Freezing System

[monnewbie3]

Hello. I recently built a system for gaming. And I've had nothing but headaches.
My problem is that my computer keeps having these random system freezes. It usually only happens in games. It freezes and just stays frozen. Can't ctrl+alt delete out or nothing. It use to do it the odd time. But recently its been doing it ALL the time, even when im just using the desktop. Also sometimes I couldn't even log into windows, it would freeze on the screen with that charging bar. It would eventually reboot saying hard disk failure. I took a look into the bios and the SATA master wasn't there. I shut the system down re-booted, it was suddenly there..... With out SP2 I can log in fine now, but my games keep freezing. Very in frequently I might add. Sometimes my systems on for 5 minutes and it freezes. Sometimes I can play for hours. I also formatted and reinstalled windows and all my drivers 3-4 times. I belive all my chipset drivers and what not are all up to date. Any help would be great.

Thanks,


Oh yea here are my specs.
Amd 64 3500+
2048mb kingston KVR400 pc3200 ram
A8n SLI premium board.
BFG 7800GT
SATA 200gb maxtor 7200rpm
On board sound
Antec P-180 case with a 500w supply.

 

[DonNagual]

Nice system by the way!

OK, from what you have written, this is going to take some trouble shooting. I have the same motherboard as you (but the deluxe not premium), and I was having random crashes as well. I ended up RMAing my board and everything is fine now. But before you do that, there are 3 things I would check out.

1. Go into your event viewer (right click on my computer, go to manage, then event viewer) and look around in there for some hints as to what hardware is causing the errors.

2. Run http://www.memtest.org/ on your memory for a couple hours to see if your memory is faulty.

3. Run a diagnostic on your hard drive. Unfortunately, we need someone to suggest a diagnostic program for you. The powermax software will not work on your hard drive (unless things have changed recently) as they do not support SATA drives using the nforce4 chipset.

 

[monnewbie3]

Cool thanks. I'll try that. I'll keep ya updated. Oh yea what's RMAing?

Thanks.

 

[DonNagual]

It means sending it back to ASUS for a replacement board.

 

[monnewbie3]

Lol thats funny, I actually had to go back to the store where I bought and get another one because one the Pci ex slots was screwd up . I tried the memory program, I got 2 passes, ran it for about 1.5hours. I took a look at the computer management, I couldn't make much sense of it. There was 1 error under applications and couple warnings under the "system". Ummm so anything else

Thanks.

 

[DonNagual]

As you are getting the hard disk error message, that is probably worth checking out. Go to www.maxtor.com and download the powermax diagnostic software and see if it'll recognize your Hard Disk. It may not, as I said, because it seems that powermax doesn't work well with SATA and the nforce4 chipset.

Still, give it a shot, you may get lucky and the powermax software will work for you. Does anyone else know of some good hard disk diagnostic programs?

 

[monnewbie3]

I tried that program, It didn't detect my harddrive . I'll see if I can find another one

 

[monnewbie3]

Errr still having some bad luck. Can't find another hard disk diagnostic tool. (that really works). When I had installed SP2 I found the system to be much worse. Much more freezes and sometimes wouldn't even boot into windows. But now with SP1 It seems to be holding stable..... for the time being.

 

[monnewbie3]

Ive been doing some screwin around, and I've noticed my PC freeze ALOT more if I OC my video card very slighty, (5mhz on core and 10mhz on ram). If I keep it at stock settings It usually runs alright. Does that help narrow anything down?

Thanks