Computer freezing randomly ?

[Coaxialgamer]

Do i recently picked up an old desktop from a relative for free . 

It's a compaq presario from HP , features an athlon 64 x2 4000+ ( 2.1ghz , 1MB , socket AM2 ) , 4gb of ddr2 , a barracuda 7200.10 250gb hdd , an m2N68-LA motherboard ( nvidia geforce 6150 SE chipset nforce 430 ) , and a 300 "ISO" power supply ( wouldn't trust it with anything else than this ) 

 

The parts seem functional and will boot . I could use it for a secondary pc / file server , and the athlon 64 x2 in it is comparable to a core 2 duo , so it's still "usable" . 

 

The issue is that the pc will freeze after a few minutes of use ( varies ) . It seems to freeze more often under load ( but even that isn't consistent )  .

 

I will go through standard troubleshotting steps , but i really don't want to spend any money on it considering what it's worth . Any ideas on what i should look for and has anyone had this kind of issue before ? 

 

Cleaned out the heatsinks , and the caps on the board look in good shape . 

[afyeung]

Is the hard drive working properly? 

[Coaxialgamer]

Just now, afyeung said:

Is the hard drive working properly? 

seems to . SMART finds no bad sectors .  I will be testing that drive on my main rig of course . Just trying to get ideas .

[afyeung]

2 minutes ago, Coaxialgamer said:

seems to . SMART finds no bad sectors .  I will be testing that drive on my main rig of course . Just trying to get ideas .

Did you repaste the CPU cooler? Are temps in check

[Coaxialgamer]

9 minutes ago, afyeung said:

Did you repaste the CPU cooler? Are temps in check

yeah , first things i did . Cpu runs at ~45C under load witht he stock aluminum cooler. I love big dies , they're so much easier to cool ...

 

edit :actually , i take that back , seems like this specific model is only 126mm²

[afyeung]

11 minutes ago, Coaxialgamer said:

yeah , first things i did . Cpu runs at ~45C under load witht he stock aluminum cooler. I love big dies , they're so much easier to cool ...

 

edit :actually , i take that back , seems like this specific model is only 126mm²

That's a very good load temp. Are you using a fresh operating system?

[Coaxialgamer]

Just now, afyeung said:

That's a very good load temp. Are you using a fresh operating system?

i know . Just installed ubuntu for basic troubleshooting of the hardware . Handles it very well , apart from the hdd holding it back . 

[Tom1999]

Perhaps the RAM? DO you have any DDR2 you can swap into the PC to see?

[Coaxialgamer]

26 minutes ago, Tom1999 said:

Perhaps the RAM? DO you have any DDR2 you can swap into the PC to see?

I have 2 sticks of it.  I don't have extra though.  Guess I'll swap thwm around and see what happens

[Coaxialgamer]

So it seems the issue was the hard drive , I couldn't reproduce any freezing booting from a usb drive