freezing PC Please Help.

[Guest]

Hi all,
here is my problem, I got a new PC built about 2 to 3 months ago. It ran fine till 2 weeks ago. It started freezing ( and I'll get a static sound coming out of the speakers) when playing games (once in windows).I checked everything. Updated the drivers even switched video cards. No luck. Sometimes it would freez and I can not even ctrl+ald+delete. I have to press the reset button to reboot it. Then it would work fine. Other times it will freez again then I have to reboot it to make it work.

I'm assuming it it heat problem, because it happens when the weather is hot and my room is warm, but it happened yesterday and my room was freezing. (had the window open) The CPU temperature was 44 celsius(about 107F) when I do the restart.

I can not think of a logical solution for this.

Please help.

Here are the specs

Windows XP
ECS K7S5A mobo
2 sticks 256 SDRAM (same brand same speed 133)
AMD XP 1700
Visiontek Geforce 3 TI 2000 ( the one that was installed before was chaintech GF 2 TI)
Sound Blaster live value

I have 3 fans, plus the cpu, video card and the power supply fans

In another forum they suggested that I take out the SB Live Value and try the onboard sound card. No luck there.

So here is an update after I did that.

I was playing Quake III and it froze twice. No static sound this time. Just the screen freezes and silence.


latest updates.
the PC froze one more time during quake. then before I went to sleep I wanted to see if anybody replied to my problem and windows froze.(was not playing this time)
I get this error in event viewer

Event ID:9
Source atapi
category: none

The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort1, did not respond within the timeout period.

I have 2 HDs on the first IDE channel and 2CD ROMs on the second one. The burner is the master and the CDrom is the slave.


This is the same error I got when the freezing started to happen. (only if it freezes in windows, during gaming I won't see the error after restarting)
The thing is that this error went away for about 2 weeks and now it is showing up again.
Any ideas.

Last night I tried defragmenting and ran scan desk with no results. I tried to unplug the secondary CD ROM also with no luck. I'm going to try to uplug the secondary hard drive tonight and see if this help.

Please post any help you can give.
Thanks alot

 

[kyouki]

Hi!

I was having this problem for the longest time on my P2-450. It would just *freeze* with either silence or a hanging note. In my case, it would also freeze defrag!

My problem was the hard drive was bad! I replaced it with an old backup, and everything was fine from then on!

I would try switching in another HD is you've got one.

 

[kief]

It certainly sounds like a device problem. At first I was thinking RAM (that board does not like cheaper RAM) but that error indicates a dead (or dying) drive =(

Jesus saves, but Mario scores!!!

 

[Guest]

the thing is that the error does not show up all the time in event viewer. I replaced the ram with DDR and so far so good. Keep in mind the the 2nd HD and the CDROM are unplugged. I'm going to keep testing during the week end and see what happens.Then I'm going to plug the 2nd HD

If you are saying that the mobo does not like cheap ram (assuming that SDRAM is cheap comparing to DDR) then would not the problem show up from the beggining and not after 2 months

Anyway. keep posting your thoughts and thanks a lot for the help

 

[lhgpoobaa]

mmmm hard drive or possibly cable problem.

u can try rearranging the cables. see if that helps. (at the very least its easy to do)

My Next Performance System!!! - P4 Celleron, 128k cache, SDRAM, Integrated graphics, 5400rpm HDD!

 

[Guest]

thanks. I
l'll try that.
keep posting your thoughts

 

[lhgpoobaa]

errr, trust me... you REALLY dont want me posting ALL my thoughts *evil grin*

My Next Performance System!!! - P4 Celleron, 128k cache, SDRAM, Integrated graphics, 5400rpm HDD!

 

[bluzbrother]

I've seen RAM go bad for no apparent reason at all... the system became very unstable... tested the sticks and one was the culprit. Hell it eventually wouldn't even boot off the one stick. The RAM worked fine for about 5 months. It was Corsair memory by the way. Also I hear the K7S5A is very sensitive to what kind of Power Supply you have (read: cheap).

AOL-For people who like to pay extra for their SPAM

 

[jlanka]

I have 2 HDs on the first IDE channel and 2CD ROMs on the second one. The burner is the master and the CDrom is the slave.

This is a mistake. It may not fix your problem (but then again maybe it will) the standard setup with 2 hard drives and 2 optical drives is: the 2 hard drives as master, system drive on IDE1, data drive on IDE2. Then the 2 optical drives as slave, on whichever IDE bus you like. I would correct this.

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[jankphil]

I purchased this board and had the same problem, try turning the FSB back to 100/100. This is actually a defect in the bios from what I read. Try looking up ECS's American page, heir's about 1000 other people on the knowledge base with the same problem =(

 

[Guest]

LOL

 

[Guest]

thanks guys. I'll check ECS website. I think once I replaced the ram to DDR, everything look fine so far. I hace 1 HD and 2 optical drives. If I'm going to add the 2nd HD then I'll follow your advice bu having the HDs as master and the optical as slave. I was going to do that but my IDE cables are not that lond and won't reach the optical drives.

I have the antec case. Like the alienware one. This is one big case.

thanks again. I'll keep you updated.