My computer has recently started to freeze quite often. Most of the
time, it is because of some physical movement done to the computer
(i.e. it is bumped or moved). Sometimes it will freeze (no keyboard or
mouse input works) without warning (no windows messages are shown),
and other times it restarts on its own. I have not changed any
software or hardware recently. I believe it is hardware related
because it happens in WinXP and RH Linux (it is set up to dual boot).
My friend thinks it is because of the hard drive (the manufacturer
made a bunch of faulty units) but it does not feel at all hot so I
disagree. I tried to reinstall updated drivers to most of my hardware,
and that did not solve the problem. I opened up my box to make sure
all connections were secure and cleaned all the fans. Still no luck.

So I guess my question is: What parts of the computer are sensitive to
physical movement that would result in the above situation?

shane43,

Try visiting this site for a free diagnostic.
http://www.pcpitstop.com/



Overheating CAN cause your system to lock up. I had to install an
extra industrial-strength fan in one of my slots, and I still have to
keep my case open. I figure there is something defective in my
motherboard, as I burned up my first processor after 2 months.Even
with an open case and an extra fan, my machine still runs hot, and
freezes often. However, PC Pitstop picked up that my hard drive is
running at a speed far lower than is should,(and they suggested i
could be heading for hard drive failure) so your friend could be
right!
Good luck!

Hello shane43!

Having built my own computer from scratch I can give you some tips of
advice.

You have cleaned out the fans but everything inside the box (computer
case) should be cleaned with compressed air (if you have it, if not
use a lint free cloth and touch the case with your hand before you do
it to ground yourself to prevent static electricity discharging some
of the components).

If everything is cleaned the next thing to check for are the RAM
dimm's (Memory Modules). They are long ruler shaped modules that are
about 5 inches long and 2 inches wide. They will be held in place with
clips (usually black in color) on either side. These clips must be all
the way pressed against the memory modules  so they are not lose.
Loose RAM could cause the computer to stop responding. But since your
computer periodically responds after you restart then it may be...

A loose cable. Check all cables and make sure they are connected
firmly to each part of the motherboard or the components on both ends.
It could also be...

A faulty hard drive. Yeah your friend COULD be right. But the hard
drive is one of the few moving pieces in a computer that could cause
the computer to stop responding if it is jarred enough so that it
can't recover. To test out if it is the hard drive is the problem then
buy a new hard drive. (Pricewatch.com has good deals. You'll probably
want a 3.5 inch internal IDE hard disk drive since that is the
standard. Get the same or more GB (capacity or how much the hard drive
holds in the new drive). If you can borrow an unused hard drive that
someone you know has and look at "Build your own computer" sites to
see how to connect them. You can also look at your computer itself to
see how it is connected, usually just a power cable, an ide data
cable, and it's mounted in place with 2-4 screws. If you can't test
out the hard drive then test out the other components.

If your manufacturer of the hard drive is IBM and the type of hard
drive is a Deskstar then there is a possibility that it is a hard
drive problem. You can test out the hard drive using a boot floppy
disk at this site:

IBM hard disk drives (technical support) -- Downloads
http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Look at the Drive Fitness Test section where you can download the
program and put it on a floppy disk to test. That site gives step by
step instructions.

Check and make sure all components are firmly in place including the
Video Card (sound card if you have one) Network/lan cards, etc. Make
sure no wires are hitting or could hit the fans and cause the fans to
stop running.

Secure the drives such as the hard drive, cdrom/dvd/cd-r[w], floppy,
et cetera drives by using a screwdriver and making sure they wont move
if you move the whole computer. Nothing should be loose.

Be sure to blow air into the power supply (which is the fan in the
back of the computer where the power cable connects to. It will most
likey have a fan there).

