While gaming PC froze, restart gives 4 short beeps repeatedly

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David92

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Jul 5, 2012
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Hello Everyone :)

I remember i had this problem since the day i bulit my PC back in 2012, and the first game that causes it to happen was Farcry 3 till then i didn't experience anymore problems with other games so i thought it was a problem that existed on the game itself. But i was wrong now it's 2014 and i am still getting it :( Yeah it looks like it's getting even worse :(

This always happens whenever i game for about 20 minutes or so, My PC will automatically be frozen and there will be a annoying static sound coming out from the speakers lasting for awhile, And i couldn't exit to desktop as my PC was frozen. The only way to exit it is to manually press the restart button so my PC will restart itself.....BUT!!

When it started to boot itself, there's no display and my motherboard is giving me 4 short beeps and once the beeps are over it loops repeating the whole 4 beeps again and again. The only way close it is to turn off my power socket. But turning on my PC again gives the same problem the 4 short beeps, But the good news is i found a way to fix it! The only way to fix it is that I have to wait for 10minutes or more before turning on my PC again and then it will successfully boot into Windows 7.

I have already searched the net for weeks now and all i found was system timer failure, possibly could be graphics card, RAM or motherboard is dying.
I read some similiar problem threads here, and i found out that there's a higher chance of either RAM or Asrock branded Motherboard is causing these issues.
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2156614/beeps-asrock-z77-extreme4.html

The things i have done are

Reseated everything, and unplugging all the cables and reinsert them back. Sadly the problem still exist for me :(
Reformat and reinstalling Windows 7 and still happens

It looks like the problem on exist when i was gaming, Tested idling for 10 hours no freezes or anything. it's all running well. It might happen only on graphics intensively games.

It happen on these games i have played in order

1. Farcry 3
2. Divinity Original Sin
3. Dead Island
4. Skyrim
5. Wasteland 2
6 Borderlands Pre Sequel

I'm currently using the latest AMD driver 14.9, I already tested using older drivers and it still happens :/ to me

My temperatures are always 65c during gaming never hits 70c unless it's summer in the afternoon

Here are my specs i didn't overclock any of my components they are all running at stock

CPU Intel i5 3470 3.20GHz
Graphics Card Sapphire HD 7850 2GB
RAM 2x 4GB RAM Dual Channel 1333 GSkill
Motherboard Asrock Z77 PRO3
HDD WD 1TB
PSU 650w Enermax
OS: Windows 7 64Bit Ultimate SP1

If anyone knows what is causing these issues? Please do let me know i will be waiting for your help :)

Thank you very much
 
Solution
smorizio
next time the 4 beeps happen power down and pull the gpu see if the mb posts with onboard video. depending on the beep code it could be a bad video or ram stick. if the pc with one ram stick and onboard vidfeo gives you the 4 beeps then start an rma on the mb first.
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Xtinction

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Mar 21, 2014
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Well, far cry 3 is absolutely notorious for stressing your hardware components to their limits, thus making a lot of machines crash. (Including mine, I had to run on stock for that game, but other games were fine with my overclock). To be honest, I think it is your videocard overheating/not receiving enough juice. My first test would be to underclock your videocard and see if the problem still occurs.
 
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smorizio

smorizio

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Jan 22, 2010
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what you written sounds like a heat issue. there a part that under load and heat is failing. it cools off and the system works fine under light load. on the gpu use msi afterburner and if it an overclocked card set it to default speed. also use the fan profile and set the gpu fan to max at 50c. see if running a game the fan maxes out and the system does not lock up. if it not the gpu then i would look at the power supply next. if you can see if a friend has a spare gpu you can try to see if the error follows the gpu or the power supply.
 
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David92

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Jul 5, 2012
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Alright I listened to your advice and i downloaded MSI Afterburner and i set a custom fan profile once the graphics card reaches 50c the fan will automatically cranked all the way up to 100%. And it's night time right now, and i just finished running a 3 hours tests on my system, I'm running Borderlands Pre Sequel as my benchmark since it's one of the game that does causes my PC to freeze as well.

