lock up on comp start up

[Shawn Dow]

  I have a 3 year old comp that recently has started to freeze up on startin g the comp. The comp usually starts to buzz near the powersupply as the system freezes. I tried swapping the power connections from the power supply and also tried swapping out the hard drive with no success. I pulled the CMOS bat and memory to try and clear any possible faults but alas it still freezes on start up. After about a half hour of starting and turning it off i can get to the desk top but then it will freeze yet again. Am I looking at a bad mother board or bad processor? Any cheep hints I dont want to dump a lot of cash into it, I already have a new comp, just wanted to make it a kids comp. Thanks, Shawn.

[Maultier]

It sounds like the fan in the psu may be bad ( the buzz you're hearing). PSU's are pretty cheap but you get what you pay for.. check www.pricewatch.com for prices. You'll find that you can get a power supply for under 20 bucks.  
I'd also check that the cpu fan is turning as well.
If the fans look ok, strip the machine to a bare bones configuration (boot disk, ps, video card, mem, keyboard/mouse) and try to isolate which device may be causing the problem. If you can't change the symptoms, psu is the likely culprit.  (Don't over look the mem sticks as a possibility. If you have more than one, try one at a time or try swapping them around).
If you're not comfortable working inside the case, I suggest you find someone who is to do these things.
Good luck.

[Computer Hope Admin]

Maultier,

Thanks for taking the time to help Shawn out, Maultier makes great suggestions and we recommend you follow his sugestions Shawn.

[Eddie]

Try replacing or adding ram.  If not then slow down the clockrate of the cpu.

Good luck,

[Ramsey]

Sometimes.........  Sometimes, you can have a hairline crack in one of the traces on the circuits in the computers.  I found this to be the case on one of my systems, when I physically bent the board one way it would work, if I left it alone it would lock up the system after it was on for a few minutes.  This can definately be one of the reasons you're having this problem (albeit not the most common).  Try what the others here have suggested first and consider this a last resort solution, if it's really a crack I can garantee you'll never find it.  It's usually a board replacement at that point.

Oh Yeah....      I'm Cool