After sifting through dozens of threads here, I've come to a stand still. I've been working on computers almost 20 years, most of the time I usually hit the nail right on the head the first shot, but this one is particularly stubborn and now I'm too darn frustrated to think clearly.
A family member has a M2N SLI Deluxe custom built PC with 4gb ram and Windows 7 32bit ultimate installed. Within the last week, the machine started to randomly freeze in anything graphic intensive, games, browsers, etc. Backing up however, let me start with what the machine did initially. She was playing World of Warcraft, the screen hung, windows spit out your standard run of the mill display adapter has stopped working and recovered, and then it recovered. She started playing again and then her mouse and keyboard stopped working. The system then began completely locking up randomly ever since.
Here's what I've done thus far:
1. Memtest86+ overnight.
No errors reported.
2. PSU replacement.
Having accidentally purchased an additional PSU, I decided to upgrade her PSU from a 600W to a 700W from a more reliable brand. No issues to speak of.
3. System Restore.
No change.
4. General cleaning of CPU, Heatsink, fans and ram slots.
No change. Temperatures all within manufacturer parameters.
5. Driver updates.
Generally, I keep her machine up to date, so the driver updates were all current.
6. Chkdsk diagnostics.
Ran the application, found no errors.
I suspect that memtest86+ didn't however detect a bad stick of RAM in her machine, I systematically took out each stick, rebooted, and ran a graphics card stress test on the machine to try to force a crash and it kept crashing every 3 minutes. After rotating the sticks out I finally managed to determine which stick is possibly the issue. As of 45 minutes ago, the machine is holding steady with no crashing. Then again, I thought I had narrowed the search down last night and the machine crashed after an hour.
In the back of my mind however, I'm wondering if a recent Windows Update may not be part of this problem, she says she didn't update anything but then again her age is affecting her memory and I'm suspicious that maybe she did and either doesn't want to tell me, or clearly can't remember if she did or not.
Anything you guys can offer up that I haven't already tried short of buying a new motherboard?
A family member has a M2N SLI Deluxe custom built PC with 4gb ram and Windows 7 32bit ultimate installed. Within the last week, the machine started to randomly freeze in anything graphic intensive, games, browsers, etc. Backing up however, let me start with what the machine did initially. She was playing World of Warcraft, the screen hung, windows spit out your standard run of the mill display adapter has stopped working and recovered, and then it recovered. She started playing again and then her mouse and keyboard stopped working. The system then began completely locking up randomly ever since.
Here's what I've done thus far:
1. Memtest86+ overnight.
No errors reported.
2. PSU replacement.
Having accidentally purchased an additional PSU, I decided to upgrade her PSU from a 600W to a 700W from a more reliable brand. No issues to speak of.
3. System Restore.
No change.
4. General cleaning of CPU, Heatsink, fans and ram slots.
No change. Temperatures all within manufacturer parameters.
5. Driver updates.
Generally, I keep her machine up to date, so the driver updates were all current.
6. Chkdsk diagnostics.
Ran the application, found no errors.
I suspect that memtest86+ didn't however detect a bad stick of RAM in her machine, I systematically took out each stick, rebooted, and ran a graphics card stress test on the machine to try to force a crash and it kept crashing every 3 minutes. After rotating the sticks out I finally managed to determine which stick is possibly the issue. As of 45 minutes ago, the machine is holding steady with no crashing. Then again, I thought I had narrowed the search down last night and the machine crashed after an hour.
In the back of my mind however, I'm wondering if a recent Windows Update may not be part of this problem, she says she didn't update anything but then again her age is affecting her memory and I'm suspicious that maybe she did and either doesn't want to tell me, or clearly can't remember if she did or not.
Anything you guys can offer up that I haven't already tried short of buying a new motherboard?
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