PC frozen

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4electros

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Another PC which I have , could be at freezing status at anytime!

I think that would be from a mechanical fault of hard drive, or from the motherboard itself but I think it's from the hard.

Or may just a gerneral problem from the operation system and so required for the pc to be formatted!

need your comments, guys!

regards!
 
rule out the hard drive by booting the computer off the cd-rom ... download any number of free linux based "live cds" (knoppix = very popular and huge, dsl aka damn small linux is a much lighter live cd)

a live cd will also have a memtest option, so you can check your memory without booting into a full operating system.

also, get out your DMM and check the rails on your power supply, while it is powering the computer, they should all be within a few percent of the rated values.
 
justDIY said:
also, get out your DMM and check the rails on your power supply, while it is powering the computer, they should all be within a few percent of the rated values.
Click to expand...

How could I check those rails, and be sure about their rating values?

could you tell me please!
 
plug the common lead of your dmm into a drive power connector's ground pin (black to black), now use your postive dmm lead to check out the +12v rail (yellow), +5v rail (red) and +3.3v rail (orange)

anywhere you can find those color-coded wires, you can test the voltage. It is important to do this while the psu is connected to the computer, this way the power supply is under load.
 
Try a visual examination of your motherboard - I've just had a new P4 at work to replace my frequently crashing Celeron 667.

I striped the old computer, and noticed four electrolytics leaking from their tops - all 3300uV 6.3V. I changed them, rebuild the old computer from scratch, and it works fine now!.

So I've stuck a wireless network card in and now have two computers to play with!.
 
Better go for one the lighter Linux distro's as RAM capacity is sometimes an issue , otherwise try rumaging around the web for some DOS hard drive diagnostics and boot from the 3.5 floppy ...

Just out of curiosity .....

When did you last run antivirus and spyware removal tools , and how much of the task bar is covered by icons for memory resident programs ?
 

You went from a Celly to a P4 !!!!
you do know that the P4 is an EXTREAMLY bad chip!!!

I have been benchmarking (will show results) and a 1.8GHz PentiumM (from the Celeron family) did a matlab:simulink sim in 15min
A 3.2GHz P4 (hyperthred enabled) did EXACTLY the same sim in 21min!!!

stay away from P4!!
 
Go AMD...they have cooler names for their chips like Duron and Thunderbird lol.
 
I'm perfectly happy with the P4, it's nice and fast, it runs cool (certainly compared to many P4's I've seen), and the fan is varible speed, but it always spins nice and slow (except for a full speed burst when you power it up).

I run programmes, not bench mark tests, so bench mark results don't overly interest me.
 
Nigel Goodwin said:
I run programmes, not bench mark tests, so bench mark results don't overly interest me.
Click to expand...

Funny that so do I..
With Matlab:SImulink sumulation taking upto 50% longer to do on a P4 (compared to a PentiumM) and this is a "relativily" simple model hte faster my sims get done the more work I can get done
 
Styx said:
Funny that so do I..
With Matlab:SImulink sumulation taking upto 50% longer to do on a P4 (compared to a PentiumM) and this is a "relativily" simple model hte faster my sims get done the more work I can get done
Click to expand...

I don't run sims anyway, and one particular program example doesn't make for a very good comparison does it?.
 
Nigel Goodwin said:
I don't run sims anyway, and one particular program example doesn't make for a very good comparison does it?.
Click to expand...
ok horses for courses in yr case (P4 will do and they are cheap these day)
but for sims!!!

Programs I use at work:

Matlab:Simulink
SABER
Xilinx synthasis (with modelsim)
Actel synthasis (with modelsim

All 4/5 programs (high number crunching programs) all have similar ratio of job-finish time when compared with a 1.8GHz Pentium-M to a 3.2 P4

so not a simple case of one program, it is any number-crunching program
If I have to wait for 40min for a Actel VHDL code to synthisis on a PentiumM, its a hell of alot better then over an hour on a P4. I can do my job
 

I did! The results was so bad:
0v (yellow)
2.1v(red)
0v(orange)

And another when i've forgotten to refer:somtimes which I swtich the pc on, it becomes off soon and not be able to boot unless after I unplug the power
switch and replug it again many times.
My DMM is maybe of an old quality digital one's, so those bad results might be shown due to the DMM itself, or....what do you think?!
But anyway it's obvious that this pc is not well work, there are many doubts about its work.

need help please!
regards
 
4electros said:
I did! The results was so bad:
0v (yellow)
2.1v(red)
0v(orange)
Click to expand...

those are pretty bad results ... I'd try measuring some source of voltage that is known good, to verify your dmm is measuring correctly. I can't see how the computer would turn on at all with those numbers.
 
It sounds like you may have a faulty power supply; the symptoms are certainly consistent with that. What is the wattage rating on the power supply (should be listed on the casing some place) and what are the specs of your PC?
 
ApochPiQ said:
It sounds like you may have a faulty power supply; the symptoms are certainly consistent with that. What is the wattage rating on the power supply (should be listed on the casing some place) and what are the specs of your PC?
Click to expand...

Would that be helpful?! what about the specs of the pc , as it may clear the fault is from the power supply itself.

could you clarify your viewpoint more please?
thanks
 
I still think there is some measurement problem ... the PC would not operate, it would not turn on at all, with 0 volts on the 12v and 3v rails and only 2 volts on the 5v rail, it's just not possible.
 
It's possible the PSU isn't entirely at fault; if you have too much load on the PSU from the computer itself you can get all kinds of horribly unpredictable results, including freezes, rebooting, random software crashes, etc. etc. Knowing the rated wattage of your PSU and the components you are trying to run on that supply will help ascertain if the problem is power-related.


I agree there's a measurement problem involved, but it's still thoroughly possible for the supply to be providing inconsistent or insufficient power, if it is overloaded/failing. Abnormally low voltages on auxiliary rails are not uncommon in these cases. Also remember that many components will have a few V worth of tolerance in either direction, so it may not cause visible issues unless, say, the hard drive and CD are both active, or whatever.
 
I tried to measure another PC supply voltages and got:
12.92v for yellow
5.14 v for red
3.18 v for orange
------------------
But i'm afraid that I've done previous results while connecting power supply to mainboard but without pressing on the power switch itlself(which boots the PC) :S
so i'll try that again and come back here
 
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