Computer issue

[Digita1]

Alright, so, I've got my computer that I've had around... 4 years now. It was fairly top of the market when the components first came out, but it is behind its time now. The specs are:

Operating System System Model Windows XP Professional (build 2600) Enclosure Type: Desktop Processor a Main Circuit Board b 2.00 gigahertz AMD Athlon XP
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: Shuttle Inc AK32V
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG 05/19/2003 Drives Memory Modules c,d 61.48 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
49.22 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

HP CD-Writer+ 9300 [CD-ROM drive]
IDE DVD-ROM 16X [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

Maxtor 6Y060P0 [Hard drive] (61.49 GB) -- drive 0, s/n Y2VCSPCE, rev YAR41VW0, SMART (http://www.belarc.com/smart.html) Status: Healthy 768 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'A0' has 256 MB
Slot 'A1' has 512 MB Local Drive Volumes


c: (NTFS on drive 0) 61.48 GB 49.22 GB free Network Drives None detected

As for the video card, it's an nVidia GeForce 6600 256MB 8x AGP card.

The problems didn't start until rather recently, and it's snowballing now. At first, I would load WoW and after about 3 minutes of playing, the entire computer would freeze. I thought it was an over-heat problem, so I removed the side casing and put a little fan at an angle to blow cool air across the GPU and Mobo. That seemed to work, a little. Sometimes I could play the game for an hour without the computer locking up and sometimes I couldn't go past that 3 minute mark.

Now, however, I can't even load WoW. I tried to reinstall WoW, and I get about 4% into the install, and the system locks up. Sometimes, when the computer first loads, the computer will lock up. Watching a YouTube video on here runs the severe risk of locking up, which happens about 90% of the time. I can't use my webcam with my friends back in Kansas anymore, or view theirs.

I can't even view IGN.com for a short period of time.

I've ruled out the overheat aspect, because everything in the computer is staying relatively cool. The highest the GPU was getting while playing WoW was 59C.

I'm thinking the RAM I have is going bad, because I ran Memtest86 and it showed up with about 10 errors after all the tests ran.

Any suggestions before I invest in more RAM?

[BLACK]

A few possible problems:

You have fucked over RAM
You might have bad sectors on your HDD; run an integrity scan
You play WoW

[Archaos]

good burn Black.

I approve.

[BLACK]

I'M SUPER SERIAL

[Talorth]

Take out one stick and perform a memtest, then put the other stick back in and do another memtest.. If the test passes with one stick of memory than it means one of those sticks is bad, after that try it without the defunct ram. If it still fucks up than I would consider that the power supply might be fucked.

[Victis]

Its either ram or mobo

[Digita1]

It doesn't matter now. When I took the fan off of the CPU and cleaned the old grease off with an alcohol pad and put new grease on, I fried the CPU.

So the computer is just a scrap pile of spare good parts I have in my closet now.

Oh well, at least my laptop is running.

[WiGgLr]

you can probably pick up a replacement cpu really cheaply, especially for a 4 year old board

[Digita1]

Negative, Wigg.

Apparently, 4 years old is so out-dated (Socket A) that it's not even produced anymore. Everything is Socket AM2 now.

Doesn't really matter, I'm moving in less than a month anyway and will only have room for a laptop at college anyway. Just sucks I bought a new vid card not too long ago.

[WiGgLr]

plenty here:
http://computers.search.ebay.com/Socket-A_CPUs-for-Desktop-PC_W0QQcatrefZC6QQcoactionZcompareQQcoentrypageZse archQQcopagenumZ1QQfgtpZQQfposZSO50Q205SUQQfromZR2 QQfsooZ2QQfsopZ2QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQlopgZQQsacatZ367 1QQsadisZ200QQsaprchiZQQsaprcloZQQsargnZQ2d1QQsasl cZ2QQsbrftogZ1QQsofocusZbs

[WiGgLr]

For exampe, http://cgi.ebay.com/AMD-ATHLON-2800-XP-BARTON-SOCKET-A-CPU-DKV4D-2-083Mhz_W0QQitemZ120105206543QQihZ002QQcategoryZ449 35QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem looks similar to your old chip.. $0.97 starting bid

[Digita1]

>> Item will be different than picture shown. This item is used, untested, may have some bent pins (none missing), may have thermal paste residue on it, and may be missing one or more of the four corner heatsink pads, but is 100% guaranteed as per our buyer satisfaction guarantee. See below for details.

lol

[WiGgLr]

spend a little more, get a new one:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&catref=C6&from=R10&satitle=Socket+A+athlon+xp+new&sacat=3671%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=SO50+5SU&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=2%26fsoo%3D2&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search&fgtp=

[Digita1]

Well, like Victis said earlier about it either being the ram or mobo. I'm tending to think it was the mobo that was causing the problems. I talked to alot of people and they kept telling me everytime they had a PSU fail on them, the system would reboot without warning, not lock up. A lock up they said was either a driver problem (wasn't) or something on the mobo, like the connectors or something of the such.

[Victis]

lmk if you need any advice picking out bang for buck parts as replacements to get you back up and running

[Digita1]

Nah, I've got my laptop running now. I took a can of compressed air and blew out about a good half pound of dust from the vents and it's running great now. I can view videos, run iTunes, install programs. I'm going to get an external HDD and see if I can play some games on it.