Possible hardware issue, need assistance

tim_m

tim_m

i'm so nice
Joined
Feb 10, 2003
Messages
5,539
This has been driving me absolutely crazy for quite some time (too long for me to remember when so I can't recall any specific changes).

Very randomly with varying frequency (from never in a day to twice within 30 minutes) my system completely freezes without BSODing. That is to say, the image on the monitor freezes to whatever it is, the mouse and kb are unresponsive. I have a G15 kb and it seems to lose all power. All of its lights go out including the blue key backlighting, the num lock indicator, and the backlight for the lcd screen (the lcd turns blank as well).

There is only one instance where this issue might have happened while I was not currently using the computer, but I can't be sure if it was the same issue. Otherwise, I've only observed it while actually using the computer, I never came back to find it frozen.

Once it freezes, if any sound/music is playing, the last, say, 10th of a second worth of sound loops continuously until I turn the power off via the switch on the psu.

This has occurred occasionally at the login screen after I rebooted from this problem happening a first time.

I don't think overheating is an issue (but by all means correct me), immediately after restarting temps are < 120F in the bios and I set the fans to all be on max performance so they shouldn't be slowing down. The problem has happened when I have not been playing any games so the video card wouldn't be under load/getting hot (presumably). Also, it has occurred both while F@H was running and when it was not (100% vs minimal cpu load).

I have tried upgrading drivers for the video card, onboard sound, mobo intel inf chipset drivers/raid controller as well as disabling onboard components like the wifi and the jmicron sata controller (i have not tried disabling the sound...).

The problem occurs when running at stock (read not overclocked) speeds.

I built this computer and many others and never encountered such an issue. I've also done 3 years of helpdesk work for what that's worth to try to indicate my computer knowledge.

Specs are

I should probably try a bios update but I still wanted to post this first to get any and all advice.

Edit: I just updated the bios to the latest version and the problem still happened (within like 10 minutes after restarting after updating it.... :rolleyes:)

Thanks
 
If you're overclocking, set everything back to stock speeds. Even if you're not oveclocking, run Prime 95 to stress the CPU. See if any errors popup

Download Memtest+ v2.01, unzip it, burn the ISO file to a CD, and then boot from it, just like you would do with the XP install CD. Let Memtest+ run for at least three hours on each stick of RAM separately. Go for a full 24 hours if you want to be completely sure that the RAM is not a problem. If you start seeing errors, than your RAM is bad.

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 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.
 
It happens when I'm not overclocked (forgot to mention that, added it to the op). Will check on the other suggestions later today.
 
I set the Intel controller to plain sata mode (as opposed to raid) so the tools would detect the drives. I ran SeatTools via the latest UBCD and ran the quick test on both drives and they both passed (I used SeaTools because the WD tool on the UBCD didn't seem to detect the controller....).

After I restart, for no apparant reason the post screen is hanging while detecting the second drive. After powering down, disconnecting the drive and rebooting, the first drive is detected normally without hanging at all. I disconnect the first, reconnect the second, it hangs. I switch the second drive to the sata port the first drive was in, it hangs. After a long time the bios would say there was an error detecting the device on the port.

Mind you both drives have always been detected properly without errors and seemed to be functioning properly.

Is it possible the one drive has had some issue for a while but I didn't realize it because I was running in raid 1? That just seems strange to me that there would be no otherwise apparent signs of failure.

I put the drive in another computer and it is also having trouble detecting it. It prints out WDC ..model... .... smart capable... status ok (that kills me :p) but hangs and ultimately says there was an error detecting the device on that port.

I've opened up an rma ticket with WD so we'll see how that goes.
 
Unbelievably (well not really :rolleyes:) the problem just happened again. This is with only the one hard drive installed, so the other HD failing is a coincidence :confused:?

I am completely at a loss....
 
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