I ran across an interesting beast. Its a desktop computer with a P4VMM3 motherboard, it was freezing ocassionally and the man was reffered to me to help him as everyone else gave up, I am a bit of a technomasocist and love a good challenge, but this time I think I need help. Anyway I took the processor assembly apart because one of the other techs that bailed had told the man that there was some sort of bracket adapter and since I was considering replacing hardware I took it apart. what I found was a first for me, the P4VMM# motherboard is a socket 423 and aparently they put a 423 to mobile 478 bracket adapter on it and put in a mobile 478 or at least that is what I am thinking right now. The processor itsself is about 1"x1" square and kind of heavy looking for a desktop processor, the bracket has a model# that reads mPGA478B, which I translated as a mobile PGA 478 B, cause that is pretty much what it says. Anyway the machine seems to lock at random times. I had the machine in my work area for about 8 days and it never locked on me, but it locks at the mans house, especially during the night when it is left running, but sometimes during use. I have gotten it to freeze for me at his house, but never able to reproduce the freeze with the same activity. Stuff as simple as scrolling can do it, or using a floppy or running multiple programs at once. At first I thought it was the motherboard, I called ECS as the person he bought it from had closed shop like 2 days after he bought it, with no forwarding address and most of the parts are used or were returned to that shop for being faulty I am sure, the monitor for instance died like a week after having it. Anyway I called ECS and they were kinda weird to me, I have never had such a problem with technical support, I had looked for a Bios update and there had never been any made that I could find anywhere on the www, but when I talked to techs aparently ECS had manufactured the board for someone else and they would not tell me who or even say we cannot tell you, they would just try and recommend stuff that I had told them I had already tried. It was all very weird and when I got a little upset and said, look I have tried everything you are saying a couple times each, can you please just tell me who you made it for so I can see if they have a bios update and OMG the person erupted into telling me I had no business being a tech and seemed very defensive. Anyway that path is closed, so I decided to look into the processor as described above. I was considering taking out the used 478 mobile processor and putting in a new 423. What are everyones thoughts on this?

How did you narrow it down to the processor? Perhaps (more likely) the problem is related to other hardware, ie: memory or even software.

Consider this: The person's house has different cooling than your shop? He puts to unit where the exhast fan gets blocked... But I think.. It's an old house, older wiring, and the line power is unstable... A line conditioner may solve the problem..BET you use a UPS in your shop.. and perhaps he doens't have reliable grounds.. OR lives close to a switching station.. Also perhaps one of the memory modules are dirty on it connectors are not seated when it warms up, OR it's just plain intermittent..

well, his house is as cool as mine, he installed a secondary fan in his box, even though he is not overclocked and is running at 49 c according to his system info software. As for how I can tell I have no idea. The reason I believe that it is not his software(OS) is that I already reinstalled it. I also tried replacing his memory with a killer corsair stick I had extra and he still had the same problem. I have not been able to figure out what else it might be. I ran my norton systemworks pro 2002 on his machine and corrected all errors. I even let Dr. Watson run for a full week on his system while he used it. I had it so it would start at startup if he had to reboot and it detected no errors even though his machine would freeze up. There has not been one windows error ever, so I am pretty stupmed. Like I said originally I thought it was the motherboard, even though it is the only component that looked new on the whole system. then when I saw the CPU was a mobile one and quite used looking, the finish had chipped off parts it looked like, the heat transfer paste was black looking and dry, and that the bracket was some brand I never heard of before, though I do not claim to be an encyclopedia of parts. I have no clue, it could be that the motherboard, since it has never had even 1 bios update in 2+ years since it was released weirds me out, its possible that the motherboard is not compatible with the bracket and mobile CPU and nothing is wrong with the CPU itself, or it could be that the CPU cannot handle 49c, or maybe the cpu temperature I am getting is somehow false because the adapter is in there. This is why I need help, I am stumped. Any ideas on how I could determine which item it is besides making a descision on all the info available?