[puzzledb]

Hello rshafer61,
Deleted mystery icon.
CPU temp showing as 66C
This is longest that it has run without freezing this evening.

With best regards,

Dave.

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Well let's hope something has straightened out.

[rshaffer61]

Well let's hope something has straightened out.

[puzzledb]

Hello rshaffer61,
PC was OK when I switched off at 12:30 last night.
Turned it on again this morning at 8am and ran Speedfan utility and saw that Speed2 had dropped to 35%. So I upped it to 100%.It ran OK for about 1 hour and then froze.Had breakfast and switched on and ran Speedfan again.Once again Speed2 was back at 35% and so put it up to 100% then closed Speedfan and immediatley re-opened Speedfan but once again Speed2 was down to 35%.Did it many times but Speed2 always drops to 35%.CPU temperature rises to high sixties.Also no fan speeds ever appear.
Does this give us a clue as to what is going wrong.

With best regards,

Dave.

[rshaffer61]

nope, I'm still thinking we may have a PSU problem.
A different mouse does not fix the issue.
Doing a bench test showed no resolution with motherboard outside of the case.
Disconnecting all un-needed components did not help.
New IDE cable did not help.
The only factors that can be a problem now is motherboard or PSU.

[happyrock]

look in the bios...you can set fan speeds there

[puzzledb]

Hello Happyrock,
Thank you for the tip on setting fan speeds.Speedfan utility clearly shows that my Pentium 4 CPU is running hot.A look up on the web indicates a max temp of around 63C.Freezing also seems, from the info on the sites at which I have looked, to be a prime symptom of a hot CPU.

With best regards,

Dave.

[puzzledb]

Hello Happyrock,
I have looked at the BIOS but cannot find out where one can make any fan speed changes.May I please ask you to help me on this by steering me to where the controls lie.BIOS is by American Megatrends.Last Speedfan temp showed 72C.

With best regards,

Dave.

[puzzledb]

Hello rshaffer61,
Ref your post number 259.The IDE cable has been sent for by mail order but delivery date quoted is after Xmas holiday.So this still remains on the list of suspects.

With best regards,

Dave.

[rshaffer61]

OK thank you for the update and I will await till that is replaced to see if it helps resolve the issue.

[puzzledb]

Hello rshaffer61,
New IDE cable arrived yesterday by post.Fitted it this morning (plenty of strong sunlight this mornng which made it easier to see)and started up PC.It froze at the first screen and so I restarted it.Second time it loaded Windows and I ran Speefan utility straight away.It showed CPU at 58C and rising.There was a little flame symbol alongside which I take to mean too hot.The side of the PC case was off so I could look inside and I could see both fans running.

With best regards,

Dave.

[rshaffer61]

It sounds like the cpu fan is not turning fast enough to cool the cpu off.
Was this a retail cpu with a fan already mounted to it or was it bought separately and the fan added to it? If the latter you may need to take the fan off and remove the old thermal paste and put new paste on it. This will give the fan a better mount on the cpu and hopefully allow it to cool better. If this does not work then the alternative is to replace the cpu fan.

[puzzledb]

Hello rshaffer61,
The PC was purchased retail.When runing the CPU fan unit seems quite fast in fact it is a blur to the eye.
It is I think noteworthy that the PC froze on startup long before the CPU could have become very hot.
How is the fan unit held in place over the CPU?

With best regards,

Dave.

[rshaffer61]

Usually held on with a clip or screwed through the motherboard. Since the system freezes on bootupp then it is highly unlikely to be a overheating problem then.
The issue would be more of a hardware issue since on bootup it has not entered windows so no drivers are being used.
I would say the issue may be the PSU then since we have checked everything else in the last 18 pages of instructions.
Has AVG been disabled as instructed in post # 7?
cable fault PXE 61 I don't think we ever resolved. This can be caused by a setting in the BIOS to boot to a network. This may be something to check out and see if in the boot sequence it shows anything to do with booting to a network or lan. If so then disable it save and exit.
Everything in Device Manager is good according to posts 16 and 17. This would rule out a driver issue.
We have run chkdsk /r and sfc /scannow in posts 20 through 22 and no negative results. This indicates no problem with hard drive or with the System Files.
We have changed the mouse out with no improvement.
The only two options at this point is faulty PSU or Motherboard. PSU not a problem as it is about 50 USD depending on the brand and wattage you get. Motherboard may be more depending on the cpu and memory you have and if it can be reused on a new motherboard.

[puzzledb]

Hello rshaffer61.
Sorry for long delay in replying.
Yes I removed AVG and installed Avast antivirus.
I was all set to go to the computer fair last Monday but it was called off due to heavy snowfall.A friend told me that computers with similar specification to mine go for about £60 ($95) at the fair.My idea was to buy one as this would at least give me a working machine.And I could also swap components between it and my faulty PC.This would be cheaper than buying one part after another as spares in this country are expensive probably due to price fixing by the suppliers helped by weak consumer protection laws (not for nothing is the UK called Treasure Island).Software is also about 60% dearer than the US even allowing for different taxes.
Computer fair now set for next Monday but weather forecast is for more heavy snow and temps colder than South Pole (true) so I think it will be cancelled again.
Fed up and stuck in the house as the roads are very dangerous, I turned to experimenting with various ideas.I realised that one connector that I had never undone and put back was the one between the motherboard and the fan unit.So I went ahead and did just that and then fired up the PC.No result ,nothing on the monitor and so I powered off and started up again.Windows loaded and PC worked fine with one exception and that is mouse only works if connected using a PS2 adaptor.It does not work plugged into any of the 6 USB ports.However all USB ports work for the printer and removeable memory stick.This is very strange and did happen before.My firewall played up and shut out Internet Explorer and Firefox but not e-mail.I use Zone Alarm and so I uninstalled and did a clean reinstall.Now it is working OK.Ran Avast virus scanner and it found nothing.
Speedfan shows CPU temperatures of between 66 and 72C.When Speedfan is turned on it always shows fan 2 running at 35% and so I raise it up to 100%.However watching the fan over the heat sink whilst doing this shows no speed change visible to the eye.
PC has now been running for about 2 hours and 15 minutes without freezing.
My book called "Fix your PC" says "first of all blow PC clean of all dust and then break and make all connections as this simple procedure often fixes many PC problems". It goes on to say that "you may never find out what exactly was wrong".
I will keep a watch on it over the next few days and with a bit of luck it may be cured.I am still concerned about the high CPU temps reported by Speedfan together with the reported fan percentage drop to 35%.By the way PC has had 3 restarts and all OK each time.Cable fault message has gone.
Sorry if this is all a bit long and rambling but it does bring you up to date with what has happened.

With best regards,

Dave.

[rshaffer61]

Thank you Dave for the update. No problem with the long message as I am always happy to read what the update is.
I know you may have tried this earlier and I just didn't go back and reread 18 pages to make sure.
Have you tried a different USB mouse?