My system has both Windows XP and Windows 7 on it, no matter which I am on I experience the same issue.
My system recently would just randomly freeze, and it is getting very annoying. I would walk away for 5 minutes or still be here on it and it would freeze so I would have to do a force shutdown.
It happens both on my Windows 7 and Windows XP partions, so I assume the issue is hardware related.
Please.
HELP ME.
Run a RAM test
RAM - Test with Memtest86+
@Fumz: Of course they are, why wouldn't they?
@Yowanvista: I'll DL it and boot off a USB stick.
The hardware is circa 2002. I thought you might not have updated them in a while; even for an older system, this is pretty old stuff.Can't say I've seen anyone try and run 7 with lower specs.
If the psu is as old as the rest of the rig you might want to look into getting a new one. PSU's, like everything else, have life spans. Really good ones ~7-10 years; decent ones ~3-5; not so decent ~ anyone's guess.
You should run memtest for a few hours and not just do one loop. For a thorough job do 8 hours to hit all the address ranges. If you don't find errors, then see if you can get your hands on another PSU... preferably one made this century.See if the freezing disappears?
I don't have much money, and the PSU is the original that came with the computer. It used to be an eMachines T2885 (manufactured in 2002) before I swapped out the GDDs, Mobo, CPU, and GPU with ones I found in an old Chinese gaming box. The Windows 7 was one of the 3 installs my dad got with a Windows 7 install where the key can be used on 3 different systems.
I hope to get money soon for a completely new system, but that is still a longshot.
By the way, MemTest x86 passed my RAM on the first pass which took almost an hour to complete, so 8 hours would be finished by midnight.
I would run it 8 hours. By your description of the problem, it really doesn't seem like a memory related issue, but because it could be, you should find out for sure.
Most freezing is memory related, either because of a faulty module, bad programming, insufficient voltage or incorrect timings. Because you've been running at the same timings and using the same programs (sometimes not doing anything at all), we can safely rule them out. Voltage we can't yet rule out; you're on your way to ruling out a faulty module.
Freezing also occurs because of insufficient vcore, which leads to fsb errors, which can lead to freezing and bsods. I'm going to assume you have not made any changes to the bios, that leaves the PSU suspect.
It could also be your HDD? With so little RAM, you're writing to the swap file a lot... and if the drive is failing, that might explain the freezing. Hard drives have lifespans too, and they're even shorter than power supplies.
I ran hard drive diagnostics tools not long ago (Seagate Seatools, ect.) and both drives are in perfect health, so I think it may be my PSU. It's an old unit and the freezing started I think about a week ago, since then they became a bit more frequent. I have experienced about 3 or 4 freezes today.
I just had a thought from something I remember from long ago in my early days of my computer learning. Could it be possible that a dying BIOS battery could be causing the system-wide freezing?
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