My computer has been freezing for a few months now. I built this computer and all my hardware is new. Since buying my new hard drive, I’ve reformatted it a couple times, and used virus scan on my drives. It’s not a software problem, so what can it be?
You didn’t mention what brand components went into this new machine. High quality hardware, especially RAM, motherboard, soundcard and videocard are essential to a stable computer.
Believe it or not, soundcards seem to be the most frequent causes of problems. Off brand sound cards come with poorly written and tested drivers. Drivers are one thing that an OS can’t do much about if they fail. Drivers have to have direct access to hardware. If they lock, the machine goes down frequently. In ordinary software, if the program fails, usually, that is the only thing that dies.
oh yes. I forgot about brand --> 1.4 Athlon, Shuttle motherboard, Sound Blaster Live, 64 mb nvidia geforce2 mx max, western digital hard drive. Anything I forgot? So in terms of brand names, all of my components are pretty popular. Thank you, scotth.
I haven’t had the best of luck with Shuttle motherboards. But, that doesn’t mean that is the problem.
OK, a couple more questions.
- What OS are you running?
- When you say freeze up, do you really mean freeze up or maybe you get some error message or sponaneous reboot?
Also, on a home system, I ususally completely disable all power saver features on the motherboard…
It could be a network card, if you’ve got one in there. I’ve found that they can be temperamental - they’ll work in one PCI slot, but not in another, for instance. I have also read that some network cards don’t agree with some mobos.
Is your processor overclocked? If so, could be a voltage and/or a heat problem.
Are the freezes reproducible (i.e., after the computer is on for X hours, while running certain programs, etc.)?
Tried running RAM and HD diagnostics? Bad RAM will freeze your computer like nothing else will, especially when you’re using your computer hard.
Or, um, it could be something else. 
lol kkbattousai.
I don’t know if my processor is overclocked. 
It’s not a heat problem i have a heatsink and five fans; plus, in the system bios, i set the comp to shut down after a certain temp, and it’s never gotten that high.
Yes, the freezes usually occur when I am running a game. But many times, I’m just playing music, or looking at websites … or even working on a paper! ouch.
I haven’t tried running RAM or HD diagnostics. How can I? As for the network card. It’s basically not in use. I installed the driver, but since the last time I reformatted my HD, it hasn’t given me a window at the beginning of startup where it has your name and a space to type in a password. Plus, my connection is through a USB-DSL modem now. So, i rarely use my network card anymore. Thank you KKBattousai.
Scotth, thanx replying again. Maybe it’s the shuttle. For some reason on the box it says it runs with 1.4 athlon @ 266 FSB, but when i start my computer, it’s only running at “133 mhz”, but the jumpers settings are correct.
Im opperating with windows 98 SE, and when my computer freezes, it literally freezes. No blue screen, but it has spontaneously rebooted a couple of times.
Thank you both, I appreciate your time.
Here is where I would start.
- Download the latest drivers for your audio card. (Typically though, sound driver problem results in blue screen)
- Download latest video drivers (this fits symptoms better, if the video system dies, it is hard to send a blue screen, eh)
- Check your jumpers again. I set the cpu voltage jumper .1 volts low once. It would just randomly lock, especially when I was really using the system. I was just sure for the longest time that I was having a heat related problem.
- Test Ram (Ok, maybe do this one first) Here is a link to Ram Diagnostic program
http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10106-100-1534814.html?tag=st.dl.10001-103-1.lst-7-2.1534814
It creates a boot disk.
If these don’t get it, it is probably motherboard/cpu issue.
HD is unlikely but nothing is impossible.
Same for Power Supply.
But, I once had a machines 3.5 inch floppy go bad in a weird way… It actually still worked, but was drawing way too much current. This drug the power supply down and everything was very unstable. This just goes to show it can be the most unlikely culprit.
What are you running for a Heat sink and fan on that 1.4?
Did you install it with themo-grease/heatsink compound?
Alot of athlon motherboards need an updated bios to run stable with 1.2 gig and faster cpu’s, particularly on the 266 fsb cpus. Check the support page of your motherboards manufacture to see if there is a newer bios.
