Computer becoming completely unresponsive

[G18241]

Ok a week or 2 ago i started have a weird problem where any media i was playing would randomly stutter wether this be youtube / winamp yet i could play fairly graphic intensive games with no problems what so ever.

Last weekend i did full virus scans / defrag and cleaned all the inside of my computer in case it was because of dust...there wasnt that much found at all on virus scans and the inside of the computer was fairly clean, so got rid of anything that was found and the computer was then spotless.

Was sat playing oblivion happy as pie yesterday morning and went to work at dinner time, came home at 9 and the computer was completely unresponsive. It was taking asnywhere bnetween 30 seconds and about 5 minutes for anything to happen. The girlfriends sister had been round and had been playing the Sims 3 all afternoon and she says when she closed that down everything was fine.

Turned the computer off last night and let it boot back up and everything was fine, got up this morning and same again. The girlfriend had been on as she was logged into facebook and set some torrents downloading, so it must have been fine for her. I go to close utorrent so i can play some games and again, computer becomes completely unresponsive and i have to power it down by keeping the power button pressed, but now everything is running fine

Have a feeling it may be a heat issue or hard drive on its way out.

Would someone be able to confirm either or these so as i dont go replacing things / reinstalling windows unless i need too

Thanks

Can anyone confirm either

 

[G18241]

Use 'core temp' or 'real temp' to check wether it's a CPU heat problem or not. Use MSI Afterburner to see graphics card temperatures. Your hard disk manufacturer should have some tools on their website to check if that's the problem.

It's also worth checking the RAM. Download Memtest86 and burn that to a CD/DVD and boot from that. Leave it running for a few hours to do a proper test.

Cheers for the quick reply

What kind of temps am i looking for, just so i know if its going to explod anytime soon

 

[G18241]

have u checked task manager to see if anything is running 100%cpu?

Yeah once it ever opens up there is nothing, CPU will be at around 10% and ill be using less than 1GB of 4GB ram.

Just done the quick scan on the WD hard drive that has windows and all my programs installed and its passed that fine, will run an extensive one in abit if i cant find anything else wrong

 

[G18241]

Sounds a bit like HDD failure to me, though the inconsistancy might sugest heat issues.

Western digital, seagate and a few other manufacturers have there own diagnostic programs which you can download and test your HDD with, they aren't always 100% accurate but should give you a good idea of where you are at.

I guess maybe power supply could also be an issue here if it is on its way out and not supplying the correct volts

One thing about the CPU, i upgraded my GFX last year and RMAd it as i was getting some squealing form it, but since found out that could be the CPU as well, never had any problems about form the slight noise though...so this could have taken a toll on it?

 

[G18241]

GFX card is also running just under 40* ... hmmm, only the memory left then, which if its that i will be gutted as that has not long been replaced as well >_<

 

[G18241]

it is looking less and less like a Hardware problem.

so you had Capacitor squeel on your graphics card then before it was RMA'd that shouldn't have any impact now, and games are still running fine? or only on occasion?

There is still the slight squeal but it does sounds more like its the CPU than the GFX card

have you checked your Bios for underclocking or system regulated underclocking?

Shall have a look at this tonight, but ive had the computer for 5 years nearly and never mess about in BIOS so unless someone else has changed something, which i very much doubt, is there any reason this could now be causing a problem?

have you got another power supply you could test with?

Unfortunatly not

obviously the last step to take once you have finished trouble shooting hardware but it could be a possible windows corruption or even a Virus.

what antivirus do you use?

Have AVIRA antivirus with comodo firewall, all updated

run a Malwarebytes scan on it to check for viruses.

Ran this the other weekend and it just found a few possible nasty cookies etc, nothing major

try a windows repair, I would sugest a backup and restore before trying to RMA any parts/spending money on new ones that you cannot be sure are faulty.

Am off work next week, so as a last resort this will have to be it Cant really RMA anything as they will all be out of their warranty now

Luckily its my birthday next week and will more than likely be getting cash

 

[G18241]

Got home form work, and everything is fine :/

My facebook has apparantly tried to be accessed from someone in Tokyo mind so am going to do full virus scans etc again, but at the minute its better than it has been for ages...will try and leave it to weekend when i can properly have a good look at it.

Thank you ever so much for all the replies

 

[G18241]

Ok small update, the GF was playing the sims 3 yesterday, and when she closed it down the same thing has happened again. She was on it for maybe 5 hours or so, but i have played other games for that long ( and possible longer ) so could it be something specific to do with the Sims? Had a quick search on google but cant find anything in particular.

 

[G18241]

This is a tricky one

what is your full spec?

Could be an application error with Sims not closing properly, if it slows again try restarting the computer and see if it is still slow afterwards, or close any processes that relate to Sims and see how that goes.

After a restart its fine, and all processes are closed.

Spec is :

2BG Geil DDR2 6400
512MB ATI Radeon HD 4850
1.8GhZ core Duo intel

Its the fact it can run much more demanding games fine :/

 

[G18241]

Even from a restart now the computer isnt as fast or responsive as it used to be. After closing oblivion down for eg, i have to give it a minute, but it does then work ok(ish) no worse than it was before i put the game on.

 

[G18241]

Have you run a diagnostic on your hard disk yet? A dodgy HDD can cause all the problems you are having.

Yes i ran the "quick" scan but am gonna have to run the full one me thinks Shall report back laters!

 

[G18241]

Right, ran the full full hard drive check yesterday, took just over 12 hours but came back fine, ticks on every category.

Has died again this morning, not sure why but it hands for about 30 seconds, can still move mouse etc, but once the cimputer catches up with itself, anything i have done whilst it has lagged all happens quickly after, like a game lagging.

RUnning out of ideas now

 

[G18241]

Could be delayed write to disk from memory or cache. Not sure why atm. Some software behaving badly. I would look to back up everything and a new reinstall unless you have tried this.

Always a last resort i know, just like to make sure ive tried everything else first

 

[G18241]

ANother quick update, it has now got to the point resetting it doesnt even fix the problem. I cannot do anything once it gets into windows, and also cant even boot into safe mode, i press F8 to get the boot menu up, then the keyboard will not respond for me to get it into safe mode.

Still have stuff to back up but it wont let me >_<

 

[G18241]

Have tried the PS2 method, still didnt work

MAY have a small HDD laying around, annoying that i dont know what is causing it though >_< lol