Re: Freeze-ups. Is power supply the only remaining possibility?

Not Here wrote:
I'm experiencing persistent freezes--screen freeze, mouse and keyboard
not responding.

I've tried installing XP Pro several times and never make it through
without a lockup.
I was able to run Windows 98 for several hours, but eventually it
froze too. I was also able to run Mini-PE Boot from CD for some time and didn't
have a problem. Also ran Memtest 86 for 2 hours plus, no problems
found. I've switched hard drives among 2 IDE's and one SATA on a PCI to SATA
controller card.
I've used the onboard video and an AGP Video card and the freezes
continue.

The computer is about 3 years old and was working until recently. The
original owner didn't want to deal with this problem so they gave it
to me.

Is the power supply the only remaining possibility? It's the first
thing I thought of but have to buy a new one and I won't be able to
return it if that's not the problem.

Thanks

AsRock 266A Motherboard
Celeron 2.4
512 MB DDR

If things were that simple, there wouldn't be any repair shops around :-)

I'd take a look at the condition of the capacitors on the motherboard.
The board in the picture here, has a two phase Vcore regulator in the
upper right of the picture. The tops of the black cylinders should be flat.
There are about seven of them in the upper right of the photo.
(Four upper right, three middle right.) If there is a brown stain on the
PCB underneath the capacitors, or if the tops of the caps are bad (bulging),
then the capacitors would need to be replaced. Some third parties would
"re-cap" a board for about $50, but since the motherboard is only worth
about that much when new, that is hardly cost effective.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/photo/M266A(Enlarge).jpg

You can verify some things about a power supply, using a multimeter.
But that won't tell you everything you'd need to know. Someone working
in a shop, would have a small amount of test equipment, and a bunch
of stuff dedicated to swapping in and out, for debugging purposes.
For a person at home to become their own "repair shop", could cost
a few bucks, so don't expect the process to be a cheap or easy one.

If you plan to work on computers regularly, you should already
possess a spare supply. It is handy to keep your current machine
running. If you want to keep a spare on hand, make sure you purchase
something of quality, that can be reused in a new build. If you
buy a $20 supply, you'll never know whether your spare supply is
bad, or the system you're working on is bad.

And if you need to know what products to avoid, look at the hundreds
of products on Newegg. There are customer reviews. If you find a
reviewer mentioning they are on their fourth RMA for one of the
cheap power supplies, that should tell you everything you need to
know.

Paul
.

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