Pc Freezing

[UrBaN963]

Okay guys, I'm going to a friend's place later to have a look at their PC. Need some suggestions.

Short story, PC was struck by lightning. They had it repaired by the local PC Shop which did the following:

• Replaced the motherboard
• Replaced the CPU
• Replaced the RAM
• Replaced the PSU
• Data transfer

Now, no mention of replacing the HDD so I'm not sure what data transfer would have been done, bar updating drivers etc.

Anyway the PC keeps freezing and the PC shop says they can't find a fault. It freezes randomly, (Excel, Outlook, Desktop) so doesn't seem to be software-related, excepting possible driver conflicts.

SO, things I'm thinking to check are:

• Double check the seating of RAM, CPU, all connections etc
• Double check what drivers are installed (new mobo, new drivers required)
• Verify if this is or isn't a new HDD and if it is not, some sort of error checking (SeaTools?)

Anything else I should check for as part of my debug?

 

[ArmatageShanks]

First thing to do is check Win Logs to see Whats the last thing that happend before the crash

 

[WAslayer]

I would do the following:

1. check the seating of all components
2. most bios have a log where information and errors are logged. i would check this
3. use hard disk sentinel to check health and smart stats on hard drives
4. use something like passmark burn in test. free for 30 days. custom test. set ram, cpu and gfx to 100% and leave the rest out. let it run two 15 minutes tests 30 minutes apart
5. use memtest to test the ram. let it run over night if possible.
6. check event viewer logs for potential issues

if all of the above passes without issue, you should be all clear hardware wise.. i would then proceed with a fresh installation of the OS and latest drivers etc..

 

[UrBaN963]

Thanks guys

 

[sajunky]

[*]Verify if this is or isn't a new HDD and if it is not, some sort of error checking (SeaTools?)

Nope, most probably. Check SMART for DMA errors, if any. The only things the hard drive firmware would log.

Remove this drive and put another one for testing and do clean OS installation. If there is no lockups anymore, then transfer everything to the new hard drive.

 

[agentrfr]

Reinstall. If you still have problems then troubleshoot