[joueuer]

this happen just recently.
my pc will hang now and then - while doing some task or none at all.
sometimes, i have been using the pc for some time already, or when i have just start the pc for awhile only.
then, when i press the restart button, it is not able to restart. the HDD light will be lit, but nothing happens.
after i turn off the power switch and on again, it starts well, with the disk check.
then the pc hangs again and the same cycle goes on.

this pc is about 2.5 years old, and everything has been working well.
i would like to know why the pc would hang, when it does not seem like there are software or hardware conflicts.
and also, why it does not restart when i press the restart button, but is able to start when i turn off the power switch and on again.
does the lit HDD light mean anything??

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By 'restart button', you mean the one in Windows, right?
If so, then the system often won't shutdown or restart this way if there are processes that are still running in the background. You won't see these but there are often lots of invisible things running which windows must finish or close before shutting down. (The fact that the HDD led is still lit at the point would also suggest that the system is busy).

When this happens, does the whole system freeze & lock up? Also, does this only happen after you click on restart or does it lock up before this point?

[Samm]

By 'restart button', you mean the one in Windows, right?
If so, then the system often won't shutdown or restart this way if there are processes that are still running in the background. You won't see these but there are often lots of invisible things running which windows must finish or close before shutting down. (The fact that the HDD led is still lit at the point would also suggest that the system is busy).

When this happens, does the whole system freeze & lock up? Also, does this only happen after you click on restart or does it lock up before this point?

[joueuer]

yes, when the pc hanged, the whole system freezes - keyboard and mouse dont work at all.
there will be no sound if i was playing music at the time, and no blue screen comes up.
and no, it is not the restart button on indows. it is the reset button on the casing, next to the power switch.
sorry for the confusion.
when i press this reset button, the HDD light will come up, but nothing happens.
my monitor doesnt even receives any signal, and it goes into stand by mode.

[Samm]

when i press this reset button, the HDD light will come up, but nothing happens.
my monitor doesnt even receives any signal, and it goes into stand by mode.

In that case, the computer is restarting in so much that it is shutting down but not powering up again correctly.

There could be any number of reasons for this. Out of interest, if you press the reset (restart) button while windows is running correctly (ie not locking up etc), does the system reboot correctly then? Knowing this will help determine whether the restart problem & the locking up problem are related.

Can you also tell me :
1. Does this problem occur when you are running any particular applications or is it random?

2. Are you able to check the system temperatures at all, using a hardware monitoring utility? (some motherboards come with this utility on the driver CD)

3. What programs do you normally have running in the background? ie antivirus, firewall etc - check the icons in the system tray to start with.

[joueuer]

while windows is running correctly, the reset button works perfectly.
1. yes, this problem is random, not applying to any particular application.
2. yes, and i set the temperature to 60 deg celcius.
3. norton antivirus, norton ghost, zonealarm, msn messenger, icq, webshots, a program from realplayer, a program from my soundcard, a program from my mouse.
in any case, i have tried to use my 2 pieces of memory individually, as suggested by a friend.
turned out that when used individaully, one of them works perfectly fine, but the other keeps getting my system hanged.
could this be the cause?? i have always thought that the memory only increases the operating speed of the system.

[nestorey]

i just recently found out about this but if your two mem sticks are not running at the same speed it can mess with your system. also if they are no the same meg they can mess with it too...i'd take out the stick that's messed up and replace it with a replica of the other stick...then again i don't know much.

[Samm]

Nestory is right in general about 2 sticks of RAM, if they are very different from each other, may cause problems. Difference in size however isn't an issue unless you are running them as dual channel. In single channel mode, like your system, size shouldn't matter.

Also, if you have tested each stick individually, and one is OK & the other makes the system hang, then the problem is either :
1. the stick that causes the system to hang is defective.
2. the stick that is causing it to hang is not entirely compatible with your system.

I suspect that the answer in your case in (1) because the two have been working OK together up til recently.

When you ran the system with each stick individually, did you leave them in their original sockets or did you run them from the first socket only? If you left them where they were, then try running it again with just the 'dodgy' stick but place it in the other socket. This will eliminate whether its the stick thats defective or the socket.

[joueuer]

both sticks are the same, speed and size.
i tested both sticks with all 3 sockets available, and the results were as what was mentioned.
guess i would have to replace the defective stick.

[Samm]

Yep, looks like a new stick is called for in that case.

[joueuer]

okay, thank you all very much.
really appreciate all the help from you.

[Samm]

You're welcome!

BTW, I recommend a decent brand name stick such as Kingston or Crucial etc.
If you go to Crucials website (link below) theres a memory advisor utility there. Just select your mobo from the list & Crucial will list all the guaranteed compatible sticks that they sell.

http://www.crucial.c...fgr.asp?cat=RAM