computer screen frozen

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Hi, My dad got a rather old computer windows xp, he use it to write poems, etc.

It starts, but froze after 5 minutes.[[froze= display, but mouse and keyboard no movement]. I got hold of it, remove the ram, put it back, it froze only after 10 minutes.
I remove the ram again, and remove the possessor as well, replace and start up. Now their is not even any display. the fan is running, but on the attach pic, the one heat-sink
get very hot. [I labeled it in red].

http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/showphoto.php?photo=36267&cat=500.

What do you people think I mess up, or what went.
 
Looks like the motherboard. Any other machine you can swap pieces out with? If you have multiple ram sticks, plug in each one singly in different ports and see if it crashes again. If you can run graphics off the motherboard, try that.
 
1 ram only.

Video is coming from the motherboard. Maybe the cheapest will be to try a external video card. I will have to buy one. I suppose you cannot go to a company, install one and only pay it the video card does solve the problem.
 
Buying another vga card isn't going to solve the problem. There's not much to that system it's either one of the 4 items, Mobo, CPU, RAM and PSU or maybe a peripheral device.
Try cleaning out the ram slot.
Try another PSU
unplug HD. CD rom, USB stuff including cables to mobo, etc and try again
Try reset the mobo ( unplug the battery and power for a min or so )

It's an old PC and therefore obsolete, if anything's farked then time to scrap it.
 
Could also be the PSU. Might be best if you take it in to your local computer store for repair.
 
Robertvv said:
Hi, My dad got a rather old computer windows xp, he use it to write poems, etc.

It starts, but froze after 5 minutes.[[froze= display, but mouse and keyboard no movement]. I got hold of it, remove the ram, put it back, it froze only after 10 minutes.
I remove the ram again, and remove the possessor as well, replace and start up. Now their is not even any display. the fan is running, but on the attach pic, the one heat-sink
get very hot. [I labeled it in red].
Click to expand...

I had the mATX version of that board in an older PC, the chipset also died in the same fashion and had the same freezing symptoms. There's very little you can do beyond a full reflow and then the board will only work for about another week or so. Boot into safe mode and start backing up what you can. If you have a strong desk or floor fan, open the side of the case and point it at the board to keep the chipset a little cooler while you make sure all the data's safe.

What CPU is in there? Pentium 4? Core Duo?
 
Johnatan56 said:
Looks like the motherboard. Any other machine you can swap pieces out with? If you have multiple ram sticks, plug in each one singly in different ports and see if it crashes again. If you can run graphics off the motherboard, try that.
Click to expand...

You forgot something in your thought. What happens when RAM is faulty? It doesn't hang. BSOD with a specific code.

This sounds like a hardrive read/write issue but takes way too long to come back as the human barometer allows.
 
D3athD00r said:
What happens when RAM is faulty? It doesn't hang. BSOD with a specific code.
Click to expand...

You can have an entire DIMM fail in a way that doesn't cause a BSOD. I've booted up computers before that have had 2GB DIMMs in them and only 256MB was ever detected by the BIOS.
 
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NAG - Wesley said:
I had the mATX version of that board in an older PC, the chipset also died in the same fashion and had the same freezing symptoms. There's very little you can do beyond a full reflow and then the board will only work for about another week or so. Boot into safe mode and start backing up what you can. If you have a strong desk or floor fan, open the side of the case and point it at the board to keep the chipset a little cooler while you make sure all the data's safe.

What CPU is in there? Pentium 4? Core Duo?
Click to expand...

You are closest to the root cause, but any mobo past 2004 shuts down with any overheating. Still doesn't sound like it 100%
 
D3athD00r said:
You are closest to the root cause, but any mobo past 2004 shuts down with any overheating. Still doesn't sound like it 100%
Click to expand...

For the CPU, yes. But chipset and IGPs don't have that safety protection, they can overheat and catch fire and the motherboard vendors won't care. The only thing they can't allow to break itself is the CPU, because Intel and AMD would have their asses for that.
 
