computer freeze

[dmbforums]

I built my computer a few years ago, and haven't had any problems...

Last week my computer froze on me for the first time, and it's been happening more frequently (3 or 4 times today). It's a complete lockup, and I can't detect any rhyme or reason as to when it happens.

How should I go about troubleshooting this? I'm looking for a little direction in figuring out the problem if anyone is willing to offer some advice...

Thanks in advance

 

[Schadenfroh]

Think dust build up might have caused the fans RPMs to slow?

 

[dmbforums]

I'll definitely give it a shot...I've messed around inside the case enough that I don't think there's a mountain of dust, but it could certainly use a cleaning.

 

[mechBgon]

Otherwise post some more info on your hardware. Could be a security issue too, perhaps? How are you situated in the areas of firewall, antivirus, windows updates and spyware/adware countermeasures? Anyone besides you using the computer?

 

[dmbforums]

My wife uses it occasionally, but she knows what she's doing. She's more paranoid about security than I am. I'm running Sygate and norton, along with my router firewall...I also run adaware quite regularly.

Hardware:

WD 100G hd
PNY GeForce 4 Ti4200 AGP8x
16x Toshiba DVD rom
52x Plextor Premium burner
Leadtek Winfast K7nCR18D Pro
AMD Athlon 1.2

Anything else you you'd need to know?

 

[mechBgon]

How about your power supply, what brand & model is it? Ditto for the RAM, what brand and speed. And is your 1.2GHz Athlon one of the 100MHz-bus ones (DDR200), or is it 133MHz-bus (DDR266), if you happen to know?

 

[dmbforums]

512 MB DDR pc2100 (I think) Crucial memory
400 watt Antec power supply...I replaced this last year.


Not sure about the processor, but I THINK it's 133...

 

[Yauchie]

Already tried a burn-in test?

 

[mechBgon]

Hmm, you might look in the Windows Event Viewer and see if there's any clues in there. Could the thermal grease between the CPU and heatsink be drying out and allowing the CPU to get too hot? Also, I doubt it's the case here, but could the heatsink be backwards like in the fourth photo there?

Also check the video card's fan, since they are usually not that great in quality and sometimes get gummed up and stop.

 

[dmbforums]

Thanks for the responses...what's a burn-in test?

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: dmbforums
Thanks for the responses...what's a burn-in test?

Text

 

[dmbforums]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Originally posted by: dmbforums
Thanks for the responses...what's a burn-in test?

Text

Link doesn't work...

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: dmbforums

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Originally posted by: dmbforums
Thanks for the responses...what's a burn-in test?

Text

Link doesn't work...

works fine here