Here's the good news! :D that i would like to share.

By using MSI AfterBurner with a custom fan profile turn on, I noticed there's a temperature drop on my GPU when it's on max load. It used to be 65c, and 70c if it's like in the afternoon without air conditioner turn on.

Now it's hovering above 50c, and i didn't experienced anymore freezing issues now! :) I haven't run any tests during the day to see if there's anymore freezing issues. but overheating might be the case as i built my PC way back in 2012 and i always couldn't find the time to clean it so i am sure my PC is collecting dust, and i almost forget to mention that i do not have any chassis fans beside of CPU and GPU fans, so yeah overheating might be the case as it's collecting dust and that means it will be getting hotter and hotter.

Without using MSI Afterburner and setting fan to automatic speed from CCC, I found out that during on max load my GPU fan speed doesn't reach all the way to 100% it only uses 35% to 40% no wonder it allowed my GPU to reach even higher temperatures

I heard people said it will reduce the lifespan of the GPU if i set the fan speed to 100%, i wonder if it's the truth?

Anyway, thank you very much :D for spotting the problem. I really appreciate it!

I will try to post results once i have finished running tests during the daytime, in the meantime what fans do you recommend me on getting ?
 
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David92

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Jul 5, 2012
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Hello Everyone :)

Here's an update on my situation i have some bad news to share :( Today I went ahead and booted up my PC and used it for couple of hours surfing web, gaming etc. After that it's time for me to meet with one of my friends for lunch, so i safely turn off my computer as i am not going to be using it for awhile and to save electricity.

Fast forward few hours later, I got back to my home and I tried to turn on my computer, And guess what? My PC ended up giving me the same 4 short beeps again :( no display or anything just only the beeps sound effect. I used to thought I have solved the problem thinking it was a overheating issue, but apparently it looks like it's not :(.

I waited 20 minutes and tried turning my PC on again ended up getting same results :( 4 beeps no display

Googling 4 beeps code ended up System Timer Failure, Could it be my battery inside my motherboard is dying? I can no longer boot up my computer and login Windows as it gives me 4 beeps and restart itself everytime I tried to turn on my PC.




 
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David92

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Jul 5, 2012
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Alright here's an another update on my situation! I left it overnight without even trying to turn it on again and guess what? I woke up and tried to turn on my computer again and it finally! turns on and is back working again :) Damn! I really have no idea what's going on :( it would be nice if someone could help me on pointing it out what's causing these problems.
 
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smorizio

smorizio

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Jan 22, 2010
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next time the 4 beeps happen power down and pull the gpu see if the mb posts with onboard video. depending on the beep code it could be a bad video or ram stick. if the pc with one ram stick and onboard vidfeo gives you the 4 beeps then start an rma on the mb first.
 
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Solution
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David92

Honorable
Jul 5, 2012
61
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10,630
Alright guys :) i have some good news to share. As expected it was the RAM sticks has died, Yup you heard it right i have 2x4GB GSkill 1333Mhz RAM sticks and both of them died since i already tested each one of them on different slots and my PC still refused to boot and gives me the same old 4 short beeps :( Now i am using a single 4GB RAM that i borrowed from my brother.

I have already expected it could be the RAM since i noticed symptoms of it dying like unusual usage of RAM everytime i booted up my PC it eats up my 2 to 3GB of RAM and i didn't have any programs running on startup, normally the usage of RAM is 1.6GB. and let's not forget to mention that everytime i played a game on fullscreen and when i quit the game and back to desktop i immediately saw my shortcuts icons was altered with a X cross replacing the curved arrow or sometimes the curved arrow is not there at all, but refreshing desktop seems to reset them back to normal.

Okay i guess i will be heading out tomorrow to buy a couple of RAM sticks back even though it's very expensive now =.=

Alright thank you everyone for trying to help me with these issues that i am having :D I really really appreciate it!
 
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