System crashing - where to start troubleshooting? 1

[BaudKarma]

I don't even know which forum to post this in, so I'll start here. I upgraded my system last spring - Asus K8N mobo, 2 SATA drives, 1 IDE drive, 1.5 gig of RAM, ATI 9800 video card, ask about any of the other stuff if you think it's important.

The systems been giving me problems since I put it together. I traced the first issues to an inadequate power supply (got 550W now) and then to the video card overheating. Now it's having problems again.

About once a day (more or less) the system will lock up hard. The mouse freezes, there's no keyboard response, and the hard drive light comes on and stays lit. I have to power it off and restart. Sometimes it restarts okay, sometimes it'll lock up the same way almost immediately on reboot. Eventually it'll come back up, and then it's okay for a few more hours.

One of the crashes (or a series of them) managed to screw up the OS, so I reloaded XP and hoped it was some strange software problem. Nope, still locking up. Then I suspected overheating, so I pulled the system out into the middle of the room and pulled off the cover. Still locking up. By the way, device manager looks happy and there's nothing unusual showing up in the event log.

I've done all the quick/easy fixes I can think of, reseating all the cables and the RAM, monitoring the CPU temperature, and nothing has worked. It's time to get my hands dirty, start pullng out memory and swapping out the power supply and disconnecting hard drives and all the rest of it. Given the intermittent nature of this lockup, it's likely to be a fairly drawn-out process. I'm looking for some ideas about which component to check out first. Thanks!


I try not to let my ignorance prevent me from offering a strong opinion.

 

[Shinken]

Just a quick note. For random system crashes, if checking the BIOS settings, Event Viewer, etc, doesn't reveal anything, try stripping the machine down to the basics - power supply, processor, mainboard and memory.

Test the power supply (a $12 PS tester is cheap and easy).

Then light it up and see what happens.

If it still crashes, try changing the memory.

If it still crashes, the only thing left is either the cpu or the mainboard. My limited experience is that mainboards go far more frequently than processors, unless of course the system has been overclocked (stupid!). If you don't just happen to have a spare identical processor or mainboard laying around, take it to a shop that will usually swap out the processor as a test, for about a $30 bench fee. This should let you know whether it's the cpu or the board.

And...if both the cpu and the board are good, then start all over again examining BIOS settings, etc.

Are you still enjoying the world of computers?

S

 

[BaudKarma]

And here I thought I had this fixed. The system had been running smoothly, no problems for a couple of weeks.

Last week we had some unseasonably warm weather, and the system started locking up hard again. Adding warm weather + lockups returning guided me back to an overheating issue. CPU temps are fine, the symptoms didn't seem to match video overheating, soooo... hard drives?

I had all three of my hard drives (two SATA, one IDE) mounted in the same cage, with about an eighth of an inch seperating them. There's a fan mounted in the front of the cage sucking in outside air, so I figured the drives were okay. Further inspection, however, revealed that there was a *bunch* of cat hair, fluff, junk, and other stuff trapped between the plastic front and the steel frame of the case. This was effectively blocking off all the incoming airflow.

I pried the front of the case off just far enough to stick the nozzle of a vacuum cleaner in there and suck out the junk. I removed the IDE drive from the cage, and relocated the SATA drives to the top and bottom, so there's a lot more space between them now.

That was the 27th. The warm weather has continued, but the lockups have stopped. Hopefully I've finally figured out what the problem is.