaky capacitors!!

Joe_Bloggs

I tend to read theinquirer articles from time to time.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=18574
This one mentions poor capacitors etc.
Knowing what motherboard you have will help identify the chipset that the board uses. This can in turn assist with the chioce of drivers and their configuration. User feedback from those who use the same board can be of great benefit.
My guess is that those temps are processor core and motherboard. I don't know the facts so I won't speculate further. Some memory chips and hard disks, video cards have temperature chips built in too.
J_B.

Unbelievable_2

I'll apologise now if this is a completely daft suggestion - but do you use any power saving, screen saver type thingies in windows?

My machine was doing a similar thing and switching off the power saving features cured it. Just a thought. :-/

System

Joe Bloggs - is there any easy way of finding out what motherboard I've got?

Unbelievable - I'll try anything, thanks for the suggestion ;D

Joe_Bloggs

The mark one eyeball facility is  often underated. You will have to look everywhere to find the letters and numbers that describe it though.
Good lighgting will help you jot down what you find and maybe we will find you a matching snapshot.
J_B. (Smug Git, if I do say so about myself)
After thought.

If you are going to look at the hardware the make sure that your cards are not creeping from their sockets.
Loosen the retaining screw before pressing down on the back of a card. Hold the card down whilst tightening the screw.
Unfortunately pushing down on one card may lever out its neighbours. All cards have to be secured in their sockets with rear pressure applied as their retaining screws are tightened to leave them all in place.
J_B.