Sorry if this post is supposed to be somewhere specific... I just need some quick suggestions because I'm going crazy. Here's my setup, my problem and what I've done to "fix" the problem:

Home built machine...

WinXP Pro SP-2
2.6 GHz P4 w/HT
Asus P4P800-E Deluxe
2 GB DDR400 Kingston RAM (4 sticks)
200 GB SATA hard drive
Plextor DVD-R/RW
BenQ CD-RW
ATI 9600 AGP


The issue:

My system was very similar to this current setup. I started having troubles with the machine locking up. No mouse/keyboard response. I could restart and use the computer again immediately after freeze, but it only lasted a short while. Only remedy was to keep the power off for several hours. So here is what I troubleshooted and/or replaced to get it to its current (and still not fixed) state.


I checked ALL the fans... all worked fine except one case fan which I replaced. No help. Then I replaced the motherboard with the current brand new P4P800... still froze. I swapped in a different power supply... no help. I swapped in a different CPU from a working system... my system still froze. I replaced the old AGP video card with the current ATI... still freezes. I replaced an old 60GB IDE hard drive with the 200 GB SATA... still freezes. I tried running the computer with both CD drives unplugged... no help. I ran diagnostics on the memory... no problems reported. So I swapped in completely different memory from another working system... still freezes. I tried plugging the whole system into another wall socket (one which another computer uses with no problems)... still froze. I tried using all different external peripherals (mouse/kb/monitor)... still froze. CPU runs at 32-38 degrees Celsius and CPU fan is running at ~2240rpm. I thought it might be software based, so I used a fresh install with the new Hard drive... didn't help. Essentially every possible component has been either replaced or swapped out to eliminate the possibility of error... and still I have no success.

Many times the computer will run fine for several hours like it is now. Once it starts freezing up, I will restart manually and it will load windows no problem... but only last about 5 minutes before freezing again. The only way to get the system to work longer is if it has been turned off for several hours (making it seem like something is overheating).

Anyone have ANY suggestions what my problem can be or what I should try?? I am able to get the memory replaced if need be, but I've already tried swapping in another system's memory with no luck.

Please help!

Have you tried starting up in safe mode? Any luck there?

It might also be worth trying to reinstall Windows. I upgraded my PC the other month and every time I was on the internet, it would give me a blue screen of death then restart before I could even read the screen. I reinstalled Windows and then the problem was gone.

This is a tricky one!

As you've said, you've tried pretty much everything to resolve this. The only thing I can add is the memory timing on the motherboard. I have once had a machine that had the memory timing set too high, this would crash quite soon after starting. Double check the timing and cpu settings.

I'll scratch my head on this one and come back if I can think of anything else!

While I am not an expert, I do believe the problem you're having resides in your RAM module(s). I recently build a desktop computer with a Soyo KT-400 motherboard which was designed to work with up to 3 gig of 333mhz RAM. Following exact internet instructions (as well as advice from COMPUSA salesmen), I purchased and loaded two of the board's three RAM slots (Slots 1 and 3) with PNY 512 mb DDR RAM cards (333mhz). From the very moment I started up the computer I began having intermittant freeze-up problems of the type you described. After beating my brains out for weeks, I found a comercial website which sold third party RAM cards, and it warned against ever using more than one 512 mb RAM cards with that motherboard. It suggested instead that one combine one to three 1GB cards (of course at $500-600/1GB card, the latter choice was not an option). So I simply removed one of my two 512 mb RAM cards (from slot #3), and whallah, my homebuilt supercomputer functions perfectly with only 512 mb of RAM. In fact, it has not frozen up even once since, and runs like greased lightening. Several technically astute colleagues of mine have mentioned to me that once overheating problems are ruled out, the most common cause of freezups derives from problems with bad RAM. Make sure you have the right type of RAM, the right number of RAM Card combinations, and/or the right RAM in the right slot(s). If the problem is in fact, RAM, then nothing else you do will solve the problem until you get the RAM issue resolved.

Best of Luck
DrDrDaddeo

Well, I've done just about everything as I've said.

DrDaddeo,

I did experiment with the RAM modules as well. I've tried running every combination of the four sticks. Tried just two, then the other two, then interchanging those. Then I tried one stick at a time. THey're all identical Kingston chips by the way.

Next I took out these chips and put two from another system which runs fine, and the system still freezes with those in.

I have noticed that the computer will crash much more quickly when I'm running Limewire or a torrent downloader. However, it has also crashed when absolutely no programs are running and the system sits idle for several hours. Then again, at times the system will run either of those two programs with no freezing. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to when the system will crash.

Just today I spent probably 7 straight hours doing heavy video encoding work, using my DVD drive on and off to rip scenes from various DVD titles. And late in the afternoon I got into Limewire to download a song I needed for a project I'm working on, and halfway through the download the computer froze when it had worked beautifully all day on the CPU intensive encoders. I restarted the system manually after it froze and started Limewire again to finish the download. The computer ran fine and even let me download a few others afterwards without freezing. As we speak, my system has been up for 7 straight hours since that last manual restart.

I just can't figure it all out.