Symptoms/Events:

Three days ago, after I quit playing a game, my computer appeared to crash, BUT some components were still ON. My HD LED was in a solid state, and if I listened closely it appeared that my HD stopped spinning. I held the power button, and shut down the PC. Then restarted it, but heard strange cracking sounds coming from the HD. Afterwards, I booted up the PC again and was only given a continuos stream of LONG beeps. I tried to restart again, and my PC booted! Then a day later, same thing happened when I left a game.

I assumed my HD was failing, so I bought a new one yesterday. I reinstalled XP, along with all the updates (having to restart each time too), and no problems arised. Today, I finished installing a game, and DAEMON tools, then restarted. Well my computer hung again, with same strang sounds coming from HD, and no display when I expect to see POST. So I opened the case and pushed in the video card power connector. It was nice and tight, so I restarted, and voila, it booted. These random occurences are getting anooying. Any advice??

Specs:

CPU Type Intel Pentium 4, 1800 MHz (18 x 100)
Motherboard Name MSI MS-6533EG (3 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 CNR, 2 DIMM, Audio, Video)
Motherboard Chipset SiS 651
System Memory 1024 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award (10/03/02)
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS (512 MB)
Device Description
Hard Drive WDC WD800JB-00JJC0

Hi and welcome to D-A-L

I would check all connections IDE, RAM, power any PCI cards

I was playing a game when it just happened again. I can't narrow it down. My monitor is still ON, although there is no display. My hard drive is still on, and so are all my fans. My PC just sits there.

Then when I do a cold boot, my drive struggles to start, it makes some stuttering noises. So I press the video card cable in, and reboot, so it works.

I'm going to eliminate the overheating possibility first, by removing my side panel. If I still crash, I will proceed and check all cables and cards.

Thanks for your advice.

is the machine full of dust?

the side panel aids cooling the case is designed to pull cool air in from the front and exaust warm air out the back.

has the case got lots of airflow around it?

The case is pretty clean, the video card is new, the hard drive is new, and so is the PSU. I have no case fans, so the video card and hard drive would hit 50'C under a load. When idle, were around 45'C.

Now that the panel is out, my Hard drive is 41'C idling, and the card is 42'C.
Even under a load they would increase by only 3 or 4 degrees. I will force myself to game while the panel is off, and see what happens. If it still crashes, I will only play with the video card power cable. If it boots normally after I do, then it's the cable.

I'm also wondering about the PSU. It's an ANTEC BASIQ POWER 500W, bought it new. It could also be because of a faulty PSU right?

P.S When I say CRASH I don't mean the computer reboots, or the computer shutsdown. Instead, I get no display, and it seems like my hard drive becomes suspended or something.

has the video card got a fan, is that working OK?

what other things is th PSU running, CD Roms etc

Yup the card has a fan, and a pretty large heatsink. The PSU is powering a DVD/RW, a floppy, a Hard drive, and a video card.

I've managed to keep some games running, luckily i've had some free time, and all is well. The side panel is off though. So it most likely was an overheating issue.

I will leave it off for a few more days.

I'd also like to thank you for your help.

thanks for the thank you

see how it goes, it could well be airflow (or lack of)