cpu hangs on t-bird 1,4ghz

[dudek]

Hi!
It seems like people here are far more skilled than I am. Since I bought my new computer a couple of months ago it tends to hang for some reason. Finally I freaked out and turned it over to my dealer, who is very nice, and I spent my last money from my student loan to have it fixed. They searched it for problems and claimed that the installation was faulty and did it for me with patches and upgrades and all. I went home, and of course it crashed. But not as often as before. But still. I cant c-alt-del, the only thing I can do is reset, it freezes totally without explanations. I've uninstalled everything that isn't necessary, like webcam and gaming controls and such... nothing seems to help.
What crap I'm using? No, it should be quite ok:
athlon t-bird 1,4 ghz, soltek 75drv, geforce 2 pro, 256 mb ddr, on win 98. Of course I'm turning it in again, but someone here might be able to tell if my computer is cursed or if the reason for the hang ups can be found...

 

[digital_trucker]

What apps does it freeze on?

Martin, Michigan (girlfriend's house)

 

[dudek]

it seems to crash in anything; like explorer, games, winplayer, after restart... you name it. but not to often... once a day.

 

[Tiberius13]

I have had, and know others who have had the same type of problem!! If you (or ANYONE out there) knows of the root case, PLEASE let us know!!

Here is a breakdown of my computer, and the problem my AMD computer has:
AMD 1.333, Asus A7M266 MB, 128 DDR 2100 RAM, 40 Gig hd, 300W power, ATI AIW Radeon video, SB Live Value, DVD drive, floppy, network card, Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse, Win2k (also tried WinXP with a different 100 Gig HD... same problems occurred)...

The issue: The computer randomly crashes... it will stay up for anywhere between a couple minutes to a couple days. The crashes are not the system 'freezing up' due to use. They are sudden instantaneous events. The computer blinks out and does a hard reboot. If I change the setting in Windows to not reboot automatically on a crash, it goes a blue screen of death where it gave a wide variety of messages (I don't have my notes with specifics handy, but there were at least 10+ different types of errors I have seen) If I leave a program such as Bearshare (ie. Napster type program) running overnight, it is pretty much a gaurantee the computer will crash before I wake up. Doing things like playing back movies, video capture, or gaming don't seem to trigger higher instances of crashes. Many times the crash occurs when I return to the computer after a period of time away from it. As soon as I click on a file to run it... it's crashes... (it should be noted that the computer is usually always running mirc, and often downloading files)

So basically I think I have eliminated the hard drive (by trying 2 different drives), and a bad OS install (by trying Win2k and XP).
That leaves: CPU, RAM, Motherboard, power supply, cables/wiring, and finally - possible weird hardware/software conflicts between components I have

Has anyone else experienced problems like this?? I have heard from a bunch of AMD users and they have reported the same problem, so I'm sure SOMEBODY out there must have figured this one out by now?? Is it a bad CPU? bad RAM? bad MB? HELP!!!

 

[Cstew77]

Wow. I've never had problem with any of my AMD systems - and I'm in the middle of building my 6th. (I like to upgrade alot okay...)

Hardware compatibility problems are some of the hardest to track down. I would first make sure the Heatsink isn't an elcheapo - the fastest way to toast a proc and MB is with a cheap HS. Tom put out a really good article on HS (just for reference), do search for CPU cooling.

Are these out-of-the-box systems? Or are they homegrown? I would try removing all of unnecessary peripherals, sound cards, nic's, etc. Then see if the system is still unstable. If it is, you're down to the Proc, MB, Powersupply, RAM, HDD, and OS. If you have the extra hardware around, try changing each of these out one-by-one.

I've found AMD systems to be pretty stable only if you don't skimp on the parts - cooling, power supply, heatsink, etc.

I don't have any more specific suggestions. I hope this helps!!