Homebuilt PC Freezes Every Other Minute

[mowogo1820]

Howdy Everyone,

My Homebuilt PC Freezes/Hangs every other minute for about five seconds. Mouse pointer won't move during that time period.

I believe this is a memory problem, but I'm not sure. Please help me troubleshoot:



Some Of The Software Being Used: aVast Home Edition Antivirus (With Up To Date Definitions), Spyware Terminator, CCleaner, Registry Reviver (Optimizer), Passmark Diskcheckup, Comodo Firewall, Unlocker Assistant, WinRAR, Defraggler, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

All software says PC is clean.


Actually my computer is very very slow! What can I do to fix it and make it faster? I don't want to replace the RAM and find out it didn't need RAM.


Desktop PC Specs (According to Speccy):

Operating System
MS Windows XP Professional 32-bit SP3
CPU
AMD Athlon II X2 255 43 °C
Regor 45nm Technology
Extended RAM Info:
------------------------

AMD Athlon II X2 255
Cores 2
Threads 2
Name AMD Athlon II X2 255
Code Name Regor
Package Socket AM3 (938)
Technology 45nm
Specification AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 255 Processor
Family F
Extended Family 10
Model 6
Extended Model 6
Stepping 3
Revision DA-C3
Instructions MMX (+), 3DNow! (+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A, AMD 64
Virtualization Supported, Disabled
Hyperthreading Not supported
Fan Speed 2909 RPM
Bus Speed 200.9 MHz
Rated Bus Speed 1004.6 MHz
Stock Core Speed 3100 MHz
Stock Bus Speed 200 MHz
Average Temperature 45 °C
Caches
L1 Data Cache Size 2 x 64 KBytes
L1 Instructions Cache Size 2 x 64 KBytes
L2 Unified Cache Size 2 x 1024 KBytes
Core 0
Core 1



RAM
2.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 267MHz (3-4-4-12)
Extended RAM Info:
------------------------

Memory slots
Total memory slots 2
Used memory slots 2
Free memory slots 0
Memory
Type DDR2
Size 2048 MBytes
Channels # Dual
DRAM Frequency 267.9 MHz
CAS# Latency (CL) 3 clocks
RAS# to CAS# Delay (tRCD) 4 clocks
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 4 clocks
Cycle Time (tRAS) 12 clocks
Bank Cycle Time (tRC) 16 clocks
Command Rate (CR) 2T
Physical Memory
Memory Usage 61 %
Total Physical 2.00 GB
Available Physical 779 MB
Total Virtual 11 GB
Available Virtual 8.98 GB
SPD
Number Of SPD Modules 2
Slot #1
Type DDR2
Size 1024 MBytes
Manufacturer Crucial Technology
Max Bandwidth PC2-6400 (400 MHz)
Part Number BL12864AL106A.8FH5
Serial Number 9002688B
Week/year 165 / 165
SPD Ext. EPP
EPP #0
Frequency 400.0 MHz
CAS# Latency 4.0
RAS# To CAS# 4
RAS# Precharge 4
tRAS 12
tRC 24
Voltage 2.000 V
EPP #1
Frequency 534.0 MHz
CAS# Latency 5.0
RAS# To CAS# 5
RAS# Precharge 5
tRAS 15
tRC 29
Voltage 2.000 V
JEDEC #3
Frequency 400.0 MHz
CAS# Latency 5.0
RAS# To CAS# 5
RAS# Precharge 5
tRAS 18
tRC 23
Voltage 1.800 V
JEDEC #2
Frequency 333.3 MHz
CAS# Latency 4.0
RAS# To CAS# 5
RAS# Precharge 5
tRAS 16
tRC 20
Voltage 1.800 V
JEDEC #1
Frequency 266.7 MHz
CAS# Latency 3.0
RAS# To CAS# 4
RAS# Precharge 4
tRAS 12
tRC 16
Voltage 1.800 V
Slot #2
Type DDR2
Size 1024 MBytes
Manufacturer Crucial Technology
Max Bandwidth PC2-6400 (400 MHz)
Part Number BL12864AL106A.8FH5
Serial Number 8F03EE20
Week/year 165 / 165
SPD Ext. EPP
EPP #0
Frequency 400.0 MHz
CAS# Latency 4.0
RAS# To CAS# 4
RAS# Precharge 4
tRAS 12
tRC 24
Voltage 2.000 V
EPP #1
Frequency 534.0 MHz
CAS# Latency 5.0
RAS# To CAS# 5
RAS# Precharge 5
tRAS 15
tRC 29
Voltage 2.000 V
JEDEC #3
Frequency 400.0 MHz
CAS# Latency 5.0
RAS# To CAS# 5
RAS# Precharge 5
tRAS 18
tRC 23
Voltage 1.800 V
JEDEC #2
Frequency 333.3 MHz
CAS# Latency 4.0
RAS# To CAS# 5
RAS# Precharge 5
tRAS 16
tRC 20
Voltage 1.800 V
JEDEC #1
Frequency 266.7 MHz
CAS# Latency 3.0
RAS# To CAS# 4
RAS# Precharge 4
tRAS 12
tRC 16
Voltage 1.800 V



