PC freezing up

System

Sorry to sound like a dumb female, but I'm not sure I'd even recognise a motherboard if I fell over one! ;D

Joe_Bloggs

Motherboards come in various shapes and sizes. They tend to have  sockets; for the central processor, memory also called RAM, for CD drive and hard disk/s. Most Motherboard manufacturers are proud of their work so their writing is big. You can always move cables out of the way of a cooling airflow that might assist a little in aiding the reliablilty of other components.

J_B.

System

Joe Bloggs - its a Micro-star MS-6340.

Couldn't see any retaining screws but what look like cards that are plugged into slots in the motherboard, both look securely fastened. Top card's a bit dusty - could that be a factor?

System

One more thing, if I use the pc with the side removed, I seem to get a bit more time before it freezes up - I'm sure its not coincidence as have tried this three times now and each time its helped.

This was main reason for monitoring temperature as thought it must be overheating, but according to MBM5 these are ok anyway with the sides on.

???

woo

not sure if this will help but there seems to be a few reports of conflicts with graphics and sound cards for your motherboard see :

http://forum.pcmech.com/archive/index.php/t-5330.html

or

http://es.europe.creative.com/support/forums/thread.asp?thre=2507

could be a wild goose chase, but do you have up to date drivers for all your hardware?

System

Wow, all a bit techie for me, but the links sound promising that there is a problem.

So how do I find out if I have the most up to date drivers?

Joe_Bloggs

MicroStar International AKA MSI are a popular make.
I found links for three MS-6430 boards, original,V3,V5. The main difference between them is the maximum speed of the processor they accept. You could be stressing the power supply components on the motherboard and in your power supply if you try to run too fast a processor.

Details for Version 5 are here. The main archive index is here .
Links to drivers and bios are on each individual motherboard page. Check the CPU support status also. You may need to underclock your CPU slightly.
J_B.

System

I think I'm a bit out of my depth :-[

I've got version 1. So I went to

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/driver/dvr/spt_dvr_detail.php?UID=131&kind=1

Down the left hand side are various headings, mainboard, vga, multimedia - all have drivers. I started to download these updates onto a CD, but not really sure what I should be doing with them.

Also, went into bios and wasn't sure what i should be using as there are various alternatives.

As for "Check the CPU support status also. You may need to underclock your CPU slightly." Fraid that means nothing to me either!

Sorry, guess I'm more ignorant than I realised!

Joe_Bloggs

The board can be made with an optional Creative sound chip (CT5880). It might be on your system. Hence two sound drivers. The main thing is the Via 4 in 1 chipset driver package. Given further time and luck I suspect that the board is called a K7TM PRO this does not have the M after the MS-6430 . This does not change anything.

I don't think any of the Bios upgrades are worth it if they only do what they say. They are too risky to perform in a system that might crash during the process. An early Bios upgrade did reduce power consumption however.

From the CPU Support table the fastest processor is an Athlon (Thunderbird core version) with a multiplier factor 12 and ram speed (AKA FSB) of 100MHz. Thus 12x100 gives a 1200MHz processor speed. The 100MHz fsb is very slow by modern standards which evolved to 133,166,200+ . You can get two ram channels working in tandem hence 200,266,333,400+ are seen.

What processor do you have. What multiplier and fsb speed ?
J_B.

System

Going back to something posted yesterday by Unbelievable.

I checked re power saving features and it was indeed set to something called energy star. Changed this to normal desktop setting and the system froze about ten minutes later >:(

However, since I logged back on earlier this evening it hasn't frozen once in well over an hour which is unheard of - and in that time I have managed to download all my various email accounts into outlook - I never managed to get beyond tools, accounts....Freeze!

Is it possible that switching off the power saving option would only take affect after a reboot?

I'm starting to get my hopes up...