Strange lockups

[Boralgin]

Hi everyone!
I have built myself a system in December 2005 for my birthday.
Everything was fine until about 2 weeks ago.
My PC started locking rather frequently, for no apparent reason.
I would understand this, if I was OCing it or doing something very intensive on it. The lockups happen very erratically, i.e. my pc could go on for several days just fine, and then all of the sudden when i open some website it just freezes. Or I could start to play something and it would freeze. No BSODs, nothing. The mouse cursor just stops moving. If I am playing a game at the moment it just stops with some very annoying repeating sound from the speakers.
This is my configuration:
Thermaltake Kandalf case with 480w PSU
AMDx2 4400 with thermaltake cooler
Gigabyte GF7800GTX (256 mb version)
4 gigabyte of Kingston memory
Abit KN8Ultra MB
Teac DL DVD-RW
3 Seagate Barracudas:
400gb ide version leftover from my old pc
and 2 300gb SATA drives
Sb live 5.1 (also lefover from my old pc)
Everything else like the NIC or the monitor shouldn't be of importance. Correct me if I am wrong.
Cpu temperature never rises above 50 degrees Celsius, usually it's about 43-45 degrees (at least that's what the temperature sensor tells me
Drivers and software are up-to-date
Anyone have an idea what could be the source of this problem?

 

[trixst4r]

I actually had a very similar problem with my old rig just 2-3months ago (that was another reason I got my new computer) and the problem ended up being a faulty power supply. The power supply then just failed about 1 month ago and after replacement, everything is ok again.

I'm not 100% it would be the cause of your problem as it seems that your system is a pretty big power guzller. It could also result from other components overheating, not just the CPU.

 

[shadowduck]

I actually had a very similar problem with my old rig just 2-3months ago (that was another reason I got my new computer) and the problem ended up being a faulty power supply. The power supply then just failed about 1 month ago and after replacement, everything is ok again.

I'm not 100% it would be the cause of your problem as it seems that your system is a pretty big power guzller. It could also result from other components overheating, not just the CPU.

Going to second that. PSU problems.. either an underpowered PSU or a faulty one.

 

[Boralgin]

It could be the PSU, but that would be rather strange.
It worked just fine for almost a year and it's supposably a good one (Thermaltake). It could be failing though.
So 2 questions arise now:
1 Is there any way to check that? (measuring the voltage at the rails or something)
2 If it is failing, what's a good option for changing? (I can spend about 100-150 bucks on o new PSU). A friend I just called recommended the powerman pro psu (620w)

 

[shadowduck]

It could be the PSU, but that would be rather strange.
It worked just fine for almost a year and it's supposably a good one (Thermaltake). It could be failing though.
So 2 questions arise now:
1 Is there any way to check that? (measuring the voltage at the rails or something)
2 If it is failing, what's a good option for changing? (I can spend about 100-150 bucks on o new PSU). A friend I just called recommended the powerman pro psu (620w)

1) Take the CPU to your local geek PC parts shop. They can test it with a PSU tester and tell you in 30 seconds if its good or not.

2) OCX, FCP, Antec, Emermax are all good brands. Look at least 550W.

 

[Silent_Bob]

I'm a seasonic fan, S12 600W is one of the most efficient, consistently highest rated power supplies out there, and its pretty darn quiet too.

 

[yieldan]

Check the TEAC DVD-RW... seriously. I was having lockups much like that and the problem turned out to be that the teac drive I scavenged from a Dell was set to cable select and aparently the IDE cable that my motherboard came with was not a CSEL cable. so check that jumper and set it to master.

 

[Boralgin]

I only have 2 ide devices running, both as master on a separate channel
1 my 400 gb seagate barracuda
2 my teac Dv-W516e
the other two hdds are Sata, so they are running separately

 

[trixst4r]

Check the TEAC DVD-RW... seriously. I was having lockups much like that and the problem turned out to be that the teac drive I scavenged from a Dell was set to cable select and aparently the IDE cable that my motherboard came with was not a CSEL cable. so check that jumper and set it to master.

yieldan might have a point there. I also had a similar problem on my old old rig (celeron 550) where my burner kinda crapped out and caused the system to lock up also. Try unplugging the burner and see if you get the problem you have been getting.

 

[Boralgin]

I'd like to thank eveyone for their suggestions.
I tried unplugging the recorder, it didn't help.
I guess I'll try to borrow a PSU from someone to see if that helps

 

[wolfman140]

I bought a Silverstone Zeus from NewEgg because of all the great reviews from it. I think it was about $150 and the rails look pretty darn constant from CPU-Z and Easy Tune (but who knows whats really the truth thru those programs)