It would be easier to give you good advise if you could describe the following in you post: 1) Does it happen randomly? What are you doing when it happens. 2) What software and hardware have you installed since you got the computer? 3)What applications are you running on startup/whats running when computer freezes? 4)Discripton of computer, make, processor, ram, operating system The problem you describe can have many reasons, the first thing I would do would be to turn of any power management in both bios and in windows and disable any anti-virus software on the pc. The first thing we need to find out is this a software or a hardware issue, software problems can cause this as well as hardware/bad power supply being the most common for hardware..
What operating system are you running? Assuming you are running Windows, visit this page for instructions on turning on memory dumps: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=254649 Depending on which version of windows you are running, you might already have a kernel memory dump here: %SystemRoot%\Memory.dmp; or a minidump here: %SystemRoot%\Minidump\*.dmp. If you ever do end up with a dump file, post a link to the dump file on ET and with any luck someone can tell you what the problem is. If all else fails contact your OEM or MSFT for help http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;[ln];top
I forgot to add in my prior reply above, one of the easiest tests is to take (I assume your running windows) the pc and boot into windows safe mode and see if you are still locking up. To do this just keep hitting f8 on boot and it will take you to a menu where you can select that. Just leave the pc sitting in that mode for some time and see if the pc locks up. Let us know.
I have learned that all PCI slots are not created equal. There are subtle differences in the PCI slot next to the AGP slot and the PCI slot farthest from the AGP slot. I have been told to not use either of these PCI slots for PCI video if possible. This might not be true on all motherboards, but it might be worth a try. I had a similar problem with the last p4 I bought. Reformat of the C drive did not solve my problem. Problem was a firewire usb2 PCI card. Just moved it to a different PCI slot and everything was fine. Good Luck
1. any special app that causes your pc to freeze up? 2. Do you run any graphic card from the ATI radeon series? They have had immense driver problems in combo with the freshest catalyst drivers in the past, after I changed to a new Geforce on my third pc all was running smoothly again... Freezing could also be caused by a not adequate power supply... Dell is especially nice in this respect, they offer variable supply that adapt... all my best, cosmic
Ok lets see if i can asnwer most of your questions.. First of all i belive its a 1.8 ghz athlon...512 ram... It DOES have a ati radeon in it...one for sure...maybe the other are also ..havent taken a very close look yet.... It freezes randomely....sometime im using it sometimes im not. Sometimes lots of software is open sometimes nothing is open. I have obviously installed lots o software when i got it yesterday....hard to pinpoint if one of them could be the problem just because i didnt use it for more then 1 hour before i started installing programs. Ill throw her in safe mode to start and see if it freezes up and ill get back to you... maybe its th driver with the video cards, or maybe i have to change the slots they are in... Thanks guys... more to come im sure
Update: I couldnt get the damn thing into safe mode... im guessing every bios is different on what function button you push??? But i took the ATI Radeon card out and am going to see if it freezes up without it in... well see if its the culprit If its the culprit do you think that its the drivers or the card??? and any advice of what i should do?? Thanks
Safe mode is OS level, not BIOS. It's a Windows boot command that allows you to run with the minimum amount of "stuff" like drivers and startup programs. You want to hit F8 as your hardware stuff is wrapping up the bootup, but before Windows starts to load. You should get a menu that gives you a few options. My first choice would be to pick plain old Safe Mode (the most restrictive I believe), and let it sit there for a while. You won't have networking, and only VGA res (640x480), but if that hangs, you have something seriously wrong, perhaps hardware. This presumes you are running Windows (hopefully XP). EDIT: F8 should work, doesn't matter who wrote your BIOS.