computer freezing; cannot detect ide drives

[omar ismyhero]

my computer freezes when i try to run almost all programs and play any videos. Also i cant use system restore, although i can play mp3's. And when i reset my computer and start up 50 % of the time it wont detect my ide drives and i will have to take out and plug in the cords to my hd's again for it to work. Also it says i dont have conducter 80 cables installed. Can anyone help me, thanks

 

[jeremy]

well if you disabled system restore then no wonder you cant use it, you mentioned it happens when you run "almost all programs" can you be more specific? provide the names of those programs,
also provide full system specs including psu brand/model (look on its sticker if you dont know) , you added new hardware recently before it started?

download sandra click here , get into hardware-->mainboard ,scroll down til youll see temperature/voltage sensors and take a screenshot

check the mobo for bad capacitors and better use a flashlight cuz its kinda dark in there , see examples
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=195
http://home.earthlink.net/~doniteli/index27.htm
if youll find any rma the mobo if still under warranty , otherwise have em replaced at some electronic repair shop shouldnt cost much

as for the ide cable , ide hds run at ata100/udma5 or ata133/udma6 (maxtors only) , a 40 wire (or conductor) ide cable limits to ata33/udma2 which is fine for most optical drives but it severly limits the hd performance (and when it comes to burners an 80 wire will make a little improvement in burning quality over a 40 wire) , as far as i know 40 wire ide cables are no longer being manufactured but some stores still have em in stock , goto some local computer store and get an 80 wire ide cable and youll notice big performance boost , 40 & 80 wires ide cables have diffrent color coding , on a 40 wires ide cable all the connectors are black & on a 80 wires ide cable the connectors are blue/grey/black

 

[omar ismyhero]

i didnt disable system restore, its one of the programs that freezes my computer when i run it. as to the programs that dont work, they include all games (warcraft 3, cs, etc...) most system tools (system restore, disk cleanup) and limewire. I havent tried all programs out yet to see if they freeze. I also cant run any flash. Some programs that do work are windows media player, soulseek, the internet, itunes and mp3's. also i checked my mobo out and everything seems fine. also when i run sanda my computer freezes LOL so that doesnt werk.

as for my comp specs this is all i know i have 2 60 gb harddrives, a mobo that says abit-kd7 on it. 512 of RAM. A Amd athlon XP 2400+. A geforce 4 ti 4200. As for my power supply its an antec pp-303xp 300w switching psu. And i didnt add any new hardware b4 i recently started.

 

[jeremy]

scan for viruses on these sites
http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner
http://www.ewido.net/en/onlinescan/

get into the bios , and goto "pc health status" , report back with the voltages/temps , just write em on paper

 

[Sui]

do the memtest thing, and yeah go spend 2 or 3 bucks on some 80 wire ide cables.