Screen freezing (unlike weather!)

TheLastMan · 5 Jul 2006 at 11:32

In the last couple of weeks I have started to have problems with my computer "freezing" (as opposed to crashing).

The symptom is simply that the image on the screen freezes randomly - but usually after about an hour or so of use. Lately it has even started sometimes freezing on boot-up. The mouse cursor is suddenly stuck and any sound suddenly seems to freeze (repeating a note endlessly) as well.

Obviously the hot weather is likely to be playing a part but using MBM I have checked temperatures and my CPU is at about 50c under load and the case has an internal temperature of about 35c. Upping the speed of the fan on the CPU drops the temp to about 48-49c but the problem does not improve. I have a case fan running full pelt pulling air out of the back next to the CPU and my PSU has a 120mm fan also drawing air from the case as well.

The two obvious candidates causing the problem are the memory and graphics card.

The memory is super-cheap generic 400mhz PC3200 running at standard 400mhz spec. The graphics card is Gigabyte Nvidia 6600GT based card which has "silent pipe" passive heatpipe / heatsink cooling.

Any suggestions for stopping this happening?

Are there any makes of memory out there that perform well if they get hot?
Is it possible to retro-fit a cooling fan to the graphics card heatsink - preferably as a temporary measure that can be turned off when temperatures are no longer as tropical.

Thanks all!

Xez · 5 Jul 2006 at 11:44

TheLastMan said:
In the last couple of weeks I have started to have problems with my computer "freezing" (as opposed to crashing).

The symptom is simply that the image on the screen freezes randomly - but usually after about an hour or so of use. Lately it has even started sometimes freezing on boot-up. The mouse cursor is suddenly stuck and any sound suddenly seems to freeze (repeating a note endlessly) as well.

Obviously the hot weather is likely to be playing a part but using MBM I have checked temperatures and my CPU is at about 50c under load and the case has an internal temperature of about 35c. Upping the speed of the fan on the CPU drops the temp to about 48-49c but the problem does not improve. I have a case fan running full pelt pulling air out of the back next to the CPU and my PSU has a 120mm fan also drawing air from the case as well.

The two obvious candidates causing the problem are the memory and graphics card.

The memory is super-cheap generic here 400mhz PC3200 running at standard 400mhz spec. The graphics card is Gigabyte Nvidia 6600GT based card which has "silent pipe" passive heatpipe / heatsink cooling.

Any suggestions for stopping this happening?

Are there any makes of memory out there that perform well if they get hot?
Is it possible to retro-fit a cooling fan to the graphics card heatsink - preferably as a temporary measure that can be turned off when temperatures are no longer as tropical.

Thanks all!

Have your checked your PSU rails?

Id remove the competitor in bold as its against the rules :rolleyes:

TheLastMan · 5 Jul 2006 at 11:52

Thanks for the prompt reply!

Xez said:
Have your checked your PSU rails?

Not sure how to do this. MBM is reporting voltages well within spec. Not sure why this would suddenly be a problem. I have had the PSU (Akasa 460w) for a couple of years now with no problems and no other hardware changed recently.

Xez said:
Id remove the competitor in bold as its against the rules

Oops! Well spotted [blush] Post edited.

Dutch Guy · 5 Jul 2006 at 11:53

Do you have a spare fan, 80mm or even a deskfan you can point towards the videocard heatsink?

That way you can see if that helps, if not it is something else.

TheLastMan · 5 Jul 2006 at 11:56

Fogot to mention that Northbridge fan was replaced with Zalman passive jobbie. Altogether the system was almost silent. I suppose I am now seeing the downside of the silent PC strategy!

Dutch Guy · 5 Jul 2006 at 12:16

TheLastMan said:
Fogot to mention that Northbridge fan was replaced with Zalman passive jobbie. Altogether the system was almost silent. I suppose I am now seeing the downside of the silent PC strategy!

Could be the northbridge overheating, again, try it with a fan pointing towards the NB to see if that helps.

meaz · 5 Jul 2006 at 15:04

Try upping the Vdimm slightly to 2.8 or so if its at the stock 2.6v or whatever it is for your memory. This could help stability if it is a memory problem, generic RAM suffers from this from time to time I've found.

Also, check the memory timings and that they're not set to CAS2. If they are set them to cas 2.5 or 3 depending on the default for your memory. Sometimes setting it to SPD will cause problems when the memory is running faster than the FSB, which in your case will happen as the XP2400 has a 133FSB and you have DDR400 memory. Try setting the FSB:Mem divider to 1:1 so they both run at the same speed.

50c load is fine for an XP2400 btw, at that temperature it shouldn't be an issue.

TheLastMan · 6 Jul 2006 at 19:05

Upping the Vdimm is an idea, I will give it a whirl. The downside is that it will make it even hotter!

I have an early XP2400+ that allowed you to adjust the multiplier as well as the fsb. It is currently running at 10x200mhz. The stock setting was 15x133.
Tried overclocking but it simply won't boot at anything higher without pushing the Vcore stupidly high - then it just gets too hot and crashes.

Mind you just setting it to 10x200 makes it the almost the same as an XP3000+ !! At the time, it seemed like a big deal

I left the memory at default timings (CAS3). Didn't really want to overclock cheap generic memory and my experience of overclocking memory was that it made no noticeable difference to performance - unless you are into benchmarks.

Dutch Guy · 7 Jul 2006 at 08:26

When I had a NF7-S I could not run my XP2400 at 200Mhz FSB, I had to run at 12.5x194Mhz, running 200Mhz FSB gave me problems in Windows not unlike your problems.

If your system works fine at 15x133 and not at 10x200 it is FSB related so it can be the northbridge or memory that can't handle it.

TheLastMan · 7 Jul 2006 at 16:06

Thanks for that. I think I have narrowed it down to heat - probably affecting the memory. The weather has got a lot cooler in the last couple of days and I have not had the problem since.

The PC is located in a tiny study with a large, west facing window. In the last couple of weeks the room would hit the 30's centigrade in the afternoon. That is the sort of temperature you would expect air leaving a case to be. If it is that hot before it goes in to the case I doubt whether it was cooling anything very much at all.

Up until the last two weeks, the XP2400+ has run at 10x200 solidly for over a year without blinking so I would be surprised if either the memory or northbridge were to suddenly decide they couldn't run at that speed.

How much is a domestic air conditioning unit I wonder? Maybe OCUK should start selling them!