Crash on first hour, reset, then good.

[Mykl]

Hey,

I just got my new PC and have found that it runs perfectly for about an hour then freezes. When this happens I cant see the mouse and keyboard inputs dont do anything. No beeps or error messages either.

If I then hit the reset button on the case it boots up to a screen giving safe mode, normal mode etc options for windows. I go into normal mode and relaunch any programs I had running and it works perfectly from then till I shut down, usually several hours later.

This has happened regardless of what porgram(s) I have running, and always seems to be about an hour after first boot up. I get no blue screen or anything, just a freeze.

I contacted the guy I bought it from and he wants me to:
Change the BIOS to boot frist from the CD drive, (why?)
Run somthing called "riva tuner software" to check graphics temps and increase fan speed. (I was going to do this tonight but dont have the net at home and got a flat tire when going to get a usb thumb drive to put the software over, rather expensive lunch break that one)

Im not sure if it is a temp problem or not because after restarting it runs without problem (even running Fallout 3 with everything at Max) and I would have thought that if it is a temp issue it would keep freezing rather than just doing so once?

Anything else that I could try to fix this? (I usually fix things by giving them a good kick but I get the feeling that wont work)

My specs are:
1: Q9550 (2.83ghz)
2: MSI P7N2 Diamond with Nvidia 709 Ultra Sli motherboard
3: Gigabyte Nvidia 280 GTX 1G video card
4: 8GB (4x2) Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600MHz ram
5: 2x Segate 500 GB 32mb cache Hard drives
6: LG 20X DL DVD Dual Layer bruner
7:Antec 900 gaming case
8: Gigabyte Superb 720W Power Supply

Sorry for a long post but I figure it is best to try to be as accurate as I can be. If any more info is needed let me know.
Thanks in advance for anyhelp anyone can give.
Mykl

P.s. Its running vista 64 home premium and ive been told has all the latest drivers.

 

[btc2008]

I can only guess and agree with the guy that it may be an overheating issue. You have quite a set up, so it's no surprise that it may overheat. Do you have fans in your case? Turn those up to high or medium on boot and see if the extra airflow stops the tendency for it to freeze on boot up. If that doesn't help, then increase the fan speed on the GPU using the rivatuner thingy. I am concerned though about your PSU (I am not really certain of Gigabyte's reliability off hand), though this may be just nitpicking.

Now that I think about it, if the freezing only occurs an hour after first boot up, there may be a software issue that is causing the computer to freeze because it's trying to access some files or something that aren't there, and re-booting resolves this issue. If you can remember when your computer didn't do the freezing thing, then maybe you can do a restore to that point, and this may resolve the software mishaps.

 

[cjl]

When you get Rivatuner, also grab Real Temp (it'll let you know how hot your CPU is running). Once you get the temperatures of both of those, it'll be a lot easier to tell if heat is your problem.

 

[Mykl]

Thanks heaps for the ideas,

I will get that river tuner stuff sortad soon as I can and post the temp info.

Will also turn up the fans, they actually have little switches on them and Im not sure if they are set to high med or low cos there is no lables. I didnt want to go poking around inside while is runnig to see if they speed up or slow down when I change them. It does have 2x120mm fans at the front, a 200mm on top at the back, and another one shooting out the back but i dont know its size off the top of my head.

As to the possible software issue, I have only had the comp for 3 days and it was doing this from the first boot, so I dont imagine there is a restore point to get back to. Please let me know if this is incorrect.

Thanks again.
Mykl.

 

[cjl]

Oh, it's an Antec 900. It should have more than adequate airflow, even with the fans on low.