Strange Lockups

[Amcintosh23]

Ok... here's what is going on.  I was running a Sony VAIO for awhile, but it started doing random restarts, then got to the point where everytime i turned it on it would completely lock up (no mouse movement, no ctr-alt-del.... had to hard reboot).  I thought, rather than try to fix up the old machine, i would use this as an excuse to bulid a new one.  Now, the new one is doing the same thing, except for the random restarts (not yet anyway).  The only thing I brought over from the old machine was a PCI vid card, a AGP vid card, Soundblaster, and two harddrives.  I've since removed both video cards, and put in an older AGP.  Could this be a harddrive issue?  It does sometimes make a grinding noise when locking up.  .... HELP!? Thanks in advance.

P4 2.4 (800mhz fsb)
ASUS P4P800 Deluxe
1024 DDR2700 (333mhz)
Antec Sonata w/ Antec TruePower 380w power supply
30g 7200rpm HDD (IBM brand... i think)
80g 7200rpm HDD (Maxtor - 8mb cache)

[Guest_Quick69GTO]

Go here to download IBM’s drive fitness test:
http://www.hgst.com/downloads/DFT32-V340.EXE
It creates a bootable diskette.
Use it to test the IBM drive.
If you are using the IBM as your boot drive, then you could be having a hard drive failure. The Maxtor seems to be new enough to not be the problem.
Try using the Maxtor as your boot drive (remove the IBM). This will require you to format it and install Windows, so if you want to save any data on it, you will have to take the appropriate steps to save it.
Good luck!

[Amcintosh23]

i've taken out the ibm and used a 30g maxtor 5400rpm it's locking up too.  At this point... there is NO hardware from the Sony in the new computer.  I've tried it in a completly different outlet, in a different building.  Different mouse, keyboard, and monitor.  The only common thing between the computers is XP Pro sp1... but i have that on other machines that are running fine.  And XP Pro was running fine on the Sony for a long time.  I have no more ideas.  I am about to send all of the parts back.  No reason to pay $800 for a computer I can't use.

[Guest_Quick69GTO]

It sounds like you hit all the bases.
The only other thing I can think of is that there might be a heat issue.
Perhaps not enough airflow thru the case? Fan on the processors heat sink grinding to a halt? Perhaps the processors HSF not quite big enough to keep it cool?
I’m sure you have checked all of that also, but the next time it locks up; you may want to hard boot it and immediately go into the BIOS and check the temp.
Another option is to download Motherboard Monitor 5 and check the temp within Windows.
Sorry I couldn’t’ help more.

[Josetann]

Is there ANYTHING else that was brought over from the old PC?  Cables, power supply, cdrom-drives, even the same power strip?  There's so many things that can affect it, if you have a UPS system plug it into that.  Sometimes during high-usage times, you'll experience extended brown-outs which can adversely affect your PC.  Or you have it on a circuit that is having too much current drawn at certain times (maybe it locks up/reboots whenever the fridge kicks on, or the a/c, etc.).  Try a different outlet, or if you have a UPS system it'll compensate for brief power dropouts like that.

Other than that, sounds like you've covered the major stuff, dunno what to tell you.

[Amcintosh23]

thanks for the replys...  i took the computer to the place i worked and plugged it in there with a different power cable, keyboard, mouse and monitor and ran it in the open and it still locked up.  so that eliminates the amperage draw theory, heat or bad cables.  I don't think it's over heating the monitoring that came with the mother board says it's running at between 27 and 33c.  Once it peaked at 38c, and it did lock up at that time, but it has also locked when running at 27.  It is, and has always been on a UPS.  My last resort is to assume that this is some freaky software issue.  I am going to format the drive and put win2k on there and see what happens.  I am currently running xp pro sp1.  I have it on multiple machines that are still running ok.  I am only having the identical problem on two out of the 5 computers i have.  I have never been so confused in my entire life.

[Josetann]

Perhaps demonic possession?  Have a priest troubleshoot your PC.

[Haitao]

Try swap the memory to different slots. It may be a cause. And make sure there's no any old PCI card in your machine. This works for me. Good luck!

[Guest]

Same thing happening to my machine. Seems to work fine for about 15-20 mins then it will just freeze.