PC Freezing for about 5-10 seconds

MFrost

MFrost

MFrost

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20 Feb 2007
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131
Hello folks.

Just wondered if any of you could diagnose my problem. In short, my PC freezes up for about 5-10 seconds at a time at random intervals, on the desktop, playing games, surfing the net etc.

I'll use a game as an example of what happens. In this cases WoW will run fine for a little while - then everything will freeze completely on the screen apart from my mouse, sound repeats itself over and over (about a 1/2 a second worth of sound) for about 5 seconds. Then from inside my computer i can hear something spinning up and (i guess) when it gets to the right speed it 'clicks' and everything starts working again fine. Then again it will happen repeatedy but with no pattern of timing - seems random.

As WoW is online, i've asked some on my guild mates if they noticed anything strange when my computer does this - and apparently i just end up running on the spot, or not doing anything at all - no matter what im pressing on the keyboard or the mouse. So my computer doesnt pickup any signals at all in the time is having it's freeze up.

The only things that i know of that 'spin up' are my hard drive, and CD drive's. Unlikely its the CD drive though because 1) i'm not running anything from a CD at the time, & 2) The freeze happens with no CD's in the drives.

Now this isn't new to me, it's been occuring for months and months but lately it's come to my attention that it seems to be happening more frequently.

Any ideas folks?

Thanks a bunch if you actually read all this :)

Bye!
 
Do you have any power management options on your hard disks? What OS are you using?

Vista used to power down my HDD constantly with any kind of power management enabled so i just set it to performance and have had no more issues.

Try looking at power management settings for your HDD and turning them off or setting them to performance.
 
Thanks for the quick reply BumSalsa.

I'm running Vista. But i can't seem to find the power management for my hard driver anywhere. Is there any chance you can tell me how to get to it?

Thanks a lot.
 
hmm sounds to me like it maybe a gfc card crash.

i get one on counter strike sometimes were screen lokcs sound repeats then after about 20 second screen flicks off then back on and gfx card fan goes 100% speed rthen back to normal as the gfx card reboots itself. then i can carry on in game as though nothing has happend.

i have an ati card and in cc its called vpu recovery. vpu recovery allows the ati display driver to reset the graphics processor. there is an option to prepare a report but i have that turned off if its turned on youthen get another window pop up on desktop. but with it off i can just continue gaming
 
To get to the power management settings.

1) Right-click an empty space on your desktop and then select Personalize.

2) Click Screen Saver.

3) Click Change power settings under Power Management in the Screen Saver Settings window.

In here you should be able to see what the power options for your pc are. For some reason mine automatically set auto sleep, auto hdd power off etc to enabled so i had to diasble or use the perfomrmance power plan which keeps everything turned on all the time.

Edit: For the advanced power settings you might need the following.

4) Click Change plan settings for the power plan you want to configure.

5) Click Change advanced power settings in the Edit Plan Settings window.

6) Before you can edit advanced power plan settings you need to click Change settings that are unavailable to unlock them.

Sorry im not on my home PC at the moment so im on an XP machine in work and cant check directly but that should at least help you get started.

It could be gfx card or drivers crashing but that usually results in screen going blank and then comming back on with a warning displayed rather than just a pause/resume after 5-10 secs.
 
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BumSalsa said:
To get to the power management settings.

1) Right-click an empty space on your desktop and then select Personalize.

2) Click Screen Saver.

3) Click Change power settings under Power Management in the Screen Saver Settings window.

In here you should be able to see what the power options for your pc are. For some reason mine automatically set auto sleep, auto hdd power off etc to enabled so i had to diasble or use the perfomrmance power plan which keeps everything turned on all the time.

Edit: For the advanced power settings you might need the following.

4) Click Change plan settings for the power plan you want to configure.

5) Click Change advanced power settings in the Edit Plan Settings window.

6) Before you can edit advanced power plan settings you need to click Change settings that are unavailable to unlock them.

Sorry im not on my home PC at the moment so im on an XP machine in work and cant check directly but that should at least help you get started.

It could be gfx card or drivers crashing but that usually results in screen going blank and then comming back on with a warning displayed rather than just a pause/resume after 5-10 secs.
Click to expand...

Thanks again, thats really helpful. I've changed everything to full performance (although most of it was already on it). But theres 1 thing im not sure about. In that advanced section there is

PCI Express
Link State Power Management
Setting: Off

Should this be on?

My graphics card is an BFG 8800GTX which i guess is related to PCI. This would tie in with what thefishdude metioned about the gfx card crash. Im now downloading ntune to monitor the tems of my graphics card to see if its overheating (on isdn so its going to take a while).

And about Event Viewer. I havn't got the foggiest what i'm looking for in that? There about 600miles of events and things to scroll through.

Cheers folks
 
MFrost said:
Thanks again, thats really helpful. I've changed everything to full performance (although most of it was already on it). But theres 1 thing im not sure about. In that advanced section there is

PCI Express
Link State Power Management
Setting: Off

Should this be on?

