pc freezing help!

Head for a warmer climate.

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I was just requeueing your post, and trying to be a little entertaining, ... (not trying to be a jerk)... looks like it worked... you got the attention of 2 resident PC geniuses

did you check the temp of the CPU? Or having everything but the PSU, the Motherboard, the CPU, the ram (and try to use onboard Video if you can) the monitor, the keyboard and the mouse and the harddrive?

Can you check the voltages of the ATX Plug?

When i mean remove everything but those, i mean litterally, no CD/DVD, no floppy, no USB (try to use PS/2 ports) and no ethernet of any kind (unless built-in, but disconnected from the network)

The last thing I can think of is that you might have overstressed the PSU with the upgrades causing it to put out irregular voltages in it and causing the system to be unstable

Yep, if it's old or has been over heated/ing it may have leaky capacitors in the PS or on the mobo. I've fixed a P3 mobo a few months ago that had 3 domed caps. It would run great until the HDD stopped accessing for more than a minute or so. Swapped out those 3 caps and it is rock solid.

the processor is running quite cool, i forgot to mention i tried a different power supply, no go, and can you see these leaky capacitors on the mobo? because if you can there arent any!

thanks

A good capacitor looks like a tiny bean can (ie a perfect cylinder). A faulty cap has a domed top (ie a swollen top lid). A blown cap is pretty obvious.

Yep, the cap should have a perfectly flat top. Any sort of bending/doming to the cap is a sign of trouble. Also check for marks or stains on the board near the caps, which would be leaked electrolyte that's since dried up.

took a good look at the motherboard and found a capacitor with a rounded top. ive got another motherboard with a load of capacitors, so should i just find one the same type and unsolder/resolder to the other board?

thanks

That'll work.

BE SUPER CAREFUL!

Fast as possible.

Use a grounded soldering iron if possible.

Test voltage on the tip if not...

Course, for the time outlay they could just buy another pc.

Also, if the crashes started happening after the hardware upgrade it's very possible that one of the NEW components is the culprit, switch back to all of the old stuff and see if it boots. If yes, then test the replacement components one at a time by installing them one at a time.

A quick no soldering thing to try would be to boot to the windows cd , choose install windows and then choose repair. It will erase and overwrite the windows files and do a repair of core OS settings (if the registry's corrupted it won't help much)

New caps are cheap. I spent all of $6-ish on the three I had to replace. You'll want to have the same chemical type, same temperature rating or higher, and the same capitance, voltage should be the same or higher. Bring the old one with you to compare for size if it's a tight fit on the board. If there's a lot of room you can get away with a somewhat larger cap. Be sure to get the same style of leads, ie, you probably need a radial lead type, not axial or SMT.

If you have a local electronics supply place (or even RadioSchmack), bringing the old one with you also helps the counter person know exactly what you need.