PC been freezing for 1 year now.

M

MinorityMe86

Posts: 24   +0
So, as I stated in my forum topic, I have been going on with this problem for about a year now. This is my first time reaching out for help over any kind of forum and I hope that there is someone out there like me that have had similar issues and hopefully has a solution that does not require a bat and a match. :p..Anyways I'll cut to the chase..

This is a custom build, and It started freezing up on me when I would play COD. It's not a religious freeze up, but I would say probably about once every 30 min. or so. When it freezes everything locks up, I have to manually reboot the pc to fix it. Some times the sound will go in a fast loop and sometimes it wont do anything. It tends to freeze up the most when I play World of Warcraft. It can go from freezing once every hour to every five minutes. I tried playing AoC (which is a more graphicly intensive game) And it would freeze about once every two hours. It rarely freezes when I'm not in any type of game but it has frozen up on me at random while either browsing the web or running simple programs like Microsoft word. As you can see it has been hard for me to pinpont the issue because it seems totaly random. I have done everything to my knowledge to try and correct it and nothing has worked. Below is a list of the things I have tried to fix it and my systems specs (they should populate with my post).

I almost feel as if it may be a network issue but am not sure how a network connection would freeze a pc.

Updated drivers religiously >>(mobo - video cards - sound - keyboard/mice - monitor - network card - OS - etc.)

Ran memtest86, no errors

defraged hard drive

I run everest , Ccleaner, HotCPUtester, highjackthis, AVG free, MemTurbo, malewarebytes

re-installed OS/ all games I have had issues with

re-applyed thermal paste

tried different monitors

troubleshot both graphics cards individually

Updated BIOS


I feel as if I'm missing some stuff but you get the idea :)

Any help or Ideas would be great!! Thank you in advance!

I forgot to mention I run a 650W corsair SLI ready PSU / Logitech G15 keyboard / Microsoft Sidewinder USB mouse and Logitech G35 headset.
 
hmm id try stripping t down to the bare bones, minimum memory, minimum graphics, basically the minimum you can get of everything, including software, ie dump anti virus and firewall, basically dumpm what ever you can. That way you will find out one of two things.
a) It makes no difference.
b) It makes a difference.
Also I would run some diagnostic/display information on a second monitor so that when it freezes hopefull you have captured what is going on. There might be a pattern.
 
I will definitely give that a go. I did forget to mention that I am running dual monitors. I have somewhat monitored the PC activity in the past but will watch it a little more religiously and see if I can pick up any patterns. I will update you as to what happens. Thank you for the advice
 
MinorityMe86 said:
I will definitely give that a go. I did forget to mention that I am running dual monitors. I have somewhat monitored the PC activity in the past but will watch it a little more religiously and see if I can pick up any patterns. I will update you as to what happens. Thank you for the advice
Click to expand...


Well I kind of guess you would have more than two monitor capability being a gamer.

Nasty problem freezes I guess it depends what one means by freeze, it may just be doing something extraordinarily slow, but you would know?

Will a control alt delete reboot this? Obviously not?

Never really had that myself with XP, reboots due to bad memory yes.
Probably had it with my old win98 but more BSOD's.
Win 98 was a bag of shoite compared to XP.
I will stick with XP for a good while yet, better the devil you know!!
 
haha I see what you're saying. Ctrl alt dlt does not do anything. The only button that works is the reset one when it freezes. I also read in another post of someone having similar issues that it turned out to be his PSU not getting the proper air circulation. As of right now my PSU is mounted on the bottom of the case with the fan on the bottom. There is air ports on the bottom of the case for this reason but I will also try remounting it to the top of the case to see if that does anything. I will keep you updated.
 
In addition to esbo's comments, I'd suggest to have a look at Event Viewer Logs to see if there is something useful in them, assuming from info you have provided that you are not getting any BSOD.
 
MinorityMe86 said:
haha I see what you're saying. Ctrl alt dlt does not do anything. The only button that works is the reset one when it freezes. I also read in another post of someone having similar issues that it turned out to be his PSU not getting the proper air circulation. As of right now my PSU is mounted on the bottom of the case with the fan on the bottom. There is air ports on the bottom of the case for this reason but I will also try remounting it to the top of the case to see if that does anything. I will keep you updated.
Click to expand...

My PSU's air intake grid has been almost totally blocked with debris before (probably a lot to do with sticky tobacco smoke) I have cleaned it out.
Never cause a problem, but quieter now I think as the fans do not have to work as hard!!

Your machine probably needs more cooling than mine though.

Anyway that reminds me, get CPUID HWMonitor to monitor your temps and fans, might give u a few clues and handy to have anyway. Good luck!!
 
I went ahead and downgraded my hardware to the basics. adn just to be safe, I moved my PSU to a better location where it would get better air flow. I was playing World of warcraft for a while (about 1.5hrs) while monitoring my RAM cpu and temp on the other monitor. It ended up freezing again. When it froze my RAM was staying at a constant 2.11Gb (out of 8Gb) and my cpu load was 31%. No sudden spikes in either. My cpu temp tends to stay at around 92 degrees Fahrenheit. I checked the event logs and nothing seemed to show any kind of clue as to what could be causing it. If someone wouldn't mind directing me as to how to post my logs over the forum I would be glad to in case I'm not seeing anything.

