Hi,

Yesterday my computer started a strange behaviour. Shortly after windows loaded (when I opened the Internet Explorer), the computer just blacked out.

And, from the motherboard, started continuous beeps.

The computer didn´t reset (didn´t respond to the button) but the fans kept spinning.

I switched off and the (a minute later) on the computer, then loaded windows again. But shortly after, starting a problem, again frozes, blacked out and the beeps.

Then again, and again. Just minutes after windows loaded normally.

Notes: The disks seemed to "park" just after the froze. The fans kept spinning. The core and MB temperatura was no higher than 40º before and after the event. The MB is an Asrock K8 Upgrade and the CPU a Sempron 2800+ 64 bits (2 years old).

What do you think about it? What´s happening: faulty memory, CPU, PSU, motherboard, software related?

Your opinions? Thanks in advance!

First thing I would think is the PSU. Are the fans spinning in the PSU?

Yep, PSU fans are spinning ok.

Do you rule out a faulty MB?

Might be memory. Try this: http://www.memtest.org/

Burn the downloaded image to a CD and boot to the CD. See if you have any errors.

You could, if you have two sticks of memory, remove one and see what that does and vice versa. I see that motherboard going for around 30 bucks so it's possibly bad.

Bought a new PSU, reinstalled the memory sticks and cleaned the dust a bit.

Maybe is too early to claim a victory, but the problem seems solved: four hours running without a problem.

Thanks Speedbump and Joe!

Can't hurt to run memtest anyway. It's free and the time involved is minimal - start it and walk away. If you have bad memory it will just hose your OS down the road.

It does sound like it was a PSU problem, though.