PC Freezes in WinXP

[purple buzz]

My PC freezes after about 5 mins of being on in windows xp. Now i replaced my Hard drive and it still does that, I tried a different video card, and it still does that.

Could it be the Power Supply or the CPU? Please let me know, thanks..

My spec:

ASUSTek Computer INC Mobo (A7N8X)
AMD Athlon XP: Thoroughbred, Socket A 2100+ (overclocked it to 1.83 ghz)
3 gigs of RAM (Corsair 2 sticks regular of 1 each, and the 3rd XML)
ASUS AH3650 SILENT/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 3650 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 4X/8X HDCP Ready Video Card
80GB Maxtor HDD or 200G Seagate (master)
500GB Wester Digitital ATI or whatever the form
Coolmax AP-550X Power Supply

 

[apache_lives]

CPU - doubt it unless your hsf is blocked or not mounted correctly

PSU - maybe

The whole system is just OLD

got a large suggestion for you - TEST YOUR HARDWARE

MEMTEST
PRIME95
ATITOOL/FURMARK
LINPACK
WESTERN DIGITAL DIAG TOOLS

 

[purple buzz]

so what it's old? i know people with much older pcs and they function just fine.

i cant have this thing run for more then 5 mins without freezing. i changed the setting to 133mhz from 166 and it just restarted instead of freezing. hmmm... it may be the CPU

also, that white sticky stuff on the cpu cooler is almost gone. should i get some more? maybe the cpu doesnt get the cooling it needs?

 

[purple buzz]

so I just changed the BIOS settings from 133mhz to 100mhz for my CPU and went down from 11x to 10x..

right now my PC runs at 1000mhz and I haven't had it freeze on me yet. my PC has been on for 1.5 hours.

so this MUST be the CPU cooling system RIGHT? Since the speed is at so low that it doesn't require a lot of cooling. but once I get it up to oc it freezes in 5 mins. what do you guys think?

 

[adis]

Go and buy some Arctic Silver 5, or similar thermal compound.
Okay, get some rubbing alcohol and take your heatsink and fan off, wipe the cpu clean and the heatsink too. Then when you have new thermal compound, put it on the cpu and spread it nice and thin like. Reinstall the heatsink and fan. overclock all you want. Before you do any of this watch this video..


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRRWbQUqW1Y

 

[purple buzz]

Go and buy some Arctic Silver 5, or similar thermal compound.
Okay, get some rubbing alcohol and take your heatsink and fan off, wipe the cpu clean and the heatsink too. Then when you have new thermal compound, put it on the cpu and spread it nice and thin like. Reinstall the heatsink and fan. overclock all you want. Before you do any of this watch this video..


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRRWbQUqW1Y

thanks


the only thing I'm concerned with is my CPU is old. it doesn't have an all metal cover like those new ones in the video. If I were to use alcohol directly on top of it it may kill it.

 

[purple buzz]

ok guys. i went to the local computer store and got this..

TC-1996

http://www.buy.com/prod/dow-corning-tc-1996-thermal-grease-metal-oxide-compound-0-5g-intel/q/loc/101/208404335.html

it was 5 bucks and I didn't wanna order the others from newegg it would be more time and expensive for s&h. at first it worked for only 1 hour till my pc crashed but i think it was cuz i put only a tiny fraction.

today i put in ALL THE PASTE in the middle of the heatsink where it touches my CPU, spread it out real nicely and it seems to be working but I dont know *shrugs* time will tell.


Question, what is the point of this Thermal Grease? by not using it can you damage your CPU and could my CPU be permenantly damaged because it ran on very little of it. plus I took out my heatsink many times to clean it from dust and I never reapplied.

 

[MrDrift]

probably the cpu

 

[purple buzz]

just to update you guys on this issue..

IT WAS MY VIDEO CARD

Asus Radeon 3650 was bad and it would cause my system to freeze. i replaced it and no more freezes (although im still in the middle of replacing the new card cuz its real bad and laggy). oh, and ever since this issue my motherboard been making a buzzing sound for at least 2 minutes into the boot-up process and then it would go away. I'm kinda worried and hope it wont cause any issues in the future. I'll try to see if my AGP slot needs to be cleaned when I replace my current card within a few days.

IM NEVER AGAIN MESSING WITH ATI RADEON CARDS! I've had nothing but nightmares with them and on my 3rd one already. from now on it's strictly Nvidia GeForce baby.

thanks for all the help..

 

[purple buzz]

the freezes are back...

this time with my new video card GeForce 5500..

it was fine for about a week, but now my PC freezes 5 mins into the booting while in windows.

can my motherboard fry my video card?

also, i took the video card out, put it back in but not all the way in where it sits TIGHT and DEEP. i just put it in naturally and that weird buzzing sound for 3 mins on the boot up is gone.. but the only way i can run my PC again without freezing is lowering my CPU speed

arghh... im so drained from having this weird problem i dont know what to do. is my new card fried? i mean if it did its good news in a way knowing that its just a video card problem.

how do i find out if my video card went bad?