Win XP 450W PS AMD 2.6 ghz 512mb ram Problem: My desktop freezes after the computer is on for about 5 minutes. Sometimes it just freezes, and other times after a min after freezing, the blue error screen pops up with the kernal error message. If I restart, my computer will either freeze, or get to a certain point and reboot over and over. Usually it is slower than normal (as when trying to load the sys files when booting in safe mode). Before this, there were no signs of an issue. If I let it sit overnight and turn it on in the morning, it's as though the 5 minutes of working time I get is reset, and after that I have to let it wait again. Possible Cause: My guess is possibly excessive heat caused by a fan not working as good as it could, or something other heat-related issue. I had a problem with my power supply making a clicking noise when I would unplug and replug it back into the wall, but it would go away after I restarted a few times. that didn't happen for the last 6 months, but I'm thinking the 5minutes of time I get before it locks makes me think overheating, and the less and less directly after I restart makes me think heat even more. Only thing is, I figured it would shutdown the computer instead of restarting. I installed my CPU fan wrong once so it would startup for a few seconds before shutting down. Any thoughts or suggestions or things I can try to do before it locks to check out what might be the problem? Thanks a ton!!
PSU making a clicking noise? that doesnt sound good. Replace your PSU with an Antec Earthwatts 380. Dont mess around with crappy PSUs, they can go up in flames and endanger you.
Agreed. PSUs that click can very soon turn into PSUs that are on fire. It has happened, and could well happen to you.
New Problem: I can't even get past the black Windows loading screen. What I've done thus far: 1-Tried to restart both in safe mode and normally, and each time it restarts before I get to the 'select user' screen 2-went out and bought new 500W PS, installed it 3-tired restarting, then tried unplugging everything except for what was necessary and restarted, then tried using just one memory stick at a time (tried just one, restarted, then switched to the second and restarted), and every time i can't get to the 'select user' screen without the computer restarting now that I have a new PS and still having issues, i'm wondering if it could be an issue with my hard drive. And since I can't even get to Windows, I can't run any tests to check anything. Thoughts?
It'll probably be awful, but I'd be surprised if it replicated the exact same issue as before. However, you're right to question it - IronRisng, if you bought a cheapo no-name brand unit, you'd be wise to take it back and get a proper one, else you may get a far worse problem than a clicking noise.
sadly this thread poster is a poor college student with little money, so rather than go to best buy and spend $80, i went to the local campus tech store and bought this one for $30. brand new, they said it's the same one that they use in all the machines they build for ppl, and the guy i bought it from said he just replaced his w/ this one and hasn't had any issues since. granted, this might all be a load... even if it isn't the best brand PSU on the market, shouldn't it at least fix my problem temporarily, indicating that it IS the PSU? HERE is the link to the PSU I bought
Coolermaster units aren't horrendous. They'll never produce anywhere near as much power as they say they can, but they tend not to go up in flames like most cheapo PSUs. They can cause stability problems often, but seeing as your problem is identical after changing the unit, I'm near-certain it isn't the PSU.
i figured something along the same lines. im running a memtest run now on my machine after getting a tip that any error messages might help point me in the right direction. surprisingly enough to me, the machine hasn't locked-up or restarted itself since i started the test about 20 minutes ago, which is great. not sure what that means, but i figure after its done in several hours i can see where to go from there
Memtest shouldn't necessarily crash or reboot, it will however give you errors at the end if your memory is at fault.
Just a thought guy's. After my box did almost precisely the same thing, I failed to notice the caps were swollen on the mobo. So after checking RAM and other heat related possibilities with no luck, the local techie picked up on the mobo virtually instantly. Perhaps a solution?
do a chckdsk c: /f on your system partition and on all partitions/hard drives in your computer. If you have any file corruption from all the abnormal shutdowns, chkdsk can usually fix it so your computer will bootup. Next use a linux live cd and see if linux runs without shutting down. If the livecd runs ok, then more than likely your hardware is good. The livecd will operate your computer and all it's components without installing on the hard drive. If windows keeps crashing, it might be a device conflict. If you have a spare pci soundcard, I would install that instead of using the onboard sound. If your video card has no fan, try and put a case fan near it, to blow directly at the video card heatsink.
if I can't get into windows normally or safemode, how can i run the chckdsk check? i haven't installed new hardware for the last 18 months. Why would a conflict rear its ugly head now? video card has a fan, so no issues there
@sammorris My board was an elitegroup brand.. so if my memory serves me..both Russ and yourself mentioned that as long as it works don't muck with it, just be thankful it works at all. LOL As per your pic, yep that's what the buggers looked like.
All my motherboards are ecs, only had one go bad on me. I consider them very reliable for a low end MB and would have no problem buying one. To run a chkdsk you need the windows installation cd to get into the repair console. Or the best way is to make a bartpe boot cd. It will boot the computer and you can use the command prompt or even do a scandisk. The final option is to remove the hard drive and piggyback it onto another computer or stick it onto an external usb enclosure and run a scandisk (with the boxes to fix errors checked). Chkdsk C: /f is a very powerful command and it has turned some of my corrupted (raw) windows partitions to boot again.
I ran the mem test and it came back after 16 passes without any errors. I'm guessing that means the memory is good. I'll check the motherboard before I crash for the night and post how good/bad it looks. Thanks for the pic btw so I know what to look for
