Potential Concern with Computer

[Kogarashi]

I'm noticing some problems appearing with my system that I can't seem to figure out, so I'm hoping for some insight here from those far more tech-savvy than I. Thanks in advance.

About two nights ago, I had my media player (Winamp) playing while I waited for a clip to load on Viddler. I'd already successfully watched two Viddler clips, and had been having no prior problems. Suddenly my mouse froze and my music started skipping really fast (playing the same sound on repeat several times per second). Keyboard and mouse were non-responsive, so I ended up hitting the hard reset button on the tower.

The computer attempted to boot up, but instead of the single short "everything's okay" POST beep, I got two long beeps instead, followed by the sound of the drives spinning up again. Then came two more long beeps and the drives spinning up again, so I held down the power switch until the system shut down completely. There was absolutely nothing on either of my monitors, let alone any errors of any sort.

After waiting a bit and booting up again, I tried Googling for what the POST beeps might mean with no luck. After a bit with my computer on and Winamp playing, things locked up and the music skipped, and then I got the Windows 7 version of a blue screen ("there's been an error, memory dump, etc.") and the system rebooted itself. Once it was back on, I shut down properly and went to bed.

Yesterday my computer was off for the majority of the day, and when it was on (prior to evening), I didn't notice any problems. Sometime mid-evening, my computer suddenly rebooted (screen went black, "everything's fine" POST beep, etc.) for no apparent reason. I thought maybe my husband, who had sat down on the floor near my tower with our toddler to read, might have bumped the power or reset switches and thought nothing of it.

Well, it locked up and required a hard reset again today. I had Winamp going, and was looking at a webcomic. I'd just scrolled to the bottom when the mouse froze and the music started skipping again, and it wasn't restarting. I hit the reset button and, again, got nothing on the screen and the two long POST beeps. Again, I held the power switch to shut down completely, and this time used up the last of my canned air to blow the dust out of the interior of the system just to make sure that wasn't causing a problem. I restarted with the side off to check the fans to make sure they're running and all three cooling fans (front fan, rear fan, CPU fan) are going just fine. Everything seems to be seated properly; the only PCI card I have is an IDE controller to allow for additional drives and it's in tight. Nothing seems to have been jostled loose.

So I'm a bit concerned that something might be trying to go on me. Cash is tight right now, plus I just rebuilt this thing about a year ago, so I'd rather not have to deal with replacing more parts if I can help it.

Some of the system info (I don't know what's helpful and what isn't):
running Windows 7 Professional (32-bit) with SP1
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+ 2.70 GHz
2 GB Ram (via 2x 1 GB sticks)
Dual monitor desktop: widescreen monitor using digital connection, standard dimension monitor using analog connection, both LCDs
USB mouse and keyboard, plus tablet
Onboard audio and video
IDE controller in PCI slot since the motherboard only has one IDE socket (DVD-ROM, DVD +/- RW, two harddrives; harddrives are on the controller card)
Motherboard is a Gigabyte S-Series, and I think the BIOS is Award BIOS. Not sure on that one.

Again, thanks in advance for any help I can get!

[It's me]

I think two beeps is memory parity error for AMD.

Try removing and reseating the IDE controller and the memory sticks.

If it still fails things to try:
-- Try it with only one memory stick... try each stick in turn.
-- Try it in safe mode.

[Alephcat]

It sounds very much like a memory issue, although I have known these type of symptoms for a HDD issue. if you do not want to open your PC up to remove memory try memtest86+, but often something like this will be cured by giving the contacts on the memory a quick clean and reseating.

[Bandit]

I've seen faulty power supplies do the exact same thing, right down to the random reboots.

I'd look to that as it seems that the more you use it, the more strange things happen, which indicates a heat issue. Since you said the fans seem to be working, that would reduce the chances of a memory/cpu overheat.

Good luck!

B

[Kogarashi]

Thanks for the input so far! I'll give reseating the cards a try later, when I get a spare moment (on Hubby's laptop right now to give my computer a break), and then I'll fish out my disc that has Memtest on it. I could do without having to replace the power supply (again).

[Amadan]

For heat etc issues use AIDA (rebranded Everest) to stress test.

As for blue screening etc. When you start the machine repeatedly hit f8 until you get the safe mode etc menu, select "disable automatically restart of system failure". This should hopefully get you time to catch any fatal errors.

[Kogarashi]

Thanks for the tip and suggestion, Amadan. I'll look into that one.

Memory and IDE controller reseated, and everything else double-checked for snugness while I was in there. Unfortunately, it looks like my Memtest disc doesn't want to behave, so I'll have to see about re-downloading it to run.

[Alephcat]

If you are having to redownload memtest, try going for UBCD which should be able to test your HDD aswell.

[Kogarashi]

Update

Waited a bit before follow-up just to be sure.

So it would seem that overheating was the issue. I haven't had a chance to run any diagnostics yet, but the problem hasn't resurfaced since I posted. As I mentioned, I did blow out the dust from inside the case, and reseated the cards (partly to make sure the contacts were clear of dust too). Not only that, I've avoided running the computer anywhere near the hot parts of the day (meaning until the big storms here last week, it didn't get turned on at all while the sun was still up).

All I can figure is that dust buildup caused it to overheat and glitch the first time (last Monday night), and then daytime heat in the apartment caused the second one.

So it looks like (for now) I'm in the clear. Thanks for the suggestions, guys!

[underemployeed]

I guess when did you previously replace the power supply? It could be a motherboard issue. I am not sure if the power supply in the basement computer is bad, but since it a cheap power supply I tossed a reliable one into the case as the motherboard caps were shot from being cheap and excessive heat. Although, gigabyte does make better boards than the cheap ECS in the one I'm referring to.

Fun thing is even with the computer in front of you it hard to cover all the possibilities of intermittent problems.

[Kogarashi]

I guess when did you previously replace the power supply? It could be a motherboard issue.

I actually completely rebuilt the machine last summer or a bit before, after the previous setup finally bit the dust (either the power supply, processor, or motherboard went, and I never did figure out which, so I just replaced everything except the drives themselves).