not-so random freezing

[Rephistorch]

Ok so my cousin was having computer issues, and me being the tech-guy in the family said I'd try to help him at least find out what was wrong. So whenever you turn his computer on from being off for a while it only runs for like 2 minutes, and then it locks up (no reboot). Then if you try to turn it on again it runs for about 1 minute and a half. then for 1 minute.... and so on until it finally just doesn't do a whole lot of anything when you turn it on. I'm thinking it's a heat issue... but when i boot it and go into the bios to see when it freezes... the processor is at 45C which I thought was really weird. We already have cleaned the heatsink of any dust, took everything out of it except the CPU and a RAM stick (onboard video) to no avail. It does this even with these parts taken out. It's not the power supply because I have a few backups that i tested on his machine and it still locked up. Maybe it's his motherboard, maybe it's a his CPU or maybe it's his RAM... I don't really know for sure. I'd like to think it's his motherboard or RAM because those are the cheapest parts. OH and his CPU is an AMD 2700+

EDIT: also he only has one stick of RAM and I myself dont have any 184-pin ram (I have DDR2)... also have cleard CMOS... I have also felt the heatsink to insure that it wasn't giving me a faulty read on the temperature

 

[Alvin.C]

Re:

Hello,

45°C is normal...

...okay, specifically when does the system lockup?

 

[Rephistorch]

I already said how often it locks up... it locks up like i said no matter where I'm at or what im doing like this 2 minutes for first boot and then shorter for every other boot until it just freezes the second i turn it on. When i said it was at 45C and that i thought it was weird, i meant that it wasn't hot and i was sure heat was the culprit.

 

[WorldIndustries]

When you went to the BIOS to look at the temp, did you wait around for it to get up to normal idle temp? Usually it'll gradually increase by a nice few degrees after it's been running a few minutes.

'Cause this really seems like a heat issue.

 

[WorldIndustries]

Forgot to ask... Will it lock up in the BIOS menu?

 

[Rephistorch]

To the second question: Yes it will freeze up in BIOS.... to the first question it was 45C when it froze