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03.10.2008 at 04:47PM PDT, ID: 23230369
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Why is my computer freezing or locking up at seemingly random times?

I'm at my wits end with my computer. At seemingly random moments, my computer will completely lock up. No errors or anything, the screen will just freeze. If i was playing any audio at the moment, it would turn into a high pitched whine. When I attempted to run a boot disc with diagnostic software on it, it also froze during one of the diagnostics.

My motherboard, processor, power supply, wireless card, and memory are brand new. My video card, sound card, and hard drive are leftover from my previous machine. I did not experience this issue with any of my previous hardware.

      So far, ive run MEMtest86 overnight to check my memory - and it came up with 0 errors. To check for overheating, I've run Speedfan. Speedfan reports 7C for the cpu and 13C for cores 0 and 1, with a 22C System temperature.

I really do believe its either my memory, processor or motherboard, but I'm not quite sure which one. How should I continue to diagnose my machine in order to find the problem?
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Question Stats
Zone: Software
Question Asked By: jaamon
Solution Provided By: mikesheard
Participating Experts: 2
Solution Grade: A
Views: 198
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03.10.2008 at 04:55PM PDT, ID: 21091748

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03.10.2008 at 05:19PM PDT, ID: 21091868

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03.10.2008 at 05:22PM PDT, ID: 21091878

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03.10.2008 at 05:32PM PDT, ID: 21091922

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03.11.2008 at 05:03AM PDT, ID: 21094818

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03.11.2008 at 09:23AM PDT, ID: 21097259

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03.11.2008 at 09:10PM PDT, ID: 21102981

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03.12.2008 at 03:58PM PDT, ID: 21111675

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03.13.2008 at 06:45PM PDT, ID: 21122447

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03.17.2008 at 02:30PM PDT, ID: 21146368

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03.10.2008 at 04:55PM PDT, ID: 21091748
If you have not done so already, lets check the event log in windows. Right-Click on My Computer and select "Manage". Under system tools, select event viewer. Check through your Application and System logs and let me know what messages you see around the time of the crash. If possible, export your event log and upload it here in .evt format.

Also, are the crashes happening at completely random intervals? Are they more common at certain times? And do they get more frequent the longer the computer has been on?
 
03.10.2008 at 05:19PM PDT, ID: 21091868
I've done a check of my system logs as you suggested. I do not see anything that seems related to a problem, it only contains actions that are related to the startup of my machine. I also can't figure out how to export the log, for which the help text offers me no solution as well (FYI im in windows vista).

As far as the crashing scenarios, yea i feel they're totally random however they are getting more and more frequent. I've crashed in safe mode, safe mode with networking, running software off a bootdisc, during the windows loading screen, and during general web browsing. Sometimes my machine allows me 15 minutes before it locks up, and other times it will lock up almost immediately upon loading the OS (log on screen and after log on). I'll do a search on event viewer exporting in windows vista and post the file when I can.

Initially it would only happen overnight, as I leave my computer on when i'm AFK.

 
03.10.2008 at 05:22PM PDT, ID: 21091878
Sorry for the double post, i dont see an edit button....

What i meant to say was:

Initially my computer would only freeze when i left it on overnight, when i awoke it would be unresponsive, requiring me to restart it. However lately it has started to occur very frequently, during the scenarios i mentioned above.
 
03.10.2008 at 05:32PM PDT, ID: 21091922
I'm going to go on the assumption that all of your diagnostic tests are thorough and check all suspect hardware. Often times however, diagnostic software does NOT check the power supply, which can cause some weird issues. This might especially be of concern if you recently upgraded a lot of hardware and still have the same PSU.

Start your computer and load the BIOS. Often times you will have a Hardware Monitor section where you can look at voltages. Let me know what they are reading out, they should be within a pretty close margin (e.g. 4.9v on a +5v line is OK, but 4.2v is not). Let it sit for awhile in the BIOS, see if it locks up.
 
03.11.2008 at 05:03AM PDT, ID: 21094818
Firstly I would load failsafe defaults in your BIOS.
I have seen thousands of PCs with problems and can honestly say I have only ever seen a handful with genuine processor faults so this is unlikely. I would start by trying some different memory, borrow some you know works if poss.
The problems sound very similar to a processor overheating but if your fan's running ok we can rule that out - the temperatures you quoted for it do seem very low though.
ALSO - did you swap your PSU as a lack of power could also cause this type of problem?
Accepted Solution
 
03.11.2008 at 09:23AM PDT, ID: 21097259
I agree with Mike that my first thought would have been a processor overheating, especially if you just installed a new one. However if those temps are correct, thats VERY low indeed, just a few degrees above freezing in fact. In addition, we would normally see newer motherboards shut themselves down, not hang like yours is. The hanging suggests another issue, as a you mentioned it's a brand new motherboard, it should default to cutting power when the processor overheats ... UNLESS it's reporting the wrong temperatures to the motherboard OR you have this feature disabled on the motherboard. I would take Mikes suggestion (assuming mine did not reveal anything with the power supply), and load the fail-safe defaults for the motherboard in the BIOS. If these stabilize the system, then move to the factory defaults. If the system is still stable, then you can look at beginning to make system changes one at a time to the BIOS until you find the issue.

Good luck!
 
03.11.2008 at 09:10PM PDT, ID: 21102981
as requested earlier, i exported my event log to a file - but unfortunately it is not in the allowed file format for EE uploads...

anyway,

mikesheard: ok, i will try swapping some memory out and load failsafe defaults on my bios. As for the PSU, i purchased a RAIDMAX  630 watts to accompany the processor/mobo upgrade.

daedalustech: the temps must be reported wrong. I noticed in my BIOS while i was looking at the voltages , that the temps are actually 34c,40c, and 44c for the cpu, system, and PWM respectively. I'm not sure why the temps are reported incorrectly when i read them off of speedfan.

I suppose i'll see about some new thermal paste too - im not too confident i applied it correctly now.
 
03.12.2008 at 03:58PM PDT, ID: 21111675
You may e-mail the event log to me at myself@paulhite.com.

Those temperatures sound much more reasonable! They are well within the expected range. As for thermal paste, it should be applied with a very thin, even coat across the heatspreader of the CPU. Just enough to cover it up uniformly with no gaps. Any more than that will be unnecessary and even detrimental to cooling of the processor.
Assisted Solution
 
03.13.2008 at 06:45PM PDT, ID: 21122447
failsafe defaults seems to have made my system stable... ive got an uptime of about 20 hours so far. the only notable difference is that it does the start up memory check very slowly and several times and also the USB connections are all disabled. So i suppose ill start by reenabling those and see what happens.
 
03.17.2008 at 02:30PM PDT, ID: 21146368
Ok, it crashed on me again - the only thing i re-enabled, after loading failsafe defaults, were the motherboard network adapter and one of the USB controllers.

So I went out and bought some new thermal paste, reapplied it in a thin layer (amount equal to a bead of rice) across the entire chipset. I reset the cmos and fired her up - its been running fine ever since.

I think the problem stemmed from the original thermal paste I was given with my 3rd party heatsink, it was like putty and would not apply correctly - so maybe i had some air pockets built up on it.

I'm going to let it run for a couple days and see what happens, then ill close the question. Appreciate the help so far.
 
 
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