system locking up... HELP!

flaagan

ok, long story short, my system is locking up after running for a period of time. I *just* finished formatting and reinstalling windows xp to eliminate that as a direct cause. When the system locks up, even the keyboard doesn't respond (the numlock key will remain in its current state). The fact it's a clean install and whatnot removes pretty much any question in my mind that it's a software-based issue, but that just makes me more confused. The cpu, ram, and mobo are brand new (about two months or so old) and only recently did this issue start (like in the past week or so).
Since I suspect this is a hardware issue, yet am getting no errors from Windows about it, can anyone recommend any software or tests I can run to possibly determine *what* is causing this problem?
I appreciate any help to get this dealt with, as I'm tryin to get my work together for my job search, and this is just putting a big roadblock in the way, as I never know when my system's gonna just freeze dead in its tracks.

Rwolf

Check if any of your hardware is overheating or not.
also bad memory can also cause system hangs/locks

PfhorRunner

haha, my brother had this issue... Then again it WAS an ECS mobo haha..

He seemed to have issues with everything... he'd have system hangs, when he started games it'd go blank, when he played music it'd just sit there. He bought all new components, returned the "Broken" ones. Turns out his mobo was just b0rked.

Fuse

system specs ?

John Warner

sory bro, i'm not sure. the only thing that i know to do in these cases is remove a piece of hardware at a time.

the last time i had an issue similar to this, i looked and looked and looked and looked and fcking looked on the internet for EVER

and eventualy found that in some cases, people who had my sound card/motherboard configuration get a lock up durring games.

stuff like this is terrible. best of luck to you. consider everything. bad ram, hardware compatability. it could also beee that you've got bad ram and it just kinda died. hell if i know, it's been too long since i was hardcore into the hardware thing.

notman

Definitely sounds like an overheating problem. Without being there though, it's going to be hard for any of us to really be able to assist you.

Does it lock up at the same place every time?

Maybe heat paste needs to be applied to the new heatsink? (if the generic tape crap they put on has failed)
I'm assuming a new heatsink came with the new CPU.

sledgy

http://www.memtest86.com/ for your memory...run that overnight.

Try underclocking your CPU and video card which can help identify if the problem is either of these...

flaagan

well, long story short, formatted and reinstalled this weekend, now to see if it helped (so far chances are lookin up). as far as cooling and whatnot, i checked the cpu temp in the bios setup immediately after freezeups and it was well within the safe range. ran memtest86 on saturday and nothin came up, may give it another go this week.
thanks for the input guys. friggin computers stress me out too much at times.