BleepingComputer.com: PC freezes occasionally

Hello and thank you for the help!

My PC freezes occasionally. I had to reboot the PC twice while scanning with ESET Online Scanner because the PC froze. On 3rd attempt the scanning finished successfully but the PC froze again while I was writing a letter. Sometimes I can work at the PC for hours and sometimes it will freeze like in 5 minutes or so after boot. So it does happen randomly and is not a software issue, I think, because I only have MS Windows installed. It freezes even when I don't do anything at the PC, I come back and discover it's frozen and again I have to push the reset button. It seems to be a hardware problem.

The motherboard in this PC is quite old (from the year 2000), a Chaintech 7AJA motherboard.

PS. this PC is clean from infections, I just came from here: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic440872.html

PC specifications
BIOS Type: Award
BIOS Date: June 15th 2000
BIOS ID: 06/15/2000-8363-686A-JA6LMC0CC-00-None
BIOS OEM: 06/15/2000 - 6.00 PG
Chipset: VIA 82C305 rev 2
SuperIO: VIA 686 rev 34 at pci 7
Manufacturer: VIA Technologies, Inc.
Motherboard: VT8363


Mod Edit: Moved from AII to Internal Hardwsre ~ Hamluis.

This post has been edited by tipsi: 04 February 2012 - 06:58 AM
Reason for edit: Moved from XP to Internal Hardware.

Have you tried running in safemode or clean booting if the problem is persistent? A lot of hardware components could cause certain freezes. What have you tried in diagnosing the freezing the issue?

jhayz, thank you for replying!

I haven't run the PC in Safe Mode an extended period of time to diagnose the issue, I hardly ever boot into safe mode. So I don't know whether the freezing occurs also while in Safe Mode or not.

I'm not sure if it started when I installed Win XP on it or was it with Win 98 also. I think it started with XP. I've tried different memory sticks, HDD, removed sound card and LAN card, it still freezes. Almost like depends on its mood - can freeze in 5 mins after boot, or it can wait the wole day or 2 and then freeze. Oh, just remembered, I flashed the bios to a newer date (2001)/version 2 days ago and it still freezes.

PS. I don't know what "clean booting" is.

This post has been edited by tipsi: 06 February 2012 - 11:02 AM

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

Louis

thank you hamluis

EDIT:
I clean booted and the PC froze again, after reboot I could browse the internet about 10 minutes when it froze.

I'll disable "Load System Services" now also in msconfig and see if the problem still occurs. I'll reply again when I have some results.

This post has been edited by tipsi: 07 February 2012 - 04:20 AM

And the PC froze yet again, I wasn't doing anything at PC.

Use Speccy to provide details of your computer's configuration.

• Download, install, and run.
  
• After Speccy has finished gathering information, click File > Publish Snapshot.
  
• In the Publish Snapshot dialog box, click Yes to enable Speccy to proceed.
  
• A web address will be displayed. Click Copy to Clipboard and paste it in your next post. Include your computer's manufacturer and model number, as well.

=========================================

You might want to check the temps. on your PC to see if its overheating.

One other thing you can monitor is the Windows Task Manager (CTRL+SHFT+ESC), to see if a program or service is pushing the CPU to 100% or acting up.

Speccy:
http://speccy.piriform.com/results/ycSd3zpqDBNTo5Nsp0F7bmc

It's not a brand type PC so I don't know the manufacturer or number, I only know the motherboard is Chaintech 7AJA (single BIOS type).

Quote

You could also run a diagnostic test for this two hardware components. First check your hard drive. Download SeaToolsDOS223ALL.ISO file from here and burn the ISO file using Imgburn. During the installation, make sure to uncheck Ask toolbar.Once file is burned to disc, run both long and short test.

Back with the results.

Both tests were successfull.

Any other ideas to try?

Hello tipsi - Please test your harddrive, a full screen freeze, including mouse is usually a harddisk failure...

You can download hitachi DFT here and burn it to CD, Boot with this CD and test your main hard drive

http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/#DFT

If you can get an error code you can google what the problem is.

In any case, red screen is bad!

hope i could help