Help with random hang/freeze !?!?

[Pierscoe1]

My PC's just started doing this.. it will randomly hang, sometimes after 5mins, sometimes after 50mins...

completely locks up with no response from anything, instantly. No entry in the system-log or anything.. so I'm pretty sure it's a hardware problem....

occasionally, the screen will blink off, then on, then hang.. or sometimes everything stops responding, except for mouse-pointer movement (ckicks do nothing), for a second or two, then hang.....

can anybody give me any hints as to what this is....?

I am thinking either motherboard on it's way out, or memory failure, or graphics card failure....


Any ideas ???

[pmanson]

How much memory have you got? If you have say 2 x 256Mb. Try taking one out and see if it works ok without hanging. Then try it the other way around.

I'd guess at a memory failure.


Try having a look at the computer management to see if its logging any errors.

[Pierscoe1]

by computer management, do you mean the security/event/application logs in the "Event Viewer" ?? if so, there's nothing in any of them...

had swapped the memory round, with no difference, but will try just using one at a time...

thanks for that!

[pmanson]

Pierscoe1 said:

by computer management, do you mean the security/event/application logs in the "Event Viewer" ?? if so, there's nothing in any of them... had swapped the memory round, with no difference, but will try just using one at a time... thanks for that!

Yep the Event Viewer!

[aceparts_com]

I've had this exact problem on an IBM laptop - turned out to be memory failure; I could touch the corner of the PCB and it would completely freeze, often accompanied by a tone.

I've wedged a load of paper in the space and it's been fine for 6 weeks!

[Pierscoe1]

did the "one memory module at a time" thing.. and didn't seem to make a difference.. but, turned the refresh rate down from 85 to 72, as there were strange patterns on my monitor... and it didn't hang all night!

especially weird as it'd been running at 85 for months with no probs at all.... !?!??!?

[pmanson]

Pierscoe1 said:

did the "one memory module at a time" thing.. and didn't seem to make a difference.. but, turned the refresh rate down from 85 to 72, as there were strange patterns on my monitor... and it didn't hang all night! especially weird as it'd been running at 85 for months with no probs at all.... !?!??!?

Could be the graphics card getting too hot or failing.

Have you got another one you can try?

[FunkyNige]

My vote's for a dying power supply.

[Pierscoe1]

don't have a spare gfx card to try...

thought it might be getting too hot, but checked fans etc and all ok, and no better with the side-panel removed either.....

why do you suggest psu?

[Pierscoe1]

seems to have been the ram...

had only one module in all day yesterday, and it was fine... put both back in tonight, and it crashed within 15mins....

back to one, and it's been ok for the last hour or so.. so fingers crossed!