Random lockups

[PCSolutions]

This one has me stumped and the client is experiencing no end of frustration too. The system is hard locking totally at random

Specs are
PIII 500
Asus P2 99 motherboard
256 megs ram. (just added 128 since it is so cheap but the problem is before that)
10 gig western digital hdd
Sony 48x cdrom
Iomega ZIP internal 250
Video 7 blade 3d
Ensoniq PCI sound

System has been randomly locking up hard since they got it in October. I have worked on it several times.

At first it appeared that it locked when the ZIP drive was accessed so I took it out & Iomega is graciously going to replace it. Dont think thats the problem anymore

Heres what I have done so far:
Tested the memory both before & after adding an additional 128 megs with docmemory simm tester
Tested the HDD with the Western Digital tools - thorough
Formatted & reloaded Windows 98 SE and all applications & drivers
Removed the Iomega Zip drive
Replaced all IDE cables
Currently the hdd is set as a single on the primary controller & the cdrom as a master on the secondary to separate them
No devices are using splitters off the power leads

I think this is a power supply problem as opposed to a short. I have eliminated Windows by clean loading the system. Not sure of the wattage on the power supply at this point.

Typically a motherboard will give windows errors so I dont think it is that but it is possible.

Any thoughts?


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Keep it simple!

[smurfy]

PCs, I don't think there's enough hardware in there to be a drain on a power supply unless it's actually a faulty PSU.
Have you checked out temperature?


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Sean (Smurfy)
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Please remember that others may need to know the outcome of your problem so please keep us updated.

[Steve R Jones]

Might try a different video card.