Hanging problem - any advice?

Pookie Bear · 10 Dec 2009 at 20:25

Hi all,

I am currently using a PC which I buil when the Conroe CPUs first came out and, apart from the occasional hiccup, it has served me well. The problems that have occurred have been resolved reasonably quickly (in most cases

) but the latest has got me stumped. The spec is an E6400, 2gig RAM, Windows XP, an 8800GT (running two monitors) on a Gigabyte DS3 mobo.

I have not added any hardware since a new graphics card at the end of last year.

My machine has started hanging. It's a strange kind of crash that started at the back end of last week and I have tried just about everything to fix it. My PC basically stops doing anything - if I'm in mid-browse or playing a game, it will just stop. My mouse will still work and if I'm in-game my sound will loop. Opening Task Manager occasionally works, but it doesn't let me actually shut down any applications or processes. I can also occasionally hit the Windows key + L, and then shut down my PC from there - but not always perhaps 1 in 5 times). I can even usually click icons on the desktop and they will highlight, but I cannot acctually run them. If I continue to click around and try to get things working, then about 50% of the time, it will start beeping insanely to get me to stop. No matter what, it requires a reboot to get back into things.

My first real problem (without knowing what I was in for!) was with the USB headset - the mic was intermittent, but sound was fine. It was around this time that the crashes started. So I disabled the headset and moved over to my soundblaster (which has never had a working input)....and then I changed over to the mobo sound and mic, removing the soundblaster. The crashes continued.

Oddly enough, the crashes do not happen when playing L4D2 as often as they do in Plants vs Zombies, despite L4D2 probably being a lot more intensive and tough on the system.

I have run Ad-Aware, Spybot, AVG, Windows Defender and Memtest - nothing has flagged up. Various programs and the BIOS indicate that overheating is not the issue (CPUs hovering around 52 under pressure, GPU slightly more, but not alarmingly). I have also tried accessing the internet wired instead of the Netgear WG111T I have (which has been a pain since day one).

I just cannot understand what the problem is. I'm at my wits end and so have copied a lot of my most important files over to an external HDD in preparation for a full wipe (I did one at the tail end of last year, so I doubt it's just clogged up).

I would appreciate any advice that might help me sort my problem out...

95thrifles · 10 Dec 2009 at 20:30

try runing HDTune on HDD see if theres any errors

Antar Bolaeisk · 10 Dec 2009 at 20:32

I had a similar problem on a DS3P motherboard Luw and it boiled down to the Network adapter conflicting with the SATA controller. It may be worthwhile disabling it under the BIOS settings and see if that has any effect.

Apart from that have you run memtest on the Memory?

If you have the system overclocked I would also suggest restoring all settings to factory defaults.

Pookie Bear · 10 Dec 2009 at 20:48

95thrifles said:
try runing HDTune on HDD see if theres any errors

I will, thanks.

Antar Bolaeisk said:
I had a similar problem on a DS3P motherboard Luw and it boiled down to the Network adapter conflicting with the SATA controller. It may be worthwhile disabling it under the BIOS settings and see if that has any effect.

Apart from that have you run memtest on the Memory?

If you have the system overclocked I would also suggest restoring all settings to factory defaults.

Disable which, mate? The Sata or the Network something..... - I need the Sata for my harddrive, surely...

As for memtest, yes, it passed.

Finally, there is no overclock, I gave up a week after building the machine

On another note, I left the machine running AdAware for three hours and it never crashed. Now, all of a sudden, typing is a nightmare as there are little pauses now and then.

Antar Bolaeisk · 10 Dec 2009 at 20:58

The Network Card sorry.

Pookie Bear · 10 Dec 2009 at 22:06

My network ran via a usb dongle at first, now it is wired from the built-in LAN on the mobo.

Antar Bolaeisk · 10 Dec 2009 at 22:18

Yes, disable the on-board Network Interface via the BIOS settings. While I can't say for certain whether this is the root of your problem I had an extremely similar problem with my system.