The only log that occured (that I could see) the minute it froze was my Gf's laptop logging onto the network. Could that cause my pc to freeze?
 
MinorityMe86 said:
I went ahead and downgraded my hardware to the basics. adn just to be safe, I moved my PSU to a better location where it would get better air flow. I was playing World of warcraft for a while (about 1.5hrs) while monitoring my RAM cpu and temp on the other monitor. It ended up freezing again. When it froze my RAM was staying at a constant 2.11Gb (out of 8Gb) and my cpu load was 31%. No sudden spikes in either. My cpu temp tends to stay at around 92 degrees Fahrenheit. I checked the event logs and nothing seemed to show any kind of clue as to what could be causing it. If someone wouldn't mind directing me as to how to post my logs over the forum I would be glad to in case I'm not seeing anything.

The only log that occured (that I could see) the minute it froze was my Gf's laptop logging onto the network. Could that cause my pc to freeze?
Click to expand...

Well it does see a remarkable conincidend if you were playing for 1,5hrs and it freeze when she logged in.
Anyway you seem to think it may be a network problem.

But whatever, I do not know what kind of network you have but the think the way for ward is simply to "get rid of it". Then you learn something,.


I
 
I purchased a new hard drive, router, and wireless adapter for my pc...installed vista 64bit fresh and still freezing.. I think I can pin point it down to either a flaw with the CPU or the PSU. is 650W big enough for the specs I have?
 
650w is probably good..im on my 5th build right now and had this problem with a previous comp.. the graphics software was the cause of it... get rid of the dual monitor setup and see how things play out... keep it on without powersave for the monitor...also get rid of any graphics software.. i believe it was the ati catalyst software that was giving me this issue.. and it was odd that when i got rid of it and just reinstalled with new drivers it was all good.. just a suggestion.. goodluck..
 
I tried a new vid card (gts200) and froze up almost instantly opening warcraft. Tried a brand new sound card and still no luck. played the "drivers" game with both sound and video drivers,,no luck. This leads me to believe that it is either the mobo or the CPU. Any ideas would be great. thank you
 
Your system spec as entered since you are new ,,, Welcome ... I take as up-to-date.

Can I have the make and model of your power supply?

650W means nothing as I can show you a 500W that out performs a 650W!
 
would the fact of his 64bit system be a problem when running the warcraft game .. making it freeze like that.. just throughin that out.. i dont know about 64bit except there isnt as much available for it as 32bit
 
We can't say anything till we know the make and model of the PSU, he's got a power hungry system there, we need to see how many Amps are on his +12V rails, how his second Video card is connected to the power supply (some or most PSU don't have enough PCI-E connector for two cards forcing the use of one or two 4pin molex)

Who ever built that system seems to know what they are doing, at the same time such builder would mention his choice of power supply without even asking, is the power supply and RAM SLI ready? The board has settings for that as well and there are many settings in the BIOS with that board that could cause system instability if not set right depending on CPU stepping, RAM timing/ voltage etc.....
 
Here is a link to the PSU I am currently running along with the GPU's. The PSU is SLI ready. both GPU's are running on 6-pin lines

PSU -- http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3438607&CatId=1483

GPU-- http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6591107&CatId=3669

You mentioned that the BIOS has several option for SLI that can cause instability. This is what I am curious of. I'm not a guru at BIOS settings so I will take any advice I can get.
 
@ IPMJAMES. I know others who run warcraft off of 64-bit systems so to my knowledge this shouldn't cause any conflictions. The pc also freezes up in other games such as COD and AOC, just mostly in warcraft.

I am also curious if any jumpers or settings on the mobo need to be tweaked to run SLI. This is my first SLI build so it is very likely that the problem could be poitning to that. Thanks for the advice!
 
Let me take a look.

In the BIOS, do you see memory setting having to do with SLI, try it with an without but I bet we will change some other voltages. Probably need model of your RAM.

Have to go out and work on my car to make it driveable till tomorrow will be out for 30 to 60M.

EDIT:

I had a system similar to your setup with a bad SLI bridge *the thiny that connects the two card" the system was in the shop for almost a week till we decided to test it with another one, wish everything was that easy but this system kept coming out of SLI mode, different than yours but you never know.
 
I switched out the bridges to see if that helps

Does it matter which port you install the SLI bridge on? my gpus have two sets of ports

I also check the bios for any SLI options, nothing found
 
Ahh, didn't know that, leaning towards BIOS tweaks now, Excellent choice of Power Supply, 750-850 would have been better with future upgrade in mind,

I rather use ~450W power out of a 650W PSU than ~450W out of a 850W PSU, using too little bellow 50%, lowers efficiency of the PSU causing the wasted energy in heat.

Didn't say you had the same issue, just pointing out how simple and "silly" some problems are
 
Good to know thank you..

I am hoping that it is somthing simple (and unexpensive)..Hopefully I can finally put this issue behind me :p
 
This will take a bit of time with me running late on at least one thread and a few other things.

Hang in there, couple days don't add much to 365 days ;)
 
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