Random freeze for 1 year

[prodigy83]

Please help. I cant take it anymore.
I built a system a year ago and I have these random freezes. Here is what I have:

C2D E6600 @ 2.4 GHz
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
ATI Radeon X1900 XTX
2 GB Corsair XMS2 6400
2 IDE HDDS (Seagate) set on PATA
ANTEC PSU @ 500W

I get random freezes. It may be that I am just surfing the net, playing something, listening to music, downloading a file, etc. They tend to be more frequent when I download a large file. Recently I get a random freeze whenever I turn on my system in the morning or when it stayed off for a few hours.

Temperatures are OK.
CPU 30 C
MOBO 44 C
GPU 57 C - this is x1900 xtx so its normal -

I tried loosening the latencies for my memory lowering the frequency, I changed my IDE cable.
I have no idea what to do. It's been going on for a year now and I'm getting pi$$ed.

I appreciate any help you can get me.
Thanks you in advance.

 

[boonality]

Have you ran any tests against your PC?

 

[rubix_1011]

Have you tried format/reinstall of OS? This would potentially rule out software install, you would have fresh drivers and no viruses/malware on the PC. If it persists, I say hardware...starting with your hard drives or controller(s).

When you are downloading a file, try to constant ping a site throughout the download process...maybe your NIC is failing since you see the majority of problems while on the net. Do something like, PING www.google.com -t and see if you get dropped packets.

 

[MayDay94]

honestly, best thing to do is reinstall os from scratch. if xp, make sure you install sp2 before attempting to install the mb shipset, video and sound drivers. once you have clean install of xp or vista, at least then you can rule out software issues as rubix mentions. then i would look at your psu or ram next.

 

[roadrunner197069]

It might be as simple as under volted ram. Do memtest86 on the ram.

 

[evongugg]

I would say do memtest86+ and hard disk diagnostics.

 

[prodigy83]

Thank you all for posting.
I have upped the voltage to my RAM from 1.9 V to 2.1 V in increments of 0.5 and it didn't work. However I noticed that when I have higher voltage it doesn't freeze anymore, it just resets. I must say that I have had this problem from day 1 I put my rig together. Back then I made a clean install of WinXP SP2 and had the problem. I will try to dual boot and install another copy of WinXP on the other HDD as I don't want to install all of my software if it doesn't work.
I will also run memtest and seatools but I am sure it's nothing, as I read several forums with this problem and the hardware was all good.
Pinging is ok, no issues there, packets are good. Furthermore it sometimes freezes without any traffic so that cannot be it. I have no viruses, mallware, spyware NOD32 updated to the day and AdAware show no issues.
I am thinking it might be something with the mobo.
Thank you again, and if you have any more suggestions you are welcomed to post.

 

[sailer]

This may sound like a shot in the dark, but you might have a PSU problem. It wouldn't be an outright failure, as that would shut the computer down instead of just a freeze, but rather too much variance or perhaps a drop in voltage that locks it up. Since the problem began from day one, its always been there and is now getting worse, thus indicating an electrical component that's breaking down. This also sounds to me like a PSU that's slowly dieing. When starting a computer, the hardware puts a heavy load on the PSU, so failures on startup also point to it. Just a thought, but when other things check out as normal, its something to look at.

I have my doubts that the mobo is causing this trouble. You can check the capacitors for leakage, but if nothing is visible, the mobo becomes difficult to diagnose.

 

[prodigy83]

Thank you Sailer, yes, it might be the PSU. I guess I will have to rule out one component at a time...

 

[Shadowolf]

Have you considered the utility power ie brownouts, a UPS or power filter may help.

 

[prodigy83]

That cannot be it, because another computer in the house has had no such issues.

 

[prodigy83]

Well the memory isn't it, I changed my Corsair for some Mushkin and iI still get the random freeze.

 

[prodigy83]

I wonder why every time I turn on my system when I come home from work or in the morning it freezes? Maybe some part needs to be "warm" or get to operating temperature? I am all out of ideas...