At the very least it's worth a shot.

Pookie Bear · 10 Dec 2009 at 23:14

Ohhh, right. I had to enable it this morning to hook my wired internet, so I don't think it was that. Thanks for the idea though

Hodders · 11 Dec 2009 at 00:14

Try downloading a linux live CD (ubuntu for example) and just running that for a bit. If it doesn't hang you may just need a reinstall.

Pookie Bear · 11 Dec 2009 at 08:58

I ran an AVG scan when I went to bed last night - and it took nearly three hours, without a crash. Then when I came back, I tried to click on a Steam message and bang.....hanging. If I'm not touching the machine, it seems to be pretty stable! So is it only under stress that it collapses.... I am almost positive it isn't overheating. I know it isn't Steam, as my PC runs just as badly when I haven't loaded it up... ARGH. I'm moving ever closer to a reformat which I don't really want to do.

What could I use to stress my machine out if I was running Linux?

Antar Bolaeisk · 11 Dec 2009 at 13:21

Luw said:
Ohhh, right. I had to enable it this morning to hook my wired internet, so I don't think it was that. Thanks for the idea though

Sorry Luw, I know I'm being pedantic with this but did you just have the onboard network interface disabled in the control panel or within the BIOS settings. If it was only the control panel it won't have made a difference, it actually needs to be disabled in BIOS. Also, while you're in there, disable the onboard sound as well if you haven't done so already, can't hurt.

Apart from that the Live CD is a good shout to see if it is a hardware problem, don't know what you can use to stress it though. If it is then you'll probably have to start removing all unnecessary hardware and re-installing bit by bit, booting between installs to see if there was an effect.

You've also mentioned that you have everything at stock, would your RAM voltage also be at stock? If so, what sort of RAM are you using, could it possibly require slightly more than the standard supplied voltage?

Also, bit of a strange one but I remember from before when I had the similar problem reading about the order which the drives were plugged into the SATA ports on the computer being important. All I can remember is that you have to make sure to use the orange ports and not the purple ones, though I can't remember why.

Finally, what settings are you using for your SATA ports in the BIOS, I can't remember off the top of my head what I'm trying to get at here but I think the mode you run your SATA ports in can cause problems on the board as well.

Pookie Bear · 12 Dec 2009 at 11:26

I have no issue with you being specific, Antar (that's nicer than pedantic

), after all, I know how the basics of pc stuff, but I'm no expert (you know the level I mean, where newbs think I'm a god but the techs think I'm an annoying ****).

As for extra hardware, well, at the moment my PC is running on the mobo and graphics card - everything else has been removed (usb network and soundblaster).

Both my onboard sound and LAN option were disabled in my BIOS prior to the issue. By audio, I mean the Azalia option. They have both been enabled (in the BIOS) since the problem to try and eliminate other components being the issue.

I changed my RAM in May this year to this stuff:
Kingston HyperX 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel (KHX6400D2LLK2/2G)
and it has run fine for six months. I replaced it due to random, annoying BSODs which I'd narrowed down to RAM issues. I'm comfortable bumping up the voltage for my RAM, but shodl this be a problem now, six months on?

As for the Sata ports and settings, I don't really know. It looks from here as if I'm using the purple port, but the IDE cable is in the way - I can reboot, move stuff about and confirm. As the settings, what should I be looking for?

rodo · 12 Dec 2009 at 11:36

have you looked in event viewer?

Pookie Bear · 12 Dec 2009 at 13:54

rodo said:
have you looked in event viewer?

I have. All I ever found was DHCP errors and then errors which seemed to be a result of the odd hanging, like "Application Hang" or errors along those lines. Google Update seemed particularly prone to going wrong, so I tried disabling it, but it's more insinuous than Realtime!

Pookie Bear · 12 Dec 2009 at 17:32

Well, I decided it just too much of a pain in the bum, so I'm busy formatting my harddisk at this very moment. Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything important!