Random hangs - clueless

[Anupam]

Guys, need your help.

I am having an old computer on my hands, with the following configuration :

Motherboard : i810-ITE8712
CPU : Celeron 1 GHz
RAM : SDRAM (256 MB *2)
HDD : 40 GB Samsung SV4012H

The computer is experiencing random hangs, and I am unable to find the cause behind it.

Motherboard is old, and the manufacturer's site is now available no more.. and the company too has closed down I think. So, I cannot get BIOS updates, motherboard specifications, drivers, nothing. I even had really hard time finding out which company the Motherboard belonged to. After researching on the internet for drivers, I came to know that it belongs to Lucky Star from Taiwan.

Thankfully, XP recognizes the drivers for all components, so that's not a problem.

I was suspecting the RAM. SDRAM is now no more available, and an year before, we had bought two SDRAM sticks, which are local made, of 256 MB each.

Which software should be used to test the RAM sticks? I have Memtest86, Memtest86+, and Windows Memory Diagnostic. I read on internet, and went with the last one. I ran tests on each stick separately with 3 passes of tests. No errors. I then put them together, and ran the tests again. No error there too.

Which tool should I use to test RAMs? How many passes should I use?

Since I found no error with RAM as per my method above, I turned my attention to the HDD.

The HDD has three modes :

1] Selective slave, for capacity less than 32 GB.
2] Selecting slave, for capacity greater than 32 GB, but without capacity limit.
3] Selecting slave, for capacity greater than 32 GB, but with the capacity limit of 32 GB.

I downloaded the manual for the drive, and even the manual gives conflicting details for putting jumpers. When I bought the PC home, there were no jumpers.

After reading the manual, I tried the second mode... PC hangs there too.

Then, I tried the third mode, feeling confident that this must be it. I formatted the drive making a partition for 20 GB, and installed XP on it, but just before it could be installed fully, the PC hanged again.

Now am really frustrated, and don't know what to do. Any other area, where I should be looking?

[Anupam]

One more thing, this is the second time I am installing XP on it.

The first time, I had done a low level format for the drive, with Samsung HDD utility, and it was successful, without any errors. After that, the XP install was successful too, but the PC hanged after I was installing software on it.

[kendall.a]

I wouldn't rule out a bad power supply in this situation. If the ram tests out fine, and it sounds like it has, my next best guess is a power supply issue.

[Anupam]

Thanks Kendall. If its a bad power supply, then I would tell the owner of this computer to go for a new PC, because it would be futile to invest in such an old PC.

I have posted this on other forums too. I haven't yet received a reply from TechGuy, which is quite surprising, since its a good forum.

I have had a reply from one other forum, to look for bad capacitors on the motherboard. The capacitors look good, except for one which is bulging slightly, but does not look ominous. But, who knows.

Not able to know the specifications of the board is a real problem.

[kendall.a]

Thanks Kendall. If its a bad power supply, then I would tell the owner of this computer to go for a new PC, because it would be futile to invest in such an old PC.

I wouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater just yet. If it is an old computer, I bet you could get away with a power supply less than 300 watts. If that's true, check out this link:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...ower-Supplies&

You could get a new power supply (possibly) for less than $70.

Even the 300 watt ones are pretty cheap:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...-Power-Supply&

The issue would be figuring out which one would work....

[Anupam]

Well Kendall, things work differently here in India. And I am sure that if I go searching for a power supply for such an old PC as this, I wouldn't find it.

The motherboard is really old. Heck, its not even an ATX, its an AT, with a weird baby AT connector for the motherboard. I can't even figure out how to take that connector out.

Even more, there are no settings in the BIOS, where temperatures for the CPU etc, can be found out.

So, I don't think there is any point in spending money on this PC.

Already, we have changed the RAM, HDD cables, optical drive, and the CMOS battery.

Better to invest in modern computers, which are quite cheap nowadays.

Thanks for the help.

I have further info. I had set up an old 8 GB HDD as a test on this computer itself. So, I put it in this time, and tried to copy a big folder from a CD. Halfway through, the PC hanged. So, hard disks can be ruled out as a problem.

Its back to the RAM, or the power supply, or the motherboard.

Seems like its time for a new PC.

[Awgeewhiz]

At work we go through a lot of pc's.

One thing we found out with older hardware pc's was that components
get loose from sockets, reseating helps and that they are more apt to
heat up and freeze (heat up and freeze?) if they can not get good air
flow. Also check for corrosion and use a lot of canned air.

[Anupam]

Thanks Awgeewhiz, I have checked up on these points, and that way the system is good. First thing I did was to clean it, when I got it home.

[George]

Overheating due to dust in the fans or such would have been a wild guess of mine too. Try SpeedFan to check how hot it gets.

Another thing you could is swap the memory modules and stick the video card (or any other card) in different slots if you have that possibility.

Looks like you would have to try all these stupid things I guess.

[Anupam]

True George, when we cannot get our hand on a problem, we have to try different things.

Well, the motherboard is so old, there is no facility to check the temperatures. I looked in the BIOS, nothing there at all. And so, if the motherboard does not has it, SpeedFan won't work too. I tried SpeedFan in the hope that maybe it will show something, but it too failed, and did not show anything.

Don't know from where they bought this system

I have already tried swapping the memory modules, and also reseated them couple of times.

There is no video card.