PC Freezing (Not sure if its hardware or software)

[Amplex216]

Ok, well my names is James, and I'm new to this forum. I've been glancing around on this website and I have seen quiet a few things I like. I have a pretty annoying problem with my pc, which nobody can seem to help me with, so I figured I would bring my problem to you guys.

Problem -

I'll be playing my games, and my computer will randomly freeze. It doesn't matter whether I'm playing Madden 08, World of Warcraft, or Aion. My computer will randomly freeze and I can't do anything for a good 20-30 seconds.

My attempts at figuring out the problem and fixing it -

First thing I did, was make sure my computer was above the minimum requirements for the games that I play, and I was well above the recommended system requirements.

Next thing I tried was lowering the graphics all the way down, I was running anywhere from 80-120 FPS, and was still freezing randomly.

Thought it was my internet, had a tech support guy come out and check out my lines, all tested well, and there was no problems there.

Updated the BIOS, still didn't fix the problem.

Updated all Drivers, still didn't help any.

Then I decided, what the **** I'll reformat the PC, there is no way that won't work! WRONG, failed miserably and wasted 2 days downloading WoW patches and Aion.


I do still have the warranty on my PC, but I do not want to turn it in and be computer-less for 30 days while they do absolutely nothing to it.

PC Specs -
AMD Phenom x 3 8400 Triple-core Processor
4 gig memory
320 gig hard drive space
Nvidia GeForce 8200 gfx card
512 kb/s modem
Windows Vista (Unfortunately)


Please help me with this problem, any suggestions would be very well appreciated.

 

[Osiris]

Run Memtest to see if you have failing ram

Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

Or take all but one out, play a game, if it happens again, remove it and put in another stick and so on. Do this till all the sticks have been used. This is faster than running Memtest. Hopefully you will find a bad/failing stick.

 

[Amplex216]

I don't have a clue which one to download, I probably should have stated that my computer is 64-bit. I have a warranty on my pc, so I don't want to open up my box to do option 2, because that would obviously void the warranty.

 

[Osiris]

This one http://www.memtest.org/download/4.00/memtest86+-4.00.iso.zip

Removing the ram wont or shouldn't void the warranty. How will they tell its been opened? Is there a sticker stating this or stating this somewhere else?

 

[TheMajor]

Check the windows Event Viewer for errors.

 

[Amplex216]

I checked both, no errors on either one.

 

[TheMajor]

Did you try closing/removing all uneccesary services and programs? Did you try a clean install of Windows?

 

[Slaymate]

It sounds like the video driver is losing focus and pausing while it tries to sync back up. You'll usually see a message - nvlddmkm.sys has stopped responding - and sometimes it will say it has stopped responding and recovered.

Does this sound familar, have you seen this message before?

 

[Amplex216]

Osiris -
It has a sticker that says "Removing this sticker will void warranty"

Major -
Yes i have, Ive gone to Windows defender and got rid of all unnecessary start up programs, and even disabled all the services that are currently running and still got the same error.

I also have no way to install clean version of windows, seeing as the pc only came with Factory default disc's and not Windows Vista discs

Slaymate-
I have not seen that error because when the game freezes up, there is no error and I can not even Ctrl + Alt + delete for task manager

 

[TheMajor]

If you don't have many personal programs to re-install, you could still use the Factory discs.