Ok, I need help - Random Freezes/Lock Ups

neverender

neverender

neverender

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Joined
2 Jan 2004
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Exeter, Devon
Hey all,

I've been trying to get to the bottom of this for a few weeks now, but I'm finally gonna have to admit defeat and turn to you guys.

Basically, a few weeks ago during a game of 2142 my PC froze up completely, and required me to do a hard reset. POST was fine (if perhaps a little slower than usual) but it took quite a while for the Windows XP loading screen to appear.
Hmm, I thought, that's strange (every PC I've built in the past has been rock-solid, and even this one has been fine for the last 4 months or so that Ive had it). Anyway, did a virus scan which came back negative, so I decide it could well be a problem with the new mixture of graphics and sound drivers Ive been messing around with. I formatted my boot HDD, everything goes fine, get into Windows again for 30mins and it locks up again.

Since then it's been freezing up (seemingly) whenever it feels like. Whether it be while I'm browsing the net, listening to music or whatever. I can play (for example) 2142 for a bit no problems, then go back into Windows and it will die as soon as I use Winamp, or Thunderbird or anything.

Anyway, I've checked the usual things. Eventvwr says nothing (except for a very occassional moan about my DVD/RW drive which I assume is a coincidence, it doesn't always coincide with a lock up), tried a friends RAM which worked fine for hours (though 2142 was a bit screwy, which I attributed to only using 1gig rather than the 2gig its set to expect) then locked up as I was burning memtest, run memtest on my memory for 14 odd hours with NO errors. Checked my case for dust (practically spotless) and did the hand-on-heatsink trick, no problems there. Also did a chkdisc on my boot drive which didnt come back with anything either. Voltages in BIOS seem stable enough to....

...so, I'm stumped, and very, very irritated. I'm pretty close to forking out for a new PSU to see if that makes any difference, but I can't afford to be wasting money on the wrong thing!

Specs:
AMD 3700+ SD 939
Asus A8N SLI SE
2gig (2x1) Corsair TwinX DDR 3200
Sapphire X1800XT
2x 160gig WD SE IDE HDD
NEC DVD/RW
Hiper 580w -r
 
I would say it is a fault with the graphics card, may also be a firmware with mobo or graphics card
 
I would blame BF2142 there mate. It's been driving my PC nuts the last few days and our setups are almost alike. Try uninstalling it and seeing if you see any improvement. With BF2142, i've had lock ups, freezes and even a point where the screen went black, only to be followed by this weird pattern of artifacts.

If it's a GPU fault like aforementioned, it could be your card is overheating. What I did was install a Vantec PCI Spectrum cooler (£10 on OCUK under Other Coolers section) I had from a previous system. I then reinstalled graphics card drivers to an official WHQL version, cleared the BF2142 cache (so the game reruns optimisations at the start of a round) or simply reinstall and then defragged my drives. Also if you oC'ed your GPU, reset to factory default.

Good luck!
 
Cheers for the replies so far guys.

I'm running the WD HDD tool now on both my drives, but it doesnt look like its going to come up with any errors.

I should mention that it freezes at any time, not just when I am/have been playing 2142. It even crashed when I was halfway through reinstalling WoW after I formatted :/
 
Doesn't freeze in POST, just if you reset straight after a freeze it takes quite a while to make it back into Windows.
Sat infront of Asus Probe now and my PSU rails look fairly steady

VCORE 1.36 - 1.38
3.3v 3.38 - 3.42
5v 5.08 -5 .11
12v 12.22 - 12.29

CPU temp is a fairly chilly 32-5' and System temp sits at 30....
Catalyst Control Centre says my X1800XT is around the low to mid 50s, and EVERYTHING in my system is at stock.

So :confused: :(
 
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Surely you won't know if your voltage rails are steady if the system suddenly crashes under load. You're only testing the voltages whilst stable. best thing is to get a multimeter, but then again you wont b able to test it under load! Is there another pc that you can test the PSU in?
 
I have (still have) similar problems I have tried a lot of the above you have tried, im living with it. Also mine freezes when im doing nothing at all say if i leave it on during the day. I have an Asus MoBo they aint the best in the world, its my second one after my first died when i stood on it (dont ask). I even bought a new HDD but no differences. Just recently one of my DVDRW died, i stuck a ROM in its places and had no freezes or lockups, as soon as i put an old DVDRW i got the lockups and Freezes again. Its a strange problem :S:S
 
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