System locking up

[crichardson]

I built a machine a year ago for a friend and it has worked perfectly up until recently.

All of a sudden whilst using MSN Live Messenger and Internet Explorer the whole computer would lock up and require a forced reboot.

I fitted a new hard drive and did a clean install of Windows Vista. The problem still occurred!

I removed the wireless network card and bought a new USB dongle and to my surprise the problem is still happening!

Could it be the motherboard / memory? Any ideas welcomed as it is driving me insane!

 

[shortstuff_mt]

My first thought would be RAM. Have you run memtest86+ for a few hours to test for RAM errors?

 

[crichardson]

I've just downloaded memtest86+ and will give it a run through tonight.

Any other ideas on how I can find the problem?

 

[shortstuff_mt]

I would start off with memtest86+. What are the complete system specs? Unstable voltages from a dying PSU can also cause system freezes, but I would focus on the RAM first. If the system runs multiple passes of memtest86+ with no errors then we can go from there.

 

[crichardson]

OK thanks. Will post a response to the memory tests tomorrow.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

Sounds good. Good luck!

 

[crichardson]

I have run about 8 memory tests through with no errors whatsoever.

Any other ideas?

 

[crichardson]

Just trying to bump this thread up a bit.

Cheers