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Tom's Hardware > Forum > Systems > Homebuilt > Computer Freezing

Computer Freezing

Forum Systems : Homebuilt Computer Freezing

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EVGA 790i Ultra SLI
EVGA 9800GTX+
OCZ OCZ3N1800SR4GK
PC Power and Cooling 860 watt
WD Velociraptor 300GB
Q9300

Ever since I built my computer I have had the occasional freeze from time to time, and no matter what I do I can't figure it out. I have posted this same topic on the EVGA forums and on the Nvidia forums, maybe you guys can help me out.

Basically, my computer will freeze on random once or twice a day if I'm playing left 4 dead, warcraft 3, or call of duty 4. It'll freeze about once during a 20min video I'm streaming off of the internet (sometimes more during the episode, sometimes less) and finally it freezes A LOT if I try to work with photoshop. I have frozen once right after the BIOS posted, once after windows made it to the desktop and was loading my startup programs, and once in firefox loading an image from an email.

I have never frozen in any stress test program such as 20 passes in Intel Burn Test, OCCT, 12 hours of prime95, or 14 hours of memtest (I have ran these programs numerous of times, have never frozen) I've never frozen in more intense games such as Crysis, Crysis warhead, Unreal Tournament 3, and alittle less intense, Aion, and Team Fortress 2 (which uses the same source engine as Left 4 Dead)

I posted my BIOS template over at EVGA and tried every BIOS configuration there is. I'm an overclocker so the funny thing is I was able to get this "stable" at 1800FSB, no errors in the stress programs listed above. I also have water cooling so temperatures are not a problem. But for the sake of trying to figure this freezing problem out, I'm running at stock link/sync 1333.

What I have done so far to try and fix this:
Reformatted 3 times, twice with Windows Vista, Once to Windows 7.
RMA CPU
RMA Motherboard (3 times)
RMA video card (twice)
RMA Harddrive
Bought a new Harddrive
Tried a buddies power supply (same make and model)
RMA Ram
Bought new RAM
Tried one stick patriot 1333 ram
Tried ram in all slots
Tried BIOSes P06, P07, P08, P09
Unhooked everything but my core needs (vid card cpu psu 1 stick of ram and hd)
Tried stock cooling
Bought an UPS
Bought a new monitor
Tried different mice and keyboards
Added plastic washers to all of my screws
Replaced the SATA cable 3 times

That's all I can think of for now, I'm sure theres more. There has to be some kind of hint as to why it freezes a ton more in photoshop, than playing a game, and why it never freezes during more stressful games/programs.

Thank you for taking the time to read all of this, I really hope I can find the problem. I'd like to upgrade and keep this computer for along time, but from what I'm seeing after substituting everything on it, it's going to be impossible to fix. I've built plently of other computers so I don't know why this one is giving me trouble.

Reply to Jay789
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What cooling are you using for the northbridge?

Reply to hundredislandsboy

Stock fan, everest reports the SPP at 59c and MCP at 63c.

Reply to Jay789

Do the settings/timings in the Match your ram's settings and timings? Sometimes if you have 1.9V ram, the motherboard sets them at 1.6V.

Reply to masterasia

Yes I manually set them to 1.9v 8-8-8-27. Have tried 1.95v looser timings, and underclocked at 1066.

Reply to Jay789

How old is the processor? Did you OC previously (to what speed using how much vcore) and for how long a period?

Reply to hundredislandsboy

The processor is a month old since I RMA'd my old one. I haven't overclocked this one.

Reply to Jay789

Regarding the new CPU you received, was it OEM or in a sealed retail box?

Photoshop is a core and memory intensive app. Any slight hiccup could cause it to the system to lockup. But I don't understand. Can you exit the app under task manager when it freezes or do you get a complete lock and have to do warm boot?

Reply to hundredislandsboy

Sealed retail. My computer locks up completely and I have to hit the reset switch in the front. I was actually messing with the CPU voltage just now while it was still at the stock 1333. I put it up to 1.36 volts and then started messing around in photoshop and it was a good 10 minutes before it froze. While using the stock voltage I freeze within 30secs-1min. I'm using the magnetic cutout tool primarily to get it to freeze. Anyhow, I put it back to stock voltage and messed with the magnetic tool again and it instantly rebooted on me. First time I've had it instantly reboot instead of freezing.

Reply to Jay789

Back to basics. All the BIOS settings should be auto or deafult. I think it's your RAM that's the problem.

Try your RAM at 800 Mhz, 6-6-6-18.

Reply to hundredislandsboy

Find Mousemonkey and send him a PM. He's good with SLI. My SLI rig is on a 750i but it's completely stable, stock and overclock.

Reply to hundredislandsboy

I only have one video card. I also kinda doubt it's my ram considering I've bought new ram, and have tried some patriot 1333 ram. That's 3 different ram modules that's doing the same thing...

Reply to Jay789

The clue to the problem is photoshop and especially if you're working with a very large image file (5 to 10 mb) and multilayers.

Since your system passed the burn in tests, it might also be a software issue.
What is the OS? Is it original with all the service packs and browser updates?

Reply to hundredislandsboy
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1400-1800 range, first build, need feedback
By Hopz, 11 hours ago:

I would keep the 750W for future upgrades and possible SLI in the future. Will save you...

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