PC Freezing - Need Advice (I'm a former PC Tech too...LOL)

[BoysNightOut]

Okay my PC lately has been acting strange ever since I reformatted it a few weeks ago.

Whenever playing a game period, it will eventually freeze the entire system and force a cold reboot. It is so wierd. I thought perhaps my video card was overheating or dying...so I changed it today...but the same problem still persists. I have reformatted now 3 times since and no matter what this keeps happening. If I'm not playing a game it will never happen...only during games like freaking Starcraft...9 years old...NOT graphic intensive by any means.

I can't figure out the problem at this point, I assumed graphics, but now am stuck. Everything works perfectly except it freezes during any gameplay...maybe it knows I prefer my 360 now instead of it for gaming? I don't know...anyone have any ideas? It's time for me to build a new machine anyhow...this just may **** me off enough to do it...

 

[Ste]

Memtest86+

Run for 4 Hours minimum.

Report amount of errors.

If RAM turns out to be fine I would look at RMAing the Motherboard.

What Are CPU Temps like, overclocking anything? What programs do you have for secruity? Have F@H?

 

[BoysNightOut]

CPU temps are normal, never overclocked to date. Just a basic board, nothing fancy. Memory is Crucial Memory, 2x 512MB chips. I'll run the test and see what turns up. I haven't had any problems ever until now with any hardware and it's only a few years old, maybe 2 at best from being used. It is older hardware though, 754 socket type crap, I built the PC for just a cheap budget PC for myself.

I really need to just bite the bullet and upgrade to a C2D system anyways, but I'm trying to hold out until July 22nd for the drops on Quad-Core from Intel...wonder if it's really worth it though. I'll report results of the tests. Thanks Ste.

 

[BoysNightOut]

Ran the test software...nothing turned up for me unfortunately...so great...

 

[schulz269]

Hows your psu going? IS it spiking at all or anything? You reformatted and nothing happened so theres really no need to keep trying to reformat. Maybe your psu is spiking and its causing the computer to freeze.

If it isn't your ram i would try that (i am unknown just tossing out suggestions what i think it might be but really am unsure)

(have you checked all the wires to make sure there all connected? i think before i left a loose wire on my HD and it just froze up when it got bumped.)

 

[Ste]

Hows your psu going? IS it spiking at all or anything? You reformatted and nothing happened so theres really no need to keep trying to reformat. Maybe your psu is spiking and its causing the computer to freeze.

If it isn't your ram i would try that (i am unknown just tossing out suggestions what i think it might be but really am unsure)

(have you checked all the wires to make sure there all connected? i think before i left a loose wire on my HD and it just froze up when it got bumped.)

Adding on to that.

Get yourself a digital multimeter and test the Rails on the PSU. Using the guide located somewhere on tech forums. (Just check stickies, its here somewhere.)

How many hours did you run memtest for?

 

[BoysNightOut]

PSU hasn't seemed to spike really. It only freezes on any form of gaming, even newgrounds.com type games. Regular use, watching videos etc. works perfectly normal...I don't know what the deal is. PSU is older, I have a different one I could throw in and see if it works better for a while...it's a bit powerful for this lowly system though...500w, one in here now is like 350w I believe.

Memtest86+ ran for probably 3-4 hours while I was out. It finished in 22mins though I think it said...ran tests 1-7.

I mean if it works like this fine, I just don't get why any kind of game overloads the PC and it freezes to death...I guess the game is sucking too much power or something I dunno...blah. I may just have to start building my new machine and keep this as a generic system for internet use/file storage at best.

 

[schulz269]

well when you game your computer does use up more power then just searching the internet. So maybe that might be the problem. also do you have all the latest drivers?

 

[Ste]

Memtest86+ ran for probably 3-4 hours while I was out. It finished in 22mins though I think it said...ran tests 1-7.

I mean if it works like this fine, I just don't get why any kind of game overloads the PC and it freezes to death...I guess the game is sucking too much power or something I dunno...blah. I may just have to start building my new machine and keep this as a generic system for internet use/file storage at best.

memtest only ends wen you tell it to end. It will Loop indefinitly otherwise.

You need to let it run for 4 hours minimum. So what do you mean? Did it run for 4 hours or did it run for 22 minutes? Which is it?

 

[joshd]

I believe the windows based memtest catches more errors than the DOS one.
MemTest: RAM reliability tester for Windows

It make be the CPU overheating though, download orthos and check for errors.
Orthos v20060420 - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net