Please help! PC freezing for no apparant reason...

[PiENkiE]

When I play games (even games like Warcraft 3 which my system should handle with ease), I think ) my PC would just freeze for 10-15 sec or so, and then be fine for a while and then do this again. It's seriously frustrating, since I have no idea what the cause might be.

My specs:

AMD Athlon 64 3700+
Jetway GeForce 7600GT
1 gig cheap memory
500w PSU

BTW I thought my gfx card might be overheating or something, so I bought a Zalman VF900-cu gpu cooler as well as a Vantec VCool, and my gpu temperature idles at 37 degrees, so I'm running out of ideas...

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[PiENkiE]

Yip, my drivers are fine, Aopen PSU, so not best of brands. I was a bit of a noob when I built this pc, thought brands didn't matter. Idiot. *swears at himself*

 

[Fedor]

Has it always behaved this way, or is it something that started happening recently?

 

[PiENkiE]

I'm pretty sure it's been like this from the beginning. I'm also convinced it's heat related, because I live in South Africa, and it's seriously hot during the day at the moment, and the problem tends to lessen at night when it's cooler.

 

[Fedor]

You said your gfx card idles at 37, how hot does it get under load?

And what are your CPU temps like?

 

[PC_Side_Line]

YOU NEED TO CHANGE FROM DSL TO CABLE!!!

how many times i gotta tell ya bro?

DSL is intermittent!! and limited to 1/10 the spead of CABLE!

 

[Nossy]

You'll need watercooling! Anyway don't you guys have AC down in SA? Usually if it overheats it'll freeze and won't come back. If your graphics card overheat, you'll start seeing artifacts and glitches before it freezes out. Maybe you didn't apply enough thermal paste/grease to your HSF, if even? You might need to lap it.

 

[Fedor]

YOU NEED TO CHANGE FROM DSL TO CABLE!!!

how many times i gotta tell ya bro?

DSL is intermittent!! and limited to 1/10 the spead of CABLE!

I can't believe this guy hasn't been banned yet.

 

[PC_Side_Line]

Fedor, help the guy out with ideas!

Tell the author that he needs to shutdown all his background programs plus firewalls if any to maximize his online bandwidth.

Most players have antivirus or music programs running in the back which can constantly check for updates. This then cause huge slow downs.

Furthermore, use lower resolution settings for the desktop and the game.

1024x768 x 32 bit for both desktop and game is the best.

Fedor, prove that u have a brain?

 

[Fedor]

Fedor, help the guy out with ideas!

Tell the author that he needs to shutdown all his background programs plus firewalls if any to maximize his online bandwidth.

Most players have antivirus or music programs running in the back which can constantly check for updates. This then cause huge slow downs.

Furthermore, use lower resolution settings for the desktop and the game.

1024x768 x 32 bit for both desktop and game is the best.

Fedor, prove that u have a brain?

Wow the guy actually speaks! Mostly his posts are the same rubbish just copy-pasted.

As for ideas, I'm waiting for him to tell me the CPU temps. Giving uninformed irrelevant advice is what you do, remember?

 

[Lionhardt]

wow, that dude is retarded.

internet speed doesnt matter, i haev dial up, i dont get TOO many hang ups.

tsk tsk.

 

[stefx]

Don't pay attention to PC_side_line's posts. If you want an idea, search for his posts and you'll realize he has a pretty strange behavior. Check out his "egg before chicken" post in one thread, and another about "Sadam Hussein and computers" where he makes no sense at all.

He keeps posting that 1024x768 irrelevant advice (he has done so in 5+ posts). A ton of people have proved him wrong, but he never replies back.

 

[Fedor]

Unfortunately he has derailed this thread somewhat, so I'll repeat my question to the OP - what are your load GPU temps like, and what are your CPU idle/load temps?

 

[PiENkiE]

CPU temps average about 35 degrees. Not sure about GPU under load, will post a bit later as I can't test right now

 

[PiENkiE]

Also, can someone please help me out:
Can little power surges or something have this type of effect?

 

[AdamBomb42]

That sounds like a software issue to me. Scan for spyware and viruses.

 

[PiENkiE]

OK will do. Any recommendations for a good spyware remover? BTW I'm only using AVG free, is that sufficient?

 

[McPhisto]

AVG antispyware is pretty good and I often use it in combination with Adaware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
and
Spybot Search and Destroy
http://www.spybot.info/en/index.html

Sorts out most things for me

Hope they help, if not they're always handy to have

 

[AdamBomb42]

AVG antispyware is pretty good and I often use it in combination with Adaware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
and
Spybot Search and Destroy
http://www.spybot.info/en/index.html

Sorts out most things for me

Hope they help, if not they're always handy to have

I agree.

 

[PiENkiE]

Kewl, I'll give that a go and let you.

Thanks.

 

[zenmaster]

To me this sounds like some other process is kicking off that is interfering.

It could be AV scheduled scanning, download of signature updates, or any other process that is schedule to run on your PC.

I don't think it's a physical problem because if it was, it is very unlikely the PC would be able to resume. It would hang and stay hung.

Rather Windows is continuing to operate normally, with the exception it's probably doing stuff that its not supposed too.

(Yes, Spyware could be kicking off as well - its just that I've seen AV bring a moderate powered PC to it's knees while scanning.)

 

[PiENkiE]

No, I've already investigated this 8)

 

[farmkid]

Also, can someone please help me out:
Can little power surges or something have this type of effect?

Yes, it can. Some time ago I had a similar issue, where my computer would just freeze at random times. Sometimes it would come back and sometimes it wouldn't. I noticed that I would hear my hard drive spin back up when it came back. Replacing the hard drive fixed it until a later upgrade, when it started happening again. Eventually, I discovered that I could make it happen just by touching the power connector on the hard drive--yep, it was just a loose connection in the power connector. The drive would loose power briefly, and the computer would freeze while waiting for it to come back online.

Sorry for the long story, but the point is that you might want to carefully check all your power connections. If it is a power issue, you may be able to make it happen on demand by wiggling wires. You may also want to temporarily unplug whatever devices you can to reduce the load on the PSU. It may be that your PSU has a hard time keeping up with the demand and when everything gets hot and is working hard, it can't supply enough power and devices start stalling (like the hard drive).

 

[PiENkiE]

Awesome, I'll definitely look into this. 500w should be ok though?

 

[Fedor]

Unreputable power supply brands claim wattages that are peak output at cool temperatures. Once the PSU gets warm/hot, that falls, and that measurement is still over-rated since its only a peak output, rather than a continuous capability of supply.

What is your main HD, SATA or IDE? And where is it connected to, motherboard or addon card?

Edit - I just saw your updated signature, SATAII, where is connected to though?