mattdragon2

Hi there,

My PC:
Dell dimension 9200

Whilst booted in windows XP, randomly the PC will freeze and 1 continuous beep comes from the motherboard. I have to turn off the computer and boot it back up again. There are no beeps during boot up.

Before windows freezes, each program I am running slowly stops working.
I.E.
I can chat on MSN messenger for abit until eventually it stops working.
When I right click on the desktop the menus appear semi transparent.

After that everything freezes and 1 continous beep comes from the motherboard.

I have not installed any new hardware or software. It just happened randomly.

I have 2 1gig ram, I tried using only 1 of those each to see if it could be the memory but the PC still crashed regardless of the memory stick I use. Though this doesn't rule out the possibility that both memory sticks are broke (unlikey though?).

I tried replacing my graphics card, it still occured. I ran the hard disk diagnostic which said they pass.

I checked that all cables were fitted correctly and refit them just encase.

Tried to install windows again using windows recovery, which took ages cause the PC kept hanging, so that obviously is a hardware problem.

I can only assume it is either the Power supply or the motherboard. Though I could be wrong and it could be both memory sticks.

Hoping it is the power supply because i've heard replacing a motherboard with a dell pc is not easily possible. The pc has ran out of it's warrenty.

The bios doesn't seem to have a CPU temperature monitor, so I do not know if the CPU is overheating. The fan still seems to be working though for the CPU since I can feel the cold air come from it.

I don't think it is overheating because I once left the PC without doing anything for over 5 hours and it didn't crash, it only started to crash once I started using it.

Does anyone else know what this could be or how else I can identify the problem?

Thanks,
Matt

Biatch

First thing you should do is fill in your system specs.

Sacre

MemTest86. That will tell you if it's your RAM and/or your DIMM. Then you'll have to figure out which one it is, fairly easy - put your RAM in a verified working PC or put verified working RAM in your PC.


Actually, that is how overheating works. It overheats more when you use it.

It COULD be a heat problem - the 'slow down' could be a built in throttling function as the temperature rises, but it fails to cope and eventually crashes.

Get RealTemp or something for temperature monitoring. Also, try Orthos or Prime95 and stress JUST the CPU and see if it crashes fast. (For example, when I had DIMM slots go bad, I ran Orthos on full CPU stress tests and it was perfect, blend test - ram+cpu - crashed me faster than I could say omgmyramisbroke)

Also, take the heatsink off the CPU and check for the status of the thermal paste - if there even is any. If there's any left and you don't have extra, don't clean it off, it's all you've got to work with until you can get some new paste.

Sacre

Sorry to double post, but I've edited enough.

Have you overclocked this at all? (I'm assuming this is the C2D E6700 DD9200, unless you upgraded) Either way, do a full bios reset.

mattdragon2

No I have not overclocked it, but I shall try what you suggested, thanks.

Pc Spec:
(http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/pc-desktops/...-9200/details/)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 / 2.4 GHz
2Gig DDR2 SDRAM
Serial ATA Raid0 2 x 250 GB - standard
Windows XP Sp3

BlankThis

Sounds like power supply...

Is it possible for you to borrow a friends power supply (400W+) and test it in your computer?

~B~

__________________

jkaz

I happened to find this thread through google and I have the same exact problem which started around 2 days ago. I also have a dell but it is an e1505 laptop. Basically what's happening is I can boot without a problem and I can do everything for a while until the computer freezes and emits one continuous beep. At first i thought the problem was software, so I scanned for viruses and etc. Nothing has changed and I'm still having this problem. I can't identify the problem and before i start taking apart my laptop i wanna see if others can help.

I'm beginning to think though that maybe it is software seeing as how we have come across the same problem at around the same time...

mattdragon2

Ok an update:

I ran the memtest with 14 passes and no errors so memory is fine.

I ran anti virus for the hell of it, still breaks (didn't break during the scan).

I turned off indexing, still breaks.

I ran a temperature monitor, both my CPU are around 30 degrees.

I ran prime95, did a full stress test for CPU for a few hours, nothing broke. I ran the stress test with full CPU and RAM going at the same time but nothing broke.

I ran chkdsk, came up with nothing wrong with my hard drive.

I managed to do all of this without the machine crashing and while browsing the net downloading all the software but then I go on youtube and my pc crashed.

I am maybe starting to think it could be software, the problem is I did windows recovery, so shouldn't that replace software drivers with the old windows drivers?? Could it still be a hardware problem???

Also note: I ran a system restore and during it, I got a Blue screen of death (Ran system restore about 5 times after and it never happened again) which gave the error of bad pool header.


Any advice is appreciated?

Sacre

Could be a hard drive issue... have any spares?

Vlasov_581

agree with the above post....download speedfan ......it has a utility for checking hardrive status......

__________________
I Fold