HP Pavilion a6357c freezes and locks?

Question

I have an HP Pavilion a6357c desktop running Vista. The display is an HP w2207 flatscreen that came bundled with the PC. AMD Athlon 64x2 processor. Was purchased new about March 2008.

The computer will lock up intermittently, following no obvious pattern (no single program or combo of programs triggers the problem). Specifically, the display will freeze and any audio will click repeatedly like a broken record (the last tone repeats). The cursor usually remains movable for a few seconds, then also freezes.
So far I have used recovery disks to completely reset the hard drive, no change. I then installed a new GeForce9400 GT video card and a 600w power supply to replace the OEM ones (GeForce 6150 SE running on a 250W ps). Again, no change. The problem was first noticed during World of Warcraft play, and occurred very infrequently. It now occurs regularly even when wow is not running or (after recovery) not even installed on computer. Is there some component that is gradually deteriorating and making this occur more frequently? Is there something I can do besides trash this thing and curse HP for the rest of my days? The pc has only been in use a little over a year, HP tech support is beyond useless. Can anyone point me towards a likely cause? Thanks for any advice you can provide.

Answer 1

This sounds like an unstable Windows installation but could also be a hardware failure (well that covers everything then).



It could be overheating generally. You can try using the computer without the sides on and running a normal large household fan aimed at the processor. If the PC performs without problem then its a heat issue and you need to sort out some more fans.



I wonder if your processor is overheating? Would you be confident unseating your processor, cleaning it and the heatsink, then applying some new thermal paste and reseating it



Finally zap the whole of the inside of the PC with compressed air to clean it. Then after the dust has settled zap it once more for luck.



Now the PSU you bought, is it high quality named brand (Antec, CoolerMaster etc)? Its unlikely but it could an intermittent fault like this as well.



If you are in the UK you are protected by the Sales of Goods Act for up to 6 years against product failure.



Or what Ben said above - The Hard Drive and RAM didnt cross my mind.

Answer 2

Your hard drive might be starting to fail. If you have a spare I would start there. Also, you could get an Ubuntu Live CD and boot from the CD and see if you can just operate.



Could also be memory faults, failing memory would cause a crash. Try a spare memory stick if you have it, or just using one if you have 2 installed.



Its not a CPU overheating problem because it would just shut itself off rather than freeze.



I would say either failing hard drive or bad memory. Run memtest 86 to check your memory. It is included on the Ultimate Boot CD or on an Ubuntu Live CD. You can also make your own I believe.



Start there, and post here again if those don't work.

Answer 3

In my opinion, you get a bad driver.

i think you can go 2 http://www.keep-pc-clean.com/.

do a free scan ,problem will be solved.