Computer Freeze

[Chileh]

Hi Guys,

Bit of a long shot but i got a bit of a computer problem and now its starting to irritate me somewhat. Every now and again from 10 mins to 3 hours its totally random. My computer freezes when im playing games its not one particular games it is all the games i have installed. My computer freezes and i cannot ctrl alt del, windows button, alt f4, alt tab..i have to manually reset my computer. When it freezes its just like like i have taken a screenshot of something its that still. There is no graphical glitches, no lines, no wierd colours. There is nothing showing in the Eventlog either.

These are the things i have currently tested:

I have run memtest86 and all my ram sticks seperatly and no errors,

I have monitored my cpu temp and the max it goes to is around 65-70 degc and my graphics card goes to around 75 degc.

I have run a chkdsk and there is no errors (no funny noises either when computer freezes)

I have upgraded ALL of my drivers, and also used older versions.

I have updated my bios

I have taken apart my computer cleaned it all out and put it back together also replacing the paste on my cpu.

All my fans are working fine.

All cables replaced with new ones.

I have reinstalled windows twice.

My computer specs are:

Amd Athlon 64x2 6000
Asus Crossfire Motherboard
3gig Corsair Ram
XFX 8800 GTX XXX 768mb
1x150gig raptor hdd
1x750gig hdd
1100w OCZ Psu
XFI XtremeGamer Soundcard.

Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers.

[jbennet]

I have monitored my cpu temp and the max it goes to is around 65-70 degc and my graphics card goes to around 75 degc.

Thats your problem there. The CPU temp is too hot.

[mdk2k4]

i would say is and easy one, since i have an asus board myself P5GD2 DELUXE WITH A 3.6GHZ HT INTEL CPU WITH 3GB OF MEMORY TOO, ATI VIDEO CARD, I HAVE THIS COMPUTER SINCE 2005, AND I WAS HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM EVERY TIME I would run a game, AND SOLVE IT EASY ON MY OWN. BELIEVE IT OR NOT.
1. IS THERE AC IN THE ROOM THIS COMPUTER IS IN ?.
2.DO YOU HAVE THE COVER ON THE SIDE OF THE COMPUTER.
I tok the cover off, put the vent from the air condition to hit it directly and managed to keep the temperture to about 32 degrees. problem solve. never bother me again.
just so you know I have five fans installed, a 750watts power supply, changed the cpu fan for a bigger one and own fan control.

[Chileh]

Excellent thankyou for your swift responses, to be honest i do have a standard fan on the cpu which came with the cpu. I dont have the side on my computer but i dont have AC in my room (would be nice though hehe)

Ill be straight out to buy a replacement on monday...

Cheers.

[jbennet]

the 6000 runs very hot generally anyway, an aftermarket cooler is essential.

[OlyComputers]

That is very hot, there's no surprise that it's failing. Obviously an after-market cooler would help, but the stock should work as long as you're not over-clocking. If you're hitting temperatures like that on both your CPU and GPU it must be an issue with ambient temperature, either a poorly cooled case or room.

How hot is the room the computer is in? and personally I think that most cases cool better with the panels on. Think about it, even without a side fan on the air-flow is much more directed. Cases are very carefully designed to optimize air-flow.

[jbennet]

its well known that the X2 6000 runs really hot with the stock, even with an average ambient

[Chileh]

I dont actually have a temp gauge in my room, but there is nothing really in here which will boost the temp, the window is always open and my room fans are on. The ambient temp of the room is generally quite cool.

But i dont overclock any of my gear for some reason, if i want more powerfull gear i just go out and buy it.

[Chileh]

Ok guys, i bought this aftermarket fan ASUS Triton 78 Gaming CPU Cooler, its cut down my cpu temps dramatically but i still have the same problem, any other suggestions??

[PcTestCard.com]

Try Last know Good configuration option.

After pressed the power button to power on the PC, press the "F8" key and there will be a boot manual. select from the Last known good configuration" and hit enter.

After boot to desktop, do the same games and the apps you have been doing and see if system freeze or not.

If the problem persists, reboot and do the same "f8" to get to the boot manual and select safe mode this time.

You can also use other known good HDD to see if the system works.

Hope this helps!
Bill

[Chileh]

Last known good, would that be an option as i have reformated and reinstalled windows twice only to have the same problem each time.

Cheers.

