PC freezes, crashes, won't boot...completely random

[gdawg304]

Hi all,

I wonder if anyone has a clue....i just love PCs, all so straightforward!

First things first...i'm no customising demon, but i'm no newb either.
My PC spec:

AMD Athlon XP 2700+
Leadtek K7NCRD Pro nforce 2 Mobo
1GB RAM, 2 x 256MB and 1 x 512MB
Western Digital Caviar 120GB HD (7200rpm, 8MB buffer)
Galaxy Geforce 6800GT 256MB
Audigy 2
Tagan 480W PSU
Logitech MX1000 cordless laser mouse
Leadtek Wintv 2000...
BT Voyager 105

trying to think if there's anything else that could be a potential problem

Last week I left my PC connected to the web for several hours....when i came back i found certain programs eg Yahoo Messenger had frozen up...and would not close even with End Task....this has moved on to now the program freezes but then when trying to shut it down the whole PC freezes...it won't shut down and it's necessary to perform a hard reset.

Currently it is sometimes stable for a couple of hours but other times it won't even load windows...it goes through the BIOS but the Windows XP loading screen won't appear, so another hard reset is needed...other times it boots to windows but is frozen straight away, other times i can do stuff for 20 minutes, half an hour, an hour....then it freezes up and in most cases a hard reset is needed...i've performed so many presses of the reset button in the last week i'm sure the thing must be about to explode. Sometimes right clicking to bring a menu up results in the menu appearing slowly, translucent, then more complete freezing...sometimes just one programme will freeze up, or when i'm online the connection freezes and even if i disconnect the DSL modem the little arrows logo remains green to say there's a DSL signal...the only way to get it working again is to restart. Yesterday Zonealarm somehow reset all it's permissions and wouldn't remember them so i had to click on the permission boxes for each programme every time i connected...but now it's remembering them.

I had thought it was overheating of the PSU or Hard disk...but i've opened the case and pointed a desk fan in there...plus it crashes on first power up as well as when it's been running for a while. I've made no changes to the configuration. thinking it was a hardware failure, I've run western digital's hard disk diagnostic - no faults reported; and i've run Memtest - also no faults found. I have reformatted the hard drive to no avail, although it was only a quick reformat not a full reformat. CPU and system temp in BIOS are maxing out about 53/54 for the CPU and less for system.

I've tried to think of enough detail, i'm sure i'm lacking though. But my PC seems as stable as a one legged drunk at the moment, and for no good reason i can think of. Faulty MB? dodgy PSU? PSU and 6800GT were new in November. Computer was new in March 2003.

If anyone has ANY ideas or needs more information i might be able to provide...well I'm stumped and very frustrated (using dad's PC downstairs), so help would be appreciated.

The PC is an evesham and it's on the RTB part of the warranty, plus it has several custom components (ie new PSU, new gfx card, new CPU HSF so i'm not sure how well they'd want or be able to help.

[Firelord]

Couple of things to try

Try an update to the latest BIOS has a small spike could have corrupted the BIOS and I would try a full format as it could be the hard disk ready to let go...

[autopilot]

I have heard of simular issues caused by that modem (with certain motherboards i belive). Try a bit of googling with that in mind. I take it you have done a full virus/malware sweep?

[gdawg304]

yes, done virus sweep.

Had thought about the bios, and the modem - but as for the modem why would that cause a failure to boot windows? i've tried with modem disconnected.

was recommended to run windows memory diag instead of memtest, which has thrown up errors on the Stride6 test:

did a view errors by module,

total errors 14160

Bank 0/1 Slot A0 (512MB DIMM) 342 errors
Bank 2/3 Slot A1 (256MB DIMM) 6466 errors
Bank 4/5 Slot A2 (256MB DIMM) 7352 errors

i've only run the basic tests as the extended ones have to run overnight?

[gdawg304]

ok just run all three in slot A0, the 512 reports 108 errors, the two 256''s 36 and 26 respectively...now the 14000+ errors was off 3 passes, these results are from a single pass each

could it be the memory slots causing the extra errors??

[gdawg304]

Hmmm tried one of the DIMMS in another PC - no errors. Produced errors in all three slots of my PC. Motherboard problem?