Mystery "Freezing" - PSU?

Crawford · 28 Jul 2006 at 09:24

Howdy y'all,

My PC keeps "hanging", freezing suddenly seemingly regardless of activity. The system is an old-ish CPU (XP1800-ish), old-ish mobo, and reasonably good RAM.

I bought these all second hand as a minimal upgrade, as money is tight and i don't use my home computer enough to warrent fancy kit.

The PSU is a generic one, which must be at least 7 years old. I have wondered whether the problem could be with the PSU, perhaps giving unstable voltage rails?

Would this be the first thing to try replacing first?

HELP MUCH APPRECITED!

Cheers

Crawf

Meatball · 28 Jul 2006 at 11:24

Personally yes, no PC is going to run well with a rubbish "PSUMax" PSU. You should check your voltages though. YOu can measure your voltages using Speedfan. I'm sure there's better software out there though, Your BIOS might even show the rails etc.

Admiral Huddy · 28 Jul 2006 at 11:36

after the above..

Check that you page file size is at least 1.5 times your memory capacity and that the disk that the pagefile resides (normally C: ) hasn't become too full. You might have to have a clear out and run a defrag to make some space.

Next, check your RAM using Memtest86+.. just to make sure there that the RAM hasn't become faulty.

Make sure also that the system is free from viruses etc and that you have all the latest drivers and Hotfixes etc.

Look at these first, then we'll move on if not cured.

Crawford · 28 Jul 2006 at 11:49

Cheer chaps, will take a look at the page file size and run memtest.

Will also see if i can find voltage rails in the bios, or else will download the voltage programme.

Will let you know how i get on.

Thanks a lot!!!!

Crawf

Crawford · 29 Jul 2006 at 16:50

Hi,

Just to let you know, i checked the page file size, which was way under. The PC is running much more snappily now, although i haven't had it running for many hours yet to see if it is more stable.

I will check the bios voltages, updates etc when i get back.

Thank a lot!!!!!

Crawf

Crawford · 1 Aug 2006 at 14:18

Hi,

Whilst the pagefile adjustment has speeded things up, it continues to hang.

When i get home i will download and run memtest and speedfan; any points to note before i do?

Crawford · 2 Aug 2006 at 10:05

Hi,

I ran Memtest for several hours last night, and whilst slightly unsure about its configuration (i.e, bios -alll, std, probing etc) i varied things a fair bit and there were no errors after 3 hours.

I've left it running today whilst im at work, but if this too doesnt highlight problems i'll be onto speedfan i guess.....

Is that what folks reckon?

Cheers