Constant crashing

[Stephen Johnson]

I bought my computer from a computer fair 2 years ago, and  recently it has been constantly crashing on me.
After upgrading the RAM and the Graphics card, the hardware is as follows:
AMD Athlon 1250MHz processor
VIA 266 Motherboard
768MB RAM
40.1GB 7200rpm hard drive
ATI RADEON 9200se 128MB
Tatung C5D Monitor
DirectX 9

I have also recently re-formatted my hard drive, and switched to NTFS from fat32, aswell as updating to Windows XP, in attempt to prevent the crashing, and still no success.
I do use music sharing software, such as Limewire, and kazaa lite, however, I have used these on my home computer and no problems are caused. I have often scanned for viruses and it appears there are no viruses or errors on the hard disk, and I also use a firewall when using the internet.
Also, I thought maybe the processor was overheating, however, I checked the temperatures, and the avergae CPU Temperature was 45 degrees celsius, and the System temperature at 35 degrees celsius. The CPU fan speed is usually at around 4500rpm.
I hope I have provided enough information, as these are all the areas of my computer I have looked into, aswell as Windows help, and various websites. I would be very very very grateful to receive a reply, hopefully with some form of help.
cheers

[Stickyfgz]

What do you mean by crashing?? Does its freeze then reboot?? Just freeze?? just reboot?? If the cpu is freezing maybe you need to upgrade the driver of your video card.

Maybe your mobo need more power from the power supply. Well explain what its heppening when it crash maybe that will help me.

[Dusty]

The temps seem aok but have you checked your psu?  Maybe it needs upgrading too or is just getting tired

[Stephen Johnson]

By crashing I mean it just freezes, whatever is on the screen remains the same, and pressing anything has no effect, such as ctrl+alt+del.  Then I would have to reboot. However, the same thing could happen immediately after rebooting, or sometimes it could go for hours before another freeze.

By PSU do you mean the processor, if so, surely a 1.25GB Athlon processor is fine?

thanks for the prompt replies by the way, I wasnt expecting them so fast!

[Stephen Johnson]

By the way, (ive been reading someone else's post) it freezes at no apparent time, can be when no applications are running, when using Msn messenger, or in a game. Its totally random. Also, the problem has been occuring before the new RAM was installed. Maybe something is wrong with the video card? Althought the device manager does not recognise any faults.

[dl65]

Stephen Johnson.......Could you please let us in on the rating of your PSU ....( power supply )  .....you listed your components ......However I dont see any CD- rom or dvd payer or burner ......or a floppy ......all these items require power .......I'm a little curious as to why you would have formatted fat32 , when NTSF is more efficient ........
But the power supply is something worth looking at ......
It could be the source of your problems .

Let us know

dl65  

[Stephen Johnson]

Hi, I do have a floppy drive, and a cdrom drive, which is also a burner, speakers etc. And when i formatted my hardrive, I changed from fat32 to NTFS.
After looking in my computer, I think the 'combined power' is 280W

Maybe the fact that it is 2 years old, getting the new graphics card and the new RAM, more power is needed?

[neo_wraith]

no...your setup is good..I agree with the others who say it could be a conflicting application. Does it freeze before or after bios?