PC crashing randomly

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philb101

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I have a PC that randomly freezes & requires a reboot to function again
Spec: AMD athlon 1.3G cpu, 384M Ram, 30G disk (only 10% in use), AGP Vga card, PCI Nic & PCI Modem (not used)
Windows 98 O/S - I've checked for updates, all ok
NAV - upto date & scan through clean
Adaware - got rid of some Objects from there
Spybot - clean after initial scan

I'm currently running a RAM test I downloaded from simmtester.com
I will run a disk diagnostic test

Are there any diagnostic tests for the VGA, Nic, Motherboard etc

Also are there any other things I've missed regarding crashing PCs

Thanks for all help
 
Yeah, with your specs you could comfortably be running windows XP. it would probably get rid of the crashing as windows 98 is renound for its crashing.
 
Other factors on random shutdowns:

Win98 (mentioned)

Heat,

Failing power supply,

Spy-ware/virus. Know that you have scanned system but rescan in safe mode. I've had systems in the shop that have required 4 passes to remove everthing.

TSR's/system resources. Some say that system resources can be run as low as 10% I've found anything below 65% creates
instability.

Failing Hard Drive.

Incompatable memory. Simmtester memory tester reads as a DOS based application. If this is true then memory test will be false. Windows uses memory differently than DOS and has to be checked in Windows. The only GUI memory test application that I have found is in Norton System Works 2001.

XP upgrade would be suggested as a clean install. Only if you do not plan an replacing your system soon. Product Activation in XP allows "X" number of upgrades not migration to another system.

Hope this helps

Bill
 
Thanks Bill, useful info there

Its a clients PC & as usual they don't want to spend if things are blown up literally !!!

I've now downloaded a RAM tester off the Microsoft website, so I'll give that a run

Re: Heat, its not running over hot & the fans are all fine
Difficult to determine whether or not the Psu is dropping out occasionally

Will test as much as possible, then let decide if they want to upgrade o/s or purchase a new PC & use this as spares / backup
 
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