Motherboard
ASRock N68-S (CPUSocket) 54 °C
Extended Motherboard Info:
-----------------------------------
Manufacturer ASRock
Model N68-S (CPUSocket)
Version To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Chipset Vendor NVIDIA
Chipset Model GeForce 7025
Chipset Revision A3
Southbridge Vendor NVIDIA
Southbridge Model nForce 630a
Southbridge Revision A2
System Temperature 55 °C
BIOS
Brand American Megatrends Inc.
Version P2.00
Date 12/15/2009
Voltage
CPU CORE 1.408 V
MEMORY CONTROLLER 0.160 V
+3.3V 3.376 V
+5V 5.064 V
+12V 11.765 V
VIN5 1.664 V
VIN6 1.856 V
PCI Data
Slot PCI
Slot Type PCI
Slot Usage Available
Bus Width 32 bit
Slot Designation PCI1
Slot Number 0
Slot PCI
Slot Type PCI
Slot Usage In Use
Bus Width 32 bit
Slot Designation PCI2
Slot Number 1
Slot PCI-E
Slot Type PCI-E
Slot Usage Available
Bus Width Unknown
Slot Designation PCIE1
Slot Number 2
Slot PCI-E
Slot Type PCI-E
Slot Usage In Use
Bus Width Unknown
Slot Designation PCIE2
Slot Number 3




Graphics
NEC FE700 (1280x768@60Hz)
512MB GeForce 9500 GT (ASUStek Computer Inc) 55 °C
Extended Graphics Info:
------------------------------

GeForce 9500 GT
GPU G96
Device ID 10DE-0640
Revision A2
Subvendor ASUStek Computer Inc (1043)
Current Performance Level Level 1
Current GPU Clock 200 MHz
Current Memory Clock 100 MHz
Current Shader Clock 400 MHz
Voltage 1.000 V
Technology 65 nm
Die Size 144 nm²
Transistors 314 M
Release Date Jul 29, 2008
DirectX Support 10.0
DirectX Shader Model 4.0
OpenGL Support 3.0
Bus Interface PCI Express x16
Temperature 55 °C
GPU Clock 200 MHz
Memory Clock 100 MHz
Driver nv4_disp.dll
Driver version 6.14.12.8026
ForceWare version 280.26
BIOS Version 62.94.32.00.00
ROPs 8
Shaders 32 unified
Memory 512 MB
Bus Width 128 Bit
Pixel Fillrate 1.6 GPixels/s
Texture Fillrate 3.2 GTexels/s
Count of performance levels : 2
Level 1 - "Default"
GPU Clock 200 MHz
Memory Clock 100 MHz
Shader Clock 400 MHz
Level 2 - "3D Applications"
GPU Clock 600 MHz
Memory Clock 900 MHz
Shader Clock 1500 MHz


Hard Drives
313GB Western Digital WDC WD32 00AAKS-00SBA SCSI Disk Device (ATA) 47 °C
1465GB Seagate ST315003 41AS SCSI Disk Device (ATA) 50 °C
977GB Seagate ST310005 20AS SCSI Disk Device (ATA) 42 °C
Extended Hard Drive Info:
---------------------------------

