1.5 yr old system hangs when installing software.

Sunshine87

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Hi. I have a custom built machine running XP MCE 2005. This past 3 weeks I started noticing my music I play overnight would stop somewhere and not read anymore tunes until I restarted the program. Then this past weekend, everytime I went to install something new my system would hang and then completely freeze. This usually happens at the "Initializing" part. What I did since I have 2 hard drives is to take all my valuables off my boot disk and onto my storage disk and format my boot and reinstalling WIN MCE. Doing this did nothing, it rarely booted and would freeze with any demanding action. So, then I installed Win MCE on my storage disk (I uplugged my primary) and now have it running fine but, it still freezes at certain installations. It won't let me install seatools since it freezes at the the install. Since I experienced the problem on both drives does this mean:

A) My drives are bad.
B) My mainboard needs to be replaced.

Lately, my motherboard would only POST if I turned it off, restarting it usually dosen't POST. I've run out of ideas, I'm thinking about replacing my mainboard.

Specs:
RS485m-m
Athlon x2 5200+
2GB DDR2 800 ram
200gb (was 360gb before I took out primary)
Rosewill 500 watt PSU.
Win XP MCE 2005
 

yay

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bob is right, could be the psu, sepecially when it crashes after a period of time or under load, unplugging other hdd may have just freed some more watts and relieved the strain.
 

Sunshine87

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Well, I'm not too sure about the PSU. My primary drive performs worse than this one when used separately but, the installation problem persists. I've noticed that sometimes installations work when they froze earlier but, Seatools installation always freezes.

I've noticed a few days ago when I powered the system on I'd hear some static from the PSU but, this was after I started having problems.

If I find the PSU at fault, what would be your advice? Get one at the same wattage or a higher one?

I will try the ultimate boot cd.
 

ohiou_grad_06

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I also had an issue once where the mobo actually stopped recognizing the hard drives. But first I would say try testing your memory, if not that, then go after the PSU, as that would be the next logical choice. If the system has run for 1.5 years the mobo should be ok. Also, are you using IDE drives or anything? If so check your jumpers. If those are set wrong, set them to master for your primary hard drive, slave for your secondary. If those are messed up, it can mess up different things. And before you say that you are using the cable select setting, yeah, but some drives/boards don't like that setting and let you know it. Worth checking into.
 

Sunshine87

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I ran Memtest86. Nothing unusual. I also Ran Seatools for DOS on long and short scans and no errors. I will see if anything is different. If not, it's my PSU or Motherboard.
 

Zorg

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Yipes, I just saw that PSU. Get that junk out of your system, even if it isn't the cause of your problem. Especially if it made any kind of noise. It's a tier 5 and it is junk.
 

Sunshine87

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I really think it's my PSU now, two times in the past hour or two it just restarts without warning.

Okay, I have XQpack2 case, this PSU was hanging outside since it's wires are really long. I was wondering if there is any good 500-600 PSU's for mATX cases like the XQpack2?
 

Zorg

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Antec Earthwatts Series EA-xxx
Corsair VX series or maybe HX series with modular cables to remove unused cables. It appears the X-QPACK2 will take a standard size PSU, but you will have to check.

Change it as soon as you can, the health of your PC may rely on it.
 

Sunshine87

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This is beyond me. Using utilities to check my stuff. It seems my PSU is fine. My CPU is hot "around 75'c". I've been doing alot of stressful activities like playing games, using a cpu stresser. Then I decided to do something crazy, install an app, have a game running in the background, have the CPU stresser running and decoding MP3's all at once (or almost) I was going back between the game (in this case UT3) and my desktop. My CPU Ran 85'c. Yes, really hot but, no restarts or anything with this power draw. My voltages didn't really change the whole time.

Obviously, I should get a new CPU cooler. Since I was using the one from my sempron. But, with all that power draw how can it be the PSU? It seems like everything has went back to normal now. I hope so, one thing is certain, I need to get an aftermarket CPU cooler.

