I was asleep one night, and I awoke by the sound of my computer POSTing. I was confused, but concluded it was just a Windows Updated rebooting my computer. It happened again the same night, waking me up. I woke up, started looking around my Event Logs (which show no Warnings or Errors by the way), and it froze. I have tried reformatting, updating video card drivers, updating BIOS, running MEMTEST86, clearing CMOS, and none of these have cured it or helped me diagnose the problem. I was watching a movie the other day on my computer, and it froze. Weird thing was, I continued to hear the video for about 20 seconds, but the screen was frozen, and couldn't move my mouse or use my keyboard (couldn't SEE me using it anyways). My mouse has been acting up, so I thought maybe in some weird way, that's affecting the freezing. I unplugged it, using only my keyboard, but of course, it still froze. I can still hear the HDD activity, and the LEDs flashing, but nothing changes on the monitor. I have also tried different monitors, but that didn't help either. http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/3595/tempsmx4.jpg Temps; accurate. Could it be a video card problem? Unforunately I do not have a PCI-E video card to test with, so I'm SOL there. Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance, Skizzy
hmm this sounds familiar, not 100% the same problem but you never know: I've had a similar issue. Computer just had random crashes, stuff froze but you could hear that it was only part of the computer, other things kept running. Lots of blue screens. In the end, it turned out to be the RAM. There was nothing wrong with it, but my motherboard just didn't like it all that well. I put in an old stick of RAM I had lying around, since then the system never ever crashed again. So, maybe something's wrong there? From your explanation, I assume the pc was doing okay and the problem suddenly arose. So it's kinda different situation, mine had the issues right from the start. But maybe it's worthwhile checking it...
It's something having to do with the actual operation of the computer, so passive parts (monitor, fans, etc) will not affect this. Your best bets are RAM, HDD, and Video card. Or...motherboard. Run memtest86 for a few hours (while you sleep or something). Do a surface scan on the hard drive, and then use a PCI graphics card if you have one. PCI Express, PCI, won't matter, this is to troubleshoot the video card. Those are the easiest, least painful ways of testing.
Thanks for the replies. I'd like to try a different PSU and a different video card, but I don't have those available, so I'd like to try and diagnose as much as I can before I go out and buy stuff. I tried to do a ScanDisk, but the comp froze in the middle of it. I tried Safe Mode, but it froze in that as well. My Event Log actually has errors this time, and here they are: The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk0\D. The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk0\D. The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort2, did not respond within the timeout period. The server {F3A614DC-ABE0-11D2-A441-00C04F795683} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout. All those were at times I was away from my computer. My computer froze twice while typing this, and no new errors are showing up. I disabled automatic restart in hopes of some blue screens of death, but the comp. just freezes, showing no blue screens. I will do my best to continue to try to run ScanDisk and see if I get lucky and have it finish. Tonight I will run MEMTEST86 all night as well. Edit: I searched through my minidump, and the only file in there dated 02/26/07. It had the following in it: k m i x e r . s y s `§ô Щô ÔÐA…d r m k a u d . s y s é÷ °é÷ üÐA…D M u s i c . s y s €Ôô PÕô $ÑA…a e c . s y s P¶ô €¸ô LÑA…s w m i d i . s y s €×ô `Øô tÑA…s p l i t t e r . s y s ÐÛ÷ ðÛ÷ œÑA…i m a p i . s y s Ш÷ p©÷ ÄÑA…C d a u d i o . S Y S л÷ ¼÷ ìÑA…S f l o p p y . S Y S Edit2: I ran chkdsk, and the cmd prompt just closed. Does that mean it finished? I also ran verifier and sigverifier, all drivers are signed.
Getting a couple new errors... The driver nv4_disp for the display device \Device\Video0 got stuck in an infinite loop. This usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device driver programming the hardware incorrectly. Please check with your hardware device vendor for any driver updates. This one happened right one a freeze. Though it doesn't show in the Event Log every time the computer freezes. Error code 000000ea, parameter1 860fd878, parameter2 86ecaec0, parameter3 86d694e0, parameter4 00000001. Got two of these within two minutes of eachother. Don't think they showed up on computer freeze. Also, my computer is still not creating minidump files. Any reason why?
well, as funny or strange as it might sound, I still think it's the RAM. You should really try another stick of ram, just a generic cheapo 512MB. It still all sounds so familiar to me, when I was using the 'wrong' RAM for my mobo I experienced similar things to what you post here. At one point, I got so many hdd and hdd controller errors I was convinced that that was the problem, but it turned out to be the RAM.
Thank you for the reply. I'm taking the system to a guy I know, we are going to diagnose it there since he has many spare parts to test with, as I have none. First thing we'll test is the RAM. I also ran MEMTEST86 for 10 straight errors without a single error. I still believe you it could be a RAM issue though. Also.. I build the system in December and I didn't get a single freeze until February, then they went bizarre. If it was a RAM issue, wouldn't it have happened from the beginning? Edit: I had about 400mb in 4 items in my Recycle Bin and it took 30 seconds to empty the recycle bin. This isn't normal.
yep, normally it should have been a problem right from the start if it is the RAM. But, everything you've described isn't exactly normal right. It doesn't hurt to try it... by the way, I also ran system/cpu/ram/mem tests and I never had an error with them...
Went to my buddy's house, and we switched out the video card for a little pci video card. Took it home, and it's been rock solid for 20 hours without a single freeze. I was browsing the eVGA website looking for RMA service when I found this thread on the forums. This made me feel better. Also talking with my other friend about his video card (he was having problems), he mentioned his was a 7900GS as well, having the same symptoms. He took it out, and his is rock solid. Before I went to my buddy's house for diagnostics, I got one last freeze. Instead of everything stopping, it displayed lines of color across the screen, leading me to believe it was the video card. Should I wait another day before I RMA my Video Card to make sure it won't freeze still? And thank you for all the help guys. I'll reply back if I have any more problems.
good for you. i was going to suggest tinkering with ram more or an additional hard drive. when i had a bad ram stick, it kept giving me hard drive errors, so ram accounts to a lot as far as what can go wrong, but from my experience, eVGA has FANTASTIC customer service, so you should not run into any problems. they replaced a bios chip that i fried with NO questions, and when it shipped, and my mail carrier left it on my mailbox with no signature, and it got STOLEN, they even shipped me another one out again, no questions!
