Mohawk92

OK, well, to start with, thank you to everyone who tries to help me out with my issue, means a lot!

OK, so the issue is, my computer (recently) has decided to be a prick and at random times after start up (could be before i log in, could be in 4-5 hours) it will freeze up, nothing on the screen will load, all sounds will stop, and mouse wont respond, the only way to un-freeze it is to manually reboot the computer, it happened after i put a new graphics card in it, (nVIDIA GeForce 5500) i successfully installed the drivers and the card, and had fun with my semi-improved graphics, then came the freezing, i tried everything, even removing the card, removing everything about nVIDIA that was added, and system restoring to a factory reset. still freezing, any help once again is GREATLY appreciated, right now the card is OUT of the computer.

Specs:
Compaq Prescario SR1426NX
Intel 4 Pros.
3 GB RAM

If you would like any other info, ask and i will be more then happy to get it for you

THANKS again!
~Mohawk

justpassingby

Hi Mohawk92 and welcome to TSF !

You're underpowered. You updated the video card but didn't update the power supply, a dedicated card will require more power than the onboard video adapter and Compaq ships with power supplies that are just enough for their rigs, there's no power margin to add new hardware.

Upgrade the power supply, look at the recommended models for the "standard computer class" in this thread : Power Supply Information and Selection

Mohawk92

Thanks for the warm welcome!

I got that from other sites too, but that cant be the problem, because i removed the card and its drivers, and went back to the old integrated one, and it still froze up after that.

justpassingby

If the power supply wasn't able to cope with the additional load when the new card was installed you may have fried it, or bad voltages could have damaged your ram.

Enter the BIOS, locate the hardware monitor screen and report the temps, fan speeds and voltages readings. Look for some "press xx to enter setup" message at startup to access the BIOS.

Download memtest 86+'s Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip), unzip it, burn the .iso file with imgburn (select "burn from image file"), insert the CD in your computer, change the boot order priority to CD-rom first in the BIOS and leave memtest run on your RAM for a couple of hours (a whole night would be better). Report at the first error it finds.

Mohawk92

OK, sadly I honestly used my final blank Yesterday =[, so i will need to go out and get some more, i have it all downloaded though,

System Temperature 50C/122F
CPU Fan Speed: 1862RPM AVERAGE
System Fan Speed: 941RPM AVERAGE

Mcninjaguy

well your cpu is about 15C warmer than it should be or around 90 -105F is a pretty normal temp for a cpu

Mohawk92

ive had the side panel off my computer with a fan running on high next to it, it still froze, unless theirs a better way to cool it down when it on?

Mcninjaguy

sadly like "justpassingby" said about getting a new PSU, Iwould reccomend you getting a new one too.
what kind of case do you have?

if you have a fan sucking air in the front and blowing out the back then you should have a noticable improvement

My setup goes like this (Antec 900 gamer case)
2 fans in the front both 120mm
1 side fan 120mm
1 rear fan 120mm
1 top fan 200mm

then I have my graphics card fan,, cpu fan ,a and my PSU has a 140mm fan.

this case at newegg.com (antec 900)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129021

justpassingby

@ Mohawk92 : no voltage readings in the BIOS ? Tell us how the memtest goes once you have a blank disk (I always keep one rewritable CD for such uses, so you can replace with the latest version when it comes out and burn other diagnostic CD's if needed).

If you haven't run a chkdsk scan since the last freezing do it now : go to start => run and type chkdsk c: /R.. The /R switch will make it scan the drive for bad clusters, it'll take time but you only need to do it once. Each time the computer isn't shutdown properly you should run chkdsk c: /F (faster than /R) to repair errors in the file system. Once you're back in Windows after chkdsk ran go to the event viewer (start => run => eventvwr.msc), click on application and double-click the latest winlogon event to see the results of the scan. Click on the third button on the right (this copies the information in the memory) then right-click => paste it here.

Check the system and application sections of the event viewer for other errors happening round the time your computer crashed and paste the information here as well.

If there are any recent .dmp files in c:\windows\minidump then please zip them together and upload them in your next post.

Your computer probably came with a 250 or 300W PSU, check that on the sticker that's on the side of the power supply block. Your PCI video card isn't very power hungry, I believe a good quality 450W PSU with 80% efficiency and active PFC will be enough. I'll move your thread to the power supply section so the hardware techs can advise some models to you. No problem if you buy a Corsair or Seasonic, they're definitely worth the price, but there's probably cheaper models that'll do the trick for your rig.

@ mcninjaguy : Too many fans isn't advised either, they'll take more power from the power supply and like I said with the current PSU there's no power margin for new hardware (Mohawk already has more RAM sticks than what came with the computer originally). One at the front sucking fresh air in and one at the back blowing hot air out is enough, with fans in all directions you can face airflow issues.

50°c in the BIOS is ok since no idle cpu time is inserted there, the temp will be lower in Windows.

Mcninjaguy

Yea I have a corsair 750watt how much power do you think a vantec or antec fan would take up(120mm)
side fan - sucking
front fans - sucking
rear fan blowing
top fan blowing