Momentary freezes

Pertinent system info:

AMD 2600
1 meg memory
NVidia GeForce4 MX 440
Win2K

Averaging perhaps once a minute, sometimes more often, the system
freezes. No video updates for a second or so (variable), then 1/2
second black screen, then back to normal. Computer is active during
the freeze, since input shows up after recovery. When it freezes,
Task Manager shows 100% cpu.

This happens most often at some kind of input - keyboard or mouse
click. When there is no input or screen activity, I have never seen
it happen.

Windows and Drivers are up-to-date. Memtest86 shows no errors in
8-hour run.

I am leaning towards display card. Any other thoughts or tests?

Thanks

Phil

pgx@pgrahams.com wrote:
> Pertinent system info:
>
> AMD 2600
> 1 meg memory
> NVidia GeForce4 MX 440
> Win2K
>
> Averaging perhaps once a minute, sometimes more often, the system
> freezes. No video updates for a second or so (variable), then 1/2
> second black screen, then back to normal. Computer is active during
> the freeze, since input shows up after recovery. When it freezes,
> Task Manager shows 100% cpu.
>
> This happens most often at some kind of input - keyboard or mouse
> click. When there is no input or screen activity, I have never seen
> it happen.
>
> Windows and Drivers are up-to-date. Memtest86 shows no errors in
> 8-hour run.
>
> I am leaning towards display card. Any other thoughts or tests?
>

Open up the case and see if any of the capactiors on the motherboard
are bulging or leaking-even a tiny bit. They look like little soda
cans. If they are: that means a new motherboard.

After that, It's either the moitor itself, a loose connection to the
monitor, or a bad video card.

"paulmd@efn.org" <paulmd@efn.org> wrote:

|
|pgx@pgrahams.com wrote:
|> Averaging perhaps once a minute, sometimes more often, the system
|> freezes.
|> I am leaning towards display card. Any other thoughts or tests?
|>
|
| or a bad video card.

Found a bulging cap on the video card. Replaced 200uF with two 100 uF
from Radio Shack, and all seems OK..

Phil

On Thu, 28 Sep 2006 20:07:49 GMT, pgx@pgrahams.com wrote:

>"paulmd@efn.org" <paulmd@efn.org> wrote:
>
>|
>|pgx@pgrahams.com wrote:
>|> Averaging perhaps once a minute, sometimes more often, the system
>|> freezes.
>|> I am leaning towards display card. Any other thoughts or tests?
>|>
>|
>| or a bad video card.
>
>Found a bulging cap on the video card. Replaced 200uF with two 100 uF
>from Radio Shack, and all seems OK..


Glad to hear you fixed it, but in general the caps from
Radio Shack are very poor candidates for typical PSU,
motherboard or video card replacement purposes except for a
select few in the bulk (mixed type) packs that are Nichicon
PW's (brown sleeve with white stripe). The rest of those
Radio Shack sells are rather low grade general purpose caps
that arent low-ESR and may not have 105C or higher temp
rating either.

Hopefully it will work long term but if not, you may need a
better cap instead.

pgx@pgrahams.com wrote:
> "paulmd@efn.org" <paulmd@efn.org> wrote:
>
> |
> |pgx@pgrahams.com wrote:
> |> Averaging perhaps once a minute, sometimes more often, the system
> |> freezes.
> |> I am leaning towards display card. Any other thoughts or tests?
> |>
> |
> | or a bad video card.
>
> Found a bulging cap on the video card. Replaced 200uF with two 100 uF
> from Radio Shack, and all seems OK..
>
> Phil

Thanks for the follow up.

kony <spam@spam.com> wrote:

|Hopefully it will work long term but if not, you may need a
|better cap instead.

Next time I have a useful order from a cap supplier, I'll order a good
replacement. Out here I'm just thankful to find a close
approximation!

Phil