At 08:48 06/19/06, Russ Cox wrote:
>I did try another HDD temporarily and the computer still hung so I 
>reconnected the original HDD.  There have been no error messages - the 
>computer simply stops responding. I replaced the video card with an 
>ATI 9600 (was an ASUS card originally) since that was about the only 
>thing I hadn't tried. So I continued to try to get it to boot, finally 
>got it to boot from an old Win 98 floppy. Then restarted and booted 
>into the HP restore CD. Doesn't make sense to me, but then what do I 
>know?  Got all the system restored, PCI cards installed, SP2 
>installed. It's running now and I'm running the BurninTest to see if 
>it hangs in there. The most suspicious culprit is the wireless mouse 
>(USB) but even that uses a driver from XP.
>Ain't this fun?

Hi Russ

I had a similar problem. The computer would sometimes freeze after 
running Windows a while. It started happening more frequently until 
after two days it was happening every time I booted. Windows would run 
okay for a few minutes but then the screen would freeze. Later that day 
it started happening during POST (before windows even started to load). 
At this point, I knew it wasn't a windows problem and I changed the 
video card (went from an Asus GeForce FX5900 to an FX5700 that I had on 
hand). No more screen freezes.

My theory is that the fan on the video card went bad, causing the card 
to overheat. At that point, the video card stopped renewing what was on 
screen. (Windows was not freezing, I just couldn't see anything change 
on screen.) I have since replaced the fan on the FX5900 but haven't 
bothered to test it out in a computer.

The moral of this is that a simple thing like a failing fan can cause 
freezes. Maybe the conditions at different locations in a house (a cool 
basement vs. a warmer room, or better air flow in one location) might 
affect how a computer runs.

Regards,
Bill

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