Computer freezing!

I m not sure if I am in the correct area. I am having problems with my computer freezing up. I had recently upgraded to XP from ME and the computer worked for a couple weeks just fine. One morning I woke to check email and the computer was froze. I tried crtl-alt-del to check Task Manager and then reboot but the computer would no respond. I powered it off (by holding the power button down until it went off.) I turned it back on and would get to the XP start screen and freeze up. I powered it down turned it back on several times. Sometimes it would get to the disk check (because of how I powered it down) but would freeze up again. After a while I would turn it on and the CPU would come on but the monitor would not respond (almost like it is in standby mode.) After waiting hours and sometimes day I can power it on and it will work just fine. Ususally it will freeze up again (after a couple hours) and then the monitor will do the same thing. I tried changing video card and the power supply. They both are fine so I replaced them back. My next thought is MotherBoard or a Hard drive replacment. If anyone has something else I might try I would appreciate it.

 

Hi,
I would think the power supply is failing.

Matt

 

Yes it is a Compaq 5006h. I think my sister bought it in 1999. I upgraded to XP and added more memory. It had 256mb and I bumped it up to 512mb just to be on the safe side. I will check everything that you said to do Pete. Matt I actually did try a known good Power Supply in it and it still did the same thing. I will also try another power supply. Thanks for the help fellas. I will let you know what happens.

 

I don't have time to check on it as I'm leaving on a road trip, but Compaq used proprietary power supplies on several models during that era. On some, a standard ATX PSU would fry the motherboard. This is a little different than the trick wired Dells but please proceed with caution.



edit: While doing a 12 hour drive in the rain yesterday, I got to thinking (dangerous concept) and need to correct the above. It was HP that used some proprietary PSU's during this time frame and not Compaq. So, I think you can substitute without fear. That's not to say your problem is or is not PSU related, just gives you some options if the PSU turns out to be the culprit.

 

Thanks for the information Rockster2U. I think I might just by a new PSU and replace the old one. Thanks for thinking about me during your long trip. Drive safe!!!

 

I am a little worried that I might have misled you. I missed where you said you had tested another PSU.

If you tested another PSU it should have worked then. If it was exactly the same, then unless the PSU was not powerful enough, it is probably not a bad PSU.

I worked on a Compaq 5000 series recently, the CPU fan was the only thing that worked, no apparent signs of something wrong, I just came to the conclusion that the motherboard was deceased.
I rebuilt it with another computer of the same era. It was not worth putting much money towards such an old model. It is working fine now, with extra RAM, a second HDD and a more powerful PSU (to change the HDD to a new motherboard there are instructions at Microsoft Knowledgebase).

Good luck, but I would save any extra cash towards a new computer.

Matt

 

Thanks for the info. Yeah it has a 250watt power supply and I tried using a 300watt because that is all I had I think I even used a 200watt also. Still got the same results. Did you ever see how much the new motherboard costed? I can find the price anywhere. I had just recently put so much money into this thing I wanted to get it fixed and then give it to the kids. I was wondering if just upgrading the OS wasn't the problem. It ran fine with ME I just hating that using that OS. Again thanks for the help.

 

Something I forgot to mention is the I am not here a sucessful post beep when the computer starts. The hard drive light (the one on the front of the computer) flashes but I never hear the beep. When the computer freezes I usualy just power it off and it always check the drives because it was not shutdown correctly. It will also want to scan the drives for consistency even after a successful shutdown. I am wondering if the hard drive could also be going bad. I tried running chkdsk /r but it said the drive was in use and it would check it at the next startup. I rebooted the computer and it stasted checking the drive but then froze up in the middle of checking it.

 

A few thoughts but no concrete answers.

Its unusual that XP would start checking a drive after an improper shutdown but I suspect this is a carry over from ME, where this was common behavior after an improper shutdown. Since you apparently did an upgrade as opposed to a clean installation, this may also be indicative of other "carry-over" issues that could be contributing to your current freezing. Speculation on my part, but it may be worth your time to save important data, reformat and do a clean install.

Another thing to investigate - odd or eratic behavior can often be attributed to bad capacitors. Typical behavior is often tied to inexplicable freezing or crashing after machine warms up. Not exactly what you have described but it would be smart to physically inspect your motherboard for bulging or leaking capacitors.

Since you are having a problem running chkdsk /r, you might want to try running sfc /scannow to check system files. You might want to run a HDD mfg utility first to verify drive integrity, but sfc /scannow may bring relief if there are no HDD problems.

Some (many) of those micro ATX power supplies had no -12V circuit while most of the older regular ATX PSU's had a -12V circuit. You need to make sure you are using a similar PSU.

 

There will be a setting for Quick POST or Quick Boot in the BIOS settings at startup, disable it, that will allow a full POST. That is probably why you do not hear the beep.

Chkdsk may not be freezing, it may appear it has stopped because it is making repairs. Try setting it up to run overnight. It can also be run by booting to the Windows CD and going to the Recovery Console.

Matt

 

Thanks Mattman. I have actually saved everything of this computer so I am actually ready to do a clean install. Once this puppy started freezing I figured I better get all my information off of it. I did inspect the mother and capacitors and saw no problems at all. I think I might go with the clean install.