Highly unstable computer - freezing and crashing!

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My computer keeps freezing up! I thought this was only confined to games (in which case, it would be accompanied by looping sound), but now it does it during normal operation!

I have my suspicions as to what's going on, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Have I look at this and tell me if everything looks ok:



It appears that some things are overclocked and overvolted, but they were already like that - I didn't touch anything!

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Is there something reading/writing to your hard-disk a lot?

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Sean_K wrote: »

Is there something reading/writing to your hard-disk a lot?

LOL I suppose 100% is a bit extreme! I think that actually happens when there's a CD in, as it drops off when ejected. Still though, it's strange.

azezil

Is it just an application crash or does windows crash as well? i.e. Blue screen of death.

If its only the application I'd say it could be the graphics drivers, I was experiencing the same thing recently with my card, I first tried reinstalling the drivers but the problem returned, so I've replaced them and so far so good!

Could also be faulty RAM.

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azezil wrote: »

Is it just an application crash or does windows crash as well? i.e. Blue screen of death.

If its only the application I'd say it could be the graphics drivers, I was experiencing the same thing recently with my card, I first tried reinstalling the drivers but the problem returned, so I've replaced them and so far so good!

Could also be faulty RAM.

No no the problem is that the screen freezes - I'd just be browsing the web when the mouse would stop moving. The only way out is to reset.

In games, it's the same only with looping sound. If a game character is speaking at the time, it's like this, "Spy sappin my sentry...sen..sen..sen..sen..se.se.se.se.se.ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss...". As I said, the only thing I can do at that point is reset.

It seems to be happening more often now that the weather is hot - maybe it's a combination of instability due to overclocking/overvolting, and overheating. I'm wondering if the red markers in the pic indicate a potentially unstable setting.

youcancallmeal

Is there anything in the event logs from the time the PC hangs?

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youcancallme>al wrote: »

Is there anything in the event logs from the time the PC hangs?

No nothing

youcancallmeal

Its very strange that your system is overclocked without you having done anything? You could go into the bios and reset everything to default or if you know anything about overclocking it looks like your RAM might not be getting enough voltage(And possibly your chipset)? Do you know what your RAM its rated for?

azezil

If you're using an AMD processor, those temperatures in your screen cap are within normal operating specs. But if you've over clocked, might be no harm to bring your speeds down a wee bit to see if it has any effect

Also if you suspect your hard drive may be at fault it might be no harm to open a dos prompt and run chkdsk /r , it takes freakin ages but its surprisingly effective at recovering corrupt sectors

DEFO

Post full specs of your PC! I'd say from what i see that your PSU might be a problem.
Are you getting BSOD's as well?

Overheal

Team Fortress 2 loves to freeze up like that. How long are you letting it work for before you reset? I've found with TF2 for example most times it freezes it can take around 2-3 minutes but will run fine for a good while after that.

As Azezil says its worth running chkdsk to see if there is a problem. I would do this from Safe Mode personally.

Also consider when was the last time your machine was wiped/nuked/reformatted? Loose Registry Keys and rogue processes can build up over time. Even if your last wipe was less than a year ago or even less than 6 months ago these problems can arise.

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Thanks for the replies so far guys. Couple of points -

-) No it ain't the HDD - you may have seen that other thread I posted on, but I was talking about a different problem on another system.

-) I have an Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4

-) Longest I've left TF2 before hitting reset...maybe 45 seconds. It didn't look like it was going to recover.

-) This is a new system, and it's been happening since day 1.

I don't think it's overheating, as there are no artefacts or pink screens. Also, just to make sure today, I put all fans up full - created a windstorm! Still, it crashed.

Why are MCP PCI-E , nForce and HT(SPP-MCP) showing red squares? What are everyone else's like? Maybe someone else could post a screen cap of their nVidia monitor?

youcancallmeal

What RAM have you got? I've seen it many time before that high spec RAM needs to be run at higher voltages than the motherboards default and it causes unstable systems?

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My spec:

Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz
2GB Corsair CM2X 1024-6400 RAM (2 x 1GB sticks in single channel mode)
nVidia 8800GT 512MB
nVidia 680i SLI motherboard
Antec Nine Hundred case with 3x 120mm fan, and 1x 200mm fan
Super Flower 600w power supply (with pretty little blue LED's to match the case)
Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit (with all updates)

youcancallmeal

Download memtest and create a bootable cd. This will show up any problems with your RAM.

DEFO

youcancallme>al wrote: »

Download memtest and create a bootable cd. This will show up any problems with your RAM.

And bit more volts (2.0V) on RAM might help as well.

Overheal

Programs will recover 90% of the time if given enough time. If your HDD is Working, this is usually the cause of the problem to begin with - your HDD is busy. However if your program crashes and the Disk I/O is bone idle, then you usually have a proper crash on your hands. Aborting operations unexpectedly like that (with hard restarts/cutting the power/Manual resets) can create unknown complications with your system. In particular; Drive Faults. If your Hard drive is writing information and you shut it off suddenly it can cause file corruption, for a start.

What I havent heard get mentioned here by you is

-When you last formatted your OS (if you ever have)?

