what to check first if PC hangs?

[fourtheboys96]

ah ok. will check the PSU.

will remove generic AVR.

may warranty pa itong unit ko pero mejo hassle kasi bumalik dun sa shop although malapit lang sa amin. hehehe. DIY muna just to learn then go to warranty.

[badsekktor]

may sticker ba sa casing yan? kung meron at punit na, void na warranty nyan. imo, get a professional na lang. less hassle. madami kasi pwede reason kung bakit naghahang ang pc

[Syuryuken]

may sticker ba sa casing yan? kung meron at punit na, void na warranty nyan. imo, get a professional na lang. less hassle. madami kasi pwede reason kung bakit naghahang ang pc

kung sa casing lang pwede pa ang warranty niyan may tig-isang sticker naman sa mga parts.

[darksword_08]

palitan mu muna ng AVR baka kapos lang sa power ung sinusupply nya sa PSU mo dapat kaya na supplyan ang 500watts
if wala pa din try replacing your PSU(power supply unit sa loob ng CPU) mininmun PSU 500 watts

or baka naman oven heat na loob ng cpu mo,, try adding some exhaust fan,,,

tip lang sa pagkabit ng fan,,, dapat my intake at exhause para magcirculate ang air

[compact]

have the same problem before, assembled a pc wih cheap parts and it keeps on hanging with me.

shop suggested to change motherboard with intel. doesnt resolve it.

changed video card to the latest ge force which is very expensive. doesn't resolve it either.

next to be upgraded is the power supply. again, it doesn't resolve the issue.

upgraded the CPU, hindi pa rin naayos.

hanggang sa maging top of the line na yung pc ko, laki na ng gastos ko. di pa rin naayos yung problema. Major headache.

Isa na lang ang hindi napapalitan, yung mura lang na RAM.

Turned out, yun pala ang sira. So moral of the story, start checking or replacing parts from the cheapest to the most expensive parts.

[Jun aka Pekto]

what do you mean by power supply? the AVR or the one inside the casing?

i have these in my PC

1 160GB hard drive
1 DVD-ROM
1 External DVD writer (connected through USB)
1 firewire card
1 cooling fan (yung nasa case ng CPU)
1 fan dun sa processor
1 1gb ram
2 sets of USB ports (4 ports sa likod, 2 sa harap)

thats it. wala masyadong nakakabit. basic lang naman.

Make sure your pc's still under warranty before opening the case. Opening the case yourself may void the warranty. Of course, if you installed the firewire card yourself, it's too late.

Check the IRQ settings in System Information to see which devices are sharing an IRQ. If there's any device that shares an IRQ with USB, disconnect any external USB device (your DVD writer) and then use your pc and find out if the freezes still occur. If it does, then it's something else like ram or psu.

If the freezes occur only after prolonged use, it could be an overheating issue. But, assuming it's not the USB subsystem, I'm already suspecting it's ram or psu as others have already suggested.

[fourtheboys96]

Make sure your pc's still under warranty before opening the case. Opening the case yourself may void the warranty. Of course, if you installed the firewire card yourself, it's too late.

Check the IRQ settings in System Information to see which devices are sharing an IRQ. If there's any device that shares an IRQ with USB, disconnect any external USB device (your DVD writer) and then use your pc and find out if the freezes still occur. If it does, then it's something else like ram or psu.

If the freezes occur only after prolonged use, it could be an overheating issue. But, assuming it's not the USB subsystem, I'm already suspecting it's ram or psu as others have already suggested.

the shop doesnt put warranty stickers on the casing so its ok to open it. they put the stickers on individual components (hard drives, optical drives, etc.)

i inspected my PSU (powerlogic) and it says 450W and 500W (dont know which is which)

checked the IRQ setting and it has several components sharing the same IRQs with some USB devices. was not able to configure this because i am not really sure how to do it or what the hardware the words refer to. maybe i can post the IRQ setting and solicit some advice.

i doubt if it is overheating problem. sometimes the problem occurs just minutes after turning on the PC.

[JCBalunsat]

the shop doesnt put warranty stickers on the casing so its ok to open it. they put the stickers on individual components (hard drives, optical drives, etc.)

i inspected my PSU (powerlogic) and it says 450W and 500W (dont know which is which)

checked the IRQ setting and it has several components sharing the same IRQs with some USB devices. was not able to configure this because i am not really sure how to do it or what the hardware the words refer to. maybe i can post the IRQ setting and solicit some advice.

i doubt if it is overheating problem. sometimes the problem occurs just minutes after turning on the PC.

