Anybody suffer from freezes?

jme2010

My custom build is about 2 years old now but still a quality machine.

I am getting these seemingly random freezes, but I'm almost guaranteed it will freeze if I leave it idle for about 5-10mins.

I've gone back to stock speeds for the moment as all my games run 30fps+ on highest settings.

A lot of these freezes are accompanied by a repeating screeching sound from the speakers as if looping. The only way to get going again is to manually push the reset button.

Has anybody had the same problem, what did you do to fix it?

I dont have my exact spec at hand but:

Win 7 64-bit
i5 2500K
8 GB Crossair (2x4GB)
MSI P67A -GD55
ASUS 6970 2GB
Crucial M4 64GB
Some 500GB HDD
XFX 650W Core Edition

Thanks in advanced lads.

Bazzo

I couldn't swear to it, but if this only happens after you've left the computer idle I would suspect a disk drive problem. Have you tried running a disk check?

uncle_sam_ie

My PC did this awhile back. It turned out to be a faulty hard drive.

jme2010

jme2010 wrote: »

Win 7 64-bit
i5 2500K
8 GB Crossair (2x4GB)
MSI P67A -GD55
ASUS 6970 2GB
Crucial M4 64GB
Some 500GB HDD
XFX 650W Core Edition

Thanks in advanced lads.

I was already suspicious of that fecker. Now I'm hell bent on binning the thing. It must be 4-5 years old at least. With several dozen re-formats and re-installs.

My plan was just to use it as storage, but as you know small SDD's fill up fast. Then I said "I'll just run x amount of programs on it" Next thing I know I've got half of my steam library on it. :rolleyes:

I will remove the suspect. Fresh install of windows on the SDD on its own. And report the results.

If I forget to post the results and you have a similar problem to mine just pm me and I'll let you know what happened.

Cheers.

BloodBath

Disable hibernation mode and reduce your virtual memory to 3gb after the os install. This will give you an extra 15gb of space on the ssd.

muppetkiller

I've a similar problem with my machine , I've run every disk check and diagnostic tool I can think of and no joy. The machine will run for 2-3 days without a single issue then crash. There seems to be no pattern other than it doesn't really happen when I am gaming. Only when in my Desktop/Internet etc. I think I may have to upgrade the Hard Drive too and do a clean install to see what the issue is.
dell xps
I've a 128Gig ssd and 1 Tb HDD so will do some digging.
Win 7 64bit
i7 2.8 Ghz
16GB ram
XFX6950 2GB

Fluffy88

If it is the hard drive failing a very good program to fix problems with HDDs, SSDs, USB sticks is SpinRite.
http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

I've never personally used it, but the customer reviews are glowing and I've heard many testimonials where it's been able to bring 'dead' hard drives back to life. So if your hard drive is causing these freezes because there is errors there is a very good chance SpinRite will be able to fix the errors.

It's not cheap though

ED E

Spinrite is the bomb. 100%. Slow but it really works.

jme2010

Fluffy88 wrote: »

If it is the hard drive failing a very good program to fix problems with HDDs, SSDs, USB sticks is SpinRite.
http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

I've never personally used it, but the customer reviews are glowing and I've heard many testimonials where it's been able to bring 'dead' hard drives back to life. So if your hard drive is causing these freezes because there is errors there is a very good chance SpinRite will be able to fix the errors.

It's not cheap though

Pity, their website looks so dodgy for such a promising product.

uncle_sam_ie

jme2010 wrote: »

Pity, their website looks so dodgy for such a promising product.

It might look it but, it's not at all dodgy. I've been following his Security Now podcast for years. And, the product does work.

dyer

had a similiar issue last year, turned out to be amd's sata controller drivers, i reverted to microsofts default atapi drivers and it fixed the problem.. i see you've got an i5 though so scratch that.

assuming you've already tested your drive with diagnostics and things seem okay, try the trial version of hdtune .. http://www.hdtune.com/ and check the health status of the drive. if you have a high crc error count it might point to a bad cable or possibly a dodgy disk controller or port.

Macker1

jme2010 wrote: »

My custom build is about 2 years old now but still a quality machine.

I am getting these seemingly random freezes, but I'm almost guaranteed it will freeze if I leave it idle for about 5-10mins.

I've gone back to stock speeds for the moment as all my games run 30fps+ on highest settings.

A lot of these freezes are accompanied by a repeating screeching sound from the speakers as if looping. The only way to get going again is to manually push the reset button.

Has anybody had the same problem, what did you do to fix it?

I dont have my exact spec at hand but:

Win 7 64-bit
i5 2500K
8 GB Crossair (2x4GB)
MSI P67A -GD55
ASUS 6970 2GB
Crucial M4 64GB
Some 500GB HDD
XFX 650W Core Edition

Thanks in advanced lads.

Look at this thread that I started. It may be the same issue in regards to the Crucial M4 64GB firmware.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=83792523

This wrecked my head but the PC has been working fine since I updated the firmware.

jme2010

DAmn, damn DAMN!!!!!

Removed both my old HDD's and did a fresh install of windows on the SDD.

And the fecker froze on me. About 2 times this week.

So whats the next culprit? Bad memory?

Gonna have a look at the SDD FW.

ED E

Run memtest for starters. And check the mobo FW when you're at it. If it happens when it idles maybe its a dud eco saver setting or something like that.

jme2010

ED E wrote: »

Run memtest for starters. And check the mobo FW when you're at it. If it happens when it idles maybe its a dud eco saver setting or something like that.

Bollox, I updated the SDD FW to 070H and just got a freeze there.

Will do that Ed. So I can rule out the SDD as its new-ish and health scan comes up ok. Next on my hit list is the RAM.

What FW versionshould I be on for my mobo? I'm sure I updated that too in order to solve this issue but will re-check.

Thanks.

jme2010

Memtest Passed. 2 hours no errors.
SSD on 070H
No HDDs connected
Fresh install of windows.
Temps are all low.

---

What is left to check? What can you guys recommend?

1) Most freezes are when it idles.

I'm getting so paranoid, I'm now having thoughts of a faulty edition of Windows :mad: But thats just insane, right?

tuxy

jme2010 wrote: »

I'm getting so paranoid, I'm now having thoughts of a faulty edition of Windows :mad: But thats just insane, right?

Yeah highly unlikely.
Could you disable all power saving features in windows, leave it running and see if it still freezes.

jme2010

tuxy wrote: »

Yeah highly unlikely.
Could you disable all power saving features in windows, leave it running and see if it still freezes.

will give it a go.

I'm sure it has frozen (a lot less times though) when browsing the web or other light activities.
And very rarely ever in a game, but it has happened.

will post the results.

Moon54

Have you checked temperatures on your system?

Try Speccy to see if that is of any concern;
http://www.filehippo.com/download_speccy/
It should show you hard drive, cpu & main board temps

GPUZ should give you Graphic card temps if Speccy doesn't show them;
http://www.filehippo.com/download_gpuz/

jme2010

tuxy wrote: »

Yeah highly unlikely.
Could you disable all power saving features in windows, leave it running and see if it still freezes.

All disbaled except intel c state. Still fecking foze today.

Temps are fine all under 40 C