Computer tech support

[Jason McK]

My Desk top has been rendered useless. Please help

I currently have a P4 3.6G PC with 1.5G RAM, Brand new Power supply, Brand new 500G HDD.

What is happening is when the system boots is goes past the post and loads windows. At what seems to be a random time the system freezes. Total lock up. Some times Windows is up and I've launched software, some times it will lock up before windows it up.
CPU heat sync was clogged full but now temp does not exceed 30C
AGP graphics card's heat sync was also jammed with dust.
It appear to run fine in Safe mod.
This leads me to believe it may be the video card. (just upgraded my Monitor to a 22" LCD) but It's AGP so replacement is a waste of money

Any help would be very help full

thanks
J

[Interior_Reef]

Hi Jason,

I agree that it sounds like a Video card issue. but more so possible just a driver issue. Can you provide more details on the video card? my guess is it is an ATI of some sort.

Since it works fine in Safe mode. Go in and uninstall any Video card drivers & or software, then reboot in to normal mode and when winblows detects new hardware, dont let it install the drivers. instead ,goto the manufactures website and download the most current drivers.

[Pnutjr]

I'm not a computer expert by any means. I tend to tinker from time to time myself but for what it's worth:
Your idea would lead me to believe the same thing: its your video card. Another possibility that it might be is that your power supply is also full of dust etc and burned itself out. Have you received any power spikes/power bumps lately? It'll have to be replaced then. This happened to me and even with a "surge protector" I actually fried my motherboard. The computer still works but not to it's proper function(s) and sometimes intermittedly. You can tell this by looking at your MB. If the capacitors (if you don't know; they look like little pop canson the board) have "popped" it's fried. The tops are supposed to be flat, not curved or even have stuff 'leaking' out of them.
Last but not least it might just be a virus. If you actually get it running on the net do a search for "Housecall". Its a free online virus scanner. It'll ask you to download something but it's required to do the search then let'er fly. I've saved a few PCs with this.
Pending that, you're into a bit of money. If that's the case upgrade to a MAC!
Just a few ideas.....

Just a newbie.........

[Glennrf38]

Usually if you can boot in Safe mode but have problems in "live" mode, it is a driver or software issue. Thats my crap load of years experience anyway.

Glenn

[Phanman]

Friend had this problem a few weeks ago...

I doubt its your video card as stated above. Its probably a registry issue or software issue caused by a virus.

Start the computer with the windows CD
select R for repair, then at the prompt type chkdsk/s
once its complete you will probably have to type chkdsk/r (repair)
and exit once finished

If that doesnt work try:
boot with windows CD
select R for repair
at the prompt type bootcfg /rebuild
when it says Add installation to boot list? Press Y
then it will say Enter Load Identifier type windows xp (or your version)
then it will say Enter OS load options: type /fastdetect
once complete take the disk out and type exit

Give it a try and see how it goes. If everything does work out, then I would download AVG (free antivirus) and Search and Destroy (free spyware). If you do have virus I would run it twice for each. Also download reg seeker to clean up your registry.

Hope it helps,

[Jason McK]

Thanks all I'll give each a try

J

[brizzo]

Is this 500gb including a fresh install of Windows XP, and this problem only started since your fresh install?

I would certainly assume one way or the other it is a driver issue.. Was your previous harddrive IDE, and the new on SATA ? Did you install the latest drivers for your motherboard chipset ?

You might also want to go into your control panel, administrative tools, event viewer, and check your system log for errors. Might point you in the right direction.

Final vote, chipset drivers or ram issue

[brizzo]

I don't mean to sound rude, but Phanman that's some last resort problem solving that shouldn't be attempted unless your system gives you an error of "Missing Operating System" or "No Boot Disk", etc type messages.

If you want to check your harddrive for errors, I would suggest:

Goto start, run, type in "cmd" without quotes

Enter "chkdsk c: /f" without quotes into the command prompt, enter "y" to check system on reboot

Reboot your system, and windows will check and repair any file system issues before windows starts

[Phanman]

I only stated what I did to fix my friends computer... weither he decides to do it is up to him. If he feels that there are other possible solutions he's more comfortable doing then so be it.

[Jason McK]

Originally Posted by nazerine

Is this 500gb including a fresh install of Windows XP, and this problem only started since your fresh install?

500GB did require a fresh install of XP but it ran fine for 2 months

Originally Posted by nazerine

I would certainly assume one way or the other it is a driver issue.. Was your previous harddrive IDE, and the new on SATA ? Did you install the latest drivers for your motherboard chipset ?

Yes I did but am kinda unsure if I found the correct drivers

Originally Posted by nazerine

You might also want to go into your control panel, administrative tools, event viewer, and check your system log for errors. Might point you in the right direction.

Did that, nothing glaringly obvious. No errors at all

Originally Posted by nazerine

Final vote, chipset drivers or ram issue

I did run MEMTEST86+ and it found no memory errors, But I like the chipset Idea. Only problem is the HDD has been running fine for a month now. Would a chipset driver issue wait to show itself for about a month