If all the hardware checks out so far then check your BIOS settings.
The BIOS is the base settings your motherboard and cpu use to know how
to use the hardware of the computer and some other settings are set
here like power management etc. You can get to it by pressing the Del
key or F1 key or whatever key the screen your computer tells you when
you first turn it on. It will usually be something like. "Press F1 for
Setup" or something like that. If there are some overused settings
there then you might want to find and read your motherboard manual
that came with your computer if you can find it. Otherwise write down
your current settings and then try a default settings on the BIOS to
reset some errent setting that may be causing havoc on your hardware.
There are so many BIOS settings and they are different for each
computer so the best way to check on your specific computer is to
either find your motherboard manual or search for your BIOS version on
the internet. You can find the version by remembering or writing down
the type and version number when your computer first starts up. For
example, Award BIOS Version 4.51PG is a type of BIOS version.

The bumping and crashing of your computer suggests a hardware problem.
But WindowsXP and RedHat Linux are not crash proof. If it crashes
without warning and with no "bumping." It is most likey a software
problem. It could however also be caused by overheating.

Overheating seems unlikely since I've not know bumping or moving the
actual computer to cause the problem but you can check on this just to
be sure.
Go into your BIOS settings as above and monitor the temperature of
your computer in PC Health/Status or one of the choices in the BIOS
that can show you the temperature in F or C. Let the computer run for
a couple minutes while you monitor the temperature. If the CPU gets
above 70 DEG Celcuis and continues to rise then it sounds like an
overheating problem (in addition to something else). To fix this you
can just make sure you computer has adequate airflow and you have good
heat transfer from the heatsink/fan and the cpu. That does not sound
like the problem but computers are so complicated it could be a
problem (but doesn't sound too likely here).

Basically, your main suspects are the hard drive, and anything that is
loose or dirty in the computer. If I can think of any other reasons
I'll update this post.

If you could name your hard drive's brand and type it might help as
well.

Hope this is helpful!




Search Terms Used:
ibm faulty hard drive
://www.google.com/search?q=ibm+faulty+hard+drive&sourceid=opera&num=100&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

I had this problem when my computer had a celeron CPU using a Socket
370 -> Slot 1 conversion card. Even a moderate tap to the case would
cause a hard freeze. While I'm not exactly certain that the celeron
and converter were the problem, it never felt really secure in there.
I recently upgraded my motherboard, CPU and RAM to a socket-based AMD
system, and no more crashes.
I still have my old celeron and motherboard lying around, so if you
have a similar setup and think this might be the problem, I'm still
curious as to how this can be remedied

Thanks for all of those helpful comments! I didn't expect such a
response.

Crabcakes:
What a useful site! I will for sure be visiting pcpitstop again. I ran
the test, and i got a checkered flag (the best grade) on all tests
except "disk drive letters" (I received yellow) because my drive have
no label. Oh yeah, I guess I should have mentioned before that my
drive is partitioned (but I'm sure you probably figured it out
considering I have 2 OS's).
At first I thought it was overheating, but my case has been open ever
since this problem started and the processor temp is usually around
40-48C.

ArcadesDude:
Thanks for the detailed comments! I have cleaned out the inside of my
box, however not with compressed air, so I will try that.
I checked the ram a week ago, so I doubt it is that.
I checked all cables a week ago too, but I will recheck again.
My hard drive is an IBM Deskstar 60GXP, which I have read several
articles about being faulty (here's one-
http://www.prawlings.net/mycomputer/ibm60gxp.htm ). I have not noticed
a hot temperature, or any sort of noises coming from it. I probably
will replace it at last resort, but I want to be sure that is the root
of the problem before spending money on it. I ran the drive fitness
test, and it reported a code of 00, which means no errors.
In regards to the BIOS, I noticed something weird 2 days ago-- upon
startup, I was told the BIOS had an invalid checksum (which I believe
means that the settings were corrupted somehow). I loaded the FailSafe
Defaults, and have slowly been changing them back to what they used to
be, but it froze again yesterday.
Heat I believe is not an issue. The processor temp is usually between
40-48C, and the case is open, so it is getting plenty of ventilation.

DLittle:
I have an AMD Athlon 1.3GHz, but no need for a converter so I do not
think that applies in this case. Thanks for the idea though!

