Why does my computer lock up when I open the window at night?

Ken · 29 Nov 2006 at 13:43

Hi

I like to sleep with my window open and so every night I open the window but wake up to see that my computer has locked up. The screen freezes and the keyboard and mouse are unusable. If music was being played it would loop like a broken record. Only way to get back into windows is to switch off the PSU at the back and then back on again then hitting power. If I don't switch off the PSU and just reset, it comes up with "No disk found" during POST...something like that anyway.

This computer has run stable for weeks and months over summer so I'm beginning to suspect that the chilly weather at night causes it to crash...well any significant change in temperature. I can also make it lock up by turning up all the fans from 7V to 12V.

Any idea how to solve this?
Specs here...
http://www.theunderground.eclipse.co.uk/rigs.html (System 1)

Thanks in advance!

Ken · 29 Nov 2006 at 13:49

Enermax Noisetaker 600W - surely more than enough power?

Edit - both Hitachis are not plugged in.

Ken · 29 Nov 2006 at 14:00

Could be a few minutes...could be a few hours but I know for sure that it will crash if I do turn them up.

I've looked into "random crashing" through Google and the most popular answers is to turn off nvidia firewall and that nForce 4 motherboards don't like old Soundblaster cards. I've never turned on the firewall and have also tried using onboard sound instead.

A month ago, I went away on holiday but left the computer on (Folding@Home). The window was never open and when I returned ten days after, it was still running fine.

:confused:

Thanks.

Ken · 29 Nov 2006 at 14:19

This behaviour is very odd but your speculations might be true as I have tried pretty much everything except the obvious Memtest86.

I tried some Geil Value RAM too but it still occured so I will run Memtest86 overnight tonight. I'll report back tomorrow.

I also took out the soundcard and disabled onboard sound back in the summer when I was overclocking and messing around with fan speeds but it still occured. Everything is cooled by air by the way and the idle temperature of the CPU around 44C.

Cheers guys.