Computer totally freezing after a few min

On Jan 14, 4:34 am, "Ray" <N...@NE.nothing> wrote:

I haven't pulled the board yet to look. Do you think the cap
connection will
go all the way through and be accessible from the bottom of the
board? Do
you recommend using a desoldering pump, desolder braid, or just
heating and
pulling the old cap out. Then to clean the hole to insert the new
part what
is the best practice?

The leads go all the way through and the inside of the hole is plated
to attach to traces on each of 4 (or more) layers. Some guy calling
himself 'bw' says just pull of the caps and re-drill the holes.He's
flat out wrong if he's serious and not particularly funny if he isn't.
If you're rich, a Metcal soldering / desoldering system would be just
the ticket. Less better off a Metcal soldering iron and an Edsyn
Soldapullt can do amazingly well. Still less well off a Weller
temperature controlled iron (I prefer the magnastat units) and the
Edsyn can do well. I wouldn't try it with non-temp controlled irons.
Regardless of what 'bw' says, do NOT use drills. The Metcal STTC-126
tip is excellent for cleaning out even the most stubborn hole. Point
the tip into the hole (it may take a second or 2 to heat it) pull back
a hair and 'vacuum' it with the Edsyn. I've done it thousands of
times. While Mike Terrell may have had bad experiences with eBay, I
bought 8 Metcal systems there with no problems.

G˛

 

[T]

In article <SumdnQxm5eWLAtHWnZ2dnUVZ_hOdnZ2d@earthlink.com>,
N@NE.nothing says...

I have a few year old computer (clone, I built with VIA chipset) that has
suddenly started to completely freeze.
The image stays on the screen but the computer is completely frozen. CTRL
ALT DEL does nothing and even a reset via the reset button just brings up a
black screen (no BIOS text, no beeps, nothing).

If I power down completely Windows will boot and the system works for a
while (5 min to a hour tops) and then freezes again.

The computer has a removable drive and I have tried it with several
different boot drives. They all freeze so I know it is not a software
problem. I actually have 5 drives that I use for different tasks which is
one of the reasons I would rather repair this few year old computer rather
than getting a new one (the thought of installing & configuring 5 OS's ...).

I opened the PC and reseated all the cards & RAM. Cleaned all the fans and
heat sinks.
Have tried a different video card and removed all but one stick of RAM.

Pretty much the only components I have not eliminated is the power supply,
motherboard and CPU.

Does this sound like a PS issue to anyone?

Also 3 of the larger caps on the motherboard near the CPU have the slightest
of buldges (very little, but they are not flat like the others). My guess is
that these 3 caps are what is causing the problem, but I would like to hear
from the experts.

If you guys think it is the caps Im pretty good with a soldering iron. Is
this something that is replaceable? Do these traces usually go all the way
through the board. I dont want to remove everything yet, will do this as a
last resort especially if it sounds like the problem is the caps.

Thanks

Check your CPU fan. This sounds like a hardware fault.

Another thing you can do is to boot into safe mode. On any windows
computer just keep hitting the F8 key while you're booting and it'll
present a menu with a bunch of options. Choose Safe Mode and see if your
system stays up for more than five minutes. If it does you've found
software that is causing the lockup since Safe Mode doesn't run any
system or startup items.