Windows Hangs Randomly

[shri]

The computer hangs totally randomly. The PC is 20 months old. sometimes it will stay up for 6 hours and be fine before it hangs other times it will be 30 mins. When i say the computer hangs i mean that i can do nothing with it. The screen will freeze, the mouse will not move, i cant drop back to desktop if i'm playing games, ctrl+alt+delete does nothing at all and the only way to get it to work again is to reset the computer or turn off the power and back on again. It happens in games as much as when i'm just idle on the desktop. it will just hang on me at any time and there is no pattern to it. sometimes when i'm just moving files or browsing the Internet. Nothing appears in the event viewer, the computer is not running hot (checked using ASUS probe) but it still hangs. its also as likely to hang at 30deg as it is at 45deg. Its not a spyware or virus issue because i've checked this too using nod32 v3 and KAV 7, spybot 1.5.

What i have done:
Ive put all the latest drivers on for everything i can find and checked bios set up. tried the fail safe settings. Exchanged the RAM with my friends ZION 512MB DDR333. Still the problem was there. Any idea's of what to do would be appreciated!

My system Specs:

AMD Athlon64 3000+ 939 pin
ASUS A8NE mobo
Dynet 512MB DDR400
XFX Nvidia 6600 256MB
80GB Seagate SATA
80GB Western Digital PATA in slave with Sony DVD writer
Zebronics 400W PSU
Samsung 17'' CRT Monitor
Floppy Drive

Windows XP SP2 with updates till August 2007


Thanks

 

[iMav]

well from my experience random hanging is more of a hardware issue than a software unless if there is a software trigger

try by un-pluggin 1 hdd at a time and start with seagate ones they are very notorious these days especially the sata ones

 

[slugger]

did u try the solution here -- the SMPS

looks like u also found the question here [i know u made changes with the specs, but everything else looks the same]

*www.computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboard/forum/135956.html

 

[shri]

@slugger
Well i too face the same problem as in that link. Copied most of it (almost everything)
I have doubts on 3 things-
PSU
GPU
mobo

 

[slugger]

since u mentioned that the problem arises even when the computer is idle then IMO GPU not the culprit

mobo not so sure

but i've heard of similar issues with PSUs so it seems more likely

 

[shri]

So new PSU then... Is 400W sufficient or should i go for higher rating one?

 

[slugger]

4 ur specs 400W looks a tad less to me

i suggest that you consider a 500W PSU

to confirm that it is indeed ur PSU dats the problem

it wud b a nice idea to et it checked - a decent Electrical stroe shud b able to do that for you

or if can get it, get a spare PSU to confirm this

 

[pushkaraj]

It definitely seems to be a hardware issue. But if it is a software issue, then you can try this.

Go to Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer

This utility logs all the events of windows. Here you can check out the error your pc had encountered after it hung.

 

[shri]

The event viewer hasnt logged any info when the computer stopped responding.

 

[slugger]

altho not always, but if ur mobo or GPU was failin it would have been looged in event viewer or got sum kinda message in the OS

but the PSU not being monitored by d OS, its failure wud not b reported

 

[pushkaraj]

altho not always, but if ur mobo or GPU was failin it would have been looged in event viewer or got sum kinda message in the OS

but the PSU not being monitored by d OS, its failure wud not b reported

Thats very true. Do try this:
1. Connect a different psu to your system.

2. If still the problem persists, then connect minimum hardware in your system; i mean dont connect your graphics card, optical drive and floppy drive and if possible, connect anly that hard disk that has your operating system. See if the system still hangs.

 

[shri]

Will try with one of my friends' PSU. But i cannot disconnect the graphics card as my mobo doesnt have an onboard one.

 

[shri]

OK. Changed the psu. Keeping my fingers crossed...