Why is my computer crashing?

Question

I recently built a new computer and about a month later I've been experiencing problems with the computer freezing up at random moments. I use Windows Vista, but I dont think thats the problem as the computer freezes as it's booting up before windows even starts.

It's weird also that the temperature of my cpu WAS around 34C consistantly before and now around 40-50C. but thats not even overheated. I just dont know what to do.

My specs are

Intel Core 2 Duo 6600
2gigs of RAM
Geforce 7800 256mb video card
Windows Vista Ultimate

I've tried registry cleaners and checked for spyware and virus's and it still freezes.

I have a 500w power supply thats pretty new. and i doubt its the OS.. im sure its something internal since it freezes even as its booting up (when it asks me if I want to go into the BIOS setup)

Answer 1

Is your power supply large enough to handle that machine? Because that could be your problem right there, and also try a better cooling system, that could help performance. Also keep in mind another factor, what type of drivers are you running on a Vista machine, beta drivers? They might not be 100% stable yet and could be causing your problems.

Answer 2

well since you put this computer together yourself I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you programed your bios correctly.
most mobo manufacturers but in options to set up processor and memory timing and voltages, and in most cases if you don't set those very carefully you will experience instability in your system.
overclocking might seem fun while you are cranking up the settings, but it will make your computer unreliable for actually using for anything.
also I'm going to assume you used the thermal paste between the processor and heat sink when you installed it.

lastly if your computer will not post sometimes watch the boot screen to see if it shows the wrong amount of ram memory, id watch this when rebooting right after the freeze, often a bad/failing memory chip will cause an intermittent no start, or crash often resulting in complete lock up or sometimes blue screen of death.
the above can also be caused by the wrong memory speed setting in the bios, so before you replace the memory try setting the memory timing to the by SPD setting to see if it works at its recommended speed, then if this doesn't help and if you have more then one memory chip installed take them out and try one the the other to see if one works better then the other.

have a nice day.
TV

Answer 3

Check out the MSCONFIG, the Services, Start-up, also try perform the Disk Cleanup, Scan-disk. Then too if the problem persists you can try formatting the OS part-ion & Reinstall a fresh copy of the OS. And do not keep the PC under very hot climate, and do a Anti Virus Scan with updated Virus Defication. Hope the problem solves.

Answer 4

Make sure you got the right kind of RAM or it could just be a bad RAM after all, most of the time that's the main cause of computer crashing. Try using one stick first see if it boots up, then exchange the other the stick see witch one causing it. No harm on trying it.

Answer 5

I think cause it's a hardware problem.Check out your power supply musta have at least real 420W.Or CPU temperature must have at most 60 grade Celsius.And last operation test your DRAM with Memtest+ 1.70