Why the sodding hell is it crashing?

Audigex · 24 Apr 2010 at 23:42

The PC in my sig randomly crashes on occasion: and I can't work out why.

Every now and again it will lock up - but it doesn't seem to be related to strain or heat.

Initially the mouse continues to work - although that stops after a few attempts at a ctrl+alt+del (which does nothing). The machine is clearly still working to some extent: my internet is routed through my LAN onto a connectify wireless hotspot in software on the PC, so the fact I'm writing this proves it's still whirring away in some way. In fact, as I write this it beeped (3 sets of 2 beeps, not a noise I recognise) and opened the ctrl+alt+del interface, and is now working again.

I simply can't see any link though: it doesn't seem to relate to what program is open in the foreground (although I've not tested combinations of background apps), nor as mentioned temperature and stress.

Stumped.

SpiderX · 25 Apr 2010 at 01:24

try running memtest for a few hours, could be faulty ram.

bifday2k · 25 Apr 2010 at 01:51

Could be memory issue of hard drive issue.

Last year i kinda had similar, and i was certain it was heat realted, but nothing i did changed it, this was in the summer..

So after much reading up, and asking more techy friends then me, we got it down to my harddrive acting up, so i bought a replacement, rma'd the old, and it came back re-paired.

So id suggest its either memory or harddrive, use memtest to test the memory.

bandit2329 · 25 Apr 2010 at 19:50

Hi had a similar problem on one of my first builds it had worked fine for months then kept crashing shutting down locking up turned out to be faulty memory. I was lucky as me and my friend built the same spec pc so i swop out his memory for mine and the fault returned on his machine. See if you can borrow some memory to give it a try good luck i know its a pain when it plays up.

kevbiss1 · 25 Apr 2010 at 23:20

sounds like its time for a new graphics card

Skilid · 26 Apr 2010 at 00:15

Make sure your memory timings and voltages are set correctly, then run Memtest.

Audigex · 26 Apr 2010 at 16:37

Sorry for the slow reply, wanted to be thorough:

Memtest runs fine overnight (both stock and overclocked) - freeze seems to occur equally as often with both, too.
Same effect with three different hard drives
Same effect with any single stick of RAM
Same effect without the GPU (onboard)

I can't think what else would be likely to freeze temporarily: surely the PSU would just shut the thing down, same with CPU? And the PSU would be under a lot less strain with no GPU, so if it's just a voltage/current thing that should sort it.

hyperst · 26 Apr 2010 at 16:46

try running prime95 for full 24 hours, using small ftts test, if thats ok try the blend test aswell to make sure your overclock is stable