WDC WD32 00AAKS-00SBA SCSI Disk Device
Manufacturer Western Digital
Business Unit/Brand Desktop/WD Caviar®
RPM/Buffer Size or Attribute 5400 RPM with 2 MB cache
Serial Number WD-WCAPZ0324970
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Power On Count 164 times
Power On Time 891 Days 9 Hours
Features S.M.A.R.T., AAM, NCQ
Transfer Mode SATA II
Interface ATA
Capacity 313GB
Real size 320,071,851,520 bytes
RAID Type None
S.M.A.R.T
01 Read Error Rate 200 (200 worst) Data 0000000000
03 Spin-Up Time 161 (156) Data 0000001356
04 Start/Stop Count 100 (100) Data 00000000AE
05 Reallocated Sectors Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
07 Seek Error Rate 200 (200) Data 0000000000
09 Power-On Hours (POH) 071 (071) Data 0000005391
0A Spin Retry Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
0B Recalibration Retries 100 (100) Data 0000000000
0C Device Power Cycle Count 100 (100) Data 00000000A4
C0 Power-off Retract Count 200 (200) Data 0000000033
C1 Load/Unload Cycle Count 200 (200) Data 00000000B0
C2 Temperature 100 (093) Data 000000002F
C4 Reallocation Event Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
C6 Uncorrectable Sector Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
C7 UltraDMA CRC Error Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
C8 Write Error Rate / Multi-Zone Error Rate 200 (200) Data 0000000000
Temperature 47 °C
Temperature Range ok (less than 50 °C)
Status Good
Partition 0
Partition ID Disk #0, Partition #0
Disk Letter C:
File System NTFS
Volume Serial Number 1C61D464
Size 298GB
Used Space 188GB (63%)
Free Space 110GB (37%)
ST315003 41AS SCSI Disk Device
Manufacturer Seagate
Form Factor 3.5"
Serial Number 9VS5B5Q0
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Power On Count 2 times
Power On Time 17 Days 22 Hours
Speed, Expressed in Revolutions Per Minute (rpm) 7200
Features S.M.A.R.T., AAM, NCQ
Transfer Mode SATA II
Interface ATA
Capacity 1465GB
Real size 1,500,301,910,016 bytes
RAID Type None
S.M.A.R.T
01 Read Error Rate 117 (099 worst) Data 00081D04F0
03 Spin-Up Time 100 (100) Data 0000000000
04 Start/Stop Count 100 (100) Data 0000000002
05 Reallocated Sectors Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
07 Seek Error Rate 063 (060) Data 00001D8846
09 Power-On Hours (POH) 100 (100) Data 00000001AE
0A Spin Retry Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
0C Device Power Cycle Count 100 (100) Data 0000000002
B8 End-to-End error / IOEDC 100 (100) Data 0000000000
BB Reported Uncorrectable Errors 100 (100) Data 0000000000
BC Command Timeout 100 (100) Data 0000000000
BD High Fly Writes (WDC) 089 (089) Data 000000000B
BE Temperature Difference from 100 050 (043) Data 00391E0032
C2 Temperature 050 (057) Data 0000000032
C3 Hardware ECC Recovered 057 (039) Data 00081D04F0
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
C6 Uncorrectable Sector Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
C7 UltraDMA CRC Error Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
F0 Head Flying Hours 100 (253) Data 00000001AE
F1 Total LBAs Written 100 (253) Data 007D2C9B6E
F2 Total LBAs Read 100 (253) Data 002B7B60BC
Temperature 50 °C
Temperature Range warn (50 °C to 55 °C)
Status Good
Partition 0
Partition ID Disk #1, Partition #0
Disk Letter G:
File System NTFS
Volume Serial Number 78CCFAB1
Size 1397GB
Used Space 1328GB (96%)
Free Space 70GB (4%)
ST310005 20AS SCSI Disk Device
Manufacturer Seagate
Form Factor 3.5"
Serial Number 9VX0XGKR
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Power On Count 35 times
Power On Time 446 Days 2 Hours
Speed, Expressed in Revolutions Per Minute (rpm) 5900
Features S.M.A.R.T., APM, AAM, NCQ
Transfer Mode SATA II
Interface ATA
Capacity 977GB
Real size 1,000,204,886,016 bytes
RAID Type None
S.M.A.R.T
01 Read Error Rate 117 (099 worst) Data 0007754F95
03 Spin-Up Time 096 (095) Data 0000000000
04 Start/Stop Count 100 (100) Data 0000000045
05 Reallocated Sectors Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
07 Seek Error Rate 072 (060) Data 0001348467
09 Power-On Hours (POH) 088 (088) Data 00000029D2
0A Spin Retry Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
0C Device Power Cycle Count 100 (100) Data 0000000023
B7 SATA Downshift Error Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
B8 End-to-End error / IOEDC 085 (085) Data 000000000F
BB Reported Uncorrectable Errors 100 (100) Data 0000000000
BC Command Timeout 100 (100) Data 0000010001
BD High Fly Writes (WDC) 100 (100) Data 0000000000
BE Temperature Difference from 100 058 (051) Data 002E20002A
C2 Temperature 042 (049) Data 000000002A
C3 Hardware ECC Recovered 048 (028) Data 0007754F95
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
C6 Uncorrectable Sector Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
C7 UltraDMA CRC Error Count 200 (176) Data 0000002232
F0 Head Flying Hours 100 (253) Data 00000027AA
F1 Total LBAs Written 100 (253) Data 007FBA6D5B
F2 Total LBAs Read 100 (253) Data 00C761EC12
Temperature 42 °C
Temperature Range ok (less than 50 °C)
Status Good
Partition 0
Partition ID Disk #2, Partition #0
Disk Letter E:
File System NTFS
Volume Serial Number DC1AEDDE
Size 932GB
Used Space 18.8GB (3%)
Free Space 913GB (97%)


