How to diagnose a bad processor?

Chris Tondreau

Chris Tondreau

Member
Hi there;

My recording system runs great. Our other computer is experiencing technical difficulties, and I'm wondering if it might be the processor. It's about 4 years old, and it has been put through its paces all along. Here are some of the symptoms:

- system "pauses" occasionally, up to almost a minute at a time, though usually only a couple of seconds or so at a time. This happens when typing (like now...), surfing the net, opening up web pages, playing mp3 files, shutting down, etc. It is not consistent. Sometimes it is way worse than others.

-during the worst bouts of the above symptom, the clock gets behind - maybe a few minutes, maybe an hour or so - depending on how bad the computer is behaving. When it is behaving, the clock seems to know how to adjust itself to the right time.

- I have checked for background running tasks - particularly those that try to make repeated connects on the web, and this happens even when bare-bones tasks are running. (Win98)

- A short while ago, my bios got mysteriously reconfigured, and I got an error message to the effect of "the computer was shut down and left hanging at a speed other than what the processor is rated at" or something like that. This has happened twice. When I go into the bios, it accurately reads my processor as 466mhz.

Does this sound like a bad processor, or something else?

Thanks!
Chris
 
466mhz is too weak to handle all the current visual and audio stuff. I would just backup all the stuff and do a complete OS reinstall. I too had so many problems with a 400Mhz and a 266Mhz computers and they both run pretty smooth after a complete format. Now I just use them for browsing the net in different rooms at home.
 
sounds like the bios battery is going bad, given it's age, cheap easy fix...

have you reinstalled? is the OS 4 years old? do you clean the systems reg regularly? when a cpu goes it ususaly "GOES" gone, no boot, but thats rare...

do you monitor the temps? heatsink may be clogged, etc, etc, could be a # of factors...
 
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I agree with Fusion2. It's most likely the BIOS battery. The manual to the computer or mother board should explain what you need to do. If it doesn't, you should call the manufacturer.
 
Okay, big thanks, folks! I can change the bios battery no prob. Easy fix.

Yeah, I rather recently re-formatted C: and re-installed Win98. Made squat difference. The registry should be in pretty good shape, considering the recent install.

No, I don't monitor temps. I don't know what to look for. The bios battery sounds like a reasonable diagnosis, so I'll try that first.

Thanks again!

Chris
 
Actually, it IS just for other "home stuff" like surfing the net and what not. I used to get about 24 tracks of 24bit audio on it, though. :D

Anyway... I changed the CMOS battery, and it all worked good as new - for about a day and a half. Now it's worse than ever. :( The clock is about three hours off only in a few days.

Should I check for system temperature, etc.? What should I look for? How do I do it in Win98?

Any other ideas??

TIA

Chris
 
failing power supplies generating intermittent faults can often fool folks into thinking that they have processor or motherboard problems. For 20+ bucks you can get a newer 300 to 450 watt PS and if you upgrade your system later with a newer motherboard/processor, you`ll have the power supply already squared away.
 
Thanks, Toki! I'll remember that.

I discovered late last night, despite being certain that neither my wife nor I installed any software since changing the cmos battery, that our baby-sitter from across the street intalled MSN, and with it, some program "loadqm.exe" that seems to do nothing, save for slowing down the whole shebang quite considerably. I gave it the hoof, and all is back to normal again.

Hopefully, it won't just be "for now."

Chris
 
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