New computer is constantly freezing

I built myself a new rig about a month ago. For the first few weeks it worked perfectly, but this last week it began to randomly freeze. It could freeze anywhere from playing Starcraft 2 to in the bios. The most common freeze times were shortly after booting either at the login screen or within 5 minutes of reaching the desktop.

It also froze once during the memory check in the bios and twice on the HDD check which lead me to believe it was either my RAM or HDD (both used from previous builds.) I tried the Windows 7 checkdsk on both HDD's and it would still freeze. I then manually removed each hard drive and tested to see if it would still freeze and in the process I messed up my windows install. I tried reinstalling windows 7 on each HDD and the computer froze while installing on both drives.

Prior to the HDD problem I tried testing the RAM. I had 2 different brands of ram in my rig (2GB Kingston and 1GB Hynix, which I know isn't smart but they were the same speed and computer read it as 3 gigs). I tested with Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool and no errors were detected. I then tried removing the hynix ram to no avail.

Now I'm back to square one with a computer that freezes during the windows install with absolutely no idea what is causing it. Any and all help is appreciated.

Mobo, Ram or HDD is to blame.

If you have a warranty on your parts still, just get them all replaced so you don't have to worry about what is doing wrong.

Burn a disk with puppy linux on it.

Disconnet both HDD's

retsart your PC and boot into the CD.

If it still crashes then you know your HDD's are ok.

Also try re-seating your RAM.

Burn a disk with puppy linux on it.

Disconnet both HDD's

retsart your PC and boot into the CD.

If it still crashes then you know your HDD's are ok.

Also try re-seating your RAM.

Daytona_178

I don't have access to a dvd burner with my broken pc, only a netbook. I am familiar with putting slax on a usb drive though, would that work as well as puppy linux?

I assume you have checked all the FSB configurations from BIOS? And there's no overheating problems? I'd test all those mentioned above this reply and most likely I'd test to change GPU,PSU too., if you got any spare parts that is? ;)zxl

Not exactly sure what the FSB configurations are but I think they are related to overclocking and voltage right? If so I've never done any overclocking so those settings are at default as far as I know. Heat isn't an issue either I've checked with speed fan and everything was around 40C and reached around 50C while playing games. Ran memtest86 and my sticks passed, so I'm about to go try the puppy linux. Thanks for the help so far everyone, hopefully this'll be fixed soon.

I assume you have checked all the FSB configurations from BIOS? And there's no overheating problems? I'd test all those mentioned above this reply and most likely I'd test to change GPU,PSU too., if you got any spare parts that is? ;)zxl

The PSU doesn't cause lockups like that, at least not from what I've experienced. I've had it were a PSU was failing and the problems that started was its inability to fully power everything in the PC; specifically the USB ports. The mouse would stop working, failure to power and/or run the connected iPod, printer wouldn't respond and such other things.

After that the PSU either can't power the system enough to run things or it'll burn out and fry, sometimes taking other components that it's connected to: MB, HDD, GPU, RAM, CPU and so on.

I'd venture to guess the problem is with the MB or RAM.

Try starting your computer with just one stick of RAM, if it works, turn off your PC, swap the stick installed for another one and try again. Do this will all your RAM. If you fail to boot your computer than that stick of RAM is faulty. If you can boot your computer with all RAM, then work on moving the RAM around in different DIMM slots to see if maybe one of those slots has gone bad.....

**edited to fix some misspelled words**

Try hitting a bios default, ifthat doesnt work then do the above puppy linux, if the HDD are not the blame then probably you have faulty ram you probably have 3 sticks 1GB each maybe thats the problem try using only 2 or better yet get 1 more 1gb stick or xchange them to 2x2gb.

Here's an update for you guys, and it's finally some good news.! :D Couldn't get puppy linux to work without burning the cd so I just bought a new HDD while I was at staples. Plugged the sucker in and got Windows 7 to install with no freezes. Currently posting from my pc so all seems well. Just wondering, should I just leave in my 2 gigs of kingston ram and forget about the off brand ram? After having this problem it makes me wary to put myself at risk for this type of situation again. Thanks to everyone for all their help, I was about to write off my HDD being the problem and try to return the mobo!

Sorry to bump this thread, but the problem has resurfaced. Not exactly sure what to do now. :( Any suggestions?

A netbook...honestly thats ur problem xD

1 Stick of ram at a time

try a different graphic card

But it's most likely a bad board or something.

Alright so I tried one stick of ram at a time. Eventually it got to the point where the computer had a strange post beep. I looked it up and it said it was either a motherboard or memory module error. I couldn't recreate the post problem and then it didn't boot a few times in a row so I decided to try an old motherboard. While I couldn't boot into windows (installer wasn't running off usb for some reason), the computer froze twice in the setup menu in the bios. This makes me think it is the ram. When I first ran memtest86+ I only ran it for 1 pass so I'm going to try it again and let it run overnight.

Like I said, make sure you have the right memory timing. I also see that you have 2 different types of ram, they might work at the same clock speed but not at the same timing.masterdrat

I removed the generic ram and now only have 2x1gb sticks of Kingston ram. According to memtest the timing is 5-5-5-15. Is there anyway to check if this is the default settings for the ram as I haven't messed with it since I had it.