Random Lock-ups...

[illroot]

Recently i've been experiencing random lock ups. My computer just freezes, cursor stops moving and keyboard no longer responds. I've run disk checks and virus scans and found nothing. I don't think it's a heat issue, i've been running this computer the same since day 1(computer's about 2 years old). Is there anything else i can do to see where this problem is coming from?

here are the system specs:
Win2K Pro
1.33 Athlon T-bird
512mb ddr RAM
ELSA Gladiac 920
MSI KT266 mobo

Thanks!

[BigBlue66]

It could be flaky RAM. Search for a free memory tester and see what happens.

Or, you say you've run the system the same for 2 years. Have you ever taken the case apart and cleaned out the dust? Dust buildup on the heatsink will cause higher temps and could be contributing to the problem. Get yourself a can of compressed air and blow the dust bunnies out.

Or, a flaky power supply could also cause the problems. Do you have any kind of software that monitors the voltages? If so, have you noticed sudden dips?

[Bovon]

What BigBlue66 has to say about this problem is right on the money. I fought a simular problem for over a year. When I corrected it...it was by accident. It was flaky ram...like any thing solidstate, ram chips can go bad. Those individual chips are made up of many tiny transistors that hold a 1 or 0..if one of the transistors goes bad, the bit cannot change, therefor, the data gets corrupt when that one small piece of data is passed thru that chip. When ram came way down, a couple of years ago...I bought new ram to have more, mostly...and in the process...the lockups and occasional blue screens went away.

[illroot]

I downloaded and ran BurnItTest Professional 3 and ran a full test and then just a memory test. My comp passed, but about 20 minutes later it froze again. I'm now posting this after about restarting an hour or so ago and it hasn't crashed. I can't place the problem. Can it be that the RAM is showing signs of going bad? Can that even happen? or is it just something altogether?

Thanks for the help!

[Bovon]

Personally I don't have a clue. All we can do on something as random as a lockup or blue screen every so often, is to relate to you what the possibilities may be. I now know mine was related to a stick of flaky ram. It could have been a DLL file that was corrupt, or a driver conflict somewhere.. I had Zone Alarm installed and used it ever sence it came out...the free version, so I bought the plus version a few months ago. After I upgraded, I had a h**ova time with freezes, blue screens ect. It was very diffucult to get it completey off my system. I had to clean every trace of it from the registry and delete files that didn't get uninstalled. But...after it was totally gone, my system settled back down and has been running stable every sence.

So...is your problem a bad stick of ram?..or maybe some application that you have installed recently thats screwing with your system...I don't know...no body can tell you that...all we can do is try to tell you some of the possibilities. If you can beg, borrow or steal a stick of ram to install as a test...it won't hurt anything to try...you just might get lucky.

So, the ram tests didn't turn up anything, well..I'm not so sure it will every time...maybe if you run the test everyday for a week or two...it just may find a problem with the ram..if one exists..

[illroot]

I'll try running that test every so often, and i'll see if i can't get another stick of RAM. i've been meaning to get more anyhow.

I haven't recently installed anything, but i am trying to keep a log of what i'm doing when my computer decides to freeze.

Thanks for the help Bovon and Big Blue66.

[gtaylor]

run memtest86 http://www.memtest86.com/ which is the best mem tester. Ones that run in Windows can't really be relied upon as they can't address all the memory on the system, windows has a lot of it reserved you see. Have a go, if its clean, try a different PSU.

Graeme

[Rocketmech]

Ditto on memtest86. You should pass all the tests, including the extented tests, at least once. You may need to run overnite to find a ambigious error.
Also, have you checked you event viewer for errors? Maybe something will show up there .