Computer freezing several times a day. No BSOD.

[Larry365]

Hi everyone.

I have been looking online for some time now and can find no real sollution to my problem.

Basically, for no apparent reason, my computer will randomly freeze and I am forced to manually reset. Below are the facts.

• Computer completely freezes
• If this happens during play back, picture and audio will stutter
• nothing has been installed or updated recently
• this problem has been happening on and off for about a year
• recently it has started happening since using ethernet to connect to internet, prior to that; I was tethering through Desire HD
• nothing is showing in the event logs other than logs of me resetting the computer
• there are no memory dumps for these events
• can happen at any time, nothing specifically has to be running, can happen when pc is locked with minimal apps open
• if freezing accurs when monitor has been turned off, no picture will displau

System spec can be found in sig. Any help would be much appreciated. If any more information is needed, just ask.

thank you (y)

 

[Engram]

Have you tested you RAM? If not, use Memtest.

 

[Larry365]

Just completed the recommended memory test, passed - no errors.

 

[Larry365]

update:

just checked temps and nb was running at 75c idle.. not too high but obviously doesn't leave much room for when it actually has to do some work.

Gave it a hoover and a blast and put side of case back on (had been off for a couple of days) and now temp is 58c and dropping.

This may be problem solved.

 

[Larry365]

Just had another crash. Not sure whether or not the nb overheated as CPUID are incompetent at what they do and temp logs are not saved unless manually stopped. Looking at temps now though, I would say it was not that.

Please, any help would be great. 4 times this has happened today.

 

[PapaLazaru]

When does it happen most? You mentioned it can happen during playback. What kind of playback?

 

[Deception]

Check your HDD's, especially for loose cables etc. I had a HDD that caused that on my PC too

 

[Larry365]

OK. I have checked for loose connections. To be honest, it happens less during playback than not so I'm putting that aside for now.

It happened again not too long ago and the first thing I noticed was internet failure. First a loss of connection, then network related explorer windows not opening. Then upon attempting to open task manager via ctrl alt del it froze (ctrl shift esc did nothing).

Having only noticed this problem reoccur now I am using the mobo ethernet port again as opposed to tethering through my phone, I have decided it is probably the mobo ethernet port causing the issues here. I have fitted an old pci network card found in my 2002 desktop and have so far had no issues. I'll keep you guys updated.

I'm away from home for a few hours so that should give the pc enough time to freeze, if its going to. Thinking about it, I should have disabled the mobo one but w/e, ill do that later.

 

[nutsnut]

All drivers/motherboard firmware up to date?

 

[Larry365]

I know the BIOS is up to date. I have never checked the drivers for the ethernet port. That another thing I'll do when I get back, though I would have thought windows update would have picked it up by now. I'll check though, cheers.

Funny, I dont seem to have much luck with integrated ethernet ports. The only reason I have the pci one is because the same thing happened to my old desktop.

 

[3dcandy]

make sure you run a diskcheck, crashing can cause loads of problems thus corrupting the drivers....

 

[Raumarik]

I had a similar problem on one of my servers at work, HP were useless at finding the fault and eventually I ended up tracking it down by trial an error. I was convinced it was the PSU but it ended up being the NIC. We swapped it for a cheap unbranded NIC and haven't had a single crash since.

 

[xpcpu]

have you tested your hard drive?

try HDtune

 

[cokecan]

I would point my finger at an overheating NB. Had similar issues on an intel DH67CF miniITX board. NB would hover around 75 majority of the time and head upto 80 on occasion. my raid array would start dropping disks randomly when the temp shot up them few degrees closer to 80 and would also just lock up.

Have since chucked the standard NB heatsink and opted for a home-made heatpipe setup which has brought my NB temp down to the 40's. haven't had a lockup or dropped disk since

 

[opethdisciple]

I totally disagree.

Every body seem to be going for the most complicated answer.

The first thing to check is is your CPU OC stable?

That's the number one culprit of freezing up. Test that thoroughly, if that is really stable then look else where.

Get your NB temps down also but I would start at the CPU.

 

[Larry365]

Thanks again for the abundance of suggestions. Since having fitted the pci ethernet card and disabling the mobo port, in the last 36 hours of running, there have been no hangs/freezes/crashes.

Whether or not i can be bothered to find out exactly what is wrong with the integrated port, I'm not sure, but it would seem at this stage that that was the problem. Obviously without a few more days of running, I cant know for sure.

I shall run the suggested tests to make sure all is well as I'm sure >20 freezes and resets in the last few days or so cant be good for anything.

Thanks again.

 

[Azuse05]

Have to agree. Random crashes tend to be ram, random freezes tend to be cpu.

Give this a go. Just set it to max a run it, if it passes you can be pretty sure you memory/controller (commonly overlooked) are stable. It's surprising the no. of chips that pass linpack/prime but fail this

 

[3dcandy]

I didn't see the cpu was overclocked. Put it at stock, I bet the onboard nic starts working properly again...

 

[Larry365]

OK, I ran MaxxPI at high priority to 256m digits. All I'm seeing results wise are the time it took (~7mins), the time it took to display (~2secs) and the CRC: 4159e3f1 (Valid).

Does this mean I have passed the test? You will have to excuse my ignorance towards the subject.

Temp wise, while tests are at 100%, memory is 53c and nb is 62c. CPU is running at max of 71c.

 

[remy87]

You might want to install your manufacture onboard ethernet drivers as sometimes the windows update one can cause a lot of problem. I had the same problem but not freezes just locked out of internet as the connection would have that annoying yellow triangle every now and then.