Btw, I'm sporting an x1950xt PCI-E. Sorry I didn't mention that earlier.
 

Sunshine87

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Somebody please shoot me.

Well, I replaced the PSU. What it did was now instead of random restarts I still got random freezing. Since I feared my hot CPU and tried cleaning it. When I tried to remove the heatsink, with only a little effort, the whole unit-processor and heatsink-came right out of the locked ZIF socket. It seems that I put too much paste on it originally. But, to my horror, two pins were bent. In attempt to fix them with the credit card method, I bent another one, 2 of the bends are at 80' angles but, one is like 60'. I can't straiten the pins out and I got some paste on some outer pins. I see myself screwed now. This has been a rough week for my pc. I can get pics of the pins. Any advice would help.

If all hope is lost, I'll buy a cheap x2 or a 64 until I have the money to buy a powerful CPU again. This sucks.
 

ohiou_grad_06

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On the cpu, try using some kind of cloth or paper towel, but be very very careful!!! Ground yourself and try to generate as little static as possible. As far as the bent pins, I've also heard of using a mechanical pencil. Try the ones where you can take the lead out, and it has a hole for the lead to go through, use that hole and CAREFULLY put it over the bent pins, and straighten them out as best you can. Remember, DO NOT DO NOT touch the pins on your cpu, and handle it by the edges. When you put the chip back in, remember it will only fit one way, do not try to force it into the slot or you'll possibly bend more pins. Also, when you reinstall the cpu thermal paste, use just a very little bit, and some guys will disagree with me, but what works for me is to put just a very little bit of paste on the chip, then use my finger to spread it evenly over the top cover of the chip.
 

Zorg

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Try using a razorblade or large hat pin and a good magnifying glass. Take your time. The pins don't have to be perfect, they just have to fit in the socket.
 

Sunshine87

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Okay, so, after hours of effort, I redeemed myself and I finally got the pins straight enough to go into the ZIF with "zero insertion force" as hoped. I plugged everything back in (now squeeky clean). Booted it up, it worked great. I noticed my CPU temps dropped nearly 30'c idle and 20'c busy. But, even with all that effort and stress, my computer still freezes when installing software. But, this time it's more random. Like, installing CCC. Usually, it would freeze at the NET 2.0 phase but, it zipped past that only to freeze at the end of the last installer. Shucks. I was playing games for an hour an no issues.

So, okay here's the standings.

CPU: Cleaned and tested, Ruled out.
PSU: Bought new one (Antec earthwatts 500w): Ruled out.
Dust: Gone. Ruled out.
Switched GPU's for testing, effects happen with both. Ruled out.
Fresh Windows install, ruled out.

That really only leaves the ram and the HDD's. Unless you want to point fingers at the DVD-RAM drive but, I wouldn't.
 

Sunshine87

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I can't believe we didn't think of this before.

Look in event viewer, I see a pattern of 2 events that occur. The next event(s) are startup events.

In-game my crashes are logged as: ATI2MAG - bad 6.10 drivers that I didn't update. I just updated to 8.3, let's see what happens.

Installations are: DISK, controller error. It says faulty cable so, I'll replace the sata cable since I have a spare lying around.

Hopefully, this will solve my problems.
 

Sunshine87

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Update: The ATI update did fix games freezing. But, whenever I install Quicktime (for example) it always freezes towards the end. Some installers freeze but, after reboot they can work. Some installers always freeze. This is driving me nutso.
 

Sunshine87

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The problem has sadly progressed. Now, 5 minutes into windows reguardless of what I do, the computer freezes. In detail, it's like the screen becomes stuck in time for that millisecond and the HDD light goes out. 5-6 seconds later, the HDD light comes back on and stays on indefinately until I reset. No user input is possible once it's frozen.

The whole "Disk" thing was my useless USB card reader not my HDD's!


UPDATE: I think I found my problem. I have a bugged service starting up. I progressed little by little until the freezing started and went a step back. One of the none-microsoft services were causing it. I just hope this last and not randomly freeze again.