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Random computer freeze problem

TekSomniaK

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 26, 2003
Messages
1,144
I've noticed in the past couple of weeks that my computer just freezes for no reason. I just noticed a little bit ago that something in my computer makes this sound like something's restarting. Then a little bit after that my computer just freezes. I have to restart each time and it's very frustrating. I was thinking it was maybe one of my hard drives because two times now when I accessed my Western Digital that I'm only using for storage, the cursor locks up and I must restart. I've run a scan with adaware and spybot and I'll soon run a virus scan. Any ideas?
 
Did you find any error log files that might shed some light on what may be going on?
 
Where would I find those? Oh btw, it just froze again right when a .rar file finished downloading
 
It's doubtful that you will find anything. If you hear something, you're probably dealing with a hardware issue. I try to check them hoping to get lucky. Can't hurt anyway. You had better try to get your data backed up to be on the safe side. What OS are you running.
 
Sounds like a failing hard drive to me, especially with the whole 'CLICK, wheeer' sound aka 'restarting' sound. And naturally a hard drive getting lost makes the system freeze.
 
I running W2K here at home. XP at work. Pretty sure it the same

Control panel...administrative tools...computer managment...event viewer...system

I believe the top of the list is the newest

And yeah it does sound like a drive is flaking out on you. That why I hope you have a backup of what's on it.
 
FUnny you mention this, I've just noticed in the last week my computer is having random freezes. It never before had random freezes like this, only when playing 3d games and my radeon card causing problems.

NOw i get freezes very quickly inside 3dgames, and some outside games, all started about a week ago.

ANyway cleaning out system now to do fresh install of everything and try to troulble shoot from there.
 
I was having lock-up problems also, during file transfer.
I uninstalled norton systemworks 2004 and no more frezzing.
I was sure it was hardware, but no turned out to be software.
 
Well I ran western digital's data lifeguard diagnostics, no errors on the hard drive

I was also accessing something on my IBM hard drive and then it froze, I NEED HELP
 
I fixed my lock up problems, All I did was unplug 2 of my cd-rom drives and my system is fine. Whats wierd is my system locked up when I had no cd-roms in the cdrom drives.

Well anyway I have to figure out what is wrong now.
 
For shits and giggles rule out memory. I know you said it sounds like something restarting, but you tested your drive, do the memory and see if anything turns up.

http://memtest86.com/
 
Tek: you have to troubleshoot the problem. Its farily simple.

What you do is start swapping out components individually. First you want to try a different drive , then you want to swap out the memory if it sill locks (Or try 1 peice of memory at a time), then you want to swap out the video card with an other one. You keep swapping components until the problem stops. Completly take out your sound card and other components not needed.

And of course you want to start with a formatted fresh drive. If you can't swap your harddrive, at minimal format it. Then if nothing works it could be a bad motherboard.

You will be suprised at what actually is causing the problem, just like my unused cdrom drive was causing my computer to freeze. That means it could be my motherboard or my cd-rom drive somehow.
 
I would check each drive individually.

also, does it only crash when you are accessing more than one drive at the same time? I know you have a 520W psu in your sig, have you tried using another psu and seeing if this still happens?
 
Well unfortunately I don't have an extra PSU lying around but anyways, I just ran memtest for about an hour without any errors. I'm probably gonna start swapping out the components soon. After it makes that resetting type sound I can't access my Western Digital, it just freezes. Another weird side note, the Data Lifeguard software that I used to install the hard drive automatically brings up an error when I try to run it.
 
what's the error say? also, (this has been the case for me a few times) you might want to check the Molex power connector. i know it sounds simple, but i've had a few fail on me, and even the subtle movement of the HDD head moving to a dif. spot on the drive would cause a very short power drop, and the HDD would just die. (at least untill i restarted). try switching the Molex connectors, and use one from another drive, or one that's just free inside your case?
 
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