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Thread ID: 94055 2008-10-12 08:12:00 Freezing help? sammo450 (13626) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
711768 2008-10-12 08:12:00 Hello all I created a thread a little while ago regarding my PC freezing seemingly randomly. I followed the advice given and put a 425W PSU in my machine, which seemed to fix the problem. However, today while running games (project IGI and UT99 GOTY) it froze. Not exactly demanding games I know. Any suggestions possibly why this happening? The PC completely freezes, the image stays on the screen, but I can't even open the DVD drive. sammo450 (13626)
711769 2008-10-12 19:18:00 Whats the specs of the PC?
What have you done to it lately other than swap the PSU?
What does Event Viewer show?
Have you done a malware scan?
pctek (84)
711770 2008-10-12 23:13:00 Motherboard - FIC AM37
CPU - AMD Duron 110Mhz Morgan
RAM - 768Mb
Video Card - nVidia Geforce MX440
PSU - Raidmax 425W (was Powerman 250W)

I thought it could be the CPU overheating, as I think it has a protection system, but that shouldn't disable the DVD drive. It freezes at particular points in video files as well, so in that situation it is not a random occurence.
sammo450 (13626)
711771 2008-10-13 06:07:00 Have you looked in the task manager to see what's happening? gary67 (56)
711772 2008-10-13 08:40:00 A machine of that age could have multiple possible issues
-Defective (leaking/bursting) capacitors on motherboard
-Dust-clogged or loose heatsink on CPU
-Defective fan/s on CPU and/or video card
-Defective ram on m'board/video card
-Corrosion in pci/agp/ram slots etc (try removing/replacing cards to rectify this)

I'd start with the video card seeing as it dies when playing games or video files, then motherboard capacitors (www.siliconchip.com.au) (this was possibly the cause of your power supply failure too :crying ).
Would also check event viewer too, and do a malware check, as Pctek advised earlier.
feersumendjinn (64)
711773 2008-10-13 19:21:00 Thanks for that. I've done checks with Microsoft Malware checker - nothing found, and AVG Free 8.0 - just some cookies. I have another motherboard which supports socket A processors - K7S5A. Could try onboard VGA first. I know it's not CPU heatsinks/fans. Checked them. Could be VGA cooler, as it's not the original any more - I replaced it with an old CPU cooler as the stock fan was vibrating. sammo450 (13626)
711774 2008-10-14 19:14:00 I took the video card out and used the onboard VGA but it still froze while watching videos. DVDs are not a problem to watch with either VGA though. I have run MemTest and no problems were found. Next thing to try I suppose is the motherboard. sammo450 (13626)
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