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I have recently been having a problem where my computer is freezing at random times during games. So far Everquest 2, World of Warcraft, and Unreal Tournament 2004 have all frozen up at random times. It hasn't done this in the year I have had it. I've tried everything: system rollback, uninstalling and reinstalling, shutting the computer completely down. I noticed the problem after installing .net Framework 2.0 but I have now decided that that is most likely coincidental as I hadn't played any games in a quite a few days when I installed it. My thermal readout reads about 90 degrees when I am playing an online game, So I don't know if something might have happened when I ran a System Optimizer (TuneUp Utilities 2006 I believe). I'm completely lost, going in circles.

Comp specs follow.

2 gb DDR Corsair RAM.
80 gb Hard Drive
GeForce 6600
Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit

I'm not sure if any of that might matter, but it might. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me. This is my third day without sleep trying to figure out what this is. The most pride stinging is the fact that I am a Computer Major.

Thanks again,

-Shane.

I'm not the best with troubleshooting computer problems but I might have some suggestions that could possibly help...

Your temps do seem a bit high(if its the processor). If you're comfortable with working with your pc, I reccomend reseating your cpu heatsink(and reapply thermal paste while you're at it).

Then theres also the possibility of driver problems. Make sure they're up to date.

And lastly, something may be wrong with your hardware. ie ram, harddrive, video card, etc.

Sorry I couldn't be more specific but these are just some general things that come to my mind when reading your thread.

I must say I'm not very good with Hardware, more of a software kind of guy. I have noticed recently, however, that the fan on my processor has been making a strange noise (think a fan with a piece of plastic randomly scraping it, that fast scraping noise) But I opened my case and cleaned the dust off, and spun it a few times with my finger because I thought it might've been misaligned somehow and it stopped making the noise. But now it seems that the noise is back.

Another thing I recently remembered: My games do not seem to freeze if they are minimized to the toolbar. Dunno if that matters or not, though.

What is your CPU, and is that 90 degree temp in celcius or F?

You mention you messed around with some tune up software, it is possible that you have overclocked your system which could cause your system to become unstable. This is the first thing I would check. Especially if that temp above is in celcius!!! (in which case you should stop using your computer right away).

As for your fan noises, it sounds like you may need to replace it. It is relatively easy to do. If you tell us what your motherboard and CPU is, we can recommend a new heatsink/fan for you.

90 degrees Farenheit, how can you check to see if your system is overclocked? I've had no dialogue boxes saying such.

Download and install this:
http://www.techspot.com/downloads/43...e-edition.html

And see what it says about your CPU speeds.

But if that temp is 90F, then you are probably OK.

I would run www.memtest.org on your ram to rule that out. Let it run for 6 or 7 passes (it will take a few hours)

I think your video card may also be suspicious (you say things don't crash if you have the game minimized).

You can use that everest software to monitor your GPU temps as well. I'd be curious about those temps as well. Your video card may be overheating.

alright, but i have to reset my comp each time it freezes. would i be able to get any results? (not even getting "windows has enounctered a serious error' window)

sorry, double post

then if the problem still exist. Search on google for a chatforum where other users also have this problem, some times the come up with pretty good solutions.

freezing is most commonly caused by over heating contact me personaly to talk about solutions anakin.ryan@gmail.com

For starters, I think he should try different drivers. I use to have that problem, and then I did some troubleshooting, and I did a diagnostic on my PC. (Go to run, type in dxdiag, select the display option, and do a test on Direct Draw, and Direct 3D). The problem I was having was, when I tested my Direct 3D, my monitor would say that my VGA mode wasn't supported, in other words, my monitor wasn't compatible with the settings I currently had it set to. And this was pretty much the cause of the problem. I also found out, that if you keep trying different drivers, it would somehow delete or scramble your AGP settings. Once I found out this problem was occuring, I downloaded a newer AGP driver, and it stopped freezing, when I played games. So, in short of all the above things said, you should download a newer AGP driver. Also be sure to delete the current AGP driver that you currently have, before installing a newer one, because it may be corrupted. I just thought I would explain to you in detail what the problem I was having was, and how I solved them, to better help you understand what is going on with your PC. This is a problem that no one mentioned, so I just thought I would throw it out there for ya.

there is also another thing you can try. when you get those kinds of video cards they have a defualt setting on them that makes it so all the games you play will eventaually freeze because its not runnnign at its highest performance. you can change this setting by going onto "controll pannel"and clicking on "display". then click on "setting" then click on "advanced" then click on your "geforce card tab" then go to "performance and quality settings" and there should be a sliding tab somewhere on that pannel. set it to the highest setting ( mine is 8xS). i had the same problem as you and this fixed it right up for me. tell me if it works. good luck

this thread has probably closed but if the guy that had the problem is still having it i was having the same problem. You mentioned that it happened after you installed .net framework, i had that problem to so i tried unistalling .net framework from add/remove programs in control panel, then rebooted and now my games are running again.
sorry if i got anything wrong but i'm 13 years old and am noob at forums and things.
hope this helped (if any one is even still looking at this thread)