I recently started having problems with my PC freezing, at first it happened very occasionally and I disregarded it as a software flaw, however it became more and more frequent until I reached the point where I felt it would be a good idea to re-install Vista. It had worked fine for around 15 months prior to the problems.
My Specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo 7400
MSi G33M Motherboard
Unbranded RAM (2x 1Gig 800MHz)
Radeon X1650 GFX Card
Deskstar (is that the IBM brand?) 500 Gig HD
(The machine is a Philips HEPC 7501, sold by PC World using the Philips name under licence)
I had overclocked it, from 333Mhz FSB (2.67GHz) to 400MHz (3.2GHz). I always used CoreTemp and never saw temperatures above 50C. I pushed this back to standard to see if it would stop the instability - no effect.
Tried booting to safe mode - no effect.
Tried using different (known good) RAM - no effect
Tried using different (known good) HD - no effect
Tried clearing CMOS - no effect
Tried using different (known good) PSU - got a "crack" noise on first power up, then it powered off, then powered on fine and then crashed as previous - no effect
Tried using different power supply socket / surge protector - no effect
Basically, it seems to be either the mobo, CPU, or GFX card. I can't test the GFX card as it does not have on board GFX, and I don't have another PCI-E card to use. As mentioned above, I tried to re-install, both XP and Vista, but the machine hangs even when running the installer from CD. The only error codes I managed to retrieve were from when I was running Vista:
Product
Windows
Problem
Shut down unexpectedly
Date
08/08/2008 17:28
Status
Not Reported
Problem signature
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3
Locale ID: 2057
Files that help describe the problem (some files may no longer be available)
Mini080808-03.dmp
sysdata.xml
Version.txt
Extra information about the problem
BCCode: 124
BCP1: 00000000
BCP2: 864A5028
BCP3: B2000040
BCP4: 00000800
OS Version: 6_0_6002
Service Pack: 2_0
Product: 768_1
I wouldn't mind upgrading the CPU or GFX card, but want to know if anyone can advise what is most likely to be the issue? If it's likely the mobo - then my GFX/CPU upgrade will have to wait!
I cannot interogate any of the dump files as I tried one last re-install and it always crashes during install now, so I am stuck with nothing. I am loathe to take it in to PC World (where I bought it) as they charge through the nose for this sort of thing, and I have built and repaired many PC's in my time.
Any advise appreciated as always.
My Specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo 7400
MSi G33M Motherboard
Unbranded RAM (2x 1Gig 800MHz)
Radeon X1650 GFX Card
Deskstar (is that the IBM brand?) 500 Gig HD
(The machine is a Philips HEPC 7501, sold by PC World using the Philips name under licence)
I had overclocked it, from 333Mhz FSB (2.67GHz) to 400MHz (3.2GHz). I always used CoreTemp and never saw temperatures above 50C. I pushed this back to standard to see if it would stop the instability - no effect.
Tried booting to safe mode - no effect.
Tried using different (known good) RAM - no effect
Tried using different (known good) HD - no effect
Tried clearing CMOS - no effect
Tried using different (known good) PSU - got a "crack" noise on first power up, then it powered off, then powered on fine and then crashed as previous - no effect
Tried using different power supply socket / surge protector - no effect
Basically, it seems to be either the mobo, CPU, or GFX card. I can't test the GFX card as it does not have on board GFX, and I don't have another PCI-E card to use. As mentioned above, I tried to re-install, both XP and Vista, but the machine hangs even when running the installer from CD. The only error codes I managed to retrieve were from when I was running Vista:
Product
Windows
Problem
Shut down unexpectedly
Date
08/08/2008 17:28
Status
Not Reported
Problem signature
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3
Locale ID: 2057
Files that help describe the problem (some files may no longer be available)
Mini080808-03.dmp
sysdata.xml
Version.txt
Extra information about the problem
BCCode: 124
BCP1: 00000000
BCP2: 864A5028
BCP3: B2000040
BCP4: 00000800
OS Version: 6_0_6002
Service Pack: 2_0
Product: 768_1
I wouldn't mind upgrading the CPU or GFX card, but want to know if anyone can advise what is most likely to be the issue? If it's likely the mobo - then my GFX/CPU upgrade will have to wait!
I cannot interogate any of the dump files as I tried one last re-install and it always crashes during install now, so I am stuck with nothing. I am loathe to take it in to PC World (where I bought it) as they charge through the nose for this sort of thing, and I have built and repaired many PC's in my time.
Any advise appreciated as always.
