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I have built a computer that worked fine for the past two years however recently there has been an issue where it randomly locked up and had to be hard reset to come on back again. It would sometime freeze before or during POST. Sometimes before the OS finish loading properly and anytime during regular use after a successfull start.
I changed memory thinking that was the issue. The freezes went away for a day or two after this and then it returned.

Specs are :
ASUS P7h55m pro motherboard
Intel i3 CPU
Kingston Value Ram 2GB
Corsair CMPSU400cx power supply


Any Help appreciated.
Thanks,

casingh wrote:

I have built a computer that worked fine for the past two years however recently there has been an issue where it randomly locked up and had to be hard reset to come on back again. It would sometime freeze before or during POST. Sometimes before the OS finish loading properly and anytime during regular use after a successfull start.
I changed memory thinking that was the issue. The freezes went away for a day or two after this and then it returned.

Specs are :
ASUS P7h55m pro motherboard
Intel i3 CPU
Kingston Value Ram 2GB
Corsair CMPSU400cx power supply


Any Help appreciated.
Thanks,

From my experience freezes during POST happen when the motherboard is defective. I was unable to pinpoint my issue, i just swaped it with another model. You say it's 2 years old? I guess your warranty is up by now unless it was one of those boards with extended warranty or something.

But to be sure you could do a Memtest session to see if the RAM is causing the issue.

It could very well be the motherboard, but it's always hard to completely eliminate the powersupply from the equation until you swap in a known working unit.

Have you reseated all of the connections? Sounds obvious, but sometimes that's all it takes.

Are you doing anything specific when it locks up on Windows? I've had mobos that would sometimes fail to post but were otherwise rock solid (meaning failure to POST and Windows lockups can be unrelated). Any chance the HSF is not in good contact?

And I agree with the PSU issue; it's the component I've had fail the most, and one of the most difficult to troubleshoot (gah, I hate disconnecting and reconnecting everything!)

As a last resort, you might try updating your bios; I have had that fix problems that appeared mysteriously after months of stability. Makes no sense, but hey. Another thing you could try if you haven't already, is to reset the bios to defaults and see if that helps.

Hi all

Thank you for the replies. Ok well I am kind of on a tight budget right now and don't have access to spare parts to test which components are bad. I know this is not a good way of testing them, but I attached a multi-meter to the power supply leads while the system was running and the voltages seemed all right and stable.

Is it a good idea to buy a motherboard first?

Thanks,
Casingh

If you're confident that the PSU is alright, then yes a motherboard is probably the highest priority. If you're not, that's typically the first thing most check afaik.