Old PC freezes, loses video..

[orion23]

Hi!

Trying to fix and old PC with about 512MB of RAM.

I removed all PCI cards and the only card in use is an AGP 8MB VGA.

Windows XP Home Edition.

PC will work for a little while and then it will freeze. Sometimes it freezes @ the welcome screen, or the video signal goes missing

Other times, it will make a horrible noise (kind of like a modem dialing) and then it freezes or loses video signal.

I installed XP Pro to a different partition and the same problem is there.

Could this be the VGA?

PSU?

or something else?

Thank you in advance!

 

[montag451]

Can you boot into vga mode?
If so, does it crash then?

Or Safe mode?

 

[wanderer27]

Need more System info, but:

Check the Video Card fan. Make sure it's clean and spins freely.

Drivers installed?

Integrated Video option on the MB? If so disable it.

Check the BIOS for Video options. Manually select the option for Video Card Type if there is an "Auto-detect", these don't always function correctly.

I'd also double check all your BIOS options in relation to Video. There could be something in there causing problems.

Lots of shots in the dark here without knowing specifics, but something may help.

 

[orion23]

Bios option for video is under AGP video with 32MB aperture size.

(What is the PCI latency setting for) 32 64 128.....?

I tried a new video card today and the same thing happened.

Tied a new PSU with the same results.

So it's either the Motherboard or the HD!

Thank you all for your help!