My graphics card is an BFG 8800GTX which i guess is related to PCI. This would tie in with what thefishdude metioned about the gfx card crash. Im now downloading ntune to monitor the tems of my graphics card to see if its overheating (on isdn so its going to take a while).

And about Event Viewer. I havn't got the foggiest what i'm looking for in that? There about 600miles of events and things to scroll through.

Cheers folks
Click to expand...

Leave the Link State Power management OFF. If you turn it on then your PCIe will power down when it thinks its not in use which could cause even more problems.

As for the event viewer it should have a timeline so make a note of when your PC "freezes" and then go back and look on the timeline see if any errors or events were thrown up.

Ntune is a bit cack and i would use riva tuner to check temps. Again it has a timeline function which you will be able to scroll back and check the time your pc freezes.

Failing that it could be a faulty HDD as it sounds like its powering down/loosing power then powering up/spinning up again.
 
Ok cancelled ntune and downloading RivaTuner.

My timeline in event viewer in the 'Windows Logs'-->'applications' has 63,329 entries which i'd say 95% are the exact same entry just exactly 1 min after each other.

Something to do with SDWinSec:



That RivaTuner says my graphics card temperature is at 70 while im on my desktop and i run WoW quickly and in about 2 mins it was at 75. I guess this isn't overheating because i read that the cut off temp is 125'c.
 
A quick google revealed the process SDWinSec is related to Spybot Search and Destroy looks like you have a bad installation or have uninstalled it but not entirely? Cant see it causing the problem you described though.

The SS you posted shows the application logs for you computer but the problem sounds like system error rather than an application error. Have a look in the system logs tab on the left hand side specifically for the time you have the problem. looking for a Yellow triangle with a ! in it or a red circle with x in it.

Edit: I dont have a GTX but those tems seem to be a little toasty? Although the chip wont start to throttle below 125C it could well be overheating and freaking out a bit after prolonged play. That usually results in Artifacting/BSOD/vid restart though none of which you say your experiencing. (Someone correct me if im wrong)

Have you tried with the side off the case so you can stick your head in and see what makes the "spinning up noise" and the "click" when your pc freezes? Is it the fan on your GFX card or your HDD?
 
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Well to my suprise when i took the side of my case off its pretty damn hot in there. Its like a fan heater and the gfx card is the hottest thing to touch. My gfx are not overclocked at all - and im using an Akasa Eclipse 62 case (i think thats the name) 2, 120mm fans that came with the case.

I have 2 hard drivers 1 on top of the other, ill try moving them apart....worth a try, they might be getting hot.

My cpu temps are about 40'c up to about 55 when running that orthos thing. Do you think it could be the gfx card freezing up? If so how would i tell/fix that?
 
The absence of any error message and atifacting of your GFX leads me to belive its not that at fault... However.

You can try downloading ATItool and runing the artifact checker which will stress your GPU and and show up if its overheating.

Move your hdd's apart and check the connections to them. They could also be overheating.

Orthos temps seem fine so dont think its likely to be the CPU.

How are your fans set up? One sucking air in the front and one blowing it out the back? I have no experience with Akasa Eclipse so not sure what the cooling on it is like.

Have you been able to determine what it is that makes a noise when your pc freezes and unfreezes again?
 
Hi BumSalsa I havn't been able to find out what it is that starts spinning yet. But I openeing the case while the computer was on - and as far as i could tell EVERY fan in the case was spinning, i.e. PSU fan, 2 case fans, cpu fan, Gfx fan.

The fans are positioned exactly as the they where when i got the case (they were already screwed in and ready to go) - but putting my fingers in front of them i cant tell which way they are blowing air very well. But at a guess front fan sucking in, back fan blowing out. As for the CPU Fan (tuniq tower) i have no idea which way thats blowing, cant even see the fan.

Just to see if it was the CD drivers i put a cd in and listened to the cd drive spin up, and im pretty sure it's not the same sound i hear when things start freezing.

Oh and there are no Errors with the 'system' in Event viewer that match freezing times.

This leads me to believe it's one of my hard drives. Is it normal for a hard drive to die in this way?
 
Run a thorough scan disk see if it throws up any errors. Random powering down/ spinning down is one of the symptoms of a HDD on its way out no real way to tell but check the drive for errors.
 
Top Tip: Use a sheet of kitchen roll or other thin paper and you'll be able to see if it's blown away from or sucked toward the fan from outside the case.
 
stuttering audio is something I experienced a lot with with a creative audigy 2 zs pci card (has issues with lots of games) - I would suggest disabling your sound and then playing the games to see if this removes the problems - open up device manager and disable your sound device (right click it and choose disable) and see if that makes any difference

[edit] the spinning up sound may be normal but you may be noticing it more because of the problem maybe
 
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