computer wont stop freezing.. please help

Cheap power supplies are just that CHEAP! power supply works buy suppling power to your system and power is watts the more watts you have the bettter but to have all the avilable watts you need efficenty of the device takes effect .Higher price power supplies have better efficenty and there for produce more watts

Example: Lets say your computer needs 200 watts to run and

your power supply is a chepie you paid 10$ for lets say the power supply says 300W at 50% efficenty this will only be 150W of total power .YOu see where we are going with this now where as 300W@75% efficenty will be 225w which
will give you your 200 watts you need to run your system.. You get teh idea now...

Here is a little guide for you you can keep!


COMPONENT POWER REQUIRMENT LINES USED


OLDER CPU 20-40W +3.3V

ATHLON XP, 60-90W +12V
ATHLON 64
P4

MOTHERBOARD 20-30W +3.3V,+V AND 12V

RAM 20W per 256 +3.3v

PCI CARD 5-10W +5V

AGP VIDEO 20-50W +5VAND/OR+12V
(3.3VFROM MOBO)

CPU CASE FAN 2-4W +12V

5,4000RPM HDD 5-10W +5AND +12V

7,2000RPM HDD 5-15W +5AND +12V

10,000RPM HDD 5-20W +5 AND +12V

FLOPPY 5 W +5 AND +12V

CD/DVD DRVE 10-20W +5 AND +12V

COLD CATH LIGHTS 3W EACH +12 OR +5

LED 1W EACH +12 OR +5

Quality control. Better components work better.

Boots

just like to point out 1 thing.. for the psu theory.. the pc started jamming asbout 2 or 3 weeks after the installation of the video card.. possibly a month.. and all that time prior.. i had 2 disc drives and 2 hard drives.. and i dont think it jammed at those times... i dont think...

anyways... im going for the expensive psu...
antec

Well if money is tight which is is for a lot people right now I would first unistall the video card drivers even remove them from registery there are also a lot of other things here casing a problem it might be best to back up your programs defrag your harddrive and reinstall the os as well as all the drivers again before buying a new power supply .Granted it well take a few hours to do all of this but it just might solve your problem...

ah but theres a dilema... when purchasing the computer.. i had a winxp booklet.. never did i think to check if thers an actual cd... there wasnt.. and iwas left with no cd cuz both the store and gateway refused to give me a winxp cd
i mean i have a legal version of xp on my pc.. i have a microsoft sticker and everything.. its legit.. but no cd to reinstall.. id like to tho...

Software

Even though you have a meager PSU, I am still betting that it's a software issue. The symptoms all smell like a software problem.

Double check all the IRQ settings and make sure that there are no conflicts. Is it possible for you to restore your PC to a previous state (if you're running Windows XP and have System Restore activated). I'll try that before doing anything more drastic, liking switching hardware parts.

might smell like software problem,but so do most psu problems when there is not enough power. psu do not cost that much, surely u have $20 to $40

Putting in a more powerful video card draws more power of your PSU. This will either manifest itself immediately by the PC not booting up at all, or after a few weeks (as is the case here). That PSU is slowly burning out because of constant overload, believe me.
You could alsway try updating the video-drivers to their latest version, but that might even make things worse.

PS: that Fortron is cheaper than the Antec. Fortrons also tend to give more power than their model-nr indicates. But, it is your money, spend it wisely.

meager ? *sob*
irq ports are all fine.. i did a system restore up to a month... no change

20-40$ for a psu will get me generic.. altho i severly hate my pc now for jamming at crucial moments during porno watch (wether im serious or joking about that is for u to decide) is very very aggrevating.. i will treat it with something better than a generic psu.. im going with antec
im dipping into my savings for this 1... oh well


yeah.. to all those who suggested i 1 day upgrade my pc.. thanks but .. its doubtfull.. only 2 years old and my pc is out of date
i cant have more than 2 gig ram.. no hyperthreading and i think i cant go higher than 2.4 or 2.8 gig (now i got 2).. so if i get a faster chip.. i think ill have to buy the whole computer with it...

actually yeah... i dont know when its started.. but yeah.. its been jamming at the gateway screen (where i have the option to go into bios and etc...) but i cant say if that was b4 or after the vid card....
and the jamming has a pattern... i boot.. it jams after i log on
i reboot.. it goes thru..but.. seems i didnt see that in a week
its wierd.. soemtimes i have no problem for days.. sometimes itll jam every 30 min.. but if its the psu.. shouldnt it just reboot ? i heard of stories where psu's were too weak and they simply rebooted
anyhoo. im getting the antec sl400 tommorow.. 70$ or something

yeah im still wondering about that.. if your psu is overloaded.. shouldnt it simply reboot ???

I think in order to troubleshoot your problem and find out the root cause, you can:

1. unplug most of the extra stuff in your desktop tower (2nd dvd, card reader). Try to make the voltage adequate for the system, and see whether if it IS the voltage or not.

2. If it is not the PSU, then uninstall your anti-virus software if that will change anything.

3. Try to fix the error msg in your eventlog. This guy at another forum also got similar problem as you. Check it out http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,13027223

Both of you have a error/warning message towards tmtdi.sys file (a trend micro file). I will probably start from there by removing Trend Micro Anti-Virus.


Just out of curiousity, did you buy a full licensed anti virus or?

umm.. .. or

anyways.. got the antec psu sl400 which is 400watts.. i even bought an extra 80mm fan ..

is it wierd that i dont feel the fan blowing int he back.. its so.. light breeze...
maybe im just being paranoid

also.. for that extra fan.. this might be a stupid question but.. should it be blowing in our out of the pc case ??? i did out but.. i wanna make sure... anyways.. hopefully thisll solv my problem.. and ive removed any trend micro things in msconfig..

thanks for the help.. i guess now all i can do is wait..... please check back here once in a while.. maybe itll jam and ill need to harrass you all

thanks again

Cheap power supplys fry mobo,s and other components...the power they produce is "dirty"...the best investment you could make on hardware is a top of the line Power Supply..

Enermax comes to mind

thanks..done and done

This is a real problem with most store bought stuff .Did you check your harddrive for a ISO image Heck at least HP/Compaq give you at least a restore cd this is very strange why they did this...

no cd image..
its okay.. ill find myself a copy of winxp sp2... im just hopefull that my authentic serial number will work

btw.. no1 feel like answering my fan questions ?
is it normal that i dont exactly feel a draft on the psu ?
and any extra fan (80mm) should it be putting air into the pc case our out ?

thank you

oh yeah.. why
because i got this pc for half price cuz it was open box or most likely returned

but man i got a killer deal when i bought this 1.. they even gave me a free printer and all