First computer randomly freezes, then doesn't recognize drives

[BBCMember]

A friend of mine bought a GQ PC from Fry's. It came with Linux, so I zapped the hard drive and installed Win2k. It ran fine for a month. But then a few days ago, it started freezing. Yesterday, it wouldn't go 5 minutes without freezing. Today, it's not freezing, but it will no longer recognize the CD drives.

Have already scanned it for Spyware with Ad-aware and Spybot, and he is in process of scanning it for Viruses with Panda Software's online scan, even though it is protected with AVAST, and is up to date.

They said that they have not installed any additional software other than post-it's and some video players from VH1 and/or MTV.

So what do you think it is?

 

[montag451]

can you run memtest on it overnite.

if you pass that, my chief suspect would be a cheap psu.


BUT, lets look at the software side first, jic.
Can you see anything in event viewer showing up as error at the same time as a crash?
Can you disable your av and other non necessary software as a troubleshoot - you can do this in msconfig - make a note of what you disable.
See if the crashes keep on coming.

post back with some results.

 

[BBCMember]

The cheap PSU is a good point. Not sure what GQ uses. But would that cause the freezing as well? I can see how it might cause the drives to not be recognized, as there might not be enough power going to them.

Can try the memtest, but would bad RAM cause the drives to not be recognized?

How do you access event viewer?

It hasn't crashed yet today, but of course it might happen in the future. The problem that he is experiencing today is, of course, the drives not being recognized.

 

[BBCMember]

Also, I forgot to mention that they said that one of the CD drives was clicking, and nothing was even in it. However, they might have been trying to access it. I'm not sure.

 

[montag451]

To access event viewer:
control panel
administrative tools
event viewer.

Look in all 3 logs for 'X'
If you find some, then supply source/ID/text description.

Otherwise, the psu can cause power fluctuations if it is flaky = craaaasshh.
memtest was just to keep you busy overnite.
there is a good chance that it will fail if the psu is flaky as well.
Try disconnecting all non essential drives. See if that perks up the system.

 

[BBCMember]

OK. Thanks. He only found three errors, and there were a lot more errors when I looked at mine on my system, and my system runs great!

I advised him to take it to Fry's, as it is still under warranty, and mentioned to him that it might be the PSU. However, I have had clients that have not had great luck with Fry's service department. One client went there three times, and it never got fixed. So, she had to pay me to fix it. But I'm sure that Fry's has had some level of success in the Service dept.

I also told him not to let them format the drive, as they would only put Linux back on there since that is what it came with.

I will post the results.

 

[montag451]

It might be worth taking the drive out and ghosting it just in case.