computer freeze

[Tim Painter]

Terry it may be shutting down due to heat??

Some systems will shut down as a protection factor if they get too hot.

Have a look inside the case. Switch the power off but leave the cable plugged in as this will ground the unit through the earth connection.

See if your CPU fan is choked up or even the PSU fan if there seems a lot of dust get the vac out carefully.

If this seems to solve the problem then maybe a new quality fan and some new heat transfer paste.

I could be totally wrong as I’m guessing but it seem strange as after she cools you can restart.

Tim.

[Terry Bull]

Thanks Tim but i don’t think its getting hot as the fan works fine and case sides are not fitted

it fits in its own space within my desk so after its last clean out i left the sides off
Thanks for the suggestion it seems as you say like a heat problem i wondered if it was a particular component that was was breaking down
Terry

[Kevin Flowers]

Terry
time to invest in a new one, if you get stuck i probably got one here i can boot up for you to borrow,

Kev

[John Cooper]

Heat is likely to be the most likely reason.

Have you tried removing the CPU fan and applying new heatsink compound – usually does the trick 😀

[Phill Fenton]

Have you added any new components that may be drawing power from the computer ( e.g an external drive that takes it’s power from a USB port?) If so your power supply unit may be developing a fault and unable to cope with the extra demand. You can buy replacement power supply units from places like Maplins. Go for one that has a higher capacity than your existing one if you have installed additional component since the PC was new.

[Martin Pearson]

Terry, there are a few different reasons for this sort of thing. It has nothing to do with heat, overheating will cause it to shut down not freeze. Have you made any changes recently or installed any new hardware or software? Do you get any error massages at all.
Phill is quite right about the power supply as well, they can start to fail for no reason at any age but also people overload them by plugging in lots of USB devices.

[David Rowland]

as said.. PC has TWO sets of fans.. one on the processor and the other in the PSU keeping that cool
oh ok 1 more which is sometimes on the graphic chip

[Zoltan Guban]

try to swap memory, graphic card or network card or reinstall, and check the cooler {remove ventilator from the cooler on the processor and clean it from dust} check for viruses with different antivirus software. Operation system?

[Terry Bull]

Lads

I have a hub full of usb’s but have not added anything lately i think i might try Maplins and see what they advise following your suggestions regarding power supply

Strange thing is it froze after about an hour this morning .has been on all day with no problem but i bet as soon as i go on utube it ll stop

Kev if i cant resolve this then i shall have to check out a new set up.thanks for the offer
Be bending your ear shortly anyway

Terry

[Simon Clayton]

Hi Terry,
I get this, Screen freezes then goes black, normally it comes back on after a few seconds, a couple of times it just don’t.
I changed graphic card and ram but still the same..
Did a search on the internet and most are saying its a windows software problem.
I’ve not found a cure as such, I just backup work as i go along…
Must admit its not happened for a few days, but windows has updated (I’m running windows XP) a couple of time since it started..
I Couldn’t find any help on the windows web site.
Si

[Tim Painter]

Try a powered hub if yours currently isn’t powered and draws through the PC’s power.

[David Rowland]

ah, you go on youtube and it freezes. Ok so computer gets slightly busy and then goes…

Power unit my guess after you saying that. (Or Video card fan, or sound conflict.)

USB Hubs, well firstly try using all the USB sockets on the back/front of a computer instead of those naff things. Keyboard should be directly in computer and so should be the mouse. Use Hubs for cameras/web cams/occasional use items. (But I dont think this is the problem)