Complete Lock-Ups.

West · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:17

Okay Guys heres the deal:

I have a Gaming PC from a certain Irish Group:

Intel Q8300 @ 2.5ghz
4gb DDR2
Nvidia GTS 240
Windows 7 Ultimate (Fully Updated) along with all my Drivers.
The only alteration i've made to the system is a Wifi card which I fitted.

I'm experiencing intermittant freezes where it completley locks up (No movement of mouse etc etc) and no BSOD, I go back into the Event Viewer and it's only recording an Error in the Unexpected shutdown..

It seems to happen when i'm running EVE Online (Which has it's own logging software which i'm gonna run every time I start now.. but is there anything else I can look for that will explain these bizzare lock-ups?

Biz.Kid09 · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:20

hmmm try running memtest and also prime95 to check your system is fully stable.

millsy888 · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:25

As you said you recently fitted a wifi card, did you disturb any components when it went in? I'd just check all power cables and make sure everything is where it should be in the case.

West · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:26

The Wifi card was fitted after the crashes started

Biz.Kid09 · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:29

So it was crashing before you put wifi card in?

rodo · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:32

I'd look at memtest. I had lockups last year and it was related to ATAPI errors in event viewer.

West · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:32

Biz.Kid09 said:
So it was crashing before you put wifi card in?

Yup.

It isn't happening at any specific time either.. for instance today i've been running EVE for at least 6 or so hours but it also happens when I first start the PC (Within an hour or so) and then go days without a problem..

So is there a possibility it could be a Tempreture related problem?

Biz.Kid09 · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:57

Possible, Your pc nice and clean inside? or dusty if the latter i recommend a can of compressed air and give it a good clean inside and that may be your problem, What temps you getting at the moment?
Does it work fine without the wifi card in?

West · 8 Dec 2009 at 22:36

GPU is at 52oC atm (Will need to check rest)

The PC is less than 3 months old.. so I havn't dusted it yet. Will run Memtest.

West · 8 Dec 2009 at 22:55

Running Memtest now

West · 8 Dec 2009 at 23:35

Memtest86 came up Negative.. running Prime now, but i'm pretty sure i've ran a test similar to this and came out neg.

West · 8 Dec 2009 at 23:58

Okay, ran both Prime and Memtest, both coming out negative

postmanfw · 9 Dec 2009 at 00:04

Hard drive or gpu?

West · 9 Dec 2009 at 00:36

postmanfw said:
Hard drive or gpu?

Could try a Defrag I suppose.. can someone reccoment a decent defrag program, I know the Windows one is pants..

millsy888 · 9 Dec 2009 at 01:52

Defraggler is the one i use.

While your at it give the HDD a clean by using CCleaner, both programs free and by the same people.

http://www.piriform.com/

West · 10 Jul 2010 at 21:10

Holly Thread recovery batman.

The problem has started getting more frequent now, i'm running the Irish own Diagnostic program. It cropped up again playing BF2/STO

It's thrown up various errors on the HDD telling me it's pretty much toast and needs replacing.. now I have a hardware warranty with them still.. is this likley to be the cause of the hangs?

rodo · 10 Jul 2010 at 21:30

Ran HDTune health check on the drive?

Muel · 10 Jul 2010 at 22:17

I'm having similar errors at the moment, using a different hard drive appears to have solved it. Nearly 36 hours crash free so far....

It's an IDE 40gb hard drive though. Lots of noise, and incredibly slow. Nice.

Sounds like your problems are hard drive related to me.

West · 16 Jul 2010 at 19:01

New HDD is in.. no problems thus far!