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Computer Randomly Freezes (Hardware Suspect)

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  • Computers
  • Hardware Problem
  • Systems
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August 9, 2014 9:53:40 AM

O, wise and great masters of the computing world, I pose to thee a conundrum! I have recently been experiencing random screen freezes and occasional blue screens of death. I have thus far been unable to determine the source of the problem. My symptoms, key software, and hardware are listed below.

(I also posted this at Bleeping Computer, but I am all about getting as many opinions as possible. Your help is appreciated whatever the case may be.)

Symptoms
-Computer freezes at seemingly random points in time; software halts, keyboard and mouse both unresponsive to any input. The computer may run for several days or several hours before crashing.
-It does not seem to matter when I am running high performance games, just browsing the internet, or doing very little at all. The computer can be sitting essentially idle (i.e. no major programs running, just background processes), and it will lock up and require a hard reset (i.e. the computer must be turned off and then back on).
-Occasionally I will receive a blue screen of death. It is only on the screen long enough for me to see that a memory dump is taking place.
-Regardless of the type of crash, upon restart, Windows 7 will tell me that it has recovered from a critical error and is searching for a solution to the problem. This window will remain open practically indefinitely as Windows searches, apparently in vain, for the source of the issue. I have actually let this process run for several hours and it is continuing to search.
-Gaming (and therefore increasing system resource use) does not seem to increase the likelihood of a crash. I can sometimes game for 4-6 hours if I have the time with no problems whatsoever. Other times, the system might crash 20 minutes after starting a game. The only games I currently run are Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2, Neverwinter, and The Elder Scrolls Online. I generally run these games on medium to ultra high settings depending on the games (the older games handle ultra high settings at satisfactory framerates of no less than 30 fps).
-Streaming media via Netflix, HBOGO, or YouTube likewise does not seem to increase the likelihood of a crash.
-I leave my computer on the majority of the time (often idle, but I leave certain applications like Teamspeak3 open so my gaming contacts can leave me messages). When the problem first became frequent enough to notice, I might wake up about 25% of the time to find my computer had crashed overnight. This seems to have increased over time to about 50% of the time.

Operating System
-Windows 7 Premium 64 bit

Hardware
-Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield Quad-Core 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor B880562Q6600
-ASUS MAXIMUS FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard
-Crucial 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT25664AA1067
-XFX HD-677X-ZNFC Radeon HD 6770 1GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
-OCZ Solid 3 SLD3-25SAT3-60G 2.5" 60GB SATA III MLC (primarily used as a boot drive for Windows 7 and small applications, currently 10GB free space)
-Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 6Y160P0 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA133 / ATA-7 3.5" Hard Drive Bare Drive (most games installed to this drive; I store media on an external drive)
(I didn't buy all of this at Newegg, but I find the specifications listed on their site handy for reference, so I linked to them.)

Anti-Malware Software
-WinPatrol (no unexpected software has been running)
-AVG Free Edition 2014
(Yes, I realize this is not a superb set of malware prevention software, but I am a long-time computer user. I am particularly diligent about what I download, and where I get it from.)

What I have done so far
-I have tested my memory sticks individually with Memtest86. I let it run overnight. While I found errors on two of the sticks, there were very few (around a dozen); it is my understanding that this is not incredibly unusual. Furthermore, the random freezes/crashes occur even if I remove the two sticks with errors and run on only 4 GB.
-I have run Intel Diagnostic Tool 64bit. This is freely available from their website. This diagnostic says my CPU is free of errors.

Obviously, many of the components in my system are fairly old in terms of technology, I believe the oldest parts are 6-7 years old (not counting the HDD which is over 10 years old and has been used in several systems for various purposes over the years). I acquired the mobo & CPU in May 2012 second-hand from my brother who I know takes meticulous care of his PC. I purchased the GPU in December 2012 and recently upgraded the memory from 3GB to 8GB. According to CPUID HWMonitor, the system can get fairly hot. The CPU cores reach a maximum of around 95 C when running 3D games, but idle temperatures reach a maximum of about 70 C. The housing case dates back to 2001 and doesn't have optimal ventilation.

That is my problem, in as detailed of a way as I can describe it. I welcome any feedback and recommendations on the matter. If I have failed to provide sufficient details in one area or another, please let me know what is needed, and I will do my best to provide what is needed.

More about : computer randomly freezes hardware suspect

August 9, 2014 9:58:41 AM

may help vacuum inside the case.:) 
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August 9, 2014 10:02:10 AM

kapitalistas said:
may help vacuum inside the case.:) 


Thank you for the suggestion, but I do blow out the case at least once a month. So I doubt this is the problem.
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August 9, 2014 10:10:43 AM

I suggests you backup all your data ASAP. because this issue is either your OS is corrupted or you need a new harddrive
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Best solution

August 9, 2014 10:26:29 AM

airwalkrr said:
According to CPUID HWMonitor, the system can get fairly hot. The CPU cores reach a maximum of around 95 C when running 3D games, but idle temperatures reach a maximum of about 70 C.


that is the problem..that's not fairly hot..that is too hot..

there's no way Q6600 run at 70'c at idle...
and 95'c while stressing..dude, it's almost the temperature of boiling water..:no: 

