Unknown Computer Lock up

My computer in the last week seems to suddenly lock up with no real reason. I think the hard drive may be the problem but not sure.

System is p4 1.8 oc to 2.25,asus P4T-E, gf4 4200, 512mb RDRam, running winxp home, western digital 80gb hd(has os), maxtor 60gb.

I only have air cooling, but temps seem normal. I have 120mm AC case fan keeping things cool. board temp <28celcius cpu temp <40celcius.

I fold 24/7. Usually with 5 or so windows open, explorer, excel, word, outlook, winamp, and a game, autocad, or dvd playing.

Most crashes occur playing Diablo 2 (about 10), some watching dvd's (3), some during video clips media player (2), and some in middle of night doing nothing but folding (2).

When the computer crashes I have to turn power off to get any response. One crash even did a blue screen of death, physical memory dump (first I've seen on winXP). On one reboot the main hard drive was not detected in bios until the second reboot.

Any ideas on finding a solution is welcome. Is it something software or hardware? Too much over clock?

Thanks,
Zairn

1. Have you scanned your hard drive for bad sectors?
2. How long has it been since you defragmented your hard drive?
3. Have you checked to make sure you have all the correct drivers?
4. Do you have Lavasoft Ad-Aware installed, and have you run it recently?

If you answer yes to all the above questions, I suggest reinstalling DirectX 8.1, then benchmarking your machine (to find out if there's any one test that will cause it to crash)

please elaberate on the nature of the crashes basicly exactly what you see on the screen and what you hear if anything.

1. try using a DC fan ac fans usualy tend to interfere with electronics. try puting the fan really close to your monitor and see if the picture jumps up and down if it does its most likely the fan is f**king something up in your computer.
2. too much overclock?
3. is your hard drive clicking?
4. does your computer have hot spots?
5. do you know what your voltages are at check the bios

Captain slug,
1. hd has no bad sectors.
2. defragmented two days ago.
3. drivers work fine.
4. just installed Lavasoft and found nothing.

What specific benchmarks would you suggest?

snowmobile74,
1. possible fan causing it, slight monitor flucuations occur, but I have been using it for over 8 months with no troubles. It is impedance protected.
2. I am just wondering if having computer overclocked for over 8 months would have any effect?
3. quietest hd I have.
4. hot spots in case? not that I know of. Antec server case. intake fans (80mm) in front of hd and back case by cpu, with 120mm above dvd drive in front blowing out.
5. MBM voltages as follows: core 0 (1.45), core 1 (1.78), +3.3 (3.32), +5.00 (5.03), +12.00 (12.00), -12.00 (-12.23), -5.00 (-5.14). I will check bios voltages next reboot.

Thanks,
Zairn

Try backing off on the overclock and see if the problem disappears.

interesting . . . well i would allso sugest you try runing mprime and runt he torture test. This is a very extensive test it will generate numbers and check them with known good answers. if that runs for at least an hour then the problem is software and or messed up interupts/irq's http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

I downloaded mprime and ran the torture test. I had an error after 3 hours of running.
I then reset fsb back to normal and tested at 1.8Ghz and It has been been running the torture test for 24 hours now and still going.
I think I will leave it at current settings to see if I get any more lock ups. Then I am going to try and figure out what causes errors from overclocking. I now think it's the memory as overclocking doesn't effect the hard drive much(I think). The cpu is fine because I protein fold 24hr/day.

Thanks for the help,

Zairn

has your cpu temp increased at all from when it ran fine till when you had the probs?