# computer freezing problem



## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

My computer has, (well, pretty much always has since I got a foxconn new motherboard and even before then) been just plain freezing every now and then.

Sometimes I get a little lag before it, but in most cases it just freezes cold and I have to reboot. It doesn't happen at any particular time or when I do something specific, just plain freezes. I've done all sorts of malware and virus scans with windows defender, AVG anti-virus, spybot search and destroy and ad-aware, still no luck.

One idea was perhaps I am just opening too many programs, but I thought that probably isn't the case as my computer has 1GB of physical ram, however it also has an intel celeron processor, which is 2.21 Ghz, it also has windows XP home edition version 2002 with service pack 2.

Any ideas?

Here's the system specs

CPU: Intel Celeron 2.20 Ghz

1 GB physical ram

Display Adapter: Xtasy Visiontek Radeon 9600 AGP (also says in device manager. I have secondary one, though I only have one AGP card- this is it)

Disk Drives: HP Photosmart 2575 USB device, IC35L120AVV207-0

DVD/CD ROM drives: ATAPI DVD CD 8X16X8X, can burn cd's and dvd's

Farstone RAMDrive controller: RAMDisk

Floppy Disk Controller: Standard Floppy disk controller.

Motherboard: Foxconn 648/661 series, more specifically 661FX4MR-ES

Power Supply: Case Edge F400A


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## Bartender (Jun 10, 2005)

Dozens of possibilities, but lots of times these things come down to temperature problems or power supply problems. I'd start with a diagnostic utility like Everest or Speedfan and get a handle on your system temps and power supply voltages. 
Never heard of a Case Edge PSU. If it's low quality that may be the prob right there.


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

also run memtest (free in my sig) run it for atleast 2 hours


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

Hi,

Download and run the Sensor program in my signature and report back with voltages, fan speeds, and temperatures. Run the temperatures in both at-rest and under-stress modes.


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

Tumbleweed36 said:


> Hi,
> 
> Download and run the Sensor program in my signature and report back with voltages, fan speeds, and temperatures. Run the temperatures in both at-rest and under-stress modes.


where do I go to set those modes in the program? I have it now.


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

Hi,

Just a little bit of clarity. Just install and run the program on the computer while it is setting there doing nothing. Then, start a game and then run it for the temps to be under-stress. You need also to download and run the memory program that linderman suggested.


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

Tumbleweed36 said:


> Hi,
> 
> Just a little bit of clarity. Just install and run the program on the computer while it is setting there doing nothing. Then, start a game and then run it for the temps to be under-stress. You need also to download and run the memory program that linderman suggested.


Ok, took a screenshot of each, but I'm just going to type them.

Normal- with nothing running, well nothing in the bottom taskbar

CPU: 34C/94F
SYS: 30C/86F
AUX: 29C/85F
HD0: 39C/103F
CPU usage (thought it fluctuates) 0%
Memory usage: 32%
CPU Fan: 4219 RPM
SYS Fan: 0 RPM
AUX Fan: 2058 RPM


Voltages

VcoreA: 1.49V
VcoreB: 3.30V
+3.3V: 3.01V
+5V: 4.97V
+12V: 7.62V
+5VSB: 2.98V
+VBAT: 2.03V

Under pressure (running the original Baldur's gate, which is an 8 year old game)

CPU: 34C/94F 
SYS: 33C/92F
AUX: 32C/90F
HD0: 39C/103F
CPU Usage: 100%
Memory Usage 37%
CPU Fan: 4219 RPM
SYS Fan: 0 RPM
AUX Fan: 2009

Voltages

VcoreA: 1.46V
VcoreB: 3.31V
+3.3V: 3.02V
+5V: 4.95V
+12V: 6.72V
+5VSB: 2.71V
+VBAT: 2.03V


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

The temperatures are fine but the +12V line is way too low at idle and even lower under stress. Check again with *Everest* (run and go to Computer > Sensor) to confirm these readings. If they're about the same you'll need to replace the PSU. Your current CasEdge is only 400W with 16A on 12V. See *here* for PSU advice and recommendations.


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

Hi,

I agree with Koala. Just seems that +12 volt line is lower than any I have seen or there is something wrong with the sensor. Please do follow his advice and recheck with another program.


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

Tumbleweed36 said:


> Hi,
> 
> I agree with Koala. Just seems that +12 volt line is lower than any I have seen or there is something wrong with the sensor. Please do follow his advice and recheck with another program.


