Odd temporary system freeze

byaw

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Jan 21, 2009
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Main parts of the system

CPU - Intel i7 920
Motherboard - Asus P6T Deluxe V2
Video Card - Evga GTX 285
Memory - CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Power Supply - CORSAIR 850TX 850W
Hard Drive - (2) WD Velocirapters RAID 0 , Samsung 640GB for storage, WD Caviar Black 640GB for storage
OS - Vista Ultimate 64 bit


I just completed a new build and everything is running perfect except for one odd issue.. This issue doesn't happen all the time and so far has only happened 4 times while I was on the computer. Ever so often while using the computer it will hang for 3-4 seconds and then resume back to normal. One thing that I do notice is that after the freeze is over I will hear one of my hard drives spin up.

Here are the occurrences that I do remember

First temp. freeze - playing game and after a mission was completed the system hung for 3-4 seconds
Second temp. freeze - watching a movie from my computer and it hung for 3-4 seconds randomly
third freeze - playing a game (older game that my old system played perfect) and the game hung for 3-4 seconds


Could this be one of my storage drives randomly seeking and so the system hangs while it spins up to speed and then resumes as normal? (if so, is there a way to disable the drive completely until I need to access it?) Or does the system briefly hang and so it all shuts down and those are really my main drives spinning back up to resume normal use?








 

caniba

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Sounds like something is overheating. install hwmonitor and turn it on the play a game for a few minutes it will show how the temps of the cpu and gpu and how hot they got.
 

byaw

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I don't think it's a heat related issue, as I did not notice this problem at stock speeds when I first put the system together.

Now i'm running at 3.8ghz with cpu temps only reaching 55*c and gpu temps reaching 48*c Also as I mentioned before the temp. freeze even happened while just watching a regular movie on my computer which wasn't stressing the system at all.
 

byaw

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Memtest shows 0 errors.

Is there a test for the PSU? It's extremely rare that I get this 3-4 second system hang up and as I mentioned before, when it happens I hear my hard drive spinning up loud upon resume from the system hang.
 

caniba

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The easiest way to test the psu is run the system with a different one that you know works. If the system doesn't freeze then you know it is ok. If the psu doesn't give consistent power then it can causes random freezes and a whole other host of weird *** until one day it fries your whole system. The psu you have is one of the best but even the best still are faulty every once in a while.

It is possible that it is a problem with the graphics drivers. You could try another version and see if that fixes your system.
 

byaw

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Haha yea I figured that would be the only way hehe. I'll have to check and see if I have a PSU that can run this system, pretty sure I might still have an old Antec PSU that's ~500 watts.
 

byaw

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I just noticed it two times while playing a game that really doesn't require a high end system (War 3 Dota).

The system hung for about 2 seconds then resumed normal play and then it hung again for 2 seconds after the game had ended as was going back to the main battle.net screen. It seems that the hang usually does occurs when games/missions are over and the game is changing windows.
 

byaw

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I did figure out the cause of the hang and it is one of my storage drives. I'm not sure why it causes the system to hang as the times it does hang I am not even using that drive. I will be playing a game off my main RAID 0 drives, watching a movie off another storage drive, etc.. and the system will do that strange 3-4 second hang every now and then. With the drive unplugged for the last few days I haven't had a single hang and the system performs flawlessly.


Is the system randomly trying to access that drive and when I'm playing a game off my main RAID 0 drives, watching a movie on another drive, etc.. the problematic drive is off and then has to spin back up to seek? I'm not sure if this is happening but I am trying to figure out how to fix the problem.