So I'm an IT guy so I should know the answer to this but I dont. My PC keeps locking up; either in the bios boot or once windows has loaded...perhaps even working for 2-3 minutes. I've already tested the memory sockets as well as the memory chips....what's next? The Mother board or the CPU? Problems like this are generally memory in my experience but I've already ruled that out. Thanks

UC Out

 

Could be a problem with the motherboard or CPU. I recently had one do that that was overheating at the CPU. The motherboard would sense it and shut down or lock up doing it. Eventually the CPU burned up (my bad) and a new CPU fixed the problem.

Do you have another MB with the same socket that you can try?

You could also try a bios update, but if it just started doing it and worked before, that probably won't fix it.

I have also seen these kinds of symptoms with a bad vid card. Usually that will boot up and run for a bit then freak out.


In the end it's PC repair 101. Pull all the coponents out and start putting them back in untill you find what's doing it. If it the CPU/MB it should do it with bare bones equipment. Hopefully you can find a vid card around somewhere so you can rule that out.

 

You gotta be more specific on the 'BIOS boot' lockup. Soooo.. does it complete the POST, toss the initial bios screen then lockup or do you try to boot and get a black screen with no images, no beeps, nothing?

 

I believe that it just needs a "good boot to the side".....

...have you moved any hardware around?
...what OS are you running?
...we need more info...

 

It will freeze just about anywhere in the boot process. It's completely random. The monitor displays but at whatever point it will just lockup. No beeps or nothing but it wont advance and the keyboard and mouse will stop working. If I reboot it, it'll freeze at a different point in the process every time. I thought for sure it was a memory problem.

Everything was working fine when I left Friday night and this morning it was locked with no display. That's when I rebooted it and it hasn't worked since.

I'm sure there's a CPU or motherboard problem, darn it. I dont really have time to screw with it today. Right now I'm just leaving it be but where I'm sitting now, people can see over my shoulder so I cant slack.

Windows 2000 Professional.
P4 2GHZ
1GHZ memory.

 

Are you able to boot from a floppy or CD?

 

I'll take a shot in the dark and say you took a power hit over the weekend and F'd it up real good. Could be anything, PS, CPU, Memory, MB.... start replacing! I'd start with the PS, then Memory, then CPU... if that doesn't help then it's MB time. Viper also made a good point about video cards, they can do some F'd up chit. You can try to disable the on-board (assuming that's what your using) and see if another helps.

I got $1 on PS or MB...

 

I'll mess with it this afternoon or tomorrow morning sometime.
I too think I must have had a power issue over the weekend. I got a call first thing this morning saying the whole network was down. The idiot consultant who was in at the time rebooted both servers, the switches, DSL, just about everything so I have no clue what was going on.

 

"....but rebooting works in Win98.......I figured that is what the server needed....."

 

We pay that idiot like $120 an hour to program Foxpro 2 days a week. He has absolutely no other computer skills, his programs always crash, he's a complete waste of money. I dont know why they keep writing him checks.

He can't even create a new .pst file for Outlook w/o my help.

 

....I am in the wrong business.....

 

If you can't even get as far as getting into the bios, and assuming the RAM is good, and seated properly, then it is probably one or more of these issues......

1.) Power Supply is bad. Try another PS.

2.) CPU fan is not spinning. Check fan to insure it's rotating at power on.

3.) Bad Caps on the mobo. Check to see if any are leaking.

Good Luck.

 

man I hate hardware...

When I do sidework I avoid "lockups" like the plague....no good way to guarntee your work.

Yuck....have I mentioned I hate hardware.

I use to build my own machines now I just buy a prebuilt one...better things to do with my time.

 

Amen to that....

 

Actually, the CPU fan is not spinning. I didnt think they could die like that. It has a large heat sink under the fan as well. Could the lack of a spinning fan really cause the system to lockup within minutes?