• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

New Computer Freezing..?

R

RCXIII

n00b
Joined
Jul 10, 2007
Messages
20
I started a thread here: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1229651 regarding the CPU heat issues but theres apparently more than just heat. I recently built the computer and just installed the OS (Vista Ultimate). I have two IDE hard drives, a pretty hot e4400 (42C idle), 600W PSU, a very noisy ATI Sapphire HD2900PRO 512mb, 2GB Kingston DDR2 667 RAM and a MSI P6N motherboard. Theres also onboard sound but I'm using my old SoundBlaster Live 5.1 which is not supported by Vista but I found some drivers online to get them to work.
My computer randomly freezes, sometimes just on a website and sometimes playing a game. When I play Portal, it freezes more often than when I'm simply on a website. I first thought my CPU is overheating but I think it would shut down instead of freezing. Could it be faulty drivers from the sound card? I installed my motherboard audio drivers and the freezes continue. My 2900PRO is running on 2900XT drivers and they are updated. Is my video card overheating? It is extremely frustrating since these freezes occur almost every 30 minutes-1 hour. Thanks for reading.
 
if the cpu is at default speeds, and the HS Fan was properly installed there should be no temps issues (an open case would definitively help). I´d say it´s your power hungry vid card. But just to be sure, run Prime95 for a while to see what happens, with Core Temp running to check the temps
 
btw 42 ºC with that cpu is not THAT hot. i dunno why u say that.
 
Thanks for the replies. I think 42C is pretty hot compared to my other one which is 31C. They are both Artic Silver thermal greased too..

In the last 20 minutes, I was playing Team Fortress 2 and my computer crashed.. gave me a BSOD with an error "dxgkrnl.sys". After starting up, it crashed AGAIN, this time, I think a different BSOD.. Any ideas? Vista issues?
 
well Vista has some issues, try reinstalling XP and play around for a while to see if your pc is stable, I have a E4400 @ 3.0GHz and i get 42ºC at Idle. What brand is your PSU?
 
- What PSU do you have?
- Have you tried removing the sound card and see if the system freezes then? Also, make sure that you COMPLETELY remove all traces of the sound card drivers using Driver Cleaner or something similar.
- Google, download, burn and run Memtest+ for at least 3 hours or 24 hours max on each stick of RAM separately in order to rule out the RAM as the culprit.
- What does the event viewer say? Try to find out how to access Vista's event viewer, if it still has one.
- Uninstall and clean out your ATI drivers and reinstall again. And use the proper drivers for it, not the XT drivers.

It would help if you could take a pic or tell us what the BSODs are.
 
Danny Bui said:
- What PSU do you have?
- Have you tried removing the sound card and see if the system freezes then? Also, make sure that you COMPLETELY remove all traces of the sound card drivers using Driver Cleaner or something similar.
- Google, download, burn and run Memtest+ for at least 3 hours or 24 hours max on each stick of RAM separately in order to rule out the RAM as the culprit.
- What does the event viewer say? Try to find out how to access Vista's event viewer, if it still has one.
- Uninstall and clean out your ATI drivers and reinstall again. And use the proper drivers for it, not the XT drivers.

It would help if you could take a pic or tell us what the BSODs are.
Click to expand...

Well the sound card was added just yesterday but its been crashing since day one. Could it be a defective hard drive? Whenever I start the computer, a bunch of random symbols and letters load up, kind of like a loading sequence for Vista which lasts around 1-2 seconds. There aren't any drivers for the 2900Pro since its new..
I've tried to take pictures of the BSOD but its usually the freezes. BSOD rarely occurs..
 
Alright, I've been trying things out to see whats wrong with my computer. I take the cover off and the games last longer. Like around three hours opposed to 45 minutes with the cover on. I'm sure its an overheating issue but not sure what component. Sometimes, the computer freezes with the cover off too although not as frequently.

I tried memtest and nothing shows up but I only tested with both of them in there. When I remove one, the computer lags so much, I can't even seem to start the test. I ran Orthos and the CPU seems to run alright but the temp. reaches 65C. When my computer freezes, the apps and everything freezes but I can still move my mouse around for a few seconds before it freezes as well.

Can anyone diagnose my computer? I already asked for an RMA for the video card.. not sure if that was such a great idea.
 
Well, its obvious something's overheating, and I'm guessing its your vidcard. Try pointing a fan at your case and see if that helps.
 
Even though it is overheating, it shouldn't. I have everything except CPU at stock speeds and the CPU is not that hot. Its around 40C idle and 65C load which is hot, but shouldn't freeze. I also have four fans in there at low settings. There must be something thats not working correctly.

My friend told me that if your computer freezes but the cursor still works for a while indicates a memory / cpu problem, can anyone confirm?
 
RCXIII said:
Even though it is overheating, it shouldn't. I have everything except CPU at stock speeds and the CPU is not that hot. Its around 40C idle and 65C load which is hot, but shouldn't freeze. I also have four fans in there at low settings. There must be something thats not working correctly.

My friend told me that if your computer freezes but the cursor still works for a while indicates a memory / cpu problem, can anyone confirm?
Click to expand...

I thought you got the temps down to the 30s?

I can confirm that such a scenario is not positively indicative of a specific memory/cpu problem.

To rule out the CPU, run ORTHOS SmallFFTs for as long as you can, while running nothing else.

To rule out the RAM, run memtest86+ overnight.

Then run a blend test in ORTHOS, just to be sure.

To test your vidcard, try a 3DMark loop.
 
dxgkrnl... Direct X - kernel? run the dx diagnostic tool. does it report everythings normal?
 
enginurd said:
I thought you got the temps down to the 30s?

I can confirm that such a scenario is not positively indicative of a specific memory/cpu problem.

To rule out the CPU, run ORTHOS SmallFFTs for as long as you can, while running nothing else.

To rule out the RAM, run memtest86+ overnight.

Then run a blend test in ORTHOS, just to be sure.

To test your vidcard, try a 3DMark loop.
Click to expand...

It went up again to 40s. I just ignored it after that until the crashing started again. I ran ORTHOS blend test last night and it froze. When I woke up, I had to reboot. I looked at the logs and no errors showed up. I'll run separate tests later today.

By the way, the dx error happened only once, so I don't think its that much of a problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top