Random lockups - replaced everything!

ImCoKeMaN · January 26th, 2006, 05:49 PM

I was trying to post this earlier and the computer locked up again!!!! I honestly swapped everything until this became a new computer and it still happens even while i'm away from the computer with nothing running.

I currently have:
chaintech 7njl6 motherboard (nvidia nforce2)
AMD sempron2800+
raptor 400w psu
WD 250 gig SATA drive
WD 180 gig IDE (32gig fresh partition for winxp)
nvidia geforce 6200

Win XP pro SP1 with current updates. Also updated drivers for sound, video and motherboard.

already ran memtest86, checked temperatures, replaced video cards, replaced hard drives, PSUs even keyboards and mice. I even had it lock up on me with knoppix a while back, but it might have been some different hardware. I knew one of the drives was going bad, but that didn't help either. The entire barebones PC was puchased last may (Memory, CPU, fans, Motherboard, case etc.) I think i even ran without the CDROM drive another time.

I get no error messages in the event viewer and only sometimes get a minidump. So far i haven't had much luck with that either as i don't know what to look for with dumpchk.

If there is any other info i missed i'd be happy to post it, thanks in advance!

SeanC · January 26th, 2006, 06:02 PM

What software are you using?

If the problem has spanned replacing the hardware then it must be software or something external to the computer.

Did you replace the CPU, motherboard and RAM as well?

ImCoKeMaN · January 26th, 2006, 06:05 PM

The thing is it locked up after a fresh load of windows XP. I supposed internet explorer is the most common thing open when I use it, but i think all of this would be ruled out when i used a linux distro that runs from CD. I might try that one again though. The new MB, CPU, powersupply and memory exhibit the same problem i had before buying them. I suppose i could have replaced bad parts with bad parts though.

SeanC · January 26th, 2006, 06:10 PM

For software I meant are you running any esoteric stuff? Uncommon software.

Here's something off the wall, try a different electrical outlet for the computer. It's as good as anything else now, especially since you've replaced every piece of hardware.

ImCoKeMaN · January 26th, 2006, 06:21 PM

Haha, thanks so much for trying, unfortunately i have just tried the "other outlet" test earlier this week. Also tried with and without UPS and other "Clean" power strips. I can't think of anything odd that i run, it pretty much started as soon as windows was loaded enough to use.

I thought it was getting better then i tried playing some music and sudoku (locked up prior to this program as i just got it a week ago) and thought i was able to narrow it down to the sound, but it's integrated audio in the new motherboard. I have tried updating and different driver versions too. I think i'm gonna try knoppix again here soon and see if it does truly still lock up cuz that will narrow it down to hardware for sure (even though it's all been replaced)

EDIT:
Tried knoppix 4.0.2 and had it lock up as soon as i installed flash and tried to play a video on google video

fordianslip · January 26th, 2006, 06:47 PM

sorry, posted a reply instead of a new thread. My fault :-)

ImCoKeMaN · January 27th, 2006, 06:53 PM

Update:
Since knoppix locked up i also tried running without the CDROM drive. That still locked up. Then i disabled the motherboard sound as well. Still does the same thing. I'm running memtest on it again, but that hasn't shown problems before.

I am running the sempron 2800+ at 2 ghz at 12.5x166mhz. I believe this is the correct setting and should be good because my ram is ddr 333mhz. i believe the ram settings are 2.5-3-3-7. I feel like i'm narrowing it down, hopefully this info helps.