PC Freezing

[milkman]

For quite a while now my PC has been freezing at random times, sometimes during start up, somtimes as soon as it has started up or most annoyingly when i'm right in the middle of something. I don't get the BSoD, i generally don't get sounds either other than when it freezes while i'm watching a film or listening to music, then it just loops half a second of the sound that was playing or I get a high pitched noise from the speakers, the motherboard remains silent.

Sometimes it freezes without warning and other times I gently knock the tower, and I mean gently, then the thing freezes again.

I can often play CoD4 for 2 or 3 hours without it freezing, but then again sometimes I can't surf for more than 2 minutes without it freezing.

Once it's frozen it can take anything from 1 to 10 attempts before it will restart properly, sometimes I just give up and come back to it later and generally it will restart, maybe overheating and needs time to cool????

I've tried reinstalling Windows, I even used DBan to overwrite the entire HD just to make sure nothing survived, before reinstalling. But the problem continues.

It seems pretty obvious it is a hardware issue, but considering I am completely skint, buying a new pc is not an option at the moment.

Any suggestions would be most welcome,


Windows XP SP2 etc...
2.8ghz Intel Pentium 4E
Intel D865GBF Motherboard
2x 512mb 400mhz Ram running in Dual mode
Radeon x800xt PE 256mb
Creative SB0090 Audigy Sound card
115gb HD
250gb external HD

Thanks

[angrygolfer]

Have you made sure you have the latest drivers installed? I see you have a discrete video card. Does your motherboard have integrated graphics also? If so, remove your ATI card and run on the integrated and see if the problem still exists. If it does, try removing one of your memory chips and see if the problem still exists. If it does swap the chips and run with the other. If it still exists then you have at least isolated it to the motherboard, cpu or hard drive (or software).

You could also download memtestx86+ plus http://www.memtest.org/
You download an ISO and create a CD out of the image. Boot of the CD and it will test you memory. The test could last 30 - 45 minutes.

[milkman]

Thanks for the reply,

I think the memory is fine, I used to have 3 different sticks and my pc still froze. I now have one of those 3 sticks and another identical one I got off a mate so I could use them in dual mode. I've ran benchmarks on them through Everest Home Edition and there's been no problems.

I've literally just taken out the graphics card, sound card and a usb card and I re-set the heatsink on the CPU. So i'll see how it goes.

The heatsink was pretty hot when I took it off. Yes I did use alcohol to clean the chip and heatsink, and I only put a little blob of Arctic thermal paste on the center of the chip when I re-set it.

I might try that program you mentioned but to be honest, I'll be lucky if my pc doesn't freeze before the program can run it's course.

I'll check the drivers but i'm pretty sure that's all up to date, I have Windows Auto-update on and regularly install updates, I went to the Manufacturers web sites for all the other components to download the drivers when i reinstalled windows last time, I've lost most of the install discs.

I used to have a problem with the CPU overheating. I managed to get round that by sticking a 2nd fan on top of the CPU using Velcro, that seemed to work, maybe my hi-tech solution is finally realising it's short comings..

[milkman]

I've ran my computer with just the motherboard, cpu and ram, it was fine for a couple of days, no crashes, starts ok, but slow as anything all the same, amazing how much difference a graphics card makes.

Anyway, this evening, it has frozen 3 times in quick succession and one of those times the PC took a couple of attempts to restart.

All in all it seems to be running better but it still freezes. Could the garphics card be somehow putting the motherboard under more strain therefore making it freeze more??

Does anyone know of any programs that test motherboards, similar to the memory test programs?

[Ajmukon]

sounds like a heating problem.
how many case fans do you have?

you need at least an (1) intake fan AND an (1) Exhaust Fan (preferably two intakes fans)

THE PSU FAN DOES NOT COUNT AS AN EXHAUST FAN!!!!!

[milkman]

I have 1 intake fan and 1 exhaust fan and 2 fans over the cpu.

The intake fan is on the side and the exhaust fan is at the back.

Everest shows the temps as

Cpu 24C
Motherboard 22C
Aux (Whatever this is) 35C

I know these aren't neccessarily accurate but they're unlikely to be like 40 to 50 degrees out.

[George Hallam]

Have you done any overclocking?

Also is it a blue screen crash or just stutters (like repeats the current sound for a seconds then crashes) or just freezes and you have to reset or just it just turn itself off?

[Ajmukon]

whats the GPU temp (should be in the GPU program controller)

[milkman]

I haven't got the Graphics card in at the moment and I can't be arsed to put it in right now, however i'm sure when I checked it the temp was in the 30's like 35C or something, it certainly wasn't anything crazy like 60 - 70 and I did check it while playing COD4.

Not done any overclocking. When it freezes there's a couple of things it can do.

Most common - Screen just freezes. It stays frozen, I've ran a program and gone to bed, the next morning the timer on the program reads like 30mins, so it froze after 30mins and remained frozen all night, no restart or anything.

Occassionly - Screen goes black and pc restarts.

With regard to the sound, if i'm just surfing then there's no sound when it freezes. If i'm playing a game it freezes with a high pitch tone through the speakers and if i'm listening to music it will repeat a split second over and over.

I haven't had a BSoD yet, touch wood.

Thanks for the replies by the way, they're very much appreciated.

[Ajmukon]

no error... a BSOD would help.. (at least then we would have an error code to work with..)

try running memtest86 (search for it on google and FOLLOW the instructions!)-
you may need an ISO burning program- try alex fredmans iso recorder (sp?)

[jlreich]

Test your power supply.

Also have good look at the capacitors (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=25482) on your motherboard. Your board is in the right era for bad caps. And it would definitely cause such problem as you are having.

[George Hallam]

hmmm may be a RAM problem.

Does it happen often?

If it does to tests with only having one RAM stick in at a time and by process of elimination find the problem one..

Or run memtest like Aj said

[Skeeterflea]

I'm having a similar problem.

Except thus far I have only seen the freeze happen when I'm running Everquest (the first edition). I have run other video's and games and processes, but have yet to witness any freezing up. However, it can take anywhere from 2 - 20 minutes for the pc to freeze up when I am running EQ. And it never fails to do so.

I haven't gotten to run a RAM test yet, but will try that today. I flashed the bios with all the latest updates, and have the current drivers installed for the video card. I'm leaning heavily towards the video card. Almost the exact same problem was happening on an older system. I found that the new AGP card fan was locked up and not spinning. Which leads me to believe this is a heat issue of some sorts.

System:

OS: Win XP Pro
CASE: COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW
PS: Antec earthwatts EA430 ATX12V v2.0 430W
MOBO: LAN PARTY UT RDX200
RAM: DDR 2GB PC3200 400MHz
VIDEO: RADEON x1800
SOUND: ONBOARD

One 120mm exhaust fan
Two 120mm inlet fans, and one 80mm inlet fan



Any resolution to the above issue or suggestions?