Ok, at rest with everest the +12V line is 12.03V and running baldur's gate it's 12.10V


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## Bartender (Jun 10, 2005)

Hi, PC person -
So how did you come up with good numbers on the 12V rail? Did another utility come up with different results, or did you backprobe the ATX plug with a multimeter, or what? 
Have you tried to figure out memtest yet? It's a little confusing at first. Download it, install memtest to a floppy, set up your PC to boot from the A drive (gotta go into BIOS to do that), plunk the floppy in, and restart the PC. Memtest will continue running tests on your memory over and over until you stop it. If you see errors, open up your PC and pull out all but one stick of memory. The one stick will have to be in the #1 slot. Run memtest again. Repeat as necessary to find out if any or all sticks have errors. If you're running your memory in dual channel and only one of them is bad you'll probably have to start over again with a matched pair of memory. 
At any rate, there are pretty good directions at the memtest site.


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

I am going to guess that the orginal +12v reading was a software error and what everest is reporting is more accurate because I don't think a computer could operate at such a low voltage. I would also check this in bios although you will only get a idle reading from there its still a good base line.

Bartender is right memtest is a must at this point and with what you describe you should leave it run on each individual stick overnight, any less and you could miss something.

This could be a very hard thing to track down because it don't happen often so I have a couple questions, you mentioned the freeze started after switching motherboards so,,,,

After the switch did you do a clean install of the operating system or a repair install?

Did you load all the drivers from the motherboard cd?

Something you might want to try is prime95, its a free program that will stress out the psu,cpu,ram and motherboard. This could help to determine if its software or hardware so give it a shot and report back what happens when you run it. If you can run it for 8 hours without error it most likely ain't the above mentioned hardware components and I would start looking into the video card and drivers because prime don't test those


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

> After the switch did you do a clean install of the operating system or a repair install?


We took out the old hard drive and attached it to the new motherboard, but since then I have also reformatted and reinstalled XP on the hard drive



> Did you load all the drivers from the motherboard cd?


No


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

> Have you tried to figure out memtest yet? It's a little confusing at first. Download it, install memtest to a floppy, set up your PC to boot from the A drive (gotta go into BIOS to do that), plunk the floppy in, and restart the PC. Memtest will continue running tests on your memory over and over until you stop it. If you see errors, open up your PC and pull out all but one stick of memory.


Could I use this program booting to a CD instead of a floppy? I don't have any floppies




> he one stick will have to be in the #1 slot.


Guess I'll have to look at the motherboard documentation to figure out which one that is.




> Run memtest again. Repeat as necessary to find out if any or all sticks have errors. If you're running your memory in dual channel and only one of them is bad you'll probably have to start over again with a matched pair of memory.


Not sure if I'm running in dual channel, and can't afford memory dimm's right now, just hope it can identify the problem at least.


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

The motherboard comes with a cd that contains important chipset drivers, am I understanding you correctly that you did not load these drivers?

If not run the cd and install these it is most likely the problem


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

Doby said:


> The motherboard comes with a cd that contains important chipset drivers, am I understanding you correctly that you did not load these drivers?
> 
> If not run the cd and install these it is most likely the problem


I'm guessing we probably did if they are that vital, wouldn't the problems be more severe, such as not being able to use my PC for example? Is there anywhere I can go to check in device manager, etc?


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

Run the CD again to install any missing drivers. If they're already installed or have been updated they won't be overwritten so no harm will be done.


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## Bartender (Jun 10, 2005)

According to memtest you can build a bootable CD

http://www.memtest86.com/#install

I'm more concerned about those chipset drivers at this point. Chipset drivers are extremely important.

When my PC is booting up, the AMI BIOS screen diagnoses how the memory is set up. Look for a message saying something like "1024 MB RAM interleaved" Interleaved means dual-channel. Yeah, check your manual, figure out where the memory has to be for dual-channel. Pretty sure most of them are color-coded.


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

koala said:


> Run the CD again to install any missing drivers. If they're already installed or have been updated they won't be overwritten so no harm will be done.


The drivers I can install from the CD are IDE driver, AGP driver, VGA driver, DirectX 9.0b driver, USB 2.0 Driver, Audio driver and LAN driver, I installed the AGP one, but don't think I needed it since I have an AGP video card which came with it's own drivers.


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

The AGP drivers on the CD are for the motherboard chipset, different to the Radeon graphics drivers. Any time you fit a new motherboard you need to install all the drivers off the CD that came with it.


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

I will install all the drivers thanks, but I still doubt that's the problem.