-how old is the machine?

-have you run the Disk Checker/Scan Disk?

-have you run the Disk Defragmenter?

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Overheal wrote: »

Programs will recover 90% of the time if given enough time. If your HDD is Working, this is usually the cause of the problem to begin with - your HDD is busy. However if your program crashes and the Disk I/O is bone idle, then you usually have a proper crash on your hands. Aborting operations unexpectedly like that (with hard restarts/cutting the power/Manual resets) can create unknown complications with your system. In particular; Drive Faults. If your Hard drive is writing information and you shut it off suddenly it can cause file corruption, for a start.

What I havent heard get mentioned here by you is

-When you last formatted your OS (if you ever have)?

-how old is the machine?

-have you run the Disk Checker/Scan Disk?

-have you run the Disk Defragmenter?

This machine is only a couple of months old, and it's been having problems since day one. I've run all disk utilities, and I'm pretty sure it's not a HDD fault.

I bought UT3 the other day, and that has now frozen too. I left it 5 minutes, and still no sign of recovery. I've seen people on other forums with the same issue, and they found the problem to be with their video card. I have a feeling that certain hardware combinations don't get along with each other.

I thought for a moment that it could be my PSU, but I've checked the specs again, and it's well up to the job. It's a Super-Flower Aurora 600W.

sebastianlieken

dude youre cpu is idleing at 43 degrees...seems a bit high...

could be a thermal throttling thing. (ie. cpu shuts down for safety reasons once the temperature goes over ~70c) worth a look.

to check, just take the side off youre pc and open a window. then try a game

also, make sure the fan on ur grafix card is spinning.


if thats all fine, but ur still getting problem. install latest drivers. here -> http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_175.16_whql.html

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Yeah I tried that before - I turned all fans up to 100%, took the side off, but still got the problem.

I have the latest drivers, and I've tried others including beta, but nothing makes any difference.

pauldiv

You said you yourself that the problem seems to get worse when it's warm.
I think you have a temperature problem. I have seen them before.
Are the fans clean?
If not, clean them and leave the cover off for a day or two and see how it goes.

I would then re-instal the operating system and start again.
If problem continues after that you could have a hardware issue.

Have fun.

sebastianlieken

it really does seem like a temperature prob,

make sure the north bridge and south-bridge are staying cool aswell, (find them in these locations here. what do they fell like to the touch?...are they warm, or scaldingly hot?

DEFO

pauldiv wrote: »

If not, clean them and leave the cover off for a day or two and see how it

:rolleyes: first of all mobo with above chipset-bios is for advanced users and im sorry to say, but this guy has no clue of what is he doing-probably

Leave cover off? Dont as there is no airflow than!
Rather take all off on "testing bed" and get directional fans on all chips etc.
What i would recommend is to get someone, who can have a look at your bios settings. Start from there.Bios version, all the settings. There is a lot of to play with.
No BSOD's? Why reinstall?

Lockstep

Did you update all the drivers on your system?

http://www.drivershq.com/ offers a free scan of your drivers and let's you know if any drivers are obsolete. Helped me Fix a lot of problems on my pc.

You'll have to find the drivers yourself mind.

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pauldiv wrote: »

You said you yourself that the problem seems to get worse when it's warm.

That was just my imagination.

I found the problem::mad::mad::mad: VISTA :mad::mad::mad:

I put Windows XP on, and haven't had a single crash! I had another look around the internet, and found many more people complaining about Vista being unstable and sh*te. I saw somebody claiming that it was indeed Vista, and not DirectX10, and I think I agree, as Vista has been freezing outside of gaming also.

I'd like to know how many people here have all of the following:

)nVidia motherboard
)nVidia 8XXX series video card
)Windows Vista
)No problems

I know tons of people stuck with XP for gaming, so I would be surprised if anyone has all of the above.

pauldiv

Leave the cover off - why not?
If you are a big jessie you can always use a desk cooling fan and place it near the computer so that there is plenty of cold air blasting into the PC.

That way the motherboard is kept cool while you continue playing your games and wait for the problem to re-appear.

All electronics techs know that you need to quarantine a problem and then divide and rule the problem.
The lad did the right thing in the end.

It is either hardware or software right?

It only takes about an hour to reinstall Windows and anyway you should be in a position where you can reinstall your operating system anytime at the tip of a hat and start afresh.

I dont go around downloading all these utility programs because I dont have time to mess about with these things. If I have a software issue I just reinstall my OS.

I have all my software programs and data organised and and can get back up in about 2 hours.

I have done this for years and because I do real work with my PC I dont worry about the little things.

Lockstep

I despise Vista.

Everyone always thinks "Ah! Vista! So PRetty!"

I hate the thing. COmplete pain in the bell end, I've heard a lot of complaints based around Nvidia graphics cards and Vista.


I normally only play WWII shooters so I wouldn't even need an Nvidia 8600.

Overheal

Aye statistically I think between ATi and Nvidia they have about as many crash reports for Vista as Microsoft does for Vista. Nasty stability issues. Shame really, but it can happen.

Having said that your original pic was still just weird