Computer freezing at random moments. Gaming , Browsing Or start up.
 

Hi guys. First post here ^^ anyway I am having a problem with my computer as every so often it will freeze or BSOD for no particular reason. I could be Gaming, Browsing the internet, Or My computer could be booting up. (Note: Normally BSOD is only when it is on boot) Sometimes I could be using my computer for ages and it will freeze of BSOD and sometimes in no time at all.

Here are my Specs:
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate - 64 bit
Mother Board: ASUS P5N-T Deluxe
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6660 @ 2.40ghz (4CPUS) - 3.0GHz
Memory: 4GB
Graphics card: ATI Radeon 5770
Hardrive 1: 400Gb
Hardrive 2: 500GB

I dont think the problem is heat due to the fact that it happens when ever. I thought the problem may be voltage to certain parts of the computer but I have no idea how to check all that jazz. I have reformatted to see if this would fix the problem but no juice... this is really starting to bug me, Would appreciate help thank you :)

Welcome to TPU. :toast:

Drop your rig back to stock clocks and test everything to make sure all is well with no OC.

and btw, if you go to UserCP and enter your specs you won't have to keep typing them in threads if you have a problem in the future.

seems like a mem issue.

If you want to see themperature and voltage, you can install ASUS PC ProbeII from your motherboard downloads section in asus site.

Well I downloaded ASUS PC Probe II and monitored it at idle as well as gaming and everything looked in order. I then took off my Video Card and CPU overclock and the problem still persists.

Note: before I asked here for help my first presumption was that the video card was buggered I sent it back to the manufacturer and they told me that they found a problem and sent me a new one (same model) but the problem of course is still persisting.

Do you have a back up card? I agree with Assaulter, it seems like a memory issue. What's the model number of your ram and what voltages are they set to in BIOS?

are you using a cheap power supply, also the ddr you are using it is ddr 667,800 or 1066 if your using 667 with a 25% overclock i would start there also check your memory is set to 2T instead of 1T

Lets just logically trouble shoot this the easiest way. Plug in one hard drive (unless you are in Raid 0), and then pull out 1 stick of ram. Unplug any unnecessary item (optical drives, etc). Now let's test each stick of ram individually in each different slot. If it still does it after the ram troubleshooting, you don't have a ram problem. If you have a spare video card, put that in. If you get the same issue, you don't have a video card problem. Then you have narrowed it down to hard drive, power supply, or motherboard.

you havent mentioned what your PSU is and i cant believe no one has asked since this is the most likely problem when it is totally random and other things check out ok.

its common for power supply to have voltage drops at random times causing things to freeze, BSOD, or crash yet restart and work fine after but it can also have amperage drops that arent easy to measure but cause the same issues.

i could be wrong but lets find out, what is the size brand and age of your power supply?

when your system freezes does anything feel overly hot? are all the fans still turning? leave the side panel off your computer to see whats going on when it freezes but dont stick your hands in there unless you unplug it first or it can shock you?

also read this thread: strange issues (black screen, blue screen, and fr...

Well ... Im a Noob with all this stuff ... so most of the words you are throwing at me are going in one ear and out the other ... im sorry :( ... But ive taken my RAM out and taken pictures of them as well as my power supply including all the labels on them, I hope this helps.
RAM
http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/8102/p1010008.png

POWER SUPPLY
http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/151/p1010018.png

My power supply is about 2 years old I would say. Also when my computer freezes all the fans etc remain the same as if it were on and it doesn't feel particularly hot but when it freezes again I will take another look.

Where is pics ??

please read...

Use the 2 sticks of 1066 (black heatsinks) by themselves, see if the issue persists.

Ok ive fitted these 2 sticks. I will now test for the next couple of days. If anyone has any other questions I will try to answer them to the best of my ability or if anybody knows anything I can also do to narrow the problem down.

WELL! I fitted the black heatsinks and everything was going well it seemed for a day or 2 and then it froze while I was browsing the internet soon after booting up. :(
While frozen I looked around inside and everything (Fans and snizz) was still spinning as if it were Regularly on and all the parts seemed cool (Hence it being soon after boot)

Any ideas now? :(

what is snizz...lol try running prime95 or occt for about an hour. if you get errors turn your overclock off and retry. if it still fails at stock try with your ddr800 (your silver sticks) make sure the voltage is set correctly for the memory installed.

I dont currently have any overclocks ... I guess ill just run it without them then and see what goes down.

install and run occt saves you having to wait days for a error that may or may not come.

you can download it here.

Select CPU OCCT top left then click ON it takes 1minute to start then you will see you cpu load on all 4 cores goto 100% leave for hour.

The OCCT thing has finished and the result are in graph form .. From what I can see everything look fine , No "errors".

HERE:
http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/9...821h40cpu1.png
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/8...821h40cpu2.png
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/972...821h40cpu3.png
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/2...821h40cpu4.png
http://img547.imageshack.us/img547/7...21h40vcore.png
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/247...21h40volt5.png
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/189...1h40volt12.png

that doesnt look quite right, cpu load is all over the place never going over 95% load most of the test is between 75% and 83% load. check your bios settings and make sure your memory voltage is set to 2.1 volts (set 5-5-5-15 for testing). 20 minutes to get upto 80% load to me looks like memory problems. if someone has attempted an overclock and changed some settings reset your bios using the jumper on your motherboard or go into bios and load default settings. also the cpu vcore looks low for a q6600 kentfield occt was showing about 1.1v default i believe for that is 1.275v@ stock.
run test again and see if the results smooth out.

I have reset Bios to Defaults and up the Memory volts to 2.1. I noticed Intel Speed step was on ... im not sure what that does but I turned it off. and ran the test again.

RESULTS:
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/1...903h58cpu1.png
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/5...903h58cpu2.png
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/4...903h58cpu3.png
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/9...903h58cpu4.png
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/1...03h58vcore.png
http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/6...03h58volt5.png
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/6...3h58volt12.png

Note: Im still only using my Black heat sinks and not my silver/grey ones.

Wait what is exactly the issue here?

Does the computer grind to a halt, hangs, USB peripherals lose power, then it reboots? Does the sound crash and form a continuous loop until it boots up again?


Right click my computer> manage> then on the left side click event viewer> then look under anything under error or critical at the top.

sounds like an issue i had, where the system was stable most of the time, but then it would error non stop for a while before calming down.



in my case it was overheating NB and ram, so stick your finger on those and see if they're overheating (too hot to hold your finger on)

ive just had a look round and there does seem to be memory issues with this board, update the bios on the motherboard link HERE select Product > Motherboards > Socket 775 > P5N-T Deluxe and get the latest bios.
this board seems to have issues with memory timings (Auto) and voltage settings. asus also say to use no higher than ddr800 with 2 sticks of ram. ddr1066 seems to cause crashes when set as unlinked in bios.
also check what mussels said about chipset temps you can check these temps with a progamme called everest or HWMonitor may be able to read these temps as well.

dont go by chipset temps, they always report way off. just do a finger test. i thought mine was fine cause it reported 40C, but the heatpipe on the cooler read as 90C+ to my infrared thermometer (and it burned me when i touched it, giving away the cause of my crashes)



(this was on a DDR2 system at 2.1v as well, fyi)