Odd crashing!

[Paul_s13]

Hi all,

I'm trying to fix a friends PC and it's having some strange problems, first of all here's the specs:

Intel Celeron E3300
Asus SP5N32-E SLI plus MB with latest bios (Version 1502)
2Gb DDR2 PC6400
1 320Gb Sata
1 Samsung DVD writer - SATA
2 IDE drives
ATI 5450
450W PSU
Win 7 32bit Ultimate edition

The PC will work fine for ages, it ran prime95 for 11.5 hours before windows update restarted it overnight.

When I came down the PC had restarted and had been on since 3:30am and I looked at it at 6am and all seemed well, i restarted it and low and behold it would start to post then just freeze with the HDD light constantly on.

I tried unplugging all the drives but it did the same, i swapped the memory and things seemed fine until a very similar situation, runs prime95 for hours without crashing then when you try something simple it would just freeze or not restart.

I checked the temps and the CPU runs at about 53 degrees after a few hours of prime95 so nothing to worry about there but I added a couple of fans to make sure but it remains the same.

None of the memory testers find anything and the cpu is only a few months old.

If anyone has any ideas I'd be greatfull!

Regards

Paul

[Rob @ Scan]

Hi Paul,

I'd be looking at the HDD on this one.

We've had systems we found to have faulty HDD's run for days on prime. Then you try to open a file and it crashes.

Any blue screens? If so what are the error codes?

Who is the manufacturer of the hard drive? If you go the the manufacturers website you'll find diagnostic software you can run on the drive to test for errors.

Hope this helps

[Paul_s13]

Hi Rob,

The HDD is a Maxstor item but what confused me is that the POST problem was still there when I disconnected all of the drives.

When it crashes in windows there is no BSOD or error message, it just locks up solid.

[Splash]

when you disconnect the drives are you removing the cables from the board? Could well be a duff cable.

[Rob @ Scan]

As splash asked, the cables could possibly be the cause!

Does it POST and boot to windows occasionally now or not at all?

The link in my next post has the software for testing the drive.

There is a version you can run from a cd if it won't boot to windows

[Rob @ Scan]

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/sup...loads/seatools

(had to do a new post due to not being able to post URL's with less than 5 posts!!)

[Paul_s13]

I'll try that next and let you know how I got on, i haven't switched it back on since the last time because I threw a strop with it!

[Splash]

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/sup...loads/seatools

(had to do a new post due to not being able to post URL's with less than 5 posts!!)

Clearly spamming his way to free postage from Sca...waitaminute!

[Rob @ Scan]

Thought i'd slipped under the radar!!!

[Paul_s13]

Hi all,

It's looking like it was defective memory, brought a couple of Kingston DDR2 PC6400 and all seems well now.

I've been running it for days with prime95, stopping and restarting it and it's been as good as gold so I will continue this regime throughout the rest of the day and fingers crossed it's all good.

I've had this back a few times, each time i gave it back it worked for a bit and then started to muck about, this time I really hope it's all good.

Are there any other progs people recommend to stability test systems?

Cheers

Paul

[Rob @ Scan]

Glad you seem to have narrowed it down, and have a working system!

It's worth running memtest on your old (and new) memory. Stick it on a bootable pendrive and leave it running overnight. We accept 20 passes as a "pass" on suspected faulty RAM.

http://www.memtest.org/

[Paul_s13]

AAAAAHHHHHHH!

Well all seemed good, it was running and i stopped it in the early hours, I have just switched it on to check and.....no it hangs loading windows again! proper stumped now!