My computer freezes irregurarly
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Manhim
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Published on 2011-06-26T13:37:19Z
Indexed on
2011/06/26
16:24 UTC
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My computer started to freeze at irregular times for 3 weeks now.
What happens
- My computer freezes, the video stops. (No graphic glitches, it just stops)
- Sound keeps playing up to some time (Usually 10-30 seconds) then stops playing.
- Sometimes, randomly, the screen on my G-15 keyboard flickers and I see caracters not at the right places. Usually happens for about 1-2 seconds and a bit before my computer freezes.
- I have to keep the power button pressed for 4 seconds to shut my computer down.
- I still hear my hard drives and fans working.
- Sometimes it works with no problems for a full day, some other times it just keeps freezing each time I restart my computer and I have to leave it for the rest of the day.
- Sometimes my mouse freezes for a fraction of a second (Like 0.01 to 0.2 seconds) quite randomly, usually before it freezes.
- No errors spotted by the "Action center" unlike when I had problems with my last video card on this system (Driver errors).
- My G-15 LCD screen also freezes.
What I did so far
- I have had similar problems in the past and I had changed my hard drive (It was faulty), so I tested my software RAID-0 array and it was faulty so I changed it. (I reinstalled Windows 7 with this part). I also tested with unplugging my secondary hard drive.
- My CPU was running at about 100 degree Celsius, I removed the dust between the fans and the heatsink and it's now between 50-60.
- I ran a CPU stress-test and it didn't freeze during the tests (using Prime95 on all cores)
- Ran a memory test (using
memtest86+
) for a single pass and there were no errors. - Ran a GPU stress test with
ati-tools
andfurmark
and it didn't freeze during the tests. (No artefacts either) - I had troubles with my graphic card when I got it, but I think that it got fixed with a driver update.
- I checked the voltages in my BIOS setup and they all seemed ok (±0.2 I think).
- I have ran on the computer without problems with Fedora 15 on an external hard drive (Appart that it couldn't load Gnome 3 and was reverting to Gnome 2, didn't want to install drivers since I use it on multiple computers) I used it to backup my files from the raid array to my 1TB hard drive for the reinstallation of Windows. (So the crashes only happenned on Windows) [The external hard drive is plugged directly on a SATA port]
- I contacted EVGA (My graphic card vendor) and pointed them on this question, I'm looking for an answer.
- Ran
sensors
on Fedora 15 and got this output: http://pastebin.com/0BHJnAvu
When it happens
- When I play video games (Mostly)
- When I play flash games (Second most)
- When I'm looking at my desktop background (It rarely happens when I have a window open, but it does, sometimes)
Specs
- Windows Seven x64 Home Premium
- Motherboard: M2N-SLI Deluxe
- CPU: AMD Phenom 9950 x2 @ 2.6GHz
- Memory: Kingston 4x2GB Dual Channel (Pretty basic memory sticks)
- Hard drives: Was 2x250GB (Western digital caviar) in raid-0 + 1TB (WD caviar black), I replaced the raid array with a 750GB (WD caviar black) [Yes I removed the array from the raid configurations]
- 750W Power supply
- No overcloking. Ever.
- There have been some power-downs like 4-5 weeks ago, but the problem didn't start immediately after. (I wasn't home, so my computer got shut-down)
My current to-try list
- Change the thermal paste on my CPU.
- Change my graphic card with a temporary one and stress the computer.
- Change my power supply.
In this situation, how can I successfully pin-point the current hardware problem? (If it's a hardware problem) Because I don't really have the budget to just forget and replace everything. I also don't really have hardware to test-replace current hardware.
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