Computer freezes with a weird sound: Is it my power supply? Help!

[Arschloch]

Hello all.

This has been occurring to my computer for the past couple of weeks now. What happens is that at random times (both while in Windows, and out of windows while booting), a sound comes from inside the case. It sort of sounds like something powering down (maybe a fan??), followed by the same device powering on again. That sound, then, is followed by the hard drive making a "clicking" noise, sort of like it does when I normally reboot the system. The computer then freezes, with the HDD light on.

Originally, I thought that my motherboard was dying, because I know that at least part of it is shorted already (the CPU fan inputs). So I replaced my mobo, CPU, and memory. That did not fix the problem. The only parts of my computer that I have NOT replaced are:

Video card
Sound card
Drives (Hard/Floppy/CD-ROM)
Power Supply

I doubt that it's either of the first two.

I figured that it MIGHT be the hard drive, except that sometimes this power down/on problem happens when I'm away from the computer, and the computer is idle.

That leads me to believe that I need to replace my power supply. It's 250W, and it came with my Enlight 7237 ATX case I got 3+ years ago.

Any thoughts/ideas? Has anyone encountered a similar problem? Am I on the right track?

Thanks.
Arschloch

 

[han888]

what video card do u use? give me more specific

 

[Arschloch]

Filling in the blanks:

Video card: Guillemot/Hercules Prohpet II MX
Sound card: Diamond Monster MX300 (Aureal Vortex 2)
Drives: Quantum Fireball Plus KA 9.1 GB; Generic floppy drive; Generic CD-ROM drive.

Anyone help?

 

[han888]

ok, have u try another denator? and what mobo do u use? via chipset? sorry to ask a lot of question but the problem of freezee in the system have too many alternative:
1) cpu overheated
2) conflict
3) video card driver
4) chipset driver

about the power supply may be can cause too! because the geforce card use a lot of power

 

[Arschloch]

Hey, I understand your asking a lot of questions. It's okay. I should have let you know beforehand. I appreciate your attempt at helping.

My video card drivers are currently the Detonator 6.34 Beta drivers. I have also tried the official 6.31 drivers, as well as the 5.x drivers that came bundled with my Geforce MX video card.

I have installed the most recent 4-in-1 drivers for my VIA chipset on the motherboard.

In the Device Manager in Win98, no conflicts are listed. No !exclamation points! or anything wrong at all.

I thought about the possibility of the CPU overheating, too. However, the heatsink/fans for both of my CPU's (currently my Duron 700, and formerly my Celeron 366@550) worked fine. In fact, I ran motherboard monitor the other night, and the temperature was listed at 73 degrees. Then it froze up the same way I explained above.

Any more questions/thoughts? I'd appreciate it.

--Arschloch

 

[han888]

hmmm , may be its could be your power supply but i am not really sure, and my suggestion is if u have a time, try the 6.18 denator and dont overlock your cpu, this denator run stable in my system, but i am not sure if in your system, i hope this can help u

 

[Arschloch]

han888, thank you for your help.

I will try the 6.18 drivers and see if it helps.

Also, I don't overclock the CPU... it's a Duron 700, running at 700.

I'll see what happens and come back here later to let you (or anyone else) know how it goes.

Thanks again.
Arschloch

 

[SF DUDE]

Well, let's see. You usually will not notice your hardrive powering down, so I am guessing power supply-this would also explain your harddrive clicking back to life after a power loss. Probably redundant-have you checked power cords, connectors, etc.? If you use a power strip, surge protector, or UPS, remove it for testing. I have actually seen these CREATE power problems when they start getting flaky.

 

[Arschloch]

Hmm... that is interesting. I never even thought of the surge protector itself.

So that being a possibility, would you just recommend that I unplug everything from my surge protector, and try to test another one? Or is there any other way to test the power surge itself?

Thank you.

--Arschloch

 

[Arschloch]

Incidentally, I tried the 6.18 drivers, and the SAME problem happened again. So I'm guessing now that it isn't a problem caused by the video card.

Any more ideas? About the power supply, the power strip, etc?

--Arschloch

 

[SF DUDE]

I do not know how you would test it. Just buy another one, or borrow one if possible.