Epic freeze

[bobaandy]

Howdy all. I'm running XP on an older hard drive. Recently, it has been freezing after 10-20 minutes after starting up. I can still do everything fine, at normal speed, but it will freeze eventually.
Now, I'm talking about the caps light light won't even light up. Even though the HDD light was flashing before the freeze, it won't even light up after. It's like my computer is frozen in time.

I have booted into safe mode, where I noted that while the same thing happens, it takes noticeably longer.

As for viruses, that's also a no. I have AVG and Avast! running all the time, and they scan at different times every night. I run Spybot and AdAware regularly. I update the definitions all the time.

My specs are as follows:

8800GT with DuOrb cooler.
Intel Q6600 OCed to 3.0 GHz. I have a V1 cooler on it. It runs nice and cool, and stable.
Intel p45 mobo.
4 GB RAM
Thermaltake HX620 PSU


Thanks guys.

 

[philbar71]

you have some kind of stability issue. check the temps of every thing and remove the overclock on the q6600 for starters.

 

[bobaandy]

Hi,

All temps are alright (high 20s-low 30s) and I removed the overclock. While it now takes longer, it still freezes.

 

[QuaziBee]

I had to laugh when I read "like its frozen in time", theres a reason we call it a freeze.

Is it a new install of windows or did you just take a hdd out of an old pc and throw it in yours?

 

[bobaandy]

The drive has originated with my old computer, and when I built my first computer I took it out and carried it over. This was maybe 4 years ago. Since then I have rebuilt several times, etc. Most recently a rebuild a few months ago. I've had no problems since then except this. The drive is 7 years old now, so it's getting there, and I expect it may be the drive just dying. But what a weird way to go. I wanted to post here to see if anyone had any ideas before jumping to replacing the drive.

This happened the day the AT@T guy came over to replace my router. He didn't touch my computer, so I doubt it's anything more then a coincidence.

 

[carnageX]

For starters, you shouldn't run 2 antiviruses at the same time, even if they scan at different times. Both have an active monitor and can conflict.

Have you ever done a repair install on the XP install after any of these part swaps (mobo is biggest)? May want to try doing a repair install on it.

 

[Baez]

Antiviruses absolutely hate each other and do not get along. No matter if they're from the same company. Only run one like carnage said.

 

[bobaandy]

Alright, I got that. I've had AVG detect things that Avast! misses, and vice versa. But I'll scan for viruses now.

I was never really clear on how repair installs work, is it just going to replace all the system files? Will I lost anything crucial?

 

[Baez]

You won't lose anything if the repair install runs correctly. It only reinstalls all required system files.

 

[bobaandy]

Alright, I'll do that later then. Thanks for the help so far. I'll let you know how things go.

Ok, well, there are no viruses and the repair install didn't help.