[PcTestCard.com]

Seems you have done a lot of software part to troubleshoot. If reinstalling the windows still causing the problem, I wonder if you have installed the latest chipset driver for your mainboard and reboot.

The system temperature seems a bit higher, check all the fans and maybe add a case fan to help cooling the system to make it more stable.

Hope this helps!
Bill

[Chileh]

Hi,

I got 5 case fans in there at the moment, temperatures seem fine but problems still persist, also yes i have updated the chipset drivers aswell and also used older versions still the same problem.

Cheers.

[PcTestCard.com]

I would use the other known good HDD to test the system.

Or simply remove the jumper on your HDD to let the system recapture the HDD again.

Before we do have the freezed PC replacing the HDD works.
Now, before using the other HDD, simply remove the existing HDD jumper to let the system to recapture the original HDD again, if it works, you save a lot of time.

As you know, freezing PC comes with many factors, so we can start with the least costly step first. and you have already done the software part, now let's get going to the HDD part.

Good luck!
Bill

[sgamble]

What game is it? I'm a big gamer myself and have had this issue in the past on different builds. Last time this happened to me, I was playing Battlefield 2. The game kept freezing on me and I finally found out that it was my video card overheating. When the game would freeze, I would quickly touch all the components inside my PC looking for hot spots. My video card was passively cooled so I installed a fan directly on my video card and the problem was fixed.

[PcTestCard.com]

Hi sgamble,

"video card overheating"

Yes, this may be a issue as well.

Check the fan if there is any on the video card.(some may not have the fan design)

If the slower fan with dust surrounding it, the video card may heated up and freezes on the graphic demanding application.

Try clean the video card fan with a brush.

I am afraid if this is the overheated video card causing the freeze, cleaning or replacing the fan will not correct the problem, use to have a PC with overheated video card with stuck non spinning fan, do works on regular desktop bu no games, I have to replace the other new video card, hope the video card has not been damaged yet.

[Chileh]

Call of Duty 4, Battlefield 2, CnC3, Warhammer Online are just a few i have installed. BUT, last night i did some stress tests i ran 2 video card stress tests at the same time and i also run a stress test on my cpu, hdd and ram at the same time, left it running for nearly an hour to the point where my computer was about to burst, but i couldnt get it to freeze.!

Time to get some hair dye i think to cover up all these grey hairs that keep coming through.

[OlyComputers]

I think it's a video card issue of one form or another. We might be getting blinded by your high temperature, and overlooking a more fundamental issue. Maybe there's a defective card that's failing under specific circumstances that synthetic stress tests wont see (maybe it's what happens when anti-aliasing and directx kick in at the same time, or a memory defect at the top of the memory range, who knows). You sound pretty comfortable with hardware, do you have a spare video-card laying around? If you do try switching them see if the issue persists with a different card.

[sgamble]

+1 I agree.

[jbennet]

try updating your drivers

you got enough power?

[Chileh]

I will either try to borrow a card from a mate see if that changes anything, ill get myself a card cooler.

@JBennet yeh i got plenty of power in my machine, am sure 1100w can do the job. Also all drivers have been updated and reverted a few times. Do you mean is there enough power going to the card? Is that something thats changable within the bios?

What the real mystery behind this is its only just started to do it over the past few weeks, i have had my rig built for around 8-10 months and its run perfect, nothing is been added or taken away from my machine in that time.

Cheers.

(ps its annoying me that much im preparing to fund myself a whole new rig :D)

[OlyComputers]

I suspect that the consistently high temperatures of your GPU have just worn it out.

[Chileh]

Just want to say thanks to you guys for all your swift and helpfull responses, but after much frustration my problems did not seem to come to an end.

I have now bought myself a new sff system (dont even get me started on the problems ive been having with this one lol) crashing has stopped as i have replaced all my parts and i mean all of em from the case to the motherboard to the dvd drives and sata cables.

[Fo0_Fighter]

Well, I have the same problem. My machine is a bit weak but i have managed to play WoW,CS 1.6 ,WarCraft 3 and all other games on it.One day i'm leveling my warlock and suddenly it freezes! i rebooted and had no problems till tomorrow but it wasn't so bad. Then a few weeks ago (2-3 weeks) it started to freeze in all my games and i couldn't play anything. It has never happened to me before. I have had that computer for like 3-4 years and now I have that problem.I haven't done anything new to it.