My computer continues to freeze

T

tkbambino

Posts: 9   +0
So, I have done plenty of research and still can't quite get my computer to stop freezing. I wil start with some specs:

Motherboard: ASUS P5N-D
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300
RAM: 2x DDR2-SDRAM OCZ 2G8002G

The symptoms started a few months back, starting every once in awhile, then getting worse, then getting to the point that booting up to the desktop was a success. It is located in a room that couldn't get below 75 degrees F and was booting up warmer than 60 degrees C, so I thought it was heat - went and got a new CPU fan, dropped the temp 10 degrees C but it still freezes. Tested in Safe mode, doesn't freeze, so I started reading around. Downloaded CCleaner to try and help clean the registry after going through all my programs and uninstalling everything that I didn't need, and programs that I remember being installed around the same time the symptoms started. It is definitely "slightly better" in that it will stay on for about 10 minutes now, but still freezes.

I have gone into the BIOS to try and check on some of the frequency settings because I read quite a bit about that, but couldn't find any settings in my BIOS set up.

I am certainly no expert, but am confident in doing the work myself with a bit of guidance (I did build the machine myself about 2.5 years ago). Oh, and I apologize, I am running Windows 7 if that changes anything...

Thank you everybody in advance for any help you can provide. I am not opposed to just clearing everything out and starting over, but I would like to avoid that if at all possible...

Regards,

tkbambino
 
Back up your important files now. Look in the device manager and see if there are any yellow exclamation points. Let us know
 
I'm sorry for taking awhile to get back, but thank you for your response - I have used AVG Free 2012. I had read it is a great program and it came up with zero infections found.
 
Uninstalled AVG, installed Microsoft Security Essentials, ran it - nothing detected. So I went and began running the full scan, and it froze after 50 minutes. Which is certainly an improvement - the fact that I had enough time to uninstall and download and install it is a huge improvement. With that said, it is still having the problem, clearly.

Again I appreciate all the help you've already given and I do appreciate any more steps you may have for me to troubleshoot with.

Thank you!
 
To give an update. Was able to run the full scan the second attempt, and have turned of the power saver so that the computer never sleeps (this way I can see what is going on when it actually freezes). So I left it on and left the house for a couple hours of errands and came back to it still on. Good sign, even though nothing has really been discovered.

Got home to download the temp file cleaner, download, begin running it and has frozen three straight attempts trying to run it. Does this give any useful info?

Thank you again for all your help!
 
I'm beginning to suspect the hard drive. You can set a check on the next start up by going to computer and right-click on the C drive. Select properties, tools check now. Put a check in both boxes...
 
640 Large file records
0 bad file records
0 EA records
60 reparse records

0 unindexed files scanned
0 unindexed files recovered

It restarted and is one right now. Should there have been a result from this? I will leave it on at this point and see if it freezes.

Thank you for all the help, again!
 
First, I want to say thank you again for all the help. For s few days the computer was up and running for a few hours at a time without freezing, getting properly shot down and everything seemed to be ok.

It was off for about 24 hours, turned it back on tonight and it froze before I could even log on. Continues to freeze everytime I try and reboot.

It seems at this point, with all the tests that I've run, it seems to be the most likely next step is to completely wipe the hard drive and start over? Does anybody have any other ideas for me to attempt before wiping it?

Thanks again in advance!
 
If it's a hardware problem you could end up in a worse position by being unable to reinstall Windows.
 
I had this issue I dont know if you game or not but steam was causing the issue for me so I removed it and used crap cleaner on privacy and registry and seemed to sort the problem for me I am always told when I get this to uninstall the latest programs I installed to see if that causes the issue
 
Thank you all again for the help. I don't game at all on this computer. I have gone back and uninstalled all the programs I could think of that would have been installed from before the time it started to current and still run into the issue. Again, it seems to be getting "better" in terms of staying on longer and longer, but will still run into issues.

As for replacing the power supply, are there any common symptoms I can try to diagnose with a "fading" power supply? I feel like I have read that a power supply issue will shut the computer down - my problem has been that the computer freezes, but the tower continues running - the fans are still spinning and everything seems fine.

Coincidentally, at work my laptop was deployed to me with a bad Hard Drive and after about a month began lagging progressively worse, until it came to a crescendo and was actually taking forever to start, not actually freezing, but unresponsive programs were the only thing I could get and actually began crashing. These are not my symptoms. Literally, the only thing I have encountered is a frozen screen/monitor. Even as I type, could it have something to do with either my video cards or the monitors themselves? If this might be an issue, let me know and I can dig up the exact specs on my video cards.

Again, thank you so much for all the help. Whether this ends up fixing this computer or not, I have at least a lot abut troubleshooting to a better level and do appreciate the (little bit of) knowledge you guys have provided.
 
"As for replacing the power supply, are there any common symptoms I can try to diagnose with a "fading" power supply? I feel like I have read that a power supply issue will shut the computer down - my problem has been that the computer freezes, but the tower continues running - the fans are still spinning and everything seems fine"...

Many people mistakenly feel that if the fans and lights are lit, a power supply is fine. Swapping out a power supply is the only real way to rule it out
 
Thank you for the heads up with that - I went ahead picked up a new Power Supply yesterday, replaced the old one, and it froze last night after about 45 minutes. When I was chatting with the gentleman at the parts store I mentioned my issue and he also mentioned it might be the motherboard... is this a possibility? Is there anything that is "more likely" at this point? It seems that the things I haven't replaced are the HD, CPU, vid cards, motherboard. Any next steps other than just trying them one by one? At this point it might be less expensive to just build a new machine...
 
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