PC freezing

[Guest]

I have an old setup, a Athlon XP 2600 cpu , an abit motherboard, 2gb of ram and a agp ATI Radeon 9600xt gfx card

recently the pc has been freezing a lot , the image on the screen remains and i am unable to use the keyboard or mouse. The only thing i can do at this point is a hard reset.

the PC appears to start back up ok but sometimes it will freeze when botoin up windows.

I have tried booting up Knoppix linux which runs solely off the cd and also this freezes up.

at first i thought my 9600xt card was faulty so i removed it and replaced it with an old PCI Geforce card.

At first this was also freezing up when booting windows or linux. So i left the machine switched off and the next day i booted the machine up fine and it has run ok since.

I then swapped the 9600xt back in and it ran ok for a few hours, then the freezing started again, i then put the geforce card back in and the same thing happened (the freezing continued so i left the machine off overnight and the next day it booted fine and has continued to run ok since)

i've ran hardware tests on the memory, cpu and motherboard and they all passed.

i dont think my 9600xt card is faulty as the machine freezes up for a while when the pci geforce card is installed
Do these problems point to a faulty psu? i dont want to go out and buy a new one if i dont need to.
I ran HWMonitor with the pci card in and got these results

 

[kenzz0]

Faulty PSU or faulty mainboard with voltage regulator electrolytic capacitors bumped - most likely ! - easy to check by visual inspection

 

[sdrac]

^+1

If you have a spare PSU around, try it. If not, if you have a local comp shop, take it down and tell them you suspect the PSU or mobo - they can try a different PSU and see if the lockups happen.

If its the caps on the mobo, if you're luckly you will be able to see it by visual inspection. The top of the cap might be bulging upward, or if you look at the underside of them (if you can) you might spot leakage.
But they can also look fine and sometime still go bad (the electrolytic type).

Easiest to try a different PSU first and if the problem still occurs, then it might well be the mobo.

Good luck,
Sdrac

 

[outlw6669]

Yes, most likely a dead PSU or capacitor.
First thing you should do is take a can of compressed air and clean out the worst from your case.
Do a visual inspection to see if any of the capacitors are bulging or leaking.
If you locate one or more and have a little skill with a soldering iron, you can attempt to replace them.
The next stop would be testing it with a known good PSU.

Where ever you end up with it, do not dump to much cash into it.
Keep in mind that you can build a MUCH better system for just a few hundred $.

Here is a quick visual aid for use when checking for bad caps.

 

[sdrac]

nice pics outlw! Still and all, those are the "easy" ones to spot. Not so easy to figureout the one
that haven't bulged or obviously leaked but the electrolyte has evap'd out of...
If that is the problem, I know some comp shops will do the replacement for you if you're not familiar with
soldering - but I'm not sure what that runs (never priced it) and if its worth it for an old system.
Might be worth checking if its not the PSU.

 

[Narr]

RMA?

 

[Guest]

thanks for your replies, i just wanted someone to confirm my suspicions.
I will buy a new PSU for it
my current psu is 500w? do i actually need a 500w psu?
the only cards i have are the ATI 9600XT and a small soundcard as i couldnt get vista drivers for my on board soundcard.
I also have a usb hub with various usb devices plugged in.

 

[4Ryan6]

Thats an older setup and power supplies eventually just degrade and not deliver their rated power anymore, and that can happen without the first bulging capacitor!

So its definitely time to replace that old P/S!

For your setup a high quality 350W P/S should be just fine, but I stress to you High Quality if you go that low of wattage!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703018

One of the highest quality power supplies available and a Excellent deal with an additional 20% off with the promo code.

Plus to boot a mail in rebate.

 

[outlw6669]

+1 on the PCP&C Silencer 370.
A hell of a PSU and at only $23.99 after MIR, you can not beat it.
If you are unable to purchase from newegg, look into a quality Corsair, PCP&C, Seasonic, Enermax or Antec Earthwatts 350w+ PSU.