Check your cooler, is your fan spinning..?
then re seat your cooler, don't forget to apply thermalpaste..

or, it will be better, get the 3rd party cooler, something like coolermaster 212 evo or enermax cooler or something else..
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August 9, 2014 1:20:21 PM

kapitalistas said:
i see the problem. if your have this in your pc then is no good:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... the motherboard not supporting it.
Would you mind giving me a source for that? Crucial's website and Newegg's memory matching both said they should be compatible when I bought it. I also asked on Tom's Hardware and was told by the experts there that they are compatible. And the crashes are a fairly recent problem. Although I purchased the memory this year (~April 2014), I ran the memory on this motherboard for months without any issues.

friedricezilla said:
I suggests you backup all your data ASAP. because this issue is either your OS is corrupted or you need a new harddrive
I have multiply redundant back-ups performed daily so I am not worried. Either way, this system is almost entirely for playing streaming media, remote media, and gaming. It is possible my OS might be corrupted, and I will probably wipe the SSD and do a reinstall soon anyway. My SSD, as I said is basically just for running my OS, and it is still under warranty so if it is faulty, no biggie. But this really seems like a hardware issue to me based on the symptoms.

Quaddro said:
airwalkrr said:
According to CPUID HWMonitor, the system can get fairly hot. The CPU cores reach a maximum of around 95 C when running 3D games, but idle temperatures reach a maximum of about 70 C.


that is the problem..that's not fairly hot..that is too hot..

there's no way Q6600 run at 70'c at idle...
and 95'c while stressing..dude, it's almost the temperature of boiling water..:no: 

Check your cooler, is your fan spinning..?
then re seat your cooler, don't forget to apply thermalpaste..

or, it will be better, get the 3rd party cooler, something like coolermaster 212 evo or enermax cooler or something else..

Fan spinning, check. But a coolermaster would be a good idea.

You know I had a feeling it might be something like that. And now that I think about it, my computer did not always run so hotly; When I first got it, I think it peaked at 60-65 C. I have just had it for so many years that I guess the change was so incremental that I did not notice. I am going to make sure the heat sink is cleaned, apply fresh thermal paste, and see if that improves things. I believe I have probably had the same paste on this system since 2008ish. It's due for a refreshing. Thanks for the advice. Sometimes it is so easy to forget the little things. I will try this and see if there is a change.

In the meantime any other suggestions are welcome. Thank you everyone for all your replies so far!
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August 9, 2014 4:01:35 PM

airwalkrr said:
I believe I have probably had the same paste on this system since 2008ish.


that's 6 years ago........
well, for best performance, you have to reapplying your thermal paste every 6 months, or at least once a year for very high quality thermal paste..
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August 11, 2014 6:03:07 AM

Quaddro said:
airwalkrr said:
I believe I have probably had the same paste on this system since 2008ish.


that's 6 years ago........
well, for best performance, you have to reapplying your thermal paste every 6 months, or at least once a year for very high quality thermal paste..
You are completely right. In the past I used to do it, but with this system, well, the heat sink is a bitch to remove (FYI, it's a GeminII with dual fans, which, ironically, I actually think is better than the 212 EVO you recommended, I just couldn't remember the name of it at the time). But I suppose having an expensive heat sink in your system doesn't help a lot when the heat sink isn't making good contact with the CPU. Duh... I feel kinda silly.

Anyway, your solution seems to be right on the money. I rolled up my sleeves and did the dirty work. I removed the heat sink and cleaned the only thermal paste off. It was agonizing. Over the years the paste had nearly solidified. The whole problem made perfect sense once I got a look at it. But I got out my isopropanol and Q-tips and got to work. It took me 5 episodes of Futurama to clean it all off. That's how bad it was. So, to summarize, lesson learned. I will remember to re-apply thermal paste at least once a year from now on.

I made some other improvements. I realized I had a spare tower that, in retrospect, would have been a much better box to house this system. It is larger, allowing for more air flow (and making the heat sink easier to remove btw), and also has better ventilation on the sides and back. The unfortunate thing about this case is that it is really persnickety about slots for hard drives and disc drives, so I wasn't able to space them out as evenly as I would have liked. It also doesn't have front-side USB 2.0 ports, but I guess I can live with the six on the mobo in the back. But I did manage to minimize wire proximity to the heat sink and mobo in this tower better than I did with the previous tower because of the extra working room.

So truth time, I reconnected everything and turned it on. Worked like a charm on the first try, always a nice thing when putting a computer back together. I did some stress-testing yesterday and there hasn't been a crash yet. More importantly, the stressed core temp is way down. Sunday was a day off and I spent several hours playing Elder Scrolls Online. Core temperature typically varied between 63 C to 67 C with ESO running as I periodically checked, with max peaks for the cores at 73 C, 71 C, 69 C, and 69 C over the course of 24 hours. Idle temperatures reached a minimum of 50 C, 48 C, 45 C, and 45 C over the course of 24 hours (I didn't allow it to go into sleep mode). 50 C is about as hot as a Saudi Arabian summer (I've lived there), so I'm happy with that being a the highest minimum idling temp.

I will continue to monitor, but I am fairly certain this issue is resolved at this point. All because of a tiny bit of thermal paste. Thank you, Quaddro, for your simple, yet brilliantly insightful answer!
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