walter wrote:
> my PC has been dying every few hours the last couple of weeks.
> running XPsp2HOME. it's not a BSOD.
>
> when i come back to it, the screen is frozen and everything is
> locked. i do a hard reboot, and it comes up saying "the system has
> recovered from a serious error". there's some XML dump that i cant
> really interpret.
>
> i thought a HD was failing. but i tried running linux from a CDROM,
> and the same thing happens. it freezes up.
>
> there is a high-pitched whining sound, which i thought was coming from
> the failing HD. but it's not. when i boot to the CDROM, i completely
> disconnected all of the HDs. the high pitched whining sound is still
> there.
>
> so i started thinking it might be the power-supply that's failing.
>
> however, the pitch of the whining seems to rise/fall with movements of
> various things across the screen...i.e., when the CPU/video-chip is
> doing some "work" to render the visuals.
>
> might that be some sort of failure of a component on the motherboard?
> it's a compaq s3100nx with an AMD Athlon. the video subsystem is on
> the motherboard (VIA ProSavageDDR) with one of those shared video ram
> UMA architectures.

It might be a fan that's failing. You can localize the sound by using a
paper towel tube against your ear--move it around until you find the
source of the noise.

Also, the nature of your failure suggest it's a heat-related problem.
Open up your case and aim a box fan at it. If your lockups go away it's
likely that your original failures are from the system getting too hot.
You can probably remedy that by cleaning dust out of the system,
dressing components to improve air flow, and/or adding a fan or two.