Computer locking up randomly. Help please.

rsnooks

rsnooks

rsnooks

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Joined
11 Nov 2008
Posts
14
Hi,

I built this PC back in June and it has been fine until now. It completely locks up (mouse, keyboard, display and even audio repeats over and over) and I have to physically reboot the machine to resolve it.

It happens randomly and can happen anywhere between 2 minutes of the PC being turned on all the way to a full 24 hours. It MAINLY happens when playing video games, but has happened once while just on the desktop and twice while watching video.

The specs are as follows and both the motherboard and video card has been checked by Overclockers apparently without faults.

  • Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)
  • Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 2.40GHz Guaranteed to run at 3.00GHZ (1333FSB) - Retail
  • Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound
  • Asus Striker II Extreme nForce 790i Ultra SLi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
  • OCZ 4GB DDR3 PC3-10666C6 1333MHz ReaperX (2x2GB) Dual Channel DDR3 (OCZ3RPX1333EB4GK)
  • Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ)
  • Antec 1200 Twelve Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
  • Antec Quattro 1000W PSU
  • Leadtek GeForce GTX 280 1024MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

I can't imagine it being a hardware confliction issue as it had been working fine for 4 months.

I had overclocked the CPU from 2.4ghz to 3.0ghz when i first bought it just to test, but took it straight back down to 2.4ghz again so i can't imagine that being an issue either.

Any help would be great because i am going absolutely crazy trying to determine what piece of hardware could be causing this problem.

Thanks in advance.
 
Checked what temps cpu/mb/gpu are reaching when under load?
Ran memtest86+ to check for obvious errors/faults?
Tried Prime95 on various modes to check if cpu related?
 
Sweeney said:
Checked what temps cpu/mb/gpu are reaching when under load?
Ran memtest86+ to check for obvious errors/faults?
Tried Prime95 on various modes to check if cpu related?
Click to expand...

Last time i checked, CPU was running at 35c on load.

Ill check again and do those tests and get back to you.
 
Pilky01 said:
re-seat cpu cooler.
Click to expand...

Right,

I have re-seated the heatsink/fan after cleaning and reapplying the Arctic Thermal Paste.

This got the CPU back down to 20-30c.

I then ran Prime95 on default settings and it crashed twice. Once within the first 5 seconds and the second time within about 60 seconds.

Does Prime95 ONLY test the CPU? If so, could it be a damaged CPU that needs to be replaced?
 
What torture test did you run?

1 is mainly cpu, 1 is a mixture and the other is lots of cpu and lots of ram
 
Sweeney said:
What torture test did you run?

1 is mainly cpu, 1 is a mixture and the other is lots of cpu and lots of ram
Click to expand...

I can't remember, it was the default one.

Think it's 3rd on the list so is prob a test of both cpu and ram.

I have been told by a friend that is more than likely a faulty RAM module, but surely this shouldnt be the case after just 4 months?

Do you think i should arrange to have the ram and cpu looked at by overclockers?
 
ticklemebougy said:
first try taking 2 sticks of ram out then see if it locks up, keep switching the ram around and you may find a faulty stick.
Click to expand...

Have just done memtest86 3 times.

#1 on just one stick
#2 on the other stick
#3 both sticks

Test completed fine all 3 times.

Then used Prime95 to do a 30 minute stress test on the CPU - this passed fine.

I then used Prime95 to test CPU and RAM - It died in about 30 seconds... BUT!

I then decided to try again, to confirm that it was crashing because of that test... couldn't get it to crash and it completed a 30 minute stress test.

This is actually doing my head in now.
 
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