Help identifying faulty component

DeathStalker · 8 Dec 2013 at 00:37

Hi. I have been trying to fix my mother in laws computer for months now. It would just freeze for no apparent reason. Usually in the middle of her tesco shopping. After repeatedly scanning and clearing everything I could find that would cause it to freeze, including wiping the hard drive and installing xp from scratch. I can only conclude its a hardware fault. the system is a Packard Bell iMedia B2218. 1 Gb RAM, core 2 celeron @ 2GHz, onboard graphics and audio, and a 160GB HDD

I have tried running memtest86 from a bootable CD, and even after disabling USB and trying a stick of memory from my own machine. memtest still freezes at between 5 and 50 seconds. I can only conclude its a faulty motherboard or cpu. Is there anyway to tell which bit is broken so I can get a new one?

Cheers

kefan77 · 8 Dec 2013 at 00:39

check HDD with HDTune.

try memtest on that RAM in your PC.

Doomedspeed · 8 Dec 2013 at 08:37

How did you summise that is was a motherboard or CPU fault, when you ran MEMtest (in which it freeze's).. By the name 'MEM' as in 'MEMORY' it points to a RAM issue..

Randomface74 · 8 Dec 2013 at 08:51

It sounds pretty old, so it's not that surprising.

My first guess would be (need more) memory, you should be able to use Task Manager to see if all the memory is used or not.

My second guess would be a failing (generic silver box) power supply. You'd prove that by swapping the power supply out for one you know works.