Help computer locks up!

T

TheBishop

New Member
Help......

For several weeks now my Windows XP Pentium Compaq 933, 512ram, 40 gig HD has been locking up. The curser freezes, and I have to kill the computer at the power strip. Keyboard is frozen, everything freezes.

I have replaced the ram, the mouse, the 40 gig hd. It still will freeze up.

It has taken me two kill starts to post this prpblem. There is no set pattern, or timing to the freezeup. Sometimes it freezes 10 minutes after start up, other times it will lock up after several hours of use. I have reloaded Windows XP Pro, it will freezeup. I installed my wife's Windows XP Home Edition, it will still freeze up.

All I can think of is the CPU failure.........

HELP.........
 
Try a failing bios chip on the board itself. If you can get into the bios setup try lowering the memory clock or memory timings if that option is seen in the advancd chipset section. The battery on the board may need replacement. These two things there can be the cause. The battery maintains the charge needed to store settings.

A recent board with problems with Windows locking up totally upon reaching the desktop was due to a failing bios where lowering the memory timings suddenly saw things normal but slower. The 400mhz front side bus speed was reduced to 333mhz there. If the cpu quits the system won't even startup.
 
That can be very likely there if you were OCing and overheated the cpu to some degree. While the cpu could still be undamaged the temps shot into the board after the level of current being pulled weakened something there. On the last case here the aftermarket cpu cooler's fan quit seeing the temps shot upto 85C!

A month later after jsut having replaced that Windows suddenly started locking solid when just getting to the desktop. When the 200mhz setting was lowered to 166mhz the system ran normal again. Note the 200mhz is multiplied by dual channel to 400mhz.
 
NO overclocking

The Compaq 933 is still at the factory settings, nothing has been done to it.

I'll pull the Battery and check it.

Does anyone know the minimum voltage the battery needs to run the BIOS?

Thanks
 
The old board wasn't OCed for a long time when the cpu was overheated and still saw damage to the board strongly suspected or the cpu itself. If something in the cpu gave out the lowering of the memory timings or multiplier for the cpu could tell if damage was done. This would be one thing to try if replacing the battery saw no results.
 
Battery Replaced

PC eye said:
The old board wasn't OCed for a long time when the cpu was overheated and still saw damage to the board strongly suspected or the cpu itself. If something in the cpu gave out the lowering of the memory timings or multiplier for the cpu could tell if damage was done. This would be one thing to try if replacing the battery saw no results.
Click to expand...

I replaced the battery today so now only time will tell. I did check the old battery, and it was 2.9+ volts, so I don't think that was the problem.

Time will tell
 
TheBishop said:
I replaced the battery today so now only time will tell. I did check the old battery, and it was 2.9+ volts, so I don't think that was the problem.

Time will tell
Click to expand...

It may not be the problem but not you can rule that out if the problem has remained. The voltage when fully charged should read 3.3v for the standard 2032 Lithium battery.But the 2.9v seen there is within normal tolerance considering it wasn't just taken out of a new package.
 
I presume that your reinstalled a fresh copy of windows xp when you switched HDD's... right?

If yeas then just try to take aout all of the unecessary pci cards and such out of the motherboard and boot it up and see if runs smoothly.
 
The one idea that comes up on this if it doesn't turn out to the cpu itself or the bios chip is a simple need to reflash the bios with an update preferably. Since the battery wasn't a dead beat a toss between the bios and your first assumption(cpu) would be the hardware side of it if a reflash failed to see good results.
 
if everyting fails, check inside your computer if you have unscrewed screws running on your motherboard. that sometimes happen.
 
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