[Ectech]

The results seem to point to a hardware issue.

Check to make sure the BIOS has up-to-date firmware.

Otherwise, I'd say it could be a motherboard issue.

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Aw man.. I suppose it could be the mobo, hardrive, processor, or even video card? Wow, any suggestions for narrowing down the marvelous piece of faulty hardware? I originally bought my Processor from Frys about 2 years ago and didnt realize the dam thing had been used until i got home and found traces of thermal paste on the processor. I paid full price for a used processor but when contacting the store about it they told me it was just a return an they ''test'' the processors out before putting them back on the shelf. Personally i thought it was BS how they would charge the SAME price for a RETURNED processor as opposed to a brand NEW one that has never been opened. I duno go figure. In any case i made the decision to keep the used processor since it still had the same warranty as the new one but now i'm wondering if that decision has come back to haunt me

Edited by l0stb0y760, 14 June 2009 - 01:25 PM.

[l0stb0y760]

Aw man.. I suppose it could be the mobo, hardrive, processor, or even video card? Wow, any suggestions for narrowing down the marvelous piece of faulty hardware? I originally bought my Processor from Frys about 2 years ago and didnt realize the dam thing had been used until i got home and found traces of thermal paste on the processor. I paid full price for a used processor but when contacting the store about it they told me it was just a return an they ''test'' the processors out before putting them back on the shelf. Personally i thought it was BS how they would charge the SAME price for a RETURNED processor as opposed to a brand NEW one that has never been opened. I duno go figure. In any case i made the decision to keep the used processor since it still had the same warranty as the new one but now i'm wondering if that decision has come back to haunt me

Edited by l0stb0y760, 14 June 2009 - 01:25 PM.

[rshaffer61]

Did the stress.txt show the exact faulting hardware?

Edited by rshaffer61, 14 June 2009 - 01:28 PM.

[l0stb0y760]

This is the first time i've used prime95. Where can i find the .txt log?

[Ectech]

As the topic says "intermittent" that would most likely point to something such as a video card/memory/ or cabling.

Have you removed any components recently?

Although very much possible, I doubt it would be the processor. My reasons for that would be simply it worked for 2 years with no hiccups. Unless the machine was disassembled and put back together (which could have bent one of the pins on the processor) it should work just fine. You should give that a peak.

Edited by Ectech, 14 June 2009 - 01:36 PM.

[rshaffer61]

Do a search for stress.txt
Most likely it will be on the root of the main drive or in the program directory where the test was originated from.

[l0stb0y760]

No sir, no recent Hardware changes. Hmm.. I think i may just upgrade the Video Card. I been wanting to upgrade anyway. My Memory checked out okay according to Memtest. How bout the HD though? Perhaps I should run a stress utility specifically on my HD.

In fact I think im gonna arrange the T/S process like this:

-stress test my HD
-Pop open the case again, check inside cables, and gets some compressed air in there to blow everything out

if problem still persists, ill buy a new Video card, assuming my HD checked out okay of course. I'll also check into flashing the BIOS again (which was already done about a year ago)

What do you guys think?

[l0stb0y760]

rshaffer61,

the only thing I could find is a stress.txt file that came with the zipped file when I downloaded Prime95 and all it contains is basically directions for the application.

[l0stb0y760]

Any good HDD testing utilities you guys can recommend me?

[l0stb0y760]

O and also (To Ectech) my processor doesnt have pins, has pads. So i should be okay there.

[l0stb0y760]

Wait im sorry guys, Edge2022 already suggested i run an HDD testing Utility:

http://support.wdc.c...oad.asp?lang=en

and which i did and everything seemed to test okay. So i think we can rule out my HD unless you guys think i should run another HDD testing utility? Also, before buying a new graphics card I suppose I could run my onboard video for a week or so and see if the problem goes away..hmm

Edited by l0stb0y760, 14 June 2009 - 02:00 PM.

[edge2022]

Yes... try using your onboard video on your motherboard to make sure that the video card is the issue.
This can be:
HDD (But the diagnostic passed, so it looks ok)
Processor (unlikely)
Video Card
Cabling
Memory

Test your memory using Memtest. Click on Memtest Instructions in my sig, and follow the directions. Run memtest for 7 passes on each stick of RAM.

Run Prime95 again, and wait till you get a fatal error. Then search for the stress.txt file, which can give some clues as to what hardware is to blame.

[l0stb0y760]

I couldn't figure out how to get my on board video to work so I finally had to just extract my video card and then reboot. Now I've been using my on board for about a day now with no hiccups. Although I did experience something strange. I tried Running Day Of Defeat and it ran poorly and actually crashed my PC causing it to automatically reboot. Upon the reboot it hung again? I dunno if this rules out my Video card as being the faulty hardware or was this instance of the problem specifically related to me trying to run Day Of Defeat with my on board video? Additionally, I ran Prime95 all night since extracting my video card and now it doesn't report any errors and last time I ran it with my video card installed it reported some errors with in about 10 min on two different tests. So is it my video card or another piece of hardware that's faulty? I duno whats going on here,*sigh

[123Runner]

I don't do a lot of gaming, but I suspect that the crash while playing Day of defeat is because the onboard video is not up to par for the game requirements. Most main board video is not enough for gaming.
Based on all your tests, I am leaning towards the video card.

[l0stb0y760]

Yea im thinking its my video card too but the problem happened again while using my onboard video. Question is was this just a coincidence caused by the crash while trying to play DOD with my onboard video? Or is there a different piece of hardware thats faulty? I suppose the only way to find out is to just be patient and continue to run the onboard video for a while and dont play DOD. *Gotta love intermittent issues, ugh!