Optical Drives
ASUS DRW-24B1ST SCSI CdRom Device
Audio
SB Audigy





Sincerely,
Jacob

 

[chugot9218]

Haha I think that you want a new PC as opposed to new RAM, all of that is pretty dated.

*Edit* Well, your RAM is definitely dated, I would salvage some of your newer parts and start a new build.

 

[mowogo1820]

Also, Memtest86 v4.0 was ran for over ten minutes and didn't bring back any errors.

The PC is current for what it is used for. I don't game on this machine.

The Motherboard is just over a year old from Newegg.

The Two TB-Drives are around six months old.

The RAM is only a year old.

The Power Supply is six months old.

The Video Card is about a year old

The only really old part in the whole machine is the Sound Card.


I can understand switching out a part because it's bad, but to start from scratch when most of the parts are around a year old just doesn't make sence.

 

[chugot9218]

Well, if it is running slow for your purposes it can't be that current. 2GB of RAM is not very much, I feel like if you even a couple of those programs you mentioned running at once your system is going to bog down, but maybe there is something else behind it.

 

[mowogo1820]

Would the RAM cause the PC to hang every few minutes for about five seconds?

 

[chugot9218]

Oh for sure, if all the RAM is eaten up it is going to start writing data to the page file on the hard drive, and, depending on the work load, this can be quite a bit of data going to a device that is not necessarily meant for high speed read and write like RAM is.

If I open multiple programs on my PC at work which only has 4gb of ram (but is DDR3 and 1600mhz), I can easily freeze up for 5-10 seconds switching between the programs and doing other work, even idling programs are going to chew up some ram. Take a look in task manager and see how much RAM is taken up by the computer after a fresh restart.

*edit* Looking up a few numbers, you are likely using a half GB or more just for your OS and Antivirus, any other more modern programs on there will eat the 1.5Gb remaining quite fast. *edit*

 

[mowogo1820]

Other than Firefox or Chrome and about ten explorer windows, the only other thing I run on this machine is uTorrent.

Also, I set my page file to 9500 MB. Was this a good idea? Does setting it to a larger page file slow down the PC?

 

[chugot9218]

Well, as an example, I currently have 4 tabbed chrome pages open and it is using a little over .5 GB, and chrome is much more efficient with RAM on my PC then IE. When I was using IE on this PC 4-5 tabs would often take up as much as 2-3 Gb, giving me slow downs and freezes exactly as you described. I switched to chrome and it is better but as I said, 4 tabs still take up more than half a Gb.

 

[chugot9218]

No, in fact I believe if you restrict the page file and it fills up the system crashes... although someone else may have to confirm this. What slows down the PC is the fact that the RAM is full and the CPU has to write to the hard drive which it does at a much slower rate than accessing the RAM. Thus, your slowdown until it can clear out the page file and return to using the RAM.

The size of the pagefile just regulates how much space the OS will allocate on the hard drive in the event that RAM is full, the size does not affect performance in any way besides using more of the hard drive.

 

[mowogo1820]

Would this be a viable RAM replacement?

Item #: N82E16820231207

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231207


G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBNT

 

[chugot9218]

Not really my department checking parts... but I'll take a look. That link, however, is borked, will need a new one. You just gotta make sure the RAM meets the specifications of your board:

- Dual Channel DDR2 memory technology
- 2 x DDR2 DIMM slots
- Supports DDR2 1066*/800/667/533 non-ECC, un-buffered memory
- Max. capacity of system memory: 8GB**

*Support with AM3 / AM2+ CPU.

