PC constantly freezes

designosaur · January 12th, 2005, 07:08 AM

Hello,
I recently upgraded my PC with a new motherboard + CPU: Chaintech 7NJL6 with a 2.6 AMD Sempron. I clean installed XP + SP2 on a new 200GB Maxtor HD and now I get system freezes all the time. No blue screen or program hang - just a complete freeze and I have to reset... I usually get this when I rip DVDs to HD or copy data to DVD, but also when many browser windows are open or even when playing games or working on Photoshop. I suspected my 2 RAM units (who btw are by different manufacturers) so I tried using one of the two but I still get the system freezes... I ran diagnostic tests on the RAM units for hours but no failure was detected. I will even buy a new Soundcard so that I can disable the onboard one and see if it was faulty in any way. I wanted to upgrade the mb BIOS to v2.0 but chaintech website notes that I will have to reinstall XP if I do that (

)...

What I need:
any ideas on what could be wrong
if you know of a diagnostic software for the motherboard
any links on averting reinstallation of XP when I upgrade my BIOS (or a way to restore XP without losing current setup + preferences + installed programs)

**GroundZero3** · January 12th, 2005, 08:17 AM

what are your system temps? Latest drives for the motherboard?

Why do they say you need to reinstall xp after a bios update?

large_nostril · January 12th, 2005, 08:38 AM

Quote:

I wanted to upgrade the mb BIOS to v2.0 but chaintech website notes that I will have to reinstall XP if I do that

Quote:

Why do they say you need to reinstall xp after a bios update?

designosaur · January 12th, 2005, 11:29 AM

I have no idea why XP would need reinstallation see their page below:

chaintech download page

It doesn't seem to be a problem of temperature as it may hang within the first 2 minutes after a night's rest or after 3 hours of Photoshop... The supply is brand new 350W from TMP Supplies (?)...

large_nostril · January 12th, 2005, 04:40 PM

Sorry, forgot to ask, but what components and specs for your system (video, # of drive, etc)? If it's got an intensive card, or a lot of HDDs, etc, it might be the power. Also, don't rule out heat as an issue because of time. CPUs are very sensitive and the slightest change in how it's used can raise the temps considerably. Also, it is possible for the CPU to overheat in a matter of 10 seconds. So, if you can, please post the temps as well.

designosaur · January 13th, 2005, 03:50 AM

Graphics card is an old ATI 7000
1 Maxtor HD 200GB on IDE 1 (2 NTFS partitions)
1 Sony DVD ROM (DDU-1621) Master and 1 LG DVD Writer (GSA-4120B) Slave on IDE 2

both IDE use high quality brand new cables and I have installed the latest drivers for the graphics chipset (ATI Catalyst) as well as the nVidia motherboard chipset.

From what I've read, this motherboard does not detect temperatures (I got a 227C reading using Sandra2005 !!!)... Anyway, the case is open with a room fan blowing from the side but that still doesn't help. Is there a motherboard temp reporting utility I could use even though my mb doesn't support the feature?

It seems like a RAM problem and the next thing I'll try is buying one single 512 unit to see whether it works. I'll also try installing a new soundcard and disabling the onboard one...

Thanks for your time!

JPMiller · January 13th, 2005, 04:08 AM

It is very likely a power issue...
doesnt mean it COULD'NT be something else... but the symptoms you describe are common to PSU underpowering...
read here...
and use EverestHome to monitor your realtime rail voltage values to determine if theyre obviously low...
they can be found under "Computer" tab and "Sensor"...

designosaur · January 13th, 2005, 04:29 AM

will try it right away and post the report later today

thanks!

designosaur · January 13th, 2005, 05:16 AM

ok, the report is 280KB so I zipped it and you can dl it here:

http://www.designosaur.net/report.zip (32KB)

(it says I should put 8x AGP speed instead of 4x but I only have a AGP 8x enabled choice which... is alrady enabled!!!)

I bought one 512MB ram unit and it still freezes... Now I have a standard "freeze" folder: whenever I select View as Thumbnails in a specific folder the machine freezes. Maybe I can now show it to the shop I bought all components from and they can replace the mboard. hopefully...

JPMiller · January 13th, 2005, 02:54 PM

you would be better off using a different PSU to see if thats the problem... have you run spyware cleaners, antivirus, etc. to rule that out?