Computer freezing after 5 minutes

podgeandrodge

My computer is freezing after exactly 5 minutes since being turned on. Everything stops and I hear what could be a click from the hard drive. For the 5 minutes it is on everything is perfect.

I've run memtest86 with no errors. Ran chkdsk no errors.

Have run in safemode - strangely (and this is what is making me think it might not be hard drive about to fail) I get about

30 minutes before the freeze - if it was a hard drive failing it wouldn't distinguish safe mode against any other mode.

I have ran eventvwr - few criticals mainly about Kernel Power 41 - not being shut down correctly. And some "DCOM" errors.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Torqay

You ran chkdsk with surface test?

If a click can be heard before the lockup, I'd still bet on a failing drive. The constant 5 minutes could indicate some file that is called for a delayed start being located in a bad sector.

podgeandrodge

is surface test with the /r? Gonna try that now. Have it running in safe mode for 45 minutes now with no freeze yet. Normal start up still 5 minutes before freeze.

The click is about 5 seconds after the freeze - it's the same sound you get if you "safely remove" an external hard drive - i.e. you hear a click and then it stops spinning.

Torqay

podgeandrodge wrote: »

is surface test with the /r?

/r is the switch you need, yes. And a lot of time.

podgeandrodge

crap. It's froze half way through the chkdsk process. And this was a scheduled test which ran before windows loaded so it's looking like hardware? Still can't figure how safe mode is giving me more time.

Or is windows still loaded behind chkdsk - cos I'd swear this failure was also at 5 minutes!

Torqay

That could be coincidental.

Get UBCD, it comes with plenty disk diag tools (i.e. ViVARD)

yoyo

Yeah run hard drive diagnostics, also try reseating the RAM. Seriously had an issue where after new RAM install the machine locked up after a while, memtest over 24 hours was fine, found one of the modules wasn't secured fully. Been fine since

Nick

Torqay

podgeandrodge wrote: »

Still can't figure how safe mode is giving me more time.

Safe mode is only loading a minimum set of drivers and processes and most certainly nothing that is set for a delayed start.

youllneverknow

download a thing called hd sentinel. It is brilliant for checking your hd health.Im pretty Hirens comes with it built in

podgeandrodge

Thanks everyone.

Windows "Startup Repair" started of it's own accord while I last rebooted and after running and "repairing disk errors" the system has come on and not frozen so far.

Will try UBCD and HD sentinel in any event but am hoping this problem has gone away.

yoyo wrote: »

try reseating the RAM

Did that yesterday actually and was disappointed to see that it was perfectly seated

yoyo

Hirens boot disk has questionable legality issues so please no mention where/how to find it. Thanks!

podgeandrodge

spoke too soon. Back to square 1.

Tried UBCD but no errors reported with WD diagnostic tool.

Torqay

Mind running a surface scan with ViVARD from UBCD?

podgeandrodge

Torqay wrote: »

Mind running a surface scan with ViVARD from UBCD?

Done. Zero errors.

Torqay

Right, here's the good news: you drive is OK... rejoyce!!!

Now what the eff is wrong with your computer?

Got a spare hard drive? Install Windows and see what happens in a burn-in test (can be a trial/non-activated version).

Something is locking up the drive, controller issue (software/hardware) or something with the circuit board of the drive, maybe a heat problem.

podgeandrodge

Torqay wrote: »

Right, here's the good news: you drive is OK... rejoyce!!!

Now what the eff is wrong with your computer?

Got a spare hard drive? Install Windows and see what happens in a burn-in test (can be a trial/non-activated version).

Something is locking up the drive, controller issue (software/hardware) or something with the circuit board of the drive, maybe a heat problem.

Or graphics card? Less stress at lower resolutions in safe mode? Will try to source a spare drive. Tried turning on this morning again - it's Freeze -> One click -> and a powering down/spinning down sound. Mouse works for around 1 second longer sometimes.

Thanks.

PrzemoF

OP, give it a good memory test (look for a linux livecd with memtest86+) or replace the memory chips.

Nothingbetter2d

when is the last time you cleaned out your cpu's heatsink?

also buy some thermal paste (u can get it in pc world for about €6)

carefully remove the heatsink and clean the cpu surface & underside of the heatsink then apply an even coating of fresh thermal paste then put the heatsink back on.

Hard drives rarely cause a pc to just freeze... a faulty drive will normally bsod the pc and fail to boot up correctly.

a freeze is most commonly caused by a cpu overheating or bad ram.

bahmonkeys

Its a hard drive problem get as much stuff off it as possible and throw it in the bin. Buy a new one, it happens hard drives are not reliable. The clicking noise is the click of death!

yoyo

bahmonkeys wrote: »

Its a hard drive problem get as much stuff off it as possible and throw it in the bin. Buy a new one, it happens hard drives are not reliable. The clicking noise is the click of death!

