Windows Computer keeps crashing

Hey guys/gals

Ive just repaired an old computer i had lying around. Specs
Abit AX8 V2 motherboard
AMD Athlon 3500+
2GB corsair ddr ram
6800xt gpu
320GB IDE hdd hitachi
500w power supply

I managed to install vista on it as it was the only operating system i have spare. It worked before it broke when i put vista on it (very slowly) but now it seems to just freeze all the time. No specific moments just any time, even while idle. The hdd just seems to stop. Does this mean its the Hdd or something else in the system. Ive swapped out the Psu as that's the only spare part i have. Have also ran a memtest which came back with no fault.

Any ideas?

Lanky

 

Does it give u any error messages?

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

 

no it just freezes on what ever screen was up at the time.... Doesn't shut down or anything. Also screen flashes black now and then when its running

Edit: Ok after about 1billion resets from freezing and reboots from updates im up 2 service pack one so will see if that helps at all.

 

This sounds like PSU issue to me.

I had exactly the same thing. It would sometimes take a few reboots to get into windows, but i could be using it (surfing the net, gaming, whatever) and it would just freeze.

I tried everything before finally getting a decent PSU to test it with. Job done, it sorted all the problems.

Do you have access to another (decent) PSU you can test with?

 

Already swapped out the psu. Didn't make any difference. One is a casecom 500w(cheap but reliable) and other is a coolermaster 500w.

Computer has been on for a record breaking 3hours after I took the side panel off and stuck it on it's side.

Don't think heat is an issue as I had coretemp running and it froze at 35c.

Now it won't install the vista sp1 update. Keeps coming up with 80070002 error and ive tried everything on their info page.

I might have to just stick ubuntu on it and see if that works

 

Hmmm you could try running seatools on the HDD to see if it has packed up.

 

No Hdd errors.

So the freezing has basically stopped but no luck installing updates. Are the updates really necessary. The system is a little slow but for general use it's ok.

Hopefully I'll get my hands on an 8800gt from another member soon so I'll put it to good use folding.

It's performance is pretty shoddy compared to what I'm used to. Maybe I should benchmark it and see what poor score I can get (there was a post somewhere about low scores)