Frequent System Freezes - Ideas?

[jjs1138]

My eMac has started experiencing frequent system freezes (sometimes as often as every 10-15 min). The kernel panic screen never pops up.
I disabled all plug-ins, etc and the problem continued. I tested the RAM, there seems to be no problem there. Since all my important files are on an external drive I decided to do a complete erase and reinstall on the system drive. Still no resolution to the problem.
I've started to notice some artifacting on the screen, which leads me to believe the the problem might be with my graphics card.
My question is can a bad graphics card cause system freezes or should I look somewhere else for the problem?

 

[mad jew]

Almost anything could cause this. However, before we start jumping to conclusions, how did you check the RAM? Software tests are notoriously bad at testing RAM so unless you physically removed chips and ran the system for a while without a stick of RAM, it hasn't been properly tested. Having said that, try running the Hardware Test (came on a disc with your bundled software or is included in the OSX install discs) to check the GPU.

In the meantime, check Console in the Utilities folder to see if anything is being recorded.

 

[2nyRiggz]

How much RAM are you running in this machine and I would suggest running the hardware test from the install CD.



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