Locking up problems? A doozy here...

[Krusty]

I've got mostly new parts in my PC. They're less than 4 months old. The PC runs fine. It never overheats, I barely even reach 50C when running full load. I've got 2 80mm fans and a 80mm fan/heatsink (copper core) on a P4 2.66GHz running 533 FSB. It's an ASUS mobo so I've been using the ASUS Probe app to check temperatures.

Well it would freeze up occasionally. You can tell because not only would the screen stop, but the fans in the case would all drop to minimum idle speeds. For a while I tried to find a pattern. Sometimes it would freeze in AH, sometimes not. Sometimes after hours of use, sometimes after minutes. I could leave it on all day and have no problems, but then turn it on another day and it freezes up in 30 minutes.

I thought that, maybe, the probe software itself was causing these problems (it was a buggy software) so I stopped using it for a while. I just started using it lately to check some things, but more on that later.

Problem is, "infrequently" became "increasingly frequent".

So my comp hadn't been on long today, I start up AH2 and join a HTH room, and within 20 minutes I lock up. I swear and hold the power button for 10 seconds to reboot. I re-join same HTH room and less than 10 minutes in (barely in time to find a fight and JUST as we merge) I lock up again. So I swear up and down in a manner reminiscent of Ralphy's father in A Christmas Story, shut the damn thing off, check everything (and I mean EVERY-freakin'-thing!) and I don't know what the heck is wrong with it.

The ONLY thing I can think of is that it might be heat-related, but it can't be the CPU. GPU (Ge4 128MB) is a little warm, but I can keep my finger on it indefinitely without burning it. Sound Blaster card: no heat. I can literally touch the heat sink on my CPU seconds after opening up the case (easy-open case) and not burn myself. I can touch all the mobo heatsinks on my ASUS P5P800 and none have much/any heat. I took an 80mm fan I had that was set low blowing air in over my PCI slots and removed the P4 duct in the side of my comp, and put the 80mm inside the case between the duct and the door, so that it's additional air flow into the case.... But I don't know if that's the problem. I took the heatsink OFF the cpu, the default thermal paste is evenly spread on it. I can't afford Arctic Silver but it's on my list of things to get.

So I don't know what the heck gives. It's a simple PC. No hardware conflicts. No DX issues. 425W power supply (20 pin). ASUS P5P800 LGA775 mobo (24 pin -- checked the manual, it says it'll run fine on a 20-pin supply). Intel P4 2.66GHz 533FSB (stock, no overclocking) with copper cored heat sink. 1x 512MB stick of ram. GeForce 4400Ti 128MB 8xAGP. SB Audigy PCI with gameport plug. The mobo came with a rear slot with 2 USB ports and a gameport, plugged that in as well. Mobo came with Sound Blaster on-board but I disabled that so I could use my Audigy (too bad audigy doesn't support front panel headphones/mic.. )

So like I said it sorta sounds like it might be a heat issue -- but there's no heat! So I started up my ASUS probe again after I put in my duct boosting fan. It already ran cool. Its in a basement, 10 degrees F cooler than the rest of the house. Anyways, going by what it said today the CPU was running 28C and the mobo 33C. Is it normal for a mobo to be hotter than the CPU?

I was talking with Gianlupo and we couldn't figure out what the problem was, so I thought I'd post here. What would be causing sporadic lockups? Oh, details: Windows installed/updated when parts were put in less than 3 months ago. System is behind a router/firewall, has Norton, is scanned with Norton and spybot and ad aware and is clean. I put zonealarm on again recently (took it off after I got the router/firewall -- wasn't sure how secure I was wanted to see what hits I got). Win XP SP2. If I left anything out let me know.

[quig]

Originally posted by Krusty
I took the heatsink OFF the cpu, the default thermal paste is evenly spread on it. I can't afford Arctic Silver but it's on my list of things to get.
 

Let me get this straight. You pulled the heatsink off the CPU, and did not clean it off and use new thermal paste? Even after it had been running?

I think that may have a little to do with it. I always thought you had to clean and re-apply the paste if you decided to remove the heatsink.

I might not be correct though, and if not, someone with more smarts about it will come smack me down

[Krusty]

*shrug*... That might be something I should know.

If I should have, well no helping it now.. I can't afford new stuff anyways for a couple weeks.

[Krusty]

turned comp on, after 15 mins of browsing opened AH. Joined HTH room. Lasted 3 freaking MINUTES before it locked up on me. Forced reboot. Checked asus probe logs, it peaked at 44C -- barely even "hot". wtf??

I need help! This can't be totally an AH software problem, because it will at times freeze when AH hasn't been running! AAAAAARRRRGH!! IT"S A NEW COMP!!! *insert whacking head onto keyboard emoticon here*

[straffo]

The only word I see that can lead to trouble is "audigy" , try to use the internal SB to see if it change , I've seen lot of trouble with SB drivers

[Ohio43]

Hum, fans slowing down?  doesnt sound like a driver problem to me..sounds more like a faulty power supply to me.

[Krusty]

Power supply, as monitored in asus probe, is very steady... It fluctuates in the 0.004v range.

The SB Audigy has good sound drivers running. I used the same card before my upgrade and never had any problems with it.

Any other ideas? It seems to happen more when AH runs. AH runs at full load.... The other odd time it might have been at high loads too. That's why I thought it might be heat-related...

But if it's not heat related, what can I do? I can go offline in AH and no probs, but if I go HTH online and against actual people -- forget it.

I don't lock up in hours of Day of Defeat. Nor in IL2, nor in AAO, nor in MOHAA... It would SEEM that it's AH related, if not AH caused.