Isolation is the key in freezing.
Please do the following for as long as you can put it back. Kung gusto mo talga ng DIY, eto lang yan.
1. Pull out everything from the case (Motherboard, Processor, RAM, PSU, Hard Drive,)
2. Assemble the basics first namely the Motherboard, PSU, RAM and monitor.
3. Boot the system up. Let it sit for about 10-15 minutes. For you to check if the PC is still active, press keys on the keyboard and check the indicators for caps,num and scroll locks. pag nag on/off pa rin sya, disconnect mo na yung power.
4. Connect the Hard Drive. Let it boot to the OS and leave it alone for 10-15 minutes. Check for the PC's activity once in a while.
5. Now, connect other peripherals one by one (CDROM, cards and the likes). Everytime you put in something, leave it alone for 10-15 mins then check activity. If succesful, put another peripheral. If it hangs, that certain peripheral causes the issue.
6. If everything is succesful and you still cannot isolate the problerm, format the hard drive (don't forget to back up or put it on a separate partition for important data). Install the OS, drivers (esp SATA drivers if applicable) and software.
7. If still freezes, update the BIOS version for a more stable firmware (check your motherboard's
website).
Also, try to remember when it started. That will help you since you might have installed or added something to the system that is causing your problem.
If all else fails, bring it to the shop to get everything replaced or let them troubleshoot.
Athlon 64's x2 is not power hungry. I've seen 65w and up versions of these procies. But take note that A64's are heat junkies. It produces heat more than intels since they use copper/gold pins while intel uses gold pins.
Athlon 64's motherboards usually require 24pin PSU's rather than 20pin PSU's. Check that as well.
If you isolate that it's the PSU that you're having issues with, get a branded 350w PSU. Thermaltake would be best. You don't need a 500w PSU since you are not support a video card that requires a lot of electricity.

[chilli]

You can also check if your windows and drivers are updated. sometimes, outdated software components causes this too.

And maybe you would also want to run disk defrag, to optimize data placement on the hard disk for increased performance and reliability.

[JCBalunsat]

You don't need a 500w PSU since you are not support a [COLOR=blue! important][FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif][COLOR=blue! important][FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif]video [/FONT][COLOR=blue! important][FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif]card[/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/COLOR] that requires a lot of electricity.

That should've read : You don't need a 500w PSU sice you are not supporting a video card that requires a lot of electricity.

[badsekktor]

try to isolate kung os problem or hardware by booting to a bootable disk or floppy or usb drive. baka software issue yan. pareinstall mo yun OS. if outside os nag-freeze, try mo reseat yun memory and clean the slots and contact pins. madalas kasi yun ang nakikita ko diperensya.

[mhelskie]

try to check the voltages in your PSU, if it's inconsistent, that could be the culprit

[teratoma]

madami eh...hangs can be caused by a lot of factors, namely drivers, yung operating systems mismo, installed applications or even the hardware.

hanggang ngayon may tinitira kaming PC dito sa office na naghahang din. among the activities that we have taken:

a) checked the cables inside. ok naman.
b) checked the system for virus. although may nakita na Trojan, nung natanggal, naghahang pa din.
c) since may nakitang virus, we assumed na baka may tinamaang DLL sa OS. so we repaired the OS. naghahang pa din.
d) we decided to clean format and clean install the OS. ganun pa din.
e) we have checked the RAM for loose connections. Ok naman.
f) we isolated a defective USB port. so assuming na yun ang nagiging cause, pinalitan namin ng USB. ganun pa din.
g) yun pala ang problema is yung CMOS...

Sir pano po ginawa nyo sa CMOS? Flash nyo po?

[Jun aka Pekto]

OT
Some motherboards have problems regulating IRQ/ACPI settings at the bios level. As a result, random freezes always result. I recall one owning one such motherboard which was a nightmare:

Soyo Dragon Plus*

It's an AMD Athlon XP motherboard based on the Via KT266A chipset. That motherboard had massive problems. It had 5 pci slots and an agp port. But, putting any pci cards on the last 3 slots always resulted in a hard freeze. Even when the slots were vacant, I had to make sure very few IRQ's were shared. I'm glad it bit the dust shortly after moving here. In contrast, the motherboard of my wife's old pc is based on the older AMD 760 chipset. It way outlasted the Soyo and is still going strong today.

*It's the main reason for my tendency to keep track of shared IRQ's.