HELP ME....challenging troubleshoot

OK...where to start.....I am running a custom built comptuer with a p3 500mhz slot 1 processor, a superpower motherboard, 8 gig hard drive, 320mb ram, and windows xp professional......Several months ago my comptuer stoped working ,and the repair guy found that dust had clogged the processor fan, causing it to burn out...the then 450mhz processor was replaced with a 500 mhz, and i changed the jumper settings myself........

Now when i leave the computer on for about 5-30 minutes idle, or if i try and do anything major in dos, the computer freezes.....i dont feel this is software related as it freezes in dos, and I have formatted the drive before. Some people suggest that the computer is overheating, but i dont know why it would do that/it still freezes with the case open.....could this be a kind of hardware failure or is it indeed overheating, please email me or replay with any suggestions as i am quite desperate at this point
~Dan
[email protected]

Thank you
p.s. I do have pictures of my computer if you want to see (they are too large to post)

 

Replying by e-mail is inappropriate for this forum as it deprives others who may have a similar problem from benefiting from your experience; also it prevents others who would make suggestions from benefiting from the knowledge of those suggestions and the results of them.

It sounds to me like you have a damaged board; however, there is the possibility that jumper settings are wrong or the processor is bad. If you have rechecked your jumper settings already and you have no other processor to try, you might take it to a professional shop and have them check the processor and the jumpers.

I notice that "superpower" is not capitalized. Is this a brand name or simply your personal comment on the board's capabilities? I've never heard of that brand.

 

Hi,
I'm sorry about the email address....i am new to the forum and did not realize this was inappropriate. I offered it merely so that I could be contacted if I am not online at the time of a reply......as for the motherboard, the brandname is Superpower, lower case was a typo.........the problem is, I orignially took it to a shop, where the guy put in a new processor, but he never changed the jumpers, i have no way of knowing if he gave me a bad processor and i dont know if i can go back there without proof, as for possible motherboard damage, how do i know if it is a component as opposed to just an overheat problem.....finally, my HD does have a bad sector on it, but it has worked fine before, and would that really cause it to freeze in dos? thanks

 

You can confirm or eliminate the hard disk easily enough. Use this command at the DOS prompt:

scandisk c: /autofix /nosave /nosummary /surface

Provided you have only a single partition, this will identify any new bad sectors. If it finds new bad sectors, run it again. If new bad sectors are found the second time around, you have a hard disk with a bad logic board. Logic boards are the little circuit boards on the bottom of the disk and cost more than replacement hard disks.

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maybe said tech had the motherboard jumpers right?

run it without the cover on, point a fan at it's innards to eliminate the heat issue

 

Who replaced the CPU and Heatsink/Fan?? Maybe they didn't install the heat sink and fan correctly with the thermal paste. I am sure a PIII @ 500MHz gets hot enough to shut down if not cooled properly. The fan blowing in the case should give you a good indication that it is a heat problem. If the PC starts up again after the initial freeze up it more than likely is still a heat problem.

 

Another thing to check is to make sure the fan is blowing down onto the heat sink. If it is not that would cause a heat problem.

 

Hi,
Ok there is alot to take in....for starters..what does a freeze while in dos indicate? hardware or overheat? The processor is attached to a heatsink/fan combo..the fan seems to be drawing air in and pushing it out behind the processor (the heatsink consists of metal cooling fins)..the only reason why i ask is that if i go back to the guy that installed everything i would need evidence that he did something wrong.......the hard drive originally had bad sectors..but if i try running a scandisk etc..the computer freezes

 

Alex, when i tried using your dos command I got an error message saying "scandisk is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program, or batch file"

 

You are running XP. You will have to use a Windows 98 boot disk and run it from there. However, if you are on NTFS instead of FAT-32, it will not work. An NT file system cannot be read in DOS mode.

 

You wrote that your machine is freezing in DOS mode. How do you manage to get a DOS mode in XP?

 

Hey...yes i am running hd on NTFS format.......question...could HD error cause computer to freeze while idle/in dos?

 

Hey everyone,
Well i think my problem is sovled..although the solution makes no sense....my friend found that my CD key # was invalid (preventing me from d/l service pack 1 update for XP)......he helped me fix it and i was finally able to d/l the SP.....now the computer doesnt freeze......i left it on all night running defragment and it didnt freeze!!!! if anyone knows why the SP presented a problem (including the computer freezing in dos) please let me know..but otherwise..thanks to everyone