Hardware fault ?

[nevpugh308]

For a while now my PC has been locking up - after it's been up and running for a while from cold, it'll start a jittery kind of go-slow, then it will lock up utterly, and I mean utterly (switch on the wall time). When I turn back on, it would invariably get 1/2 way into Windows then lock solid again ... the only way to get the PC to work was to turn it off for an hour or so.

At first I thought "ah, okay, rebuild time". So I popped in a new 130g HDD I wanted to put in anyway, and installed WinXP afresh. I put on a few essentials (MS Office, UT2k3, NAV, ZoneAlarm) .... but it's still doing exactly the same thing. So I'm thinking hardware ..... ?

At first I wondered if the PC was overheating because one of the fans (I think it's the PSU) makes a bearing type noise for a couple of seconds sometimes (not always) when you first turn on (then it goes away). But all fans appear to be whirring along quite merrily, and moving a reasonable amt of air. Nothing inside the PC feels overly hot (barely warm really).

So what could it be ? Overheating ? A board on it's way out ? How do I figure it out, because I'm fed up of the missus giving me ear ache every time it locks up on her mid game online in UT2k3 !!!

Cheers

[malman]

Try re-seating the dimms then graphics card and make sure cpu fan is really running. Does it have hardware monitoring in the bios? If so check the temps and also watch the voltages. See if you get a drop in voltage from when you turn it on to when it starts the jitters or a rise in temp. Your system should only take a couple of mins to reach stable temp.

If you get no errors before it locks then its probably memory or cpu. If you have more than 1 dimm in it you could run it on a single and swap if you get the same problem.

Hope that helps

[robertuk]

Could be the CPU and/or the Graphics card overheating.

Have you put in a new AGP card recently ?

These draw quite a bit of current from the PSU.
Especially when playing games.

Theres a range of collers you could purchase,
most economy models are quite loud, but usually O.K.

Try underclocking your CPU in the BIOS a notch or two and see if your system becomes stable. Use whole numbers rather than 50 mhz notches.

Good Luck !

[nevpugh308]

Malman : I've taken the memory out and reseated it, plus checked all the cables, PCI cards etc. If/when it does it again I'll try taking one (then the other) memory dimm out, as there's 2.

robertuk : I've not changed the hardware at all, until I put the new HDD in it was totally std (but it was doing the lock up trick by then). Good idea on the underclocking, as there's an easy switch between 1ghz and 1.5ghz (why, who knows, as it's a 1.5ghz m/c ?)

Cheers for the replies