9 month stable (no crash) HTPC locks up every night

[kent]

Cliff notes:

Built HTPC 9 months ago (specs at bottom of post), never had one problem, crash, error, bug, ANYTHING. NEVER had ANY problems.

I leave it on 24/7 and always have as it's a true HTPC, records TV shows, downloads torrents, etc.

--

Every night it locks up now and once I view Event Viewer it just says it crashed unexpectedly. No real info when I google the error codes.


Today it quit finding the primary hard drive, so I opened it up and reconnected the SATA data/power cables and it's working again. I think it's unlikely a loose SATA cable would cause a crash every night though.


I'm running memtest+ DOS right now and the HDD checks out A-OK in SMART.


I also reinstalled Windows 7, complete fresh install, no upgrade. Installed latest nVidia/Realtek drivers and little else (Firefox, some MCE extensions and CoreAVC)



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Specs:


C2D 2.93GHz (stock, no overclock)
2x2GB Corsair DDR2-800
Gigabyte nForce 9400 Motherboard (onboard GeForce 9400)
3 HDD, 1 Optical
1 PCI-E TV card
Corsair 400W PSU



Please help or throw suggestions my way. It doesn't lock up during the day and it's used quite heavily because I use 7MC for watching cable TV. I use this machine all day and it never locks up until the middle of the night

 

[Ricedaddy]

Easy answer is that your girlfriend broke it.

Kidding, but do you have it sitting on the floor? What kind of airflow is it getting? I'm just peeing into the wind, but it could possibly be a heat issue. I imagine it is idle most of the day, and hence not locking up until it sees significant use.

Maybe also a power supply problem? What were your memtest results on your memory? I just had to send off my G.Skill Ripjaws off to rma despite having no problems whatsoever in memtest.

Either way, good luck.

 

[kent]

Heat isn't a problem. It's a large desktop style case, one of the nMedia PC ones.

Airflow is intake 120mm, CPU is using one of the upgraded Quad Core (copper bottom) Intel HSF and 2 80mm exhaust.

I can monitor all temps with Speedfan and they're fine. Orthos this machine doesn't make 55C.




Memtest so far is good. 2 clean passes, nearing the 2 hr mark.



The thing is -- it locks up in the middle of the night. Not during usage. More clearly, I use it all day to watch TV (W7MC) and play HD MKV files and it NEVER EVER locks up on me.

 

[engiNURD]

does it go to sleep or standby at all?

 

[kent]

does it go to sleep or standby at all?

No. I disable all power management options except the Intel thing where it drops from 2.93GHz to I think 2.13GHz at idle

Any more ideas? PLEASE

 

[Dangman]

[Testing the Hard Drive]
Download the CD image of Hitachi Drive Fitness Test, burn the ISO file to a CD, and then boot from it, just like you would do with the XP/Vista install CD. Test the hard drive and see if any problems are found. DFT will run on most manufacturers' hard drives. Alternatively, you can use Seagate's SeaTools for DOS to test a Seagate or Maxtor drive. For a Western Digital drive, you could use Data Lifeguard Tools for DOS to test a Western Digital drive.

[Testing the CPU]
Use Prime 95, OCCT, Orthos or Intel Burn Tool to stress test the CPU.

[Testing the GPU]
Use Furmark or ATI Tool to stress test the GPU. If you see any artifacts, the GPU could be overheating, too overclocked, or faulty.

[Testing the PSU]
Buy and use a digital multi-meter to monitor the voltages coming from the PSU. Follow the instructions for "Using a multi-meter to check voltages":
http://www.bfgpower.com/troubleshooting.html#DMM