Hey everyone, my friend is in need of PCGuide's help again. This is what he send me:

"My computer won't stop freezing! It just started freezing this week. It will freeze and then keep repeating a sound, or it'll repeat a sound once and then restart automatically. There're 3 changes I made to the computer this week, I updated my video drivers, I updated my sound driver, and I added another 512 of ram. It's been freezing like every half hour, it's like I'm back on my compaq with windows ME.
I rolled back the video and sound drivers, and I took out the ram, and it's still doing it. So those must not be the causes, right?
This is so frustrating I almost feel like chucking the thing out the window.
Specs:
AMD XP 2800+
512MB PC3200 DDR ram
Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
Sound Blaster Audigy 2
Win XP
80 Gig HDD with half space used up
Antec True Blue 48w PSU
I have norton 2003, so I don't think it could be a virus, and according to PC alert my computer is running pretty cool, so I don't think it's overheating. What could be the cause?
HELP!"

So any suggestions? Thanx a lot folks:p

I think it is that 48watt power supply, really not enough power to run all that equipment....:D

But seriously folks... with all the changes this guy has been doing, it could be any number of things. If he installed the wrong drivers and didn't properly remove them. If he fried something with static in installing the RAM. If he did something else he didn't even think to tell you....

I suspect this is one you will have to deal with in person and take a very methodical approach to narrowing down the problem. One thing to teach him... do one change and check out how things are effected, then do the next change. Doing 3 major changes at once makes it real hard to figure out what caused the problem. Also, who knows how much more damage he may have done trying to fix the problem.......

Oh hehe, its 480w...:rolleyes:

Well I told him to use a driver cleaner to clean the driver for the sound card. He did it and restart and now the comp won't recognize his sound card anymore...
I think I made it bad:(
HELP please..thanx:)

He can remove the sound card from within Safe Mode (all instances of it) and be prepared to help Windoze reinstall it. Since he has WinXP, he could try running the Repair Install from the CD. You can find more info about that here.... (http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm) It won't help if it is a hardware problem, but it seems likely that it is software....

Ok thanx, it has been fixed, he installed the original drivers from the Creative Labs cd and he got the sound back. I told him to go gaming for couple hours and see if it freeze and it doesn't so I guess problem solve.:D
Thanx, you're always so helpful:p