Computer constantly crashes

[coalyuju]

Hello,

Well, my computer is being a complete bastard and I'd therefore appreciate some help. My computer constantly crashes and I can't really seem to figure out why. My screen constantly goes black (like a black screensaver) but comes back seconds later and sometimes when it returns to normal view (windows) it crashes. I can't see any pattern, which is bugging the hell out of me. I was playing a LAN game last night and that went extremely smoothly but today it's been crashing all day. It can crash when I'm not even using the computer.

Security wise I think I'm going pretty strong with ZoneAlarm, AdAware, AVG etc. and I've reinstalled Windows several times but that hasn't helped much either. I'm running XP SP2. My graphics card is a GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X.

Thanks in advance

 

[ScrapSilicon]

possibly your vidcard's cooling isn't up to snuff or even your vidcard's drivers.. I'd pull the card and check it's hsf and/or put a separate fan blowing at it for testing... gl

 

[coalyuju]

Hsf?

I've had the computer for ages, 6 years or so I'd guess, so shouldn't it have fucked up before?

 

[ScrapSilicon]

hsf= heatsinkfan ..it's located on the gpu(graphics processor unit) on the vidcard and no..it possibly has waited after all this time and dust to start acting up..mark1 eyeball check time

 

[coalyuju]

I cleaned the interior of my PC a few weeks ago, so it can't be the dust. The cooling might be the issue but it has always been the same; no cooling

 

[Cutthroat]

At 6 years old your hardware is probably reaching it's end of life, you'll probably find lots of random errors, and one day it just won't turn on. Start planning for a new PC.

I would suggest you take the hsf off your CPU and GPU, remove the fan and clean off the caked on dirt in the fins of the heat sink. It may help you get some more life out of it.

Check the capacitors on your motherboard for bulging tops, or even worse burst ones, it's a sure sign it's about to die.

 

[coalyuju]

I'll give it a go. Cheers

As for its life, I just want it to survive till the arrival of Leopard. I can't afford a laptop and a PC, so I'll go for a laptop as it's far more practical for me. So 3-4 months more of life would be fine, I'd just prefer it to run fairly smoothly without too many crashes until then

 

[ronach]

Aside from what the other guys have suggested, look for leaking capacitors, pull your memory stix and all cards plugged into your mobo [ pay attention to where they were pulled from and put them back into the same slots, carefully but securely..heh ] clean the connectors with contact cleaner and cotton swabs. Give your mobo and all components a good visual inspection..looking for any signs of overheating, cracking, corrosion ect. Good luck with your aging sys.