[straffo]

you can try to downclock your cpu

[Kermit de frog]

I had a similiar problem.  My computer would randomly lock up and then reboot as frequent as your computer just locks up.  I traced it to my MB.  I replaced it with a new motherboard and haven't had the problem come back.  My old motherboard was an ASUS and my new motherboard is still an ASUS.

[Krusty]

Originally posted by Kermit de frog
I had a similiar problem.  My computer would randomly lock up and then reboot as frequent as your computer just locks up.  I traced it to my MB.  I replaced it with a new motherboard and haven't had the problem come back.  My old motherboard was an ASUS and my new motherboard is still an ASUS.

Kermit.. How did you trace it to the MB? Process of elimination? Will ASUS replace this for me, as it is new (3 months)? Newegg has so short a time period for returns that by the time I get it in the mail I can't return it to them. I can't afford another mobo (this one was $90!). How good is ASUS' support?

[F4J]

I had a problem with my computer screen freezing in AH a couple of years ago. No crash to desktop or reboot, just frozen screen. The fix turned out to be running Dxdiag.exe and adjusting the sound card Sound 1 acceleration back two notches. It made no difference in my actual sound, as far as I could tell.
F4jCH

Originally posted by Krusty
I've got mostly new parts in my PC. They're less than 4 months old. The PC runs fine. It never overheats, I barely even reach 50C when running full load. I've got 2 80mm fans and a 80mm fan/heatsink (copper core) on a P4 2.66GHz running 533 FSB. It's an ASUS mobo so I've been using the ASUS Probe app to check temperatures.

Well it would freeze up occasionally. You can tell because not only would the screen stop, but the fans in the case would all drop to minimum idle speeds. For a while I tried to find a pattern. Sometimes it would freeze in AH, sometimes not. Sometimes after hours of use, sometimes after minutes. I could leave it on all day and have no problems, but then turn it on another day and it freezes up in 30 minutes.

I thought that, maybe, the probe software itself was causing these problems (it was a buggy software) so I stopped using it for a while. I just started using it lately to check some things, but more on that later.

Problem is, "infrequently" became "increasingly frequent".

So my comp hadn't been on long today, I start up AH2 and join a HTH room, and within 20 minutes I lock up. I swear and hold the power button for 10 seconds to reboot. I re-join same HTH room and less than 10 minutes in (barely in time to find a fight and JUST as we merge) I lock up again. So I swear up and down in a manner reminiscent of Ralphy's father in A Christmas Story, shut the damn thing off, check everything (and I mean EVERY-freakin'-thing!) and I don't know what the heck is wrong with it.

The ONLY thing I can think of is that it might be heat-related, but it can't be the CPU. GPU (Ge4 128MB) is a little warm, but I can keep my finger on it indefinitely without burning it. Sound Blaster card: no heat. I can literally touch the heat sink on my CPU seconds after opening up the case (easy-open case) and not burn myself. I can touch all the mobo heatsinks on my ASUS P5P800 and none have much/any heat. I took an 80mm fan I had that was set low blowing air in over my PCI slots and removed the P4 duct in the side of my comp, and put the 80mm inside the case between the duct and the door, so that it's additional air flow into the case.... But I don't know if that's the problem. I took the heatsink OFF the cpu, the default thermal paste is evenly spread on it. I can't afford Arctic Silver but it's on my list of things to get.

So I don't know what the heck gives. It's a simple PC. No hardware conflicts. No DX issues. 425W power supply (20 pin). ASUS P5P800 LGA775 mobo (24 pin -- checked the manual, it says it'll run fine on a 20-pin supply). Intel P4 2.66GHz 533FSB (stock, no overclocking) with copper cored heat sink. 1x 512MB stick of ram. GeForce 4400Ti 128MB 8xAGP. SB Audigy PCI with gameport plug. The mobo came with a rear slot with 2 USB ports and a gameport, plugged that in as well. Mobo came with Sound Blaster on-board but I disabled that so I could use my Audigy (too bad audigy doesn't support front panel headphones/mic.. )

So like I said it sorta sounds like it might be a heat issue -- but there's no heat! So I started up my ASUS probe again after I put in my duct boosting fan. It already ran cool. Its in a basement, 10 degrees F cooler than the rest of the house. Anyways, going by what it said today the CPU was running 28C and the mobo 33C. Is it normal for a mobo to be hotter than the CPU?

I was talking with Gianlupo and we couldn't figure out what the problem was, so I thought I'd post here. What would be causing sporadic lockups? Oh, details: Windows installed/updated when parts were put in less than 3 months ago. System is behind a router/firewall, has Norton, is scanned with Norton and spybot and ad aware and is clean. I put zonealarm on again recently (took it off after I got the router/firewall -- wasn't sure how secure I was wanted to see what hits I got). Win XP SP2. If I left anything out let me know.

[Krusty]

Originally posted by F4J
I had a problem with my computer screen freezing in AH a couple of years ago. No crash to desktop or reboot, just frozen screen. The fix turned out to be running Dxdiag.exe and adjusting the sound card Sound 1 acceleration back two notches. It made no difference in my actual sound, as far as I could tell.
F4jCH

Hrrrrrrmmmmmmm... Damndest thing.. I tried that and then joined an HTH room... flew for over an hour with no problems... Come to think of it I think I was playing songs on WinAmp when it froze up outside of AH, as well.

But that means it's an issue with the motherboard and the sound card, because I had full acceleration on my P3 650MHz and never locked up once.

I'll monitor the situation and see if it happens anymore (or not). Thanks for the tip (but I'm still baffled as to WHY this is the cause)

[DogFart]

i was having lock up problems on ah only.i could serf the net allnight but get on ah every half hour or so ah would lock up.i put a new video card in .was not because i thought that was problem .my frame rates were bad.since new card ah has never locked up.

                              DogFart