Since last night my computer has been abruptly freezing and crashing at random times. Beforehand, I had not installed anything significant and no changes were made to hardware or software. Initially, when the computer would freeze, the screen would pixelate and artifact. I had initially thought it was a graphics card problem...

I have an Asus 9800XT graphics card with the latest ATI drivers. I installed extra software to display the temperature of the CPU, motherboard, and graphics card, (along with voltages and such.) No overheating was present anywhere, and all voltages are nominal. I replaced the graphics card with an old 64mb Nvidia Ti3(something). No more pixellation or artifacting, but instead the screen will go blank for a second or two and will return to normal, there shortly after, the computer usually freezes or crashes.

Thereafter, I began running AdAware and Spybot S&D to see if it was software, nothing was found. I am trying to run TrendMicro's House Call virus scanner but have had no luck. I cannot keep the computer from freezing before the hour and a half virus scan completes. I have been leaning towards hardware, rather than software because I get the same symptoms even in safe mode.

Normally, when my computer shuts down, it makes a clicking noise from either the motherboard, or one of the three hard drive's magnetic heads returning to its home position. When my computer crashes, it makes the same noise, like it is trying to shut down. Strangely enough, the hard drive usage light on the front of my case becomes solid after a crash. Possibly a hard drive...?

I have been removing pieces from my computer, one at a time trying to diagnose the problem. All that is left is my primary hard drive, old Nvidia graphics card, motherboard, and RAM. The only thing it can be is either software or hardware on the hard drive, the ram, or the motherboard.

I have a HijackThis log ready to go if needed.

Please help! Thanks, Jean-Pierre.

scan your pc with Spyware Doctor. if it can't remove parasites which you possibly have, post your HijackThis log and we will look for malicious processes.

tc;

I've been having an extremely similar problem, with a slightly different hardware config.

I replaced my main drive with a new freshly formatted drive with a clean install of Windows XP, and I have been continuing to experience the same problem, which would rule out any kind of software environment issue such as a virus or spyware.

Usually I will have a "click and crash" experience during gameplay, file searches, or while running diganostic tools such as ATItools.

Also, as furhter information, the problem began occuring a little over 1 month ago, and I had not made any significant changes to my software environment and have not changed my hardware configuration in more than 4 months.

First, since I found the problem occuring mostly during gaming, I replaced my video card. This did not help, so my next suspicion was that it was pending hard drive failure.

I backed up the suspected hard drive, and then replaced it with a freshly reformatted different drive with a clean Windows XP install on it.

I am still experiencing the same "click and crash", primarily when gaming, but still under the above mentioned circumstances.

Replacing the video card and hard drive rule out either of those as a possibility, and having a fresh install of Windows XP (fully updated, with fully updated drivers and the lot) rules out software environment problems.

I'm leaning towards either the PSU, IDE controller on the motherboard, or possibly RAM as the few remaining variables where the problem may be coming from.

To attempt to rule out PSU overload problems, I disconnected everything except for the main OS drive, video card, sound card, and CPU heatsink fan, and this did not seem to prevent the click and crash.

I've checked the thermals on my CPU, internal case temp, and vid card, and all seem acceptable.

Any thoughts or suggestions on areas I could tweak to resolve this, or other possibilities as to what may be causing the problem?

System specs are:

Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2800+
Motherboard: Asus A7N8XE-Deluxe
RAM: 2x Crucial 512MB DDR RAM
Power Supply: Antec TruePower 430W
Hard Drive 1 (OS): IBM Deskstar 120 GB (IDE)
Hard Drive 2 (Data Storage): IBM Deskstar 80 GB (IDE)
Hard Drive 3 (Backup): WD RE2 WD4000YR 400 GB (SATA on SiI 3112 Raid Controller)
Floppy Drive: Generic 3.5" Floppy
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon x800 GTO
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy Gamer
DVD Re-writable Drive: Lite-On SOHW-1633S
Case fans: 3 external case fans, 2 PSU fans, 1 CPU Heatsink fan

Thanks!

Spaceviking

I am having the same exact problem as you spaceviking I reinitialized my computer with a fresh copy of xp and it is still doing it. It used to only be during gaming, but now it is all the time. Someone please help me.

I am not positive on this but if I were you I would calculate your hardware vs your power supply I know that I only have 330w power supply which may be my problem, I dunno though just a geuss.