Computer started freezes constantly today

[halfawake454]

Specs:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz OC @ 2.9
4GB RAM
Geforce 8800gt
Seagate 1TB HD
another 120GB HD
Windows XP Professional SP3
PSU= Antec truepower 2.0 480w

I built this system through time, i've just upgraded, so most things have changed through time. Its been like this since the end of 2008. It's been fine since then. Every now and then it would freeze completely, like everything locks up and the sound loops, only way to restore is to restart. However, this only happened like 1 time a month. Today, I have gotten it like 8 times. I thought it only happened when I was playing games (TF2, empire total war mainly), but a little bit ago it happened when I was watching a video online.

What do you think the problem is? I've tried to keep this hard drive clean and free of everything except things directly related to games I play. I have rivatuner always running in the taskbar and I have it controlling my 8800gt's fan speed base on temperature, so when I'm gaming it'll eventually get up to 100% fan speed and I've monitored it and its certainly not overheating.

I guess the CPU could be overheating right? The thing is I'm not sure what I can use to truly test to see if that is the problem. Other than checking that what else could it be? Again, it has done this very rarely in the past, but all of a sudden today and constantly been doing it.

Sorry if this is in the wrong section. I didn't really know of a forum, but I remember seeing hardware tests by tom's hardware in the past so just quickly found this site in google.

 

[hunter315]

What did you upgrade? Use HWmonitor to monitor your CPU temp, run Prime95 on all 4 cores, that is as stressful for your CPU as it can get, post the load temperature here. Also consider running memtest to make sure your ram is generating errors, run it for atleast 5 passes to be sure it doesnt start throwing errors after a few runs.

 

[halfawake454]

thnx for the quick speedy reply. I'll try those things.

My computer before this was... O yeah, my motherboard now is an MSI P45 Neo3-FR

ABIT AN8 Fata1ity mobo -------- Replaced by: MSI P45 Neo3-FR
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ ------- Replaced by: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
2GB RAM DDR2 184 Pin (now I have 240, so yeah, it's different memory sticks) ------- Replaced by: 2x1GB Corsair DDR2 memory sticks and 2x1GB GSkill DDR2 memory sticks.
120 GB hd

So Everything except the 8800GT, the PSU, and the first hd I had were changed.

 

[hunter315]

Okay, make sure the ram timings and voltages are set properly in bios, you have to set them for the worst timings between the two sets unfortunately.

 

[swifty_morgan]

Try nvidias 181.22 drivers and stay away from the Windows7 capable stuff for now.

 

[daship]

Did you reinstall after changing motherboards? If not start there.

 

[halfawake454]

I actually got the 1 TB hard drive (the windows install I'm using now) after I already had the other components in. I'm curious what could cause my computer to suddenly start freezing from changing NOTHING. I didn't download anything, didn't change a thing, just woke up today and has been freezing constantly.

 

[halfawake454]

Okay I tested prime95 to see what my cpu temps got to. The hottest any of the cores got was the first one and it peaked out at 56 C. Is that good, bad?

 

[hunter315]

Thats pretty good. have you set your ram timings manually and run memtest yet?

 

[halfawake454]

I'm just about to go run memtest as i write this.

 

[halfawake454]

I've never used memtest before and I'm confused on how I know a pass has been completed. Is that the part that says "Test #x" I'm on Test #5, is that what you are referring to when you say passes or something else?

Anyway, 14 minutes and no errors yet.

 

[halfawake454]

nvm i figured it out, but I only made it into the 4th pass. I let it run while I was sleeping. Just checked it, frozen, again. However, it's 30% through pass 4 and there haven't been any errors.

EDIT: I guess it wasn't frozen completely as I was able to access the menus, but the timer and everything else wasn't changing....