[RESOLVED] PC Locking up, now won't reboot

[MPTech]

I have an older PC (AMD 3ghz, single core) that had been setup with XP Home and running fine for a couple years. I did a clean install of Win7 at the beginning of the year and didn't have any problems until about a month ago. This is not my primary PC, so I was only on it every few days, but generally leave it running all of the time. About a month ago, I noticed a couple times when I went to use it, it was locked up and I had to reboot. About a week ago, when I rebooted, it froze and I had to power it down and back up again. This happened several times in the last week and a couple days ago I tried several times to reboot / power-up/down and the PC refused to bootup.

I haven't tried anything else but thought I'd ask here before I blindly go trying things. Any suggestions? (I really don't think it's a Win7 Issue, but I needed to start somewhere, I don't know where to start. I haven't been able to get back into Win7).

[SuperSparks]

Download UBCD and burn it to CD, it has all the memory testing and disk diagnostic utilities on it plus many more besides. Run MemTest and Windows Memory Diagnostic, as well as the disk utility for your brand of hard drive (or Seatools if you aren't sure). All you have to do is to boot up with the disc in the drive, select the utility that you want to use, and it will run.

Ultimate Boot CD

[MPTech]

Thanks! I have UBCD, just didn't know where to start.

so I'll run:

• MemTest
• Memory Diagnostics
• and disk utility

Thanks!

[Midknyte]

I'd also inspect the motherboard and PSU for bad caps.

http://www.badcaps.net/

[MPTech]

Inspected the mobo and didn't see any bad caps.
Tried to run the UBCD and kept freezing and wouldn't complete the tests.
Also installed a different newly reformatted/partitioned HDD and attempted to re-install XP Home. That Froze too

Any other suggestions?.

[SuperSparks]

Pull the memory modules and graphics card, and give the contacts a clean with a pencil eraser. Give the insides of the PC a thorough going over and make sure that everything is properly seated. Unplug and replug as many connectors as you can reach - that has the effect of cleaning the contacts.

[MPTech]

Cleaned the contacts on the Ram and re-installed a couple times (running the on-board video until this issue is resolved).
Removed and re-installed all of the other plugs several times.

Re-booted, same results.

I also tried swapping the 3 Ram sticks around and various combinations. Seemed to make no difference.

This setup worked for a couple years, then in the last couple months it started freezing, then quit rebooting completely.

I'm guessing the mobo gave-it-up, it's a BioStar (and I haven't heard good things about them, it was a freebie, so no great loss, but now I need to repalce it, I guess).

[SuperSparks]

I think I would be inclined to agree at this juncture. The mobo is the most likely culprit, but I think you should also consider the power supply, as that is also a possibility.

[MPTech]

Freaking AMAZING!

SuperSparks, I think you found it! THANKS SO MUCH!

I was planning to upgrade to a newer PSU that I bought awhile back and didn't use, but it was just to give it a little more bling and clean-up some ugly power cords.

As a desperate attempt (that I REALLY didn't think would work), I plugged in the new PSU, booted up to my XP CD and did a fresh install on the new HDD I installed. WORKED PERFECTLY!
Then I swapped out the HDDs and put the original one back in that was already loaded with Win7 and it also worked without hitch as well.

I'm going to let it run for a couple days to see if it exhibits any freezes, but so far so good and with the old PSU it would lock-up long before this!
I never had a psu fail like this, and it ran for year without a problem (it was in another PC before this one. I had one go out before, but it died completely, no power to anything (no fans was a big clue!)

Just Amazing. I'm thrilled!

BIG THANKS!

[SuperSparks]

You're more than welcome

Power supplies can do some strange things when they start to fail, and when they are doing things like yours was, there's little point in testing them because they often pas the basic voltage checks. I'm very glad that you ha a spare PSU to hand

[MPTech]

Checked it this morning, been running since last night without a hitch.

I am SO GLAD you suggested to try it. Like I said, I had plans to swap PSUs, but I wanted to get the issue resolved first, never guessing that it was a PSU problem, because it booted and ran for awhile before freezing (I pretty much thought PSUs either worked or didn't. I was even looking up replacement mobos and even mobo/cpu/ram combinations, expecting to be replacing them to solve the problem.)

I've had some wierd stuff this year:

• first my father-in-law's PC, behaving strangely (this was a mobo issue, blown capacitors!)
• then my new quad-core build. I was beating my head against the wall for 6 months off-and-on, only to find that my RAM met Vendor specs but wasn't Vendor tested & Approved!
• now this, PSU going bad, but not failing!

learned alot and all 3 of these would have been trashed / replaced if it wasn't for the help from this forum!

MANY THANKS guys! (especially SuperSparks! )