Computer is Freezing

[theblang]

Lately (since last summer) my computer has been freezing up. It doesn't do it all the time, or everytime, just every now and then it will freeze up and must be restarted. I made the mistake last summer of leaving it in a house with no air conditioning (and thus muggy) with the side off and now there is a film of dust I cant get off on the motherboard and video card. I tried getting some electrical cleaner and a Q-tip but it is on there good. I don't think it would be a driver issue as I don't recall making any changes before last summer nor after last summer when I got the computer back. I don't feel like it is overheating as I have run some temperature tests and did not notice any dangerous levels. Could it be that film of dust that got on it over last summer, and does anyone have any tips on possible cleaning the film off? Thanks in advance.

Matt

 

[Pantlegz]

there are several issues that could have arise from condensation, or being in a very muggy environment. water and electrical circuits don't get along at all.

But it's possible that it's over heating, you could use something like isopropyl alcohol around a 90% solution, it also evaporates fairly quick. just be sure if you clean it with that, unhook all power source's and you should be able to basically soak it in there. just be careful not to bend any pins or disconnect a capacitor.

There is also the possibility that the cpu just got too hot and is slowly dying. the same with RAM, if even a pin is not able to make clean contact it could cause issues similar to what you described.

 

[puffywulf]

I'd check the hard drive. Run a test on your hard drive/cpu to see if there are any problems. First, recheck the temperatures with a different program (I recommend CPUID). Then, run a program like HDTune to check to see if the hard drive is bad. For RAM, I remember, there was a program called Memtest86 that would diagnose problems with RAM. If everything turns out fine, then you probably need to buy an air compression can to blow the dust out of the computer. Your local Best Buy or Fry's should have that.