Some advice ;)!

up2nogooduk · 14 Mar 2012 at 14:26

Hi guys,

Just wondering if anyone got an idea what could be the problem here.
I build my own pc's, so i got a bit of understanding about computers, but learn more as i go along.

My sister has a dell Inspiron 531 pc. which uses a asus M2N61-AX Board.
The psu is 300w. she seems happy enough with it for what she uses it for.

It kept freezing in windows after about 2 miniutes, so i thought maybe one of her kids allowed something to get in the system. but nothing there. in the end i done a full reinstall of win7 64bit,

But the samething happens. i dont even get chance to check the cpu or gpu temps. i blew all the dust out etc! but what i noticed, was when i touch the graphics card even on idle, it's so hot! it's a 8400GS 512. so i tried the card in another pc. this dont get hot at all. so it's not the card.

Would it be the motherboard faulty? or the psu ?
Any idea would be great

Cheers.

BarBrawllin · 14 Mar 2012 at 15:02

Id go with the PSU if its a couple of years old. Only way to know is by trying another and seeing if you get the same problem. I find it strange that you can get away with installing windows which takes a bit of time to complete but somehow windows wont last long enough to check things out....so hmmm. Maybe after the graphics driver has been installed it activates more of the GPU and thats why it crashes after windows is installed because its drawing more power than it would when its just installing windows with some generic VGA driver? Did you try a stress test on the card?

up2nogooduk · 14 Mar 2012 at 15:20

BarBrawllin said:
Id go with the PSU if its a couple of years old. Only way to know is by trying another and seeing if you get the same problem. I find it strange that you can get away with installing windows which takes a bit of time to complete but somehow windows wont last long enough to check things out....so hmmm. Maybe after the graphics driver has been installed it activates more of the GPU and thats why it crashes after windows is installed because its drawing more power than it would when its just installing windows with some generic VGA driver? Did you try a stress test on the card?

Yeah it is very strange.
I try and installed the cards drivers, but dont give me enough time to install them!

I was the one who installed the windows last time, about 3 months back with no problems. so can't see it being the drivers. hmm i'll try get a psu of someone and try that.. hopefuly it's that!

Cheers.

up2nogooduk · 14 Mar 2012 at 16:51

Just tried a spare psu. allowed me to install the cards drivers. it runs at 50 o/c and dont feel hot like it was.. but after just doing few things ie updating windows, it freezing again.. but did allow me to use it longer.. so would that mean it's the psu along with something else... ?
Cant see the cpu temps as real temp.core temp wont allow it to work with a AMD 64X2 CPU.

What else could it be?
Cheers

beejjacobs · 14 Mar 2012 at 16:58

Run a memtest? Try one stick of RAM at a time if theres more than one. Try an error scan on the HDD?

up2nogooduk · 14 Mar 2012 at 17:03

beejjacobs said:
Run a memtest? Try one stick of RAM at a time if theres more than one. Try an error scan on the HDD?

Yea think i try the mem test. what is the best program to test hardrive.?

Thanks for that

beejjacobs · 14 Mar 2012 at 17:05

I use this:

http://www.hdtune.com/download.html

No problem

jamesfreddie · 14 Mar 2012 at 17:12

beejjacobs said:
I use this:

http://www.hdtune.com/download.html

No problem

Or if the machine wont boot for long enough use.

HDat2 as it boots from a CD

beejjacobs · 14 Mar 2012 at 17:27

jamesfreddie said:
Or if the machine wont boot for long enough use.

HDat2 as it boots from a CD

Good point, or Ultimate Boot CD - which has loads of tests on it. Hono recommended it to me recently, very useful.

youdsy · 14 Mar 2012 at 22:51

boot into safe mode

up2nogooduk · 15 Mar 2012 at 00:46

Turns out it was te hardrive!! i never would have thought.
I didn't even get a chance to use the HD scans, as it just kept crashing.
So just put new HD in, and bobs ya uncle

seems fine.. now im off to buy hd from MM!
As she's not having mine lol. can't believe how much they have gone up in price.
I use to get a f1 for £32, there over £100 now, blimy lol.

Thanks for your helps guys

BarBrawllin · 15 Mar 2012 at 10:45

Glad you fixed it! I would never have guessed that either tbh,well done!

beejjacobs · 15 Mar 2012 at 11:14

up2nogooduk said:
Turns out it was te hardrive!! i never would have thought.
I didn't even get a chance to use the HD scans, as it just kept crashing.
So just put new HD in, and bobs ya uncle seems fine.. now im off to buy hd from MM!
As she's not having mine lol. can't believe how much they have gone up in price.
I use to get a f1 for £32, there over £100 now, blimy lol.

Thanks for your helps guys

Excellent, glad you found the problem.

Yeah HDDs shot up in price. They've started to come back down slowly though.

up2nogooduk · 20 Mar 2012 at 10:47

Back again!! lol

Right after using my own personal HD there was no more crashes as you know!
I then let her have one of my old HD's. i have 3 of these. 2 wont show up when installing windows, but still work if i use them as backups for files etc.
the 3rd one works, but makes a clicking noise like when a clock ticks!
All day is was fine, then after a while it happend again! froze. this happens about every 10 minutes or so. i tested the ram, all fine. tested the HD and the my old one and the old one that was in there. as the old one works as a backup fine.. no errors? Hmmmm

Even tho the HDtest was ok, could this still mean the HD is on it's way out.
Gosh how confussing lol as like i said no problems with my own HD!

Anyone got any ideas?

Cheers Guys.