Help with computer then a murder!

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Soldato
Joined
7 Dec 2008
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Scottish Borders
A bit of back story before you ring the cops.....:D

We are moving out of our flat and had an inspection from the landlord which was short notice and the place was a bit of a mess. As I had to work so my flatmate did a quick clean/hoover of my room. While that was a good effort on his part, my side panel was removed due to the warm weather and as he is a plank, he hoovered inside my case:confused: (please note that i did tell him NOT to do this)

Anyway, comp runs ok for the most part since but every now and again in games i'll get a complete system freeze...no BSOD, just a complete lockup.
Theres no pattern to it and it can happen after 2mins or 2 hours in game. Infact i was playing gta4 the other day for over 5 hours straight and it didn't happen.

It seems like a classic case of duff RAM but i did a quick couple of passes in memtest with no errors. Should i be running one stick at a time to check for errors or are all together ok? also how long should i leave it to run for? (never used memtest before)

Other that it being the RAM, is it likely that static from the hoover could have damaged other components?

Finally i need suggestions for the revenge/murder of my flatmate. The more degrading the better though now i think about it, it would be better if it was non lethal as i can't be bothered explaining his disappearance to his mum!

Cheers.
 
had a similar experience until recently. I could be playing COD4 for say 2 mins or 10 hrs and it would just lockup, no BSOD, just had to hit reset on the case to get it back up ... I ended up RMA'n both the RAM and mobo due to other issues and still it happened, I RMA'd the 4870 due to the fan messing up and still it happened. Turned out to be punkbuster not liking some old ATITool drivers or something lurking around ... i tried various driver cleanups and stuff

In the end, i waited til I got my new SSD and just reinstalled Vista and i've been playing happily ever since ...

Sorry for the explanation, I guess what i should have said was "are you using an ATI card and enabled ATITool or any other GPU overclocking utils"?
 
roflcakes22 said:
had a similar experience until recently. I could be playing COD4 for say 2 mins or 10 hrs and it would just lockup, no BSOD, just had to hit reset on the case to get it back up ... I ended up RMA'n both the RAM and mobo due to other issues and still it happened, I RMA'd the 4870 due to the fan messing up and still it happened. Turned out to be punkbuster not liking some old ATITool drivers or something lurking around ... i tried various driver cleanups and stuff

In the end, i waited til I got my new SSD and just reinstalled Vista and i've been playing happily ever since ...

Sorry for the explanation, I guess what i should have said was "are you using an ATI card and enabled ATITool or any other GPU overclocking utils"?
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Hmmm now you mention it, i did recently switch to EVGA Precision from Rivatuner. Will remove and set card back to stock to see if that helps, thanks.

DireEmblem said:
loose connection somewhere?
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That was one of my first thoughts so i took everything apart and rebuilt it.....with no luck i'm afraid.
 
My first thought was maybe the HSF was knocked on the cpu, so it isnt getting proper contact.
Try reformating too, and then install new drivers fresh.
 
Clum said:
Hmmm now you mention it, i did recently switch to EVGA Precision from Rivatuner. Will remove and set card back to stock to see if that helps, thanks.
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Yup, Rivatuner crashes a lot of people's COD4 ... just have a google around. Here's a quick snippet off the gamespot forum:

if you are using riva tuner and experiencing freezing in games using punkbuster (cod4, UT3 etc.) then i know what the prob is. At first i thought my vid card was defective. uninstall riva tuner, then reinstall it but, at the screen where it has 2 check mark tabs for enabling port protection, check both those checks. After that, go do all ur riva tuner set ups again and freezing should stop all together. Worked for me, and saved me from RMA.
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Hmmm seems like it isn't rivatuner/evga prec related as i've done a clean install of windows and problem persists.

I can only assume that its down to either the graphics card, processor, MB or hard disk now. Anyone got any suggestion for test to run to try and narrow down further which of these components is the culprit?

It has to be a static damage problem as the crashes started happening the day of the "hoover incident". Bit of a disaster really as i hoped to not have to ever buy any more s775 parts again before my next build. Ah well.
 
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Pretty confident you can rule out CPU and hard drive. Have you got another GPU to test in the system? I would start by putting everything back to stock and then Intel Burn Test and prime95 to test for mobo/memory problems. Or run memtest for a couple of hours on each individual dimm.
 
Like Happy I hoover my PC with great care - making sure not to connect with anything - i usually hold the nozzle right at the end to guaranteed this.

I sometimes will agitate really dusty areas with a paint brush first.

Main thing is to just take your time - and have a steady hand.

Disclaimer: Perhaps should add this is not best practice - but i've never experienced any problems. (if it goes wrong just remember Happy suggested it first. :D I was just a pawn in his evil plan.)
 
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my computer has also been having this problem as of late. Really puzzled on how to fix it because it is rather annoying and can happen any time :s
 
Hughsy said:
my computer has also been having this problem as of late. Really puzzled on how to fix it because it is rather annoying and can happen any time :s
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Strip it down to the basics CPU/mobo/HD/1 stick of ram and run some tests.
 
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