Help with freeze sometimes

[thaox155]

At random times, my computer will crash and the blue screen will pop up. Then reset. It gets very annoying. If you can give some advice. 90% of the time I will be gaming.


My system right now:

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 x2 6000+ 3.0Ghz
Motherboard: Abit KN9 Ultra
Grapic Card: BFG Nvidia 8600GTS OC
Powersuppply: OCZ 700W GameXstream
Hard Drive: WD 300GB 7200 RPM
CD Drive: Phillips DVD-RW
Case: Cooler Master Centurion 5

Another thing, I think my 2nd slot is broken. After using this for 2-3 years, my computer wouldn't turn on and took me a while to figure out that if there is a memory stick in it, then 99% of the time you will not hear the boot up beep. I then took the 2nd slot memory stick to the 3rd one.

 

[jack_attack]

Sounds like a RAM issue. Have you ran Memtest86 on your machine? What type of RAM are you using?

http://www.memtest86.com/

 

[MadAdmiral]

All slots aren't made equal. Check your motherboard's documentation to see if you need to put them in specific slots.

Have you run MemTest86+? A lot of crashes are caused by RAM issues. Run MemTest86+ overnight to eliminate or confirm this.

My second idea is that you might have an overheating CPU. Download and run Prime95 and Real Temp to find out what the temperature at load.

 

[thaox155]

oh yeah forgot to add the ram spec. 2x1GB OCZ Reaper DDR2 PC2-6400 800 MHz.
doing that now and will update. thanks for the info.

 

[thaox155]

you have to pay for http://www.memtest86.com/ ?

 

[MadAdmiral]

I don't believe you do. Check Step 10 of the "Step-by-Step Guide to Building a PC" sticky for a link.

 

[thaox155]

my temp says 64-65 C low to 69 C high load 100%

 

[MadAdmiral]

Those are a little high, but not high enough to cause a crash...

 

[thaox155]

i see. then i guess i should do the memtest86? still a little lost on how to do it..

 

[MadAdmiral]

Go to http://www.memtest.org/ . Download the "Pre-Compiled Bootabel ISO". Burn it to a CD. Then restart the computer. Enter BIOS, and change the boot order to boot from the CD drive first. Then restart and let it work.

 

[thaox155]

and its at 53 C without prime95 running

 

[jack_attack]

I don't think you have a temp issue. It's high, but shouldn't be cause a BSOD. Perhaps some throttling, but I wouldn't guess BSOD. Memtest is free, and I'd bet you got a bad slot or stick in there.

 

[thaox155]

well i did that but it didnt read the cd. yes i did the bot order etc.
was it suppose to extract the Pre-Compiled Bootabel ISO. then burn it?

 

[jack_attack]

Yes. It needs to be a straight .iso, not an archive.

 

[thaox155]

damn. thats what i thought. i guess i'll have to do it tmrw. used the last cd and it wasnt cd-rw. how long is the test usually?

 

[jack_attack]

It's all up to you, but I usually let it run overnight.

 

[thaox155]

yeah i did this for almost an hour and did 2 pass with 0 errors.

 

[mfb236]

Its better to let it run longer than an hour. Usually that isn't enough time for thorough testing.

 

[thaox155]

okay. will do it overnight and will let you guys know