[wholeeo]

So this is my parents PC.

Troubles its having it randomly locks up, even at the Bios splash screen at times and it happens a lot during Windows 7's loading screen. Things I have tried are a 6 hour memtest which came up with no errors, windows update and cccleaner. I've tried safe mode as well but even then sometimes booting up it will lock up. I have switched the PSU, I have reset bios to optimized defaults. I really don't know what to do anymore, I'm not sure if its high temperatures causing the problems but I do think they are too high. Sometimes after shutting the PC off it won't turn back on unless pulling the the power from the PSU and hitting the power button again. This is leading me to believe its something with hardware and not software.

Also the case its in is horrendous as it has no intakes nor an exhaust...lol

Anyway any input or advice would be appreciated. Mods, could you please move this over to AMD General forums or any other place you seem better fit for this type of question, thanks!

 

[ManOnFire]

Nothing looks out of place, Temps do look high though, Is CnQ active?

If all else fails, reseating Ram and the cpu couldn't hurt. Could be power supply on its way out too. Trial and error is all that'll solve this I think.

 

[wholeeo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ManOnFire Nothing looks out of place, Temps do look high though, Is CnQ active? If all else fails, reseating Ram and the cpu couldn't hurt. Could be power supply on its way out too. Trial and error is all that'll solve this I think.

CnQ is active, and the PSU is new, I'll try reseating ram and I'll see if I get a new case for them that way I can reseat CPU while I'm at it, maybe get a better CPU cooler too. Just would hate to spend cash and time for it not to solve the problem..

 

[Gyro]

Those temps are on the high side,a new case would surely help.
I know my 720 hates the heat.

Gyro

 

[BlackOmega]

What are the specs of the rig? (mobo, RAM brand and rated timings, cpu voltage).
I couldnt see the pic (on my phone) so I dont know what your temps are like.
720's are typically very cool running CPUs. At stock speeds mine wouldnt, even with stock cooler, go over 45C. Although that was in case with decent airflow. However, if you're getting to 62C that is way too hot.

One thing about the RAM, memtest only tests the ram and not the controller. You'll need to run prime95 blend test (set mem to be tested to max). That'll put a good load on the IMC and the ram. Try to run it as long as possible.

 

[Catscratch]

You could also check for dust or mobo contacting case surface at some points. I suppose everything set right in the bios for ram and cpu ?

 

[wholeeo]

So I change the case, install a new CPU cooler, and it still locks up during boot at times, even at bios. I think I've figured it out, it may be a bad IDE hard drive. The computer has 2 old IDE hard drives which one I have occasionally noticed disappear when I'm in Windows. Thing is though the PC does not boot into Windows without these drives plugged in. Well at least one of them.. I tried unplugging them and fixing the MBR but for whatever reason the bootsec program doesn't let me. Gives me an error of "Element not found."

 

[pc-illiterate]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wholeeo So I change the case, install a new CPU cooler, and it still locks up during boot at times, even at bios. I think I've figured it out, it may be a bad IDE hard drive. The computer has 2 old IDE hard drives which one I have occasionally noticed disappear when I'm in Windows. Thing is though the PC does not boot into Windows without these drives plugged in. Well at least one of them.. I tried unplugging them and fixing the MBR but for whatever reason the bootsec program doesn't let me. Gives me an error of "Element not found."

lol. of course you cant boot into windows if the hdd containing windows isnt present.
ive never seen a bad hdd stop a pc from posting. it may be possible, but ive never experienced it

 

[hyujmn]

It's possible that your CMOS battery is dying. I had a similar problem with random lockups on a PC my brother and I built. It was 12 hrs Prime95 stable, but would randomly lock up and shut down on its own. Only pulling the power supply plug and leaving it there for a while allowed me to reboot the PC.

Once we replaced the CMOS battery on the motherboard, all the problems went away.

 

[pc-illiterate]

aww shoot hyujmn. yep. was told the same thing happened to a coworkers mothers pc.
she couldnt even reinstall windows. replaced the batt and now no problems.

 

[hyujmn]

Yup. It was incredibly frustrating trying to diagnose the problem. We knew the CPU was more than stable after our stress tests. We set everything back to stock, switched out CPUs, RAM, PSUs, GPUs, everything.

What finally gave it away was that the system clock time would go into hyper speed. Minutes would pass by in just seconds, which is when we realized that it was probably the CMOS battery at the end of its life. Swapped that sucker out for one we had laying around and bam! Problem solved.

Hopefully that will also resolve your parents' PC issues.

 

[wholeeo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pc-illiterate lol. of course you cant boot into windows if the hdd containing windows isnt present. ive never seen a bad hdd stop a pc from posting. it may be possible, but ive never experienced it

I might have not made myself clear but the hard drive that was disappearing was not the one Windows was on...lol I had to be in Windows to notice it... Anyway, I unplugged both IDE drives and everything is well at the moment. Had a rough time fixing the MBR so that Windows would boot up but managed to pull it off. So far no crashes or lock ups as of yet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hyujmn It's possible that your CMOS battery is dying. I had a similar problem with random lockups on a PC my brother and I built. It was 12 hrs Prime95 stable, but would randomly lock up and shut down on its own. Only pulling the power supply plug and leaving it there for a while allowed me to reboot the PC. Once we replaced the CMOS battery on the motherboard, all the problems went away.

I will also plug in a new CMOS battery as suggested if another lock up happens. When you said that you had to remove the power from the PSU though for a couple hours before attempting to turn it on its making me lean towards its being the CMOS battery and not the IDE drives causing the problems since I had to unplug it at times as well. Might just put the multimeter to the battery and see how much juice its got left. Man, I would hate for it to be the battery after all the hours and money I spent trying to fix the thing...