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Strange PC Probelm (freezing and stuttering)

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  • Motherboards
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June 2, 2010 4:17:17 PM

Hello all and thx in advance for any help!

Ok so here is the story:

My comp
E6600 @ 2.4
8800GTS 640mb
6 gigs ddr2 ram (2 1 gigs sticks @ 533mhz and 2 2 gig sticks at 800mhz)
650w psu
Windows 7 64bit home premium

My problem is that when my computer is under a load it experiences what i call "micro freezes" and very poor performance. For example, if i install a program it will periodically during the process freeze the computer. The window (and any other window open at the time) will turn white and display the "not responding" message. Other times during installation the mouse and any running process will freeze and not respond. If any sound is playing at the time of the freeze it will play the note it stopped on over and over and over until it recovers from the freeze (if it recovers. about 20% of the time when it happens it doesn't recover and i have to hold down the power button)

Now i called my computer's tech support and they suggested reinstalling the OS thinking it was a software issue, well i did this and it did not solve it, in fact it seems like the problem is a little bit worse since the reinstall. My temps for my cpu are idle ~44C and under load 60-65C. My GPU stays consistently in my tests in the 50-60C range idle or under load (note i didnt test this gaming).

During gaming it sometimes performs properly but that is rare, normally the FPS fluctuate wildly in games that arnt very graphically demanding. For example, if i am in guild wars in an instanced area with no movement or any other processes going on in the back ground my comp used to would sit at 60 fps consistently and not budge down. now it will vary wildly from the teens to 60 just sitting there not playing.

Oct 2009 my PSU quit and i had the warranty still in effect and had it replaced and at the same time i had my ram upgraded from 2 to 6 gigs (which explains the 4 sticks with 2 different speeds). My computer is as of now out of warranty so if i take it in i will have to drop some $$ into it.

I ran the prime95 test for 10-15 minutes last night testing the CPU and it came back with no errors (granted it didnt run for very long), but during the test the comp periodically had its micro freezes. I have not yet run memtest85 (i believe that is the name of the .iso that tests your ram)


My hypothesis is that either 1 of the sticks of ram that was installed when my psu was replaced is defective, 1 of my older sticks is defective, my cpu is starting to die, or my motherboard has a blown transistor or something.


Thank you for any help you can provide!


tl;dr: computer freezes under load, specs above.

More about : strange probelm freezing stuttering

a b V Motherboard
June 2, 2010 6:00:48 PM

Try the unit with only the new ram.
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a b V Motherboard
June 2, 2010 9:30:40 PM

You need to run memory even mixed modules at same clock and voltage.
Example 2x1 run at 800mhz 1.8v or 1066 @ 2.0v.
2x2 run at 800mhz 2.0v or 667 @ 1.8v
In order to run both sets at 800mhz you need to manually set voltage to 2.0v
Just to add to confusion
2x1 @800 run at 5-5-5-18
2x2 @800 run at 5-5-5-15
you must manually set timings to the slower 5-5-5-18 for stability.
hope this helps, cpu-z will tell you the clock/timings and voltage of the chips individually using spd table and selecting each chip. good luck
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June 19, 2010 9:03:21 PM

Well, if anyone was wondering, i took my comp in to the store cuse everything i ran said nothing was wrong. 139$ later it turns out that 2 things were wrong: 1 is that the bios has been messed up somehow from what they stated to be either dirty power or a power surge (which both happen with my crappy power provider...) and the 2 the copy of windows 7 placed on the computer was "screwed to hell" as they put it. Apparently the windows 7 disk i got from m$ was bad...
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