Question to all you computer wizards
 

I have an AMD 900 (not overclocked) with
768MB (133mhz) RAM
Geforce 4 MX (brand new so cant be the problem)
40 gig HD
8 gig HD
DVD
Burner
SB Live 5.1
and an ethernet card.

oh and a 200watt power supply.

The problem is that it randomly freezes (especially when watching movies and playing games, or playing around in photoshop)

I have tried:

Format
Different OS
New Vid Card
HD cant be the prob cause I have 2 of them.

My buddy suggested that it might be the power supply.

Is that possible? That this may be the problem!?

200w is really skimpy... do yourself a favor and pay $20 for a 350w or better. it very likely could be the problem.

I would think it is your power supply, get a 300-350 watt one, should be $20-40 for a average one. (If it isn't the problem, make sure they have a nice return policy from the place you get it from).
ZoiNk

Overheat.
flaky power supply.
flaky memory.


----edit----

while thinking about it, some motherboards (especially amd) dont like it when the 3 memory bank are used.
did you purchase more memory recently?

I assume that means it is not a online connection issue..

Overheat - Impossible ( i have like 5 or 6 fans inside...)

Memory was just upgraded and same thing before and after...

is the memory exactly the same?

Format c:\ d:\ and e:\

...... MORE RAM !!!

Not more ram, faster ram, can't your mobo handle DDR? even if it's 266Mhz, I went from pc 133 so ddr266, and theres a difference.. not a big one, but theres a difference

I was at 256 got another 512 and got a new 256.
Its the same brand/speed

LOL i actually tried that

768mb should be enough to run a movie.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

you have 5 fans but a 200w power supply?


seriously, i got my l&c 425w for $18+s&h.


if your memory is different types, that can make a difference, although the machine usually won't boot... (i.e. parity/non-parity, etc)

heh, doubtful when he's running a 900mhz...

your machine will also be losing out with that 8gb hdd, unless it's really freaking fast.

whenever you have ide devices connected, your speed is equal to the SLOWEST device on the chain.

so, if your big drive is a nice 7200 w/ 8mb cache, but you have a 5200 rpm 10-year-old drive on the same chain, guess what, it's slow.

i keep all my devices on individual channels. 4 channels for 2 cds and 2 hdd. that way drive to drive transfer stays fast too (ide can't handle multiple i/o well), including cd copies.

The first step I would suggest is to take the sound card out and see if it still freezes. If it does, then replace the power supply with somehting decent like an antec truepower or smartpower if you dont want to spend that much money. There are is goodpower supply review at http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1774 and another one at http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20021021/index.html. I would bet thats ithe problem because the lowest wattage power supply on AMD's approved list is a 235 Watt from antec. IF that dosent fix it then its either the Motherboard or proccessor.

how does the sound card relate? i assume you say this because it's removing draw on the psu. amd's are kinda picky about their power.

i'd just get a L&C psu. they're pretty much just as good as the bigger names, but $50 less.

random freeze but not a crash is most like a hw driver problem

new video cards CAN be the problem, and often are... because of the drivers. download the latest drivers for the card and install them. same with sound card

if that doesn't help <i>then</i> go out and get a better power supply.

Safe, thanx for all the input ladies and gents.

Gonna buy a HD and a Power supply this weekend.

Dont think its the Vid card or Sound card
Both are pretty good.

Dont wanna upgrade cpu cause i would have to replace ram, mobo and thats too messy for me right now


too busy to play with that...

thanx again.

Take out some of that ram, try all your movies etc with 256 megs and see what happens. So happens a LOT of games etc simply choke when there is too much ram. Sounds crazy? Its true and will only take ya a few seconds to test it out

He's right, I had the same problem...freezing pc all the time, took out a 256mb ram and all problems were gone....dont ask me why....but they were gone :thumbsup

I said this 20 posts ago!

I want credit ;)

second this suggestion, except... if your already running the most current driverset for your GF4, you might want to try backing down to an earlier driver version... lockups when playing DVD's are very often due to graphics drivers being in contention w/ some motherboards logic (especially on AMD-based boards)..

I have 2 sticks of ram

256
and a
512

its the SB live.. .. get another sound card and your problem is solved.

i bet you have a via based mobo with that south bridge that is incompatible with the live and AMD procs

did you try running the games and stuff that normally crash the comp without the sound card in the compuer for testing purposes? i bet it fixes it !

its not the sound card for sure, had it since the 5.1 came out
and this started recently...

amd 900?
Welcome to the late 1990's.

Why the fuck would you want a power supply for a door stop.

I suppose you call yourself a 'Webmaster" also.