Can anyone who solve this?

gaming_mouse · #1 10-12-2007, 08:23 AM

My computer locks up consistently after 5-10 minutes of use, and I can't pinpoint the problem. If you can diagnose it and suggest a solution, I will try it. If it works, I will be very grateful for your help and assistance.

I am running WinXP Pro with 2GB of RAM, and until this problem everything ran like a dream.

HISTORY OF PROBLEM

Monday morning was the last time my computer worked well. I went out for lunch during a thunderstorm, and while the computer was still on when I came back (all fans running, lights on network adapter blinking, etc) the monitor was black, and the infrared mouse light was extinguished. I do use a powerstrip, but it's the cheap kind.

Tested monitor on another computer; it worked. Stumped, I brought my tower into the local comp shop, thinking maybe a power surge fried the mobo or vid card. But they ended up simply re-seating the RAM and the video card, and that fixed the monitor problem.

Since I was there anyway, I mentioned that the small fan over the south bridge heat sink rattles sometimes. They replaced it.

Back home, everything seems fixed but after surfing the internet about 5 minutes the computer stops responding. I do a hard restart. After it boots, I "disable all" in the startup tab of msconfig, and restart again. Works for about 10 minutes, and I decide to run a virus scan. The processor overheat warning buzz starts screaming about halfway through, so I shut it down (I have encountered this buzz a couple times in the 2 years I have owned the computer when working it hard, but not often). Restart and repeat. Same thing: locks up after 10 mins, starts screaming if I run a scan.

Back to the shop. They are unable to reproduce the locking problem. They run a bunch of diagnostics and overload the cpu to try to get the computer to lock, but it simply won't. One of their diagnostic tools measures 3 temperatures inside the computer. By running an infinite loop, they can get the processer warning to scream (60 Celsius). There is also another mystery temperature that hovers at 70 from the moment windows boots. Nevertheless, the computer does not lock once, despite hours of heavy load testing.

We speculate that one of the peripherals attached at my house (external HD, USB mouse, belkin network adapter) may be causing the locking, since there are no other logical differences to explain why it would lock for me but not for them. So I take the computer home, and start it with nothing but a simple non-USB keyboard and mouse plugged in.

Of course, it locks up after 5 minutes. I try a few more times, to no avail.

What could possibly be causing this? Could my Dell flat panel monitor somehow be responsible?

What do I do next?

Thanks for any help with this,
gm

edit: No reward threads in CTH. -Sam

kerowo · #2 10-12-2007, 09:09 AM

Don't offer money

gaming_mouse · #3 10-12-2007, 09:13 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Don't offer money

[/ QUOTE ]

How come? If that is against the forum rules, I wasn't aware and apologize....

Neko · #4 10-12-2007, 11:20 AM

I might try taking the cpu out, cleaning the mating surfaces of the cpu and heat sink and then adding some of that heat sink paste stuff and reinstalling it if you're comfortable with that. Maybe the heatsink isn't making contact with the processor correctly?

THere are also programs you can use to monitor the temperature of the cpu with from within windows. Maybe try installing mbm5 if your mobo is supported.

It's weird that it won't lock up at the store though, do you have good airflow behind your case at home?

funkyworms · #5 10-12-2007, 11:54 AM

Change the powerstrip. You may want to invest in a UPS that conditions your electrical signal. Also make sure you have good airflow.

gaming_mouse · #6 10-12-2007, 04:09 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Change the powerstrip. You may want to invest in a UPS that conditions your electrical signal. Also make sure you have good airflow.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tried this, but still no dice.

Thanks for the suggestion, tho

gaming_mouse · #7 10-12-2007, 04:11 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I might try taking the cpu out, cleaning the mating surfaces of the cpu and heat sink and then adding some of that heat sink paste stuff and reinstalling it if you're comfortable with that. Maybe the heatsink isn't making contact with the processor correctly?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, guy at the store thought this was possible, and re-pasted/mated the contacts for both the cpu and the southbridge. No dice tho....

Thanks for the suggestion

Computerb · #8 10-13-2007, 01:13 AM

Does it lock up with a different monitor plugged in? Sounds like that's the only difference between your house and the shop.

gaming_mouse · #9 10-13-2007, 12:55 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Does it lock up with a different monitor plugged in? Sounds like that's the only difference between your house and the shop.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah it still does.

I think I finally figured it out: seems like Firefox is the culprit. If I do not open ff or thunderbird the computer runs fine, and the guys in the shop were using IE. I am now trying to figure out why ff would be causing system crashes.....

gaming_mouse · #10 10-13-2007, 03:37 PM

For future reference, I solved the problem.

I ran Acronis disk check and it found some bad sectors on my hard drive. One of them was in my ff profile. Attempting to read the bad sector was causing the crash.

Coincidentally, ff had updated itself right before or after the power surge incident. It was until the updated version combined with the bad sector that I started to see problems.

Anyway, thanks everyone for your suggestions.