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## Bartender (Jun 10, 2005)

You probly have a better feel for the answer than any of us would. Assuming your chipset drivers were installed correctly on the previous mb and your PC was freezing before (as mentioned in your original post) then chipset drivers may not be an issue.
On the other hand, it's entirely possible that you've got more than one problem. Could be a mix of hardware (PSU, maybe RAM) and software.

Don't underestimate the importance of having the correct drivers for your motherboard, audio, video, etc. in place from the get-go. I built a PC from a mish-mosh of old & new parts for the mother-in-law. Everything seemed OK. But the Juno software (for Internet) took about four minutes to load, something that took about a second on my PC. Whilst stumbling around for answers, I went to the Creative website and got drivers for the old SoundBlaster sound card. That fixed the Juno problem. I just assumed that W2K included the drivers for such an old card. I was wrong.
Chipset drivers are much more important than sound card.


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

The only one I can't install is the USB 2.0 driver from my motherboard CD, it's not compatible.


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

*memtest*

I put the memtest ISO on a DVD, and tried to boot with it, it wouldn't.


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

Did you burn the unzipped ISO as an image (not data) and set the BIOS boot order to CD first?

If you can't get memtest to work, try *Microsoft Windows Memory Diagnostic*


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

koala said:


> Did you burn the unzipped ISO as an image (not data) and set the BIOS boot order to CD first?
> 
> If you can't get memtest to work, try *Microsoft Windows Memory Diagnostic*


I set the BIOS boot order to CD-first yes. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by image. I burned it to a DVD by means of Drag'n drop CD+DVD4, took the iso out of the zip folder and dragged the ISO onto the data icon and burned it.

There's an option in it to save disc image file and save boot image file, I simply dragged the ISO there to burn it.


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## zaid786 (Jul 2, 2006)

i think you need to burn the iso file to a cd, what you should do is open the iso file directly from your cd burning software (like nero) and then it should burn properly.


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

zaid786 said:


> i think you need to burn the iso file to a cd, what you should do is open the iso file directly from your cd burning software (like nero) and then it should burn properly.


Is there any way to burn an image to a DVD+RW disk with nero, it told me I need a CD-RW to do it, unless there's some way to reconfigure it.


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

Just use a blank CDR or a floppy.


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

koala said:


> Just use a blank CDR or a floppy.


Don't have either, but think I'll get some CD-RW's.


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

*my memtest results*

I ran the test for 3 hours 25 minutes, what's the most important thing to about the tests? I wrote down most the information it gave me. I got 8 passes and no errors.


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

*Running memtest*

Do threads automatically come back if a new post is put in them (that's why I started this one) I figured it might stay there and no one was reading my thread anymore, anyway in reference to this thread 

http://www.techsupportforum.com/showthread.php?t=112320&page=2

I used memtest for 3 hours 25 minutes, I wrote down most of the information, and got 8 passes and no errors.


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

*intermittent problems*

I remember reading about a problem called intermittent power (something) that is the nightmare of all computer technicians, in which case there could be litterally thousands of causes, and what could some of them be?

Could it be just some the millions of transistors are damaged and no longer function, and you don't know which ones or how to find out, in which case you'd just plain have to replace the motherboard, or whatever hardware you can determine has the problem.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

i merged your threads,when someone working on the thread comes online they will reply
did you check out the power supply


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

dai said:


> i merged your threads,when someone working on the thread comes online they will reply
> did you check out the power supply


Yes, the power supply issue was discussed earlier in this thread.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

run 
chkdsk /r
d/l and run the h/drive manufactureres diognostic utility on the h/drive


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

dai said:


> run
> chkdsk /r
> d/l and run the h/drive manufactureres diognostic utility on the h/drive


I'd have to find out exactly what kind of hard drive it is. Sensorsview was great for telling me what kind of hardware I have. 

I tried downloading it again, thinking I'd get another free trial period, it has something that knows it's been installed before on my computer, and it said my trial period was up.


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## Bartender (Jun 10, 2005)

PC person -
dai's referring to a utility built into Windows. Take a look at this:
http://www.schrockinnovations.com/chkdsk.php
It's a little scary the first time but help and guidelines are available.

Open up your PC, and take a look at the HDD. If you can't read the lettering because it's stuffed inside the drive rack, take the other side of the case off, remove the 4 screws holding the HDD in place, and pull it out far enuf to get the model number. Then visit the manufacturer's website and download the utility. If I remember correctly, the utility will need to be burned to a CD. Put the CD in the optical drive. Then boot from the optical drive (go into BIOS to make the optical drive 1st boot device) and run the utility.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

use this one then
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=311


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