P.S. 266mhz is the actually bus speed that athlon mother boards run at. The 133mhz is your ram speed.
bernse-
I am running the heat sink and fan that comes in the same box as the athlon 1.4.
scotth-
It’s not the sound driver because i just recently purchased that card and my comp had already been freezing. I also recently downloaded the latest driver for my video card. I will check RAM and take a look at the voltage jumper settings, although I do not recall configuring one.
Startibartfastt-
Yes, I have a feeling it’s the motherboard. How can I find an updated bios and what does this mean?
Thank you all.
Hey Irwin,i know your pain. My 'puter used to freeze up aftyer about an hour of operation, was only 6 mths old at the time too! I thought it was my vid card, so did the warranty repair guy, so 3 TNT2 pro cards later I had this feeling it was my monitor, BINGO ! (will teach me for buying the cheap one eh?)now all works fine, but it just goes to show - “you never know!”
I’ll 2nd checking the RAM, I had a computer that for some reason just kept freezing every hour or so. I just got used to restarting it. After I upgraded my computer, I gave my RAM chips to a friend so he could have more RAM and the same thing started on him. He finally figured out that it was one of the RAM chips by taking one out until he found which one was the bad one.
I had a similar problem, and it turned out to be some conflict between the modem and the sound card. It’s worth checking the manufactures web site to see if they have any ‘known problem’ pages. Or there may be a read me file installed with your drivers with similar info.
Tried yanking all expansion cards except the video to
see if the problem still happens?
Is the mobo being grounded out on the case somewhere?
I remember that certain VIA Apollo chipsets required an AGP update that addressed this sort of issue, does the manufactuor have some kind of update like this availible?
What about the video card? have you tried running it in 2x mode versus 4x mode?
I had similar problems with an nvidia tnt2 ultra–turned out to be the drivers. Tried different drivers and the problem went away.
There are probably 150 different things that could cause this problem. Some have been mentioned by others.
One that has not is interrupt conflicts. I’ve found that my SoundBlaster Live! really, really does not like sharing an interrupt with any other card that I have had in any system I’ve put it in (including my Geforce IImx-based video, my dlink network card, my generic modem, etc). The OS doesn’t report this as a problem, because drivers are SUPPOSED to be able to handle sharing interrupts with other pci cards.
You tell what interrupt things are using by right clicking on My-Computer and digging into the properties. Depending on your BIOS, changing a slot’s IRQ may or may not be possible, so if you find that you can’t, you can try moving the cards around.
-LV
Thanx for replying all!
Here’s a runthrough of what I’ve tried:
-I ran the RAM diagnostics program and the RAM is clean; passed all the tests.
-I looked for a “voltage” jumper setting in the motherboard’s handbook and couldn’t find a configuration of this sort.
-I pulled out the unused ethernet and modem cards, but my computer froze more frequently. Infact this is the third time I’ve typed up a reply … i stuck the cards back in and hopefully I will reach the end of this thread.
ohzippy - I have a new viewsonic A70f, so i doubt that’s the problem.
skripek - what do you mean by “is the mobo being grounded on the case somewhere?” … I haven’t tried running my AGP in 2x mode, but wouldn’t that sacrifice quality of video?
LordVor - I agree with you on that one … maybe even more than 150 culprits.
I’m down to the motherboard, cpu and USB-DSL modem (I think). It’s giving me a headache. Any other suggestions? Thanx a bunch dopers.
or could it be a printer, keyboard or mouse problem?
I would bet that this is a power supply issue. 1.4mhz Athlons are power hogs and need lots of power. I think Athlon even bumped up the recommended psu wattage for its Athlon line.
How many watts is your power supply rated at? 250? 300? If so, you’re probably getting voltage dips periodically which is causing lock-ups and freezing. Unless you’ve got a primo power supply unit, 300 watts just won’t cut it these days and insufficient power manifests itself via lockups/freeze-outs/no-boots.
I was also going to ask about your soundcard, but you said that you were having probs before you bought your SoundBlaster, so that’s not the problem. SoundBlasters have IRQ sharing issues… especially on 686B southbridged VIA chipset mobos.
You need a better power supply is my opinion.
If you have a motherboard monitoring utility, run it and see what your voltage is running at and if it fluctuates.
buy a third party computer maintennce program like System Suite 2000 that has tests included that can see what might be causing it.