What are the "POSSIBLE" causes that make a Computer Freeze at random ?

[CorCentral]

Freeze as in no mouse movement , not being able to do the 3 button salute (ctrl,alt,del) & in the end having to hit the Powerbutton to reboot .

This is in Win98 & no gaming or graphic apps. running .

Amd 650
Msi K7 Pro
2x64 meg Siemens pc100 cas3
Diamond V550 video
Enermax 350 watt PSU

I have the 4.12.01.0368 Display drivers for the Diamond card .

Any ideas ? Could the MB need a bios or driver update ?

Thanks for any input given .

 

[Big Lar]

Software conflicts will do it sometimes, for instance, I run Zone alarm, and if I try to change a setting too quickly after using another app, it will happen to me, most of the time tho, updating All your drivers and windows updates will make them cease. When Overclocking, it's ussually a lack of enuff voltage.

 

[CorCentral]

Yes but this is sometimes right after Windows finishes booting ....... No Software running at all .

I'm trying to narrow down the possibilities as to what could be causing the Freezing but to no avail have I yet to find the problem .

 

[Dan]

CorCentral: Is the freezing a relatively new problem or has it been going on for a while?

 

[CorCentral]

It's a fairly new problem .......... The only thing I changed was the Creative 12x10x32 cdrw drive I installed & I removed my OLD isa SounBlaster awe64 ...... That's it .

 

[CraigRT]

Heat.

 

[Big Lar]

What did you replace the Soundblaster with? Sounds like it could be your registry is still looking for something, and Creative is always a suspect there,When you remove a soundcard, it usually has files that are shared with other apps, perhaps if you run System file checker, it will reveal a problem.

 

[CorCentral]

I just checked & it says the Onboard sound is "enabled" . Should I disable it ?

......... I have no sound card installed at the moment because the SB64 was bad & I'm upgrading soon . (no need for sound at the moment)

Btw ..... Checked the System file checker = No problems .
Also checked the file registry = No problems .

 

[Losty]

irq conflict?

 

[Andrew99]

Try removing the CDRW drive ... I have a system that experiences random lockups like this for about 10 seconds, and then resumes normally ...
This only occurs when I have my CDRW hooked up ... not sure what the relationship is .. either power or incompatibility .. But it is definately caused by having the CDRW hooked up... I'm upgrading my computer to hopefully fix this problem, among other reasons.

 

[shadowfaX]

I experienced that problem a lot. It was a hard, frozen lockdown. (I blame Micro$oft) I don't know exactly what was wrong, but the freezes were really, really random (happening anytime from 0-8 times a day). So I just gave up and reformatted... and that took care of the problem (although I don't really recommend that).

 

[Kamak]

Had similar prob with my current system. After 5 days, I discovered it was a stick of generic RAM that was causing it. Swapped it out with some Micron and system has been stable since.

 

[BadThad]

I DO Recommend a format and clean install. These problems are so time consuming to track down that you can format and reinstall all apps MUCH faster than trouble-shooting. Shadowfax is correct.