Freeze up/overheating problem

[Laoii]

Hi Ok, well for a few months now my pc will just lock up when cpu is put under any kind of load. Back in january I could game for hours and only occasionally it would just lock up. However, as summer has arried, it's slowly been getting worse. For example it can now lock up after just 5 minutes of doing anything cpu intensive. When it locks up there's no error messages or anything, and caps lock doesn't turn on or off.

I'm 99% sure it's an overheating problem, but I don't know what is overheating :/ I've reinstalled windows, patched it all up and got everything up to date but it still happend. Replaced graphics card and hdd still happend. CPU temp ide is 40-45C depending on the time of day and goes up to 50C under full load. System temp goes from 35C idle to around 38C max.

Athlon 1900XP
MSI KT3 ULTRA ARU (6380E)
768mb RAM (1 512mb Crucial and 1 256mb unbranded)
32mb Geforce 2 GTS (Old I know :/)
120gb Hitachi
SB Live 1024
etc

Basically.. I need to know what you think is the cause as I don't have the $$ for all of it. Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
Laoii

 

[jl123]

Those temps aren't that high although they could be better but they're fine.

Before having to spend any money to get some parts to swap them in and test check your memory with memtest86 or MS's Memory Diagnostic here. I like the MS one because it's pretty simple to use and has worked for me. Next thing I'd check is the bios settings, just make sure you're not running faster timings on that memory than they're rated for(CL). If you start to get errors in the memory diagnostics program test 1 stick of memory at a time because it could just be a bad stick or try reseating the memory in the slots. If that doesn't turn up anything I'd see about getting a hold of an extra powersupply and seeing if that resolves anything.

That's a start. Good luck.

 

[johnjkr1]

Also, you can open up the case and see if it works longer like that. If it does, you know you have a heat issue. If memtest passes, then you might have a bad or overheating power supply.

 

[Laoii]

Thanks for the replys all. I'll try the memtest overnight and see what that turns up. As for it being a heat issue, it locks up fastest during the day and is getting worse as summer gets hotter. And the memory, I've set everything in the bios to it's most conservative setting. It could very well be the power supply also.. it's just a 300w A-open one that came with my case.

Thanks
Laoii