Again, thank you all for your comments. This is my first time using
this service and was a little skepticle at first, but this is great! I
will surely be using this again.

>BIOS had an invalid checksum

If your computer is old (3 years or more) then this message may have
been caused by a weak or dying/dead cmos battery. The $2 lithium watch
battery holds the BIOS/CMOS settings and when it gets weak it can't
keep the settings and they may be lost (happened to me once).
Replacing that battery might help. Also that battery could have been
loose if you bumped the computer but that wont explain the freezing of
the computer when bumpped (just another problem to look into :)

Your hard drive is of a type known to be bad. Just so you don't lose
any important data you may want to consider backing up your important
files/settings/programs to cd-r[w]'s or another hard drive if you
afford it.

Maybe there is someone out there that can offer some more suggestions?

>BIOS had an invalid checksum

Forgot to add from the last post...

You may want to consider Flashing/Updating your BIOS. This might fix
the bad bios checksum if the BIOS itself is somehow bad. Just be sure
to use the correct updater/flasher program AND the correct version for
that updater and that the power doesnt go out when you do this. If
your computer doesn't give you the BIOS checksum error again then it
would be best NOT to flash to BIOS.

Also does your computer freeze/crash everytime you bump it or just
when you bump it a certain way/force or just randomly when it is
bumpped?

ArcadeDude:
My computer is a little over 1 year old, so I doubt the battery needs
replacing. I think the corrupted BIOS was maybe a side effect of one
of the times it froze. I got the message once, and after I re-loaded
the defaults I never got it again.
Great idea about backing up files to CD-R. I am going to do that right
now.

It has been a couple days since I tried all of these tips, and no
freeze yet. I gave it some little soft taps and no response. But I am
still keeping my fingers crossed ;-)

One thing that I did not find mentioned in the above comments...

I work in a computer repair shop, and we get problems coming in like
this all the time.  The best way to diagnose the problem is to narrow
it down by the process of elimination.  It could really be anything
from an overheating problem to a faulty power connector.  Pretty much,
what you want to do is change out every component until you find what
the problem is.  You are saying that this freezing is pretty easy to
re-create, so it shouldn't take too long to figure it out.  This is
what I would do:

First, unplug every drive (power, ribbon, sound cables) except your
hard drive.  Use your computer until you get a freezing problem.  OK,
so if it still messes up you know it's probably not the CDROM or
Floppy.

Next, if you are able, change out the RAM.  If you do not have
additional RAM to test with, a wonderful RAM testing tool is called
"memtest86."  You can find more information on that directly at
http://www.memtest86.com.

I would follow the RAM check with a CPU check (again, if it is
available).  Put your CPU in a known working computer or put another
CPU in your computer.  Still freezing?  Move on...

You mentioned that the hard drive might be bad.  Well, find another
hard drive to test with!  Take an hour and install Red Hat 8.0 on a
new hard drive and see if you experience lock-up problems... 
Alternately (both preferred) try your hard drive in a known working
system.

You get the picture...  Other components to try would be the Power
Supply (yep, they can cause that too), ALL the AGP/PCI/ISA cards, and
finally the motherboard.

The process of elimination is typically the fastest way to find the
source of your troubles.  Usually you will only have to go through a
couple of steps through the process to find the falty hardware
component.

Best of luck!

If u can try replaceing ur powersupply. thats is the most common
source of spontaneous reboots.itmaybe that its bad. and its just being
given the perception that its motion related or it maybe that the
wires are nicked
. but its very well worth a shot

looks like i'm a bit late but i agree with phi-ga on this one.  I just
bought a new celeron 1.7 and bought the cheapest case i could find. 
it had the exact same problem - random reboots, random freezes. 
checked absolutely everything for a week, ran the thing out of the
case, and narrowed it down to the powersupply since a tap of it would
produce the same results.  But unfortunately i can't tell you how i
fixed it since it eventually fixed itself somehow and tapping the
power supply now does nothing.  not sure what it was in there but i'm
glad it's happy now.  if i had to take a stab at it though i would
point my finger at the extra p4 power connector.