[nate0rz]

Hello. Normally, I wouldn't seek help on a forum, but I just recently had a hard drive die and had to pay someone to come recover the data I needed off of it (such as my college papers and what not).

My first problem is that I could be doing pretty much anything on my PC, and it will randomly freeze. By randomly, I mean that I've had experiences where it's gone a week without freezing, frozen once about every 4-6 hours, or frozen twice in about 30 minutes.

My second problem is that ever since this freezing started to occur, my start up has slowed down dramatically. It's not the entire start up that slows though, it just sits on my MSI screen (since I have an MSI motherboard, I think) for about 3-4 minutes each time it restarts/starts up. Shut down time is normal.

So this is the story to clarify a few things for the questions you may have. I used to run a Maxtor HD, which died around the time Gears of War was released, which I believe was somewhere around November 17th of 2006. I never had any problems with that drive...EVER. I pretty much had my life on that computer, so I had someone come out to do data recovery on it for me. The only things I needed recovered were the "My Documents" folder and a small portion of the "Programs" folder. So, he took those and put them on a placeholder drive, and then transferred them to the new HD. The HD I replaced the Maxtor with is a Seagate. For about the first 5 weeks, by PC worked fine. A few days before Christmas, I started having the freezing problem. After the first freeze is when I experienced the slow start up. I'm aware that sometimes large sized data recovery and transfer can cause problems, but I really have no clue what's causing it.

Since I'm going to be working with doing digital art this quarter in school, I REALLY can't afford to freeze in the middle of a 6-8 hour project.

Also, I do have Everest Home Edition, SpeedFan, Sensors View Pro, Ad-Aware, Windows Defender, and AVG on my PC. I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with a virus or something along those lines, since I don't do any random downloading of anything. My guess is that something is wrong with the PC itself.

If you need an Everest report or something along those lines, help me out a little bit by letting me know how to do it. I only got them because people suggested them in other posts and I figured I'd get a head start on possibly resolving the issue.

Any and all help appreciated. ;]

P.S. I think my BIOS might be outdated, but like I said, I NEVER had any problems before. If you'd like me to update the BIOS, I'll see what I can find about how to do so.

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Ive personally had a problem of my computer restarting on me lately, so ill run you through what I did to check for problems.

1) windowsupdate.microsoft.com - Updating Windows seems to solve alot of problems on the computer. Try using "custom installation" instead of "express installation" and get all the optional updates as well.

2) How hot is the computer running? If, at idle, it is running above 35C-40C, you know you probably have overheating problems. The temperatures should never go above 60C.

3) Did you change anything on the computer before the first lockup? Installing drivers, applications, anything, could cause the problem. Try using system restore to back up to that point.

4) Is your ram bad? (this was the problem with my computer) Try getting a program to test your ram. I cant suggest a program but im sure one of the techies could

5) Until you get this fixed, id recommend saving every couple of minutes if your doing something important.


Ill do some research and try and come up with some more info a little later. For now, off to work!

[DeadEye]

Ive personally had a problem of my computer restarting on me lately, so ill run you through what I did to check for problems.

1) windowsupdate.microsoft.com - Updating Windows seems to solve alot of problems on the computer. Try using "custom installation" instead of "express installation" and get all the optional updates as well.

2) How hot is the computer running? If, at idle, it is running above 35C-40C, you know you probably have overheating problems. The temperatures should never go above 60C.

3) Did you change anything on the computer before the first lockup? Installing drivers, applications, anything, could cause the problem. Try using system restore to back up to that point.

4) Is your ram bad? (this was the problem with my computer) Try getting a program to test your ram. I cant suggest a program but im sure one of the techies could

5) Until you get this fixed, id recommend saving every couple of minutes if your doing something important.


Ill do some research and try and come up with some more info a little later. For now, off to work!

[AnthonyJ]

open speed fan and see what it says 12v and 5v is, sound like psu might be dieing

[nate0rz]

Ive personally had a problem of my computer restarting on me lately, so ill run you through what I did to check for problems.

1) windowsupdate.microsoft.com - Updating Windows seems to solve alot of problems on the computer. Try using "custom installation" instead of "express installation" and get all the optional updates as well.

2) How hot is the computer running? If, at idle, it is running above 35C-40C, you know you probably have overheating problems. The temperatures should never go above 60C.

3) Did you change anything on the computer before the first lockup? Installing drivers, applications, anything, could cause the problem. Try using system restore to back up to that point.

4) Is your ram bad? (this was the problem with my computer) Try getting a program to test your ram. I cant suggest a program but im sure one of the techies could

5) Until you get this fixed, id recommend saving every couple of minutes if your doing something important.


Ill do some research and try and come up with some more info a little later. For now, off to work!

1) Checked...everything appears to be up to date.

2) System Temp says 35C, CPU Temp says 43C. When I was running World of Warcraft + Ventrilo + AIM, CPU Temp was at 53C, and SpeedFan had the little flame icon next to it. I'll look into that, b/c I'm pretty sure that means it's too hot. ;p

3) I haven't changed anything. I rarely do, actually. I guess I'm boring like that.

4) Although I haven't tested it, my RAM is pretty new...definitely within the past year.

5) Yeah, I'm pretty good about it anyway. There's just those times when you get on a roll and something happens to go wrong.

Appreciate the help so far.

[nate0rz]

open speed fan and see what it says 12v and 5v is, sound like psu might be dieing

+12V: 12.04V
+5V: 5.19V

[AnthonyJ]

power looks fine, but your temp at 53 isnt that great, does it freeze anytime, or just playn games?

[nate0rz]

power looks fine, but your temp at 53 isnt that great, does it freeze anytime, or just playn games?

I've come home from class to find it frozen on my standard windows 3D text screensaver one time. I'm almost always playing World of Warcrack though, so it's kind of hard for it to NOT freeze up while I'm gaming.

So I guess to answer your question, it freezes when, I guess, my Graphics card is involved. I let it idle for a bit to get the temp for the other guy, and after I started up WoW again, my CPU temp went from 43C - 53C in a matter of 13 minutes. System temp has fluctuated around a tad, in the 34-37 range, but it seems a lot more stable. It seems like overheating may be the issue, which I suppose would make sense. I have 4 cats and I leave my case open under my desk to keep it from getting too hot inside. I thought I cleaned it well enough, but I guess I'll really get in there and see what happens.

Edited by nate0rz, 03 January 2007 - 10:14 PM.

[DeadEye]

Sorry for the slow reply, havnt been here much the past couple of days.

I bought my computer in June and I had bad RAM, so I would check it just in case.

[nate0rz]

After cleaning it out and double checking all the connections, it seems to be working fine. Thanks for the help!

[DeadEye]

Awesome, and dont be shy too come back if the problem continues or a new one arises