Bad Hard Drive Or MotherBoard ?? Help 1

[TboneJr]

I got a comp that I built about a year ago. It is running Windows XP pro - 160 Maxtor HD, P4 2.4 GHZ, 512 MB DDR RAM, 256 MB Nvidia 5500 Video, SB Live Sound. About 2 months ago it started locking up and Id have to do a hard boot to get going again. Its gotten more and more often now. seems about every 5 - 10 min. I reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled windows and it still locks up. I changed the RAM, pulled the sound card & changed the video card. I ve pulled everything but the Hard Drive and the processor. It is sporadic & does it at different times - sometimes when it boots up and sometimes five min after it just sits there. Ive Ran a DOS surface scan on the HD but it says it is ok (But it stated the HD did run hot at some time) Can the HD be bad even when the surface scan didn't find any bad sectors ? I feel like it is more likely the HD than the board or the prosessor. Any Ideas ??

Thanks for any help

 

[Aussie2]

Are you using a good quality psu?

 

[TboneJr]

Well Ill have to check ?? I haven't thought about that. I haven't had any problems with it. How could you tell if it was the PSU ?? Ive had one go bad before but the computer wouldn't start up at all so I knew what it was.

 

[edfair]

Would expect that the load on the drive while it is running the surface scan would be enough to show up any flaky electronics but it is quite possible that the drive can be faulty while having flawless media.

If it shows evidence of overheating you have reason to be suspicious of it.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[G0AOZ]

How could you tell if it was the PSU ??". Easiest way is by substitution with a known good one. You could also try measuring the PSU's output voltages when it's first started up, and then again when the operating system has locked up. However, this may not be conclusive.

If you could get it to lock up running a DOS utility from the floppy drive, then disconnect power and data cables from the hard drive, CD and DVD drives etc., and see if the problem still occurs with less load on the PSU.

PSUs can also suffer bad capacitor syndrome - see

http://www.badcaps.net

but if you decide to open up your power supply, then be very carefully as the high voltage capacitors can retain a lethal charge long after it's been disconnected from the mains supply.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[TboneJr]

I remember a few months ago I would get a blue screen that said that something terrible had happened to my computer and I would reboot and all would be well, but then that stopped and it started locking up. When it locks up the power dosen't cut off it just freezes where it is - and you have to turn it off and back on. Thats why I haven't suspected the power supply. One more thing I put a HD cooling fan on it when I found out it had overheated at some time. I also got a program that tell the temp of the HD and before I put the fan on it - it was always in the red. (135 + F.)

 

[G0AOZ]

A faulty PSU doesn't always necessarily shut down the PC. Component values change as the circuits warm up and, for example, voltage sag can then occur on one or more of the DC rails. This could cause the machine to freeze or blue screen. But bear in mind a possible faulty PSU is just one or your error options at the moment...

Anything in Event Viewer? What about getting the hard drive surface scanned for bad blocks?

Hard drives can get exceedingly hot, and cooling them in a heatsink tray or with a fan is never a bad idea.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[kjv1611]

TboneJr,

Please review your event viewer for any regular errors, especially, then warnings if no errors, particularly since about the time the problem began (as G0AOZ mentioned).

Also, if you wanted to be able to narrow down whether or not it's the hard drive, you could try booting from a live CD of linux, and see if you're able to "work" within that copy of Linux for a while.

In any case, if you've not already done so, I'd be backing up any important data ASAP. You may keep doing testing afterwards, but if you keep running tests, and your hard drive is on it's last leg, you may not have much chance at recovering the data after your testing is done.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[TboneJr]

I just got everything backed up. Its shutting down after about 2 or 3 min now. Everything you do it freezes. But still if I stop and boot up and run the drive scanner it doesn't freeze and shows no errors. It only freezes after windows loads ?? (which makes you think its software) But its no different software than before - just the bare windows XP.When I formatted the drive I done a complete format with deleting partition and creating new one. Maby running windows is more of a load or a different kind of load than the drive scanner. (The scanner im talking about is the maxtor software that you put on a floppy and boot it to the floppy) I cant use the windows version because the comp wont run long enough for me to install the software I think Im going to go ahead and get another HD and see if its the prob if not then Ill have an extra HD.
Let me know if you think of anything else.

Thanks Again

 

[kjv1611]

Hmm, just in case you have some weird software goings ons, you can try DBAN.

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

It works VERY well at formatting hard drives. It wouldn't be a bad idea to get a second drive, anyway, as they are so cheap now. And that provides a little extra data security - even if Windows crashes, you still have your data, without having to worry about how you reinstall or repair Windows.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[TboneJr]

A friend donated a 20 GB HD to me - LOL. Im going to load windows on it and see if it stops freezing. If so then Ill get a new HD if not then I guess its the power supply next.

Thanks for all the help

 

[TboneJr]

Thanks GOAOZ
I inspected my board and found many swollen and leaking capacitors A hard drive would have been so much more simple !! Any way does anyone know what brand of motherboard I can get - that I can feel certain will have good capacitors.

Thanks for all the help

 

[Mrcandyman83]

that all depends on what you use your comp for

"You could dream a little dream or you could live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cuz dreamers always chase but never get it" -Aesop Rock

 

[kjv1611]

You CAN just go to

http://www.newegg.com

and look for motherboards, and specify your processor on the left side pane, and go from there. There are many with plenty of "customer reviews" to be helpful in picking one.

Generally, if you go with Asus, MSI, or Gigabyte, you're safe - though it's never a 100% case with any manufacturer. Also DFI and eVGA seem to offer some nice boards as well. The first 3 have been building motherboards and video cards for a very long time.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me