Why would you say that ?
Because the vintage of all of the other components in his system (which I'm guessing is an old system that has been repurposed as a media-only box) suggests it. The CPU referenced is probably one of the Northwood P4s from 2002 (though it could be a later, and somewhat better, Prescott model too). This was before multi-core CPUs were the norm, much less home users with Gateway systems running SSDs.
I agree with nev, it is very unlikely that a system like described has an SSD that he didn't mention. It has:
1. a 10-year-old CPU (or maybe 8, best-case)
2. a mid-range graphics card from six years ago, probably chosen because it was one of the only video cards of that era that was still available in an AGP version (further confirming the likely Northwood status of the CPU).
Now, SSDs are pretty much good upgrades for any system, and can certainly help extend the longevity of an older system. I don't know that it would be a good value proposition on a system
that old, though. The Northwood and Prescott CPUs were both from Intel's "bad old period" where they were space heaters, and were trounced in IPC by AMD chips with
much lower clocks.
If he does, and he chirps up, then I'd agree, that
could be a culprit. You'd think he would have noticed it before now, but maybe the SSD is newish but was an old model that hadn't been flashed yet (I've bought a few SSDs recently though, and they've all had newer firmware).
In any case, the real answer is this:
If a Windows NT Kernel machine, particularly a Windows 7 or 8 machine, totally hard-freezes where the mouse pointer locks up and you have to force the system off:
That is a hardware problem, a bad/corrupted driver, or a corrupted installation of Windows. No third party software, with the possible exception of games, has the
power to do that to your system.
My guess (and nev's and nathan's, apparently) is that it is probably an older piece of hardware from the array of old pieces of hardware he listed, dying. Because they've reached the end of their expected lifespan. It is possible that it could be a borked driver, or a partially failed Windows upgrade or something, but... Hard locks feel like hardware to me because in my long experience building and maintaining a veritable fleet of hand-crafted machines...
It almost always is failing hardware.It smells like it.
I gave a list above with my gut instinct on the order I'd check things. I couldn't even begin to say for sure without seeing the system myself, and if it was me, I wouldn't spend much time on a box that old (and just call it too old and dying). I'd probably do this:
1. Test the power supply.
2. Throw away all of the drive cables and replace them.
3. Swap in a different, known-good, drive and put a fresh install of Windows on it.
4. Run it through a battery of tests for stability.
If it survives, great, then it was either the cables, the drive, or something borked in Windows. Plug the old drive in, transfer my crap to the new install, and carry on.
If it doesn't....? Meh. That machine was destined for the dustbin any day now anyway. I'd probably swap out the PSU if that was the problem, since I usually have a pile of them lying about anyway, but aside from that, it'd go to the recycling center.
Old CPUs and motherboards don't last forever. Particularly the P4 space heaters of that era.
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Topic: MC 18 freezes a lot [with Win8 on very old hardware] (Read 1992 times)