My Computer Freezes up... a lot!

[jammyman]

I have an ASUS TUA266, socket 370 mobo, a PIII 1Ghz CPU and 640MB RAM (512MB and 128MB). My OS is Win XP Professional.
My computer freezes up on me at least once a day, a complete freeze-up, Ctrl-alt-delete has no effect. I need to restart every time it happens. It will definately happen when I am in Photoshop 7, I go to use a keyboard shortcut to save an image for web (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-S). It works a few times, but will eventually cause it to freeze.
I've been struggling to figure out what the cause is? Is it my Mothorboard, my RAM, or is it the way they are both reacting to each other? I thought it might be the fact that I have mixed brands for my RAM so I removed one of the chips as a test, it continued to freeze. I replaced the chip and removed the other one, it still continued to freeze. So I have no idea what it is? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[CMRvet]

I’m not a software-expert but from my experience:

I have Win Me and Photoshop 7 with no problems.
Friend of mine has Win XP and couldn’t use Photoshop 7 because the freezings.

We both use the same copy of Photoshop 7.


<b>(<font color=yellow>as good as it looks</font color=yellow>)</b>

 

[ChipDeath]

Does it only happen in Photoshop 7?
Can you leave it running something which will tax your system a little? e.g. leave 3DMark2001 looping a few times?
how long have you had the PC? has this problem only just started happening, or is it only since an upgrade or something.

If it only happens in Photoshop then it's a bug in that program. Try seeing if there is a patch to fix it.

<font color=blue><i>Your</i> PC may be quieter, but <i>my</i> PC makes a better hairdryer!</font color=blue>

 

[sturm]

welcome to the world of windows xp and programs no longer working. its not a bug in photoshop its windows xp. ive read countless threads where programs ran fine in 98 and me but wouldnt run for sh*t under xp. look on the photoshop web page for a possible fix to ur problem

 

[jammyman]

It doesn't just freeze with PS 7, it just does it more predictably when I'm in it. It freezes whenever it seems to want to. Well, to be more specific, when I am multi tasking, jumping from one program to another, usually before the other one is completely finished doing whatever it was I asked it to do, it will freeze.

I put this box together myself. I got a PIII 1ghz CPU for Xmas, so I needed to get a new motherboard to accommodate it. When I got the new mobo I had to get a new modem (it needed to be PCI), I also decided to upgrade my RAM since I do a lot of graphic work and I got a new hard 60gig (I now have two HD's in the box, one 13gig and the other 60gig) drive. Since all of this, it has been freezing at will.

Also as a side note I have multiple drives, on one of them I have win 2000 prof. installed. I go into my bios and change the boot drive when I want to use 2000. My computer freezes in that too. Which leads me to believe that it isn't just an XP issue. It is a component issue. One that is beyond my reckoning.

 

[CMRvet]

Did you make a clean installation of Win XP after all those hardware upgrades?

<b>(<font color=yellow>as good as it looks</font color=yellow>)</b>

 

[dudek]

I've had the same problem for almost a year now. It s e e m s that it's my mothertboard that is faulty. Everything else is checked (memory, installation, bios, fan/heat, irc conflicts, power supply, etc). Running amd xp 1700+ (or the old 1400) on my soltek 75drv gives freezing (tried a couple of processors to make sure it's not the processor), but with amd xp 1800+ it works. So, I guess it's motherboard that is faulty in some way, and now I'm changing to a new one.
Hoping that this will solve it.

Edit: It solved it.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by dudek on 06/25/02 06:15 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[jammyman]

I did a clean XP install after upgrading all of my new hardware.

And it makes no sense to me that the "new" version of Photoshop has a compatibility issue with XP. I undesrtand 6.0 have problems, but not 7.0. Wouldn't they have tested it or at least attempted to make it compatible?? No sense, no sense at all.

Needless to say I still am not sure what is causing my box to freeze up? Although I am guessing it is my mobo.

 

[CMRvet]

What kind/quality of memory are you using?
If you are not sure use <A HREF="http://www.majorgeeks.com/article.php?sid=275" target="_new">HCPUID</A>
All your RAM sticks must be 7.5 ns or less to be sure that they are PC133.
If they are 7.5 ns, test the sticks one by one in order to discard the faulty one.
Also, what timings (CAS) did you set? Try with 3-3-3 if you are at 2-2-2.

If the computer is still freezing, remove all the PCI cards and test the system again.


You said that the problem begun together with the new motherboard: how did you install the CPU? and what temperatures do you have?

<b>(<font color=yellow>as good as it looks</font color=yellow>)</b>