NAG - Wesley said:
You can have an entire DIMM fail in a way that doesn't cause a BSOD. I've booted up computers before that have had 2GB DIMMs in them and only 256MB was ever detected by the BIOS.
Click to expand...

I agree, but once your system tries to write to a specific block BSOD. RAM writes like RAID 5. Data over multiple chips. It still doesn't "hang"
 
NAG - Wesley said:
For the CPU, yes. But chipset and IGPs don't have that safety protection, they can overheat and catch fire and the motherboard vendors won't care. The only thing they can't allow to break itself is the CPU, because Intel and AMD would have their asses for that.
Click to expand...

Every board I've had since 2004 has had protection on every chip. I've had to decode each MS log error. No problems. My biggest issue was with an Asus Striker 1 where the 2nd bios would be 20% popped out. Took me a year to figure that one out.

From what I can see, this is a really bad hardrive. The RAM keeps the OS, but the faulty harddrive gives no data.

Run the system without a harddrive. See if the bios hangs.
 
Last edited:
D3athD00r said:
I agree, but once your system tries to write to a specific block BSOD. RAM writes like RAID 5. Data over multiple chips. It still doesn't "hang"
Click to expand...

RAM doesn't do distributed storage, that's not how volatile memory works. Data added sequentially to the cells gets organised sequentially in the pointer records. Data added in randomly gets randomly added in anywhere. RAID5 is a workaround for having slow storage, adding in multiple sources for reads and writes done at the same time increases overall throughput (SSDs function in the same way). RAM doesn't need that because it has incredibly low latency and the CPU's memory controller can address each bit and byte individually. You may be thinking of the term "interleaving" which is where alternating banks of memory are written to and read from to prevent adding latency while waiting for the cell to refresh.

If RAM was written to and storing information like RAID5, we wouldn't have the ability to send cells, banks or whole DIMMs into idle to save power, because they'd have to be constantly consuming power and refreshing with every cycle while not having any data stored in the cells. You'd then have the issue of having to remove data that may be vital to the computer's operation in order to accommodate new data that can't be stored in CPU cache.

Also, if only 256MB of RAM gets initialised on a 2GB DIMM, the memory controller only works with and assigns pointer records for that functioning 256MB of available RAM. Your example works if, for example, the memory fails in between a sleep or hibernate. If the system is told to wake up and can't read the information at the cell which is now essentially non-existant, it will blue-screen.
 
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As NAG - Wesley pointed out hanging without any BSOD - it is most likely bad joint on the motherboard. Hot CPU just increases chance for above. When you touch it, reseat RAM, CPU cooler (whatever), it can be better or worse. Any further discussion on RAM issues are purely theoretical, not going to help on the subject.
Coming back to the initial reply, you have to replace thermal paste after removing CPU. So start from that, clean contact surface from the old one and apply a new. If doesn't help, there there is not much you can do and it is not your fault.
If you are going for a new PC, look around at Nextbook R1500, it is perfect for writing poems on the coach or a desk with external keyboard and monitor.
More: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/659209
 
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D3athD00r said:
You forgot something in your thought. What happens when RAM is faulty? It doesn't hang. BSOD with a specific code.

This sounds like a hardrive read/write issue but takes way too long to come back as the human barometer allows.
Click to expand...

I'd rather one checked all avenues, rather too many checks than not enough.
 
D3athD00r said:
Every board I've had since 2004 has had protection on every chip. I've had to decode each MS log error. No problems. My biggest issue was with an Asus Striker 1 where the 2nd bios would be 20% popped out. Took me a year to figure that one out.

From what I can see, this is a really bad hardrive. The RAM keeps the OS, but the faulty harddrive gives no data.

Run the system without a harddrive. See if the bios hangs.
Click to expand...

Boot from a LiveCD/DVD or USB to test if it isn't the HDD. Here are some links:
Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop
A guide to installing it:
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/try-ubuntu-before-you-install

If it still freezes its not the HDD. I still think it's the motherboard.
 
Currently their is now display. The monitor say it goes to power saving mode, and that one heat sink get very hot. Too hot if you ask me.
 
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