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Thread ID: 54337 2005-02-09 21:19:00 Crackling Noise Then Die! dazed and confused (7204) Press F1
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323055 2005-02-09 21:19:00 I have had this problem for a couple of years now, but it has finally put me over the edge.
This seems to happen absolutely randomly, my PC can work fine for months on end but then suddenly just die. I am always listening to music when it happens, nothing else at all. I get a crackling noise through my speakers, but the music continues, my system freezes and i can select nothing (i can still move the mouse though). When I restart my computer windows won't load at all, black screen and I have to re-install windows all over again.
I think its either a HD or motherboard problem, but I don't want to go and buy a new HD and its the motherboard thats the problem.

Can anyone please suggest what they think the problem may be?

Windows XP
Soyo K7V dragon
Athlon XP 1800
256 DDR
ATI Radeon 64MB
60GB maxtor ata 133 HD
(doesn't matter what software I am using for music)
dazed and confused (7204)
323056 2005-02-09 23:17:00 I would check device manager. See if anything has an X or ! besides it.

What does it show here?
Speedy Gonzales (78)
323057 2005-02-09 23:57:00 Also take a look at XP's Event Viewer, if you can access it.

Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer

There are four sub-sections here, each of which you can clear by right click > clear all events

Look for any red icons and note what they say. That may give you some clue or post back here.

My other thought is your power supply. What wattage? Are you running many peripheral cards? Although that alone should not hose your whole system.

John
braindead (1685)
323058 2005-02-09 23:58:00 I take it you've unplugged your audio card and reseated it? braindead (1685)
323059 2005-02-10 00:02:00 ...and thoroughly scanned your hard drive for errors?

You could also download an app called Sisoft Sandra (http://www.sisoftware.net/) . It will analyse your system and notify you if there's anything screwy.
braindead (1685)
323060 2005-02-10 01:30:00 It could always be your choice in music. If you are aged under 25 then the computer might just have had enough... Mercury (1316)
323061 2005-02-10 22:53:00 Thanks for the advice, i'll give some of it a try before throwing parts of my PC out the window.
I just got a new sound card last week and the same problem still occurs. I also have a feeling it could be the power supply, but I only have three peripheral cards and I haven't added any since I built the PC two years ago.
dazed and confused (7204)
323062 2005-02-10 23:07:00 it most probably could be your Power Supply. I had a similar setup to you a few years ago.

My PC would just randomly blue screen or jsut reset itself. Thinking it was the Power Supply i decided to remove my DVD player as i had means or playing DVD's else where, and my system ran fine for a month or so, then it started blue screening and resetting itself again, so i removed a neon, it was fine for a week or 2, then dead. My Power Supply had been slowly dieing even though i had, had the same amount of hardware in it since i had first bought it. cant really expect much from an cheap 320 Watt. so i invested in a new Thermaltake 420w Power Supply and sold my rig. the new owners have never had a problem with it. apart from wanting me to format it everyweek due to copius amounts of virus's they download.

Either that or your motherboard isn't running the volatges through to the rest of the PC hardware properly. i also had that hiccup. returned the motherboard and got a better one :).

hope this helps a little.
Jams (1051)
323063 2005-02-11 00:05:00 What you want to do is disable XP's automatic shutdown/reboot when you get errors that would otherwise allow you to see a BSOD which, will contain the info you require to trace the error. As has been mentioned, the Event Viewer may hint at this anyway.

What you are doing when it happens and your workaround of reinstalling Windows would suggest a software or perhaps a firmware fault rather than hardware such as PSU, which Windows would not alter. Although it could be RAM, CPU or heat related, I doubt it because, apparently, other intensive work doesn't trigger it (have you tried to trigger by working on some encoding or a game, for eg?).

Have you tried a repair of Windows rather than reinstalling? Would be quicker and less hassle, and if it worked would reinforce the software angle.
Murray P (44)
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