Not after several low level diagnostics scans its not . Incorrectly installed CPU Cooler, problematic CPU cooler, to much dust in the cooler etc can cause overheating/freezing. I'd reccomend you check the coolers for your video card/cpu op

Nick

podgeandrodge

yoyo wrote: »

Not after several low level diagnostics scans its not . Incorrectly installed CPU Cooler, problematic CPU cooler, to much dust in the cooler etc can cause overheating/freezing. I'd reccomend you check the coolers for your video card/cpu op

Nick

Have reseated both memory sticks made no difference. Lifted the big fan and heatsink (but didn't lift it off just raised it a bit) which I presume is covering the cpu (and I think - the graphics HD4200 - is this just a little chip over the cpu?) - anyway cleared a bit of dust away but has made no difference.

(Nothingbetterto2d - think lifting the heatsink and taking dust out was as far as I'm capable of - afraid if I take it off completely I'll never get it back on! If it's a last resort I'll go with the paste eventually!)


Ran a cpu temp check which was ok.

bahmonkeys wrote: »

Its a hard drive problem get as much stuff off it as possible and throw it in the bin. Buy a new one, it happens hard drives are not reliable. The clicking noise is the click of death!

It's not that type of click as far as I know - the pc freezes and about 5 seconds later you hear a slight click and the noise of the harddrive or cpu (can't tell which!) powering down. (Not a click click click hard drive noise - heard that before and don't want to hear it again!)

Thanks for everyone's input I appreciate it!


p.s. still getting an hour in safe mode - and only 5 or 6 minutes in normal.

yoyo

Could well be a faulty or overheating GPU (video card). Do you know anyone you could borrow another from to check? I think that video card is integrated so try borrow a dedicated one, just to isolate it as the issue

Nick

PrzemoF

OP, remove _one_ memory stick and make the test then replace it with the other one and do it again. If it's faulty memory your PC should work fine on one of the sticks and should freeze on the other one.

Again, pop in a linux livecd, setup network, open few programs, you might run a heavy compilation if you know how (it's a good test for CPU + memory). If everything works OK it might, be a corrupt file (dll or whatever) under windows.

Nothingbetter2d

the last time i had a pc freezing after 10 mins it turned out to be the cpu itself was faulty... when i replaced the cpu with another cpu (almost 100% identical) the pc ran great and still does.

if you have someone that has a pc that your cpu can fit in it you could have them test the cpu to see if their pc freezes...if it does then u need a new cpu.

what cpu does your pc have? If it is a socket 478 intel p4 cpu i have a 3.2ghz p4, i also have a socket am2 amd duron cpu lying around i don't have use for. if either of those fit your pc i can give them to ya to test out.

podgeandrodge

PrzemoF wrote: »

OP, remove _one_ memory stick and make the test then replace it with the other one and do it again. If it's faulty memory your PC should work fine on one of the sticks and should freeze on the other one.

Again, pop in a linux livecd, setup network, open few programs, you might run a heavy compilation if you know how (it's a good test for CPU + memory). If everything works OK it might, be a corrupt file (dll or whatever) under windows.

Did the memory 1 by 1 with no joy.
Have downloaded the Ubuntu ISO disc to try - is it just a case of booting with it and letting it run from there?

thanks.

@nothingbetter2d - it's an amd quad core processor. I suspect it's not the cpu at fault here - I gripped the hard drive (case open) as it froze and could feel the vibration of the drive turning off.

though someone mentioned heat problems can send a "turn off" signal to a hard drive the temp seems fine. And safe mode still working fine.!

PrzemoF

Burn the .iso and boot from CD (you might need to check "boot device" in BIOS - it might be set to hard disk instead of CD). It won't make any changes to your existing system.

Some tips: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download

Let me know if you hit any problems.

podgeandrodge

won't boot from ubuntu cd but will from ultumate boot cd and knoppix linux cd (but that gave errors saying could not find knoppix file directory or something like that) will try another linux cd any suggestions?

yoyo

podgeandrodge wrote: »

won't boot from ubuntu cd but will from ultumate boot cd and knoppix linux cd (but that gave errors saying could not find knoppix file directory or something like that) will try another linux cd any suggestions?

Use Ubuntu live CD, make sure you burn with a decent iso recoder, i.e: imgburn

Nick

PrzemoF

http://livecdlist.com/

Whatever your soul desires...
I'd go for ubuntu/mint/fedora

What was the problem with ubuntu? Didn't boot at all?

podgeandrodge

yoyo wrote: »

Use Ubuntu live CD, make sure you burn with a decent iso recoder, i.e: imgburn

Nick

PrzemoF wrote:

What was the problem with ubuntu? Didn't boot at all?

It was the live CD I tried - didn't boot at all - just a flashing cursor. Used ashampoo burning studio to burn the image - haven't had problems with other images burned with this.

Will try mint or fedora when I get home thanks - I presume you can run these from the cd without having to install them as an o/s - I'm not going to overwrite my data am I ?!

PrzemoF

Hmmm, strange..

You'll be fine unless you click "Install". I'm using ubuntu and fedora as rescue discs.

yoyo

Is your disc drive ok in the system in question? It can take a minute for the ubuntu startup menu to load. Ashampoo should be ok, but try www.imgburn.com jic. Also bad burns happen, it could have been something that simple

Nick