Random System Freezes - HELP!

[Techronious]

Jeez, it's so annoying. My old motherboard had failed so I went out and got a new one the a7n8x-x and got new ddr memory too since the other mobo was running that old via 133a chipset or whatever where you would just use 133 ram.

Anyway, I put it all back together and now I keep getting random system freezes. The screen just locks up and nothing except for reset or power will get me out of it.
It always seems to happen at different times. The temperatures are good and I'm using XP Pro so I don't think either of those are an issue. I've tried different BIOS (1005, 1007), I've rearranged pci cards, and I'm still getting lock ups.
I'm just wondering what it could be.

A friend of mine had what looked to be the same problem a while back with a computer that he put together and he swapped out EVERYTHING (except for processor) with different items: sound, ram, video, motherboard, hard drive, nic, and he couldn't get his to work.

Am I destined to fall victim to the same result?

What would normally just cause a random system freeze?



Specs of my old school system:

1 ghz Thunderbird
Asus a7n8x-x
512 mb of ddr 266 ram - Crucial
40 gig Maxtor hdd
Geforce 3 video
Philips Acoustic Edge Sound





I don't have any device errors or conflicts in hardware profile. My ram is in the slot closest to the processor (not sure if that's the "best spot"), and I've tried like all the bios settings differently to try and get it to stop just freezing and it didn't work.




SO WHAT DO I DO?


Unfortunately I don't want to end up spending hundreds of dollars trying to figure the problem out with new components like my friend did.

So what would normally just cause a random system freeze? I can't pinpoint anything similar going on at the times of these freezes.

PLEASE HELP

 

[snidy1]

Could be the PS. Which one do you have?

 

[Techronious]

I have a fortron source 300 w power supply.
The rails on it seem fine from the little asus utility.

 

[johnjkr1]

Without parts to swap, your going to have some trouble figuring out the source of the problem. Basically, what you need to do is take out all the unnecessary components (sounds card, lan card, etc, one stick of ram)...its likely either your ps, mb, or cpu...my first guess would be the cpu since it was moved and are the easiest to damage.

 

[Techronious]

Thanks for the help.

 

[snidy1]

I would reseat the CPU first and if that doesn't work, try a differant PS

 

[amdskip]

Did your format when swapping out motherboards because that would be a problem if you did not do so. You cannot swap motherboards, especially ones with different chipsets and expect to have a stable system.

 

[MrBLUNT]

yea u definitely need to reformat your system if your swapping mobo's but if u did alreayd, try resitting ur cpu and reapplying thermal grease for proper contact with the heatsink. tbird are notoriously hot cpu's. my guess is

 

[Techronious]

resat cpu, regreased, still locking up

and yes, i did reformat the hdd when switching everything around.



Someone else on a different message board said that 512 sticks of 266 crucial ram had problems with the a7n8x-x. Have any of you heard of this? I think getting a new stick of ram would be an easy fix.

 

[snidy1]

Power supply

 

[johnjkr1]

Did you try it without the phillips soundcard?