My computer keeps freezing!

[GildeD]

Hey guys,

I noticed you helped some other people with problems like this, so I'm hoping you can help me.

My computer freezes about 10-30 minutes into a video game. I usually runs fine any other time, but if I start up a game I know that soon I will be rebooting.

When I say freeze I mean the entire thing locks up. The picture stops changing. Whatever sound may have been playing just keeps playing in a like 1 second loop. No keyboard or mouse input seems to work. Only rebooting fixes it. And once I reboot everything is fine again as long as I don't play a game.

It has also happened before when I was watching youTube, but it is not nearly as predictable.

I was thinking maybe it's my video card, since it only happens in games... but I don't know?

Can you help me?

[Jamie Nixx]

What rig are you running mate?

[GildeD]

AMD Athlon 64 3400+ 2.41 GHz
1 GB RAM
Creative SB Live!
ATI Radeon x700
Asus K8NE-Deluxe
2 250GB Western Digital Hard Drives

And Here's the thing I've had this rig for a long time now. This problem is new. No hardware has changed.

I've already tried updating all the drivers hoping it was that.

[GildeD]

Things it's frozen on.

Freezes very quickly (2-15 minutes)
----------------
Everquest II
EVE Online
Day of Defeat (HL2)

Takes a long time to freeze (usually at least 30 minutes)
-------------
World of Warcraft (for a while I thought WoW was the only one it didn't freeze on)

Non-games
-----------
Sometimes on youTube (not often)
Once when Dreamweaver was downloading a lot of files (This is the one which is not video related, making me doubt the video card idea)

[GildeD]

Right now I'm installing a single player game because I want to see if it freezes on a non-internet program

[Jamie Nixx]

Its a strange problem since 1) it has only started doing it and 2) it only happens in games and sometimes on the net.

It could be an overheating GPU, but they have a very high threshold so i doubt it, it could be a faullt though.

Or it could be an overheating CPU or PSU.

Install the game, play through it and if/when it crashes post back here and i can get some more ideas going.

Its difficult to diagnose a problem like this without inspecting your rig for signs of faults.

[GildeD]

You can add Dungeon Seige II to the games it freezes on. Took about 15-20 minutes to freeze. So it does it on single player games too.

What should I do now to figure out what the problem is?

[The Wise Monkey]

How long have you had your card? My old card went westwards and started blue screening and freezing after about 5 years, so it may be that.

Also, try monitoring the temperature of your card using ATITool - free program from ATI.

[Jamie Nixx]

Most definately a GPU problem imo, when GPU's start going home they don't often go straight away, they will freeze or reboot the system when under load....as WM said how long have you had the card?

[GildeD]

About three years I think... So... any recommendations for a new one =) hehe if you do recommend one include the price (that may be an issue right now)

[Jamie Nixx]

What form is your GPU.

Is it AGP, PCI, PCI expressx16, do you know?

[GildeD]

I believe it's PCI, but I'm not entirely sure. Hardware's not my strong point =)

[The Wise Monkey]

Your motherboard is AGP. :)

[Jamie Nixx]

If its AGP which it most defo is, you can pick up some very good cards still for quite cheap.

Check ebay as most online computer shops will charge you a fortune for old technology.

6600GT's are good enough to play most games on, or a 7600GT is very nice :)

[GildeD]

Yeah I'm sorry, you're right it's AGP =P

I'll take a look at ebay.

So are we pretty certain it's the GPU?

[Jamie Nixx]

You can never be sure mate, but you have to go through a process of elimination, taking the most likely problem and dealing with it, if it turns out not to be the GPU (which i strongly think it is) then we can move on to the next problem which could be CPU overheating ect.

Luckily because the rig you are running is quite old, the parts on ebay should be really cheap...

Tell you what before you do anything, download older drivers for your card, not the latest ones, un-install the new ones and install the old ones, its worth a shot as some new drivers do more harm than good.

[GildeD]

Ok... well I think we can cross GPU off the list. I put an old nvidia card I had lying around in there and got the same exact problem.

So.... CPU overheating? How do I check?

[Jamie Nixx]

Download (if you can) something called coretemp, very good for checking the temp of your CPU.

It could also be your power supply but one step at a time...

[GildeD]

I was actually coming here to update you =).

I downloaded a couple programs that told me how hot I was running.

Turns out my cpu was at about 60ish C just idling and went into the upper 70s when I got into a few minutes of a game.

I opened up the box and remounted the cpu cooler with some new thermal compound, after cleaning it all up.

Now it's running at 45ish C doing normal stuff and I just got done playing over an hour of Day of Defeat, so I think we hit the nail on the head this time.

Also, I just replaced the power supply last year and it's doing great so no problems there.

[GildeD]

Thanks again guys! Before I came here I was almost certain it must be the video card. And a little thermal compound was a hell of a lot cheaper than a whole new card.

You saved me a bunch of money and wasted time =).

[Jamie Nixx]

Thats running way too hot still, AMD 3400 should run idle at about 32to35 DegC.

I thought it might be the CPU after the GPU.

Glad its working, try to get those temps down with a new cooler though, Athlons usually run cool.

I recommend the arctic cooling freezer 64 pro, very cheap and one of the best.

[The Wise Monkey]

Arctic Cooling make very good CPU fans - just bought myself the Freezer 7 Pro.

Make sure that you clean the CPU very thoroughly when applying thermal compound. I use an old toothbrush and bus pass for scraping. :)

[Jamie Nixx]

I am going to lap my freezer 7 pro when it finally comes, should have been here today, bloody post :mad:

[The Wise Monkey]

Benefits of having a good local hardware store - £15 was very reasonable. :)