**Due to the operating system limitation, the actual memory size may be less than 4GB for the reservation for system usage under Windows® 32-bit OS. For Windows® 64-bit OS with 64-bit CPU, there is no such limitation.

 

[pacioli]

Your motherboard was released over 3 years ago and was discontinued over 18 months ago.
4 GB kits of DDR2 are somewhat pricey now (for example http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313132 )and it would likely be less expensive to get 8 Gbs of DDR3 plus a new mobo. ~ $80
Your processor is quite capable for your intended uses.
ASRock Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - $45
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157215
G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) - $34
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231424

 

[chugot9218]

Ahh, glad someone else piped up! That is a viable set of RAM, however, because of low availability it looks like DDR2 is quite expensive (I also do not know if it would be worth it to step up to 1000mhz ram as opposed to the 800mhz). If you can afford it and are able to install yourself, his option is the best value.

 

[pacioli]

the DDR2 kit I linked was $47 for 4 GB and was the cheapest kit on Newegg.
The DDR3 kit linked is the least expensive quality brand on newegg at 8 GB for $34. You could probably save yourself $5 by going with 4 Gb of DDR3 instead of 8 Gb... but IMO it's not worth it. $5 more to double your RAM? no brainer...

 

[mowogo1820]

Thank you all for all the help.


Last question: I tried earlier to overclock the memory to gain some performance. I couldn't find a tool at my level of knowledge that I could use to overclock the memory. What's the best tool or tools to use (for this or the next PC build)? Would overclocking help this PC build?

 

[chugot9218]

I am no expert on OCing and do not know at all what your BIOS would look like. Often it is performed in the BIOS but there are third party tools I believe to help, but I have not used them. That being said, it is likely a RAM issue and increasing the speed on it is not likely to help much, the lack of total RAM is a larger concern than the lack of speed.

 

[mowogo1820]

Good Point. Thank you for the help!

 

[pacioli]

I wouldn't worry about putting an OC on the memory.

 

[chugot9218]

No problem, glad we could provide some insight.

 

[mowogo1820]

I appreciate all the help given from before. I figured since yall recommended me to buy a new PC build, I would show you what I ordered from newegg and ask an OS question.

NewEgg Order:

ASRock N68C-GS FX AM3+ NVIDIA GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Item #: N82E16813157309


CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B

Item #: N82E16820145345


LG DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH24NS90 - OEM

Item #: N82E16827136247


--------------------

I plan on starting with a fresh install of an OS. I'm currently using Windows XP Pro 32-Bit and I'm quite comfortable with the compatibility with all of my software/games. However, my processor is an AMD Athlon II X2 255 Regor AM3 64-Bit 3.1 GHz. I would like to take advantage of the extra speed and try a 64-Bit Windows OS.

The choice comes down to XP 64 vs Win-7 64. In my situation, which one is better?

Also, when XP 64 bit first came out, it was really buggy. Is this still the case or have the latest service packs cleaned up everything?

 

[pacioli]

Win 7 64 is faster than Win xp 64. XP 64 bit is still very buggy. I have only found a couple of occasions where win 7 64bit has given compatibility problems with 32 bit programs and even then the work arounds were easy. I recommend getting the Win 7 family 3 pack upgrade for ~$100. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=645759&Q=&is=REG&A=details . Shop around I've seen it for as low as $95. It comes with both the 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Win7. You can actually make fresh installs with it too. Just install the 32 bit version but don't activate the OS. Then you install the 64 bit on top of it. That way the install thinks it is being upgraded. Or just pre-install a copy of win XP 32 without activating and you can then install win 7 64 bit. Sine you alredy own Win XP you are not violating the EULA.
With 8 Gb of memory you will get great performance. under Win 7 64 bit.
The Athlon II X2 255 is a fast processor. I've used it on a couple of builds and am impressed.

 

[mowogo1820]

Thank you for the information and for the hardware recommendations!

What's the difference in Windows 7: Home Premium 64, Pro 64 and Ultimate 64? Is there a performance difference? What concerns should I be looking at?

 

[pacioli]

There is no performance difference. Home premium is enough for most users. Professional supports virtual machines. Ultimate is a more expensive version of professional that includes other languages. There are no performance differences except the home version only supports 24 GB RAM. If you can't live with that much RAM then you probably need professional anyways.