Random Freezes and crashes, GTX 460 (fixed) heat problems now...

c0d3ster

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My problems began last night while playing bad company 2. The screen would lock up and freeze, while the sound would do a "crackly" loop. So I shut down the computer and restart it, and now I am getting stuck on my logon screen. The computer will restart fine in safe-mode, however locks up as soon as i type in my password when starting normally. I assume that there is some sort of service that is locking it up.
So right now, I have all services and startup items disabled and it starts fine.. I am going one by one through each service and re-enabling it to try to find the service causing problems..
I was wondering if any of you have experienced this before, and if so, what service was causing the issue?

Last night I was able to get back to my desktop twice without disabling any services. Everything appeared normal, however when I got back in the game, I'd be able to play for anywhere from 5-15 minutes, then I'd get the freeze and trouble logging back into windows after that.


System Specs:

ASUS P7P55D-E Pro - LGA 1156 - Intel P55 - DDR3 - USB 3.0 SATA 6Gb/s - ATX Motherboard
Bios Version: Factory (0806 I think?)

EVGA GeForce GTX460 768MB DDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card 768-P3-1360-TR
Running Driver: 260.99_desktop_win7_winvista_64bit_english_whql

Corsair XMS3 4 GB PC3-12800 1600Mhz Dual Channel Core i3 i5
i7 DDR3 Memory Kit CMX4GX3M2A1600C9
Running manual timings at 9-9-9-24

Intel Core i5 750 Processor 2.66 GHz 8 MB LGA1156 CPU I5-750BOX

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive 3.5 Inch, 16 MB Cache, 7200 RPM SATA II WD5000AAKS
Recently did a clean install to try to fix this issue

XFX 750W Black Edition (P1-750B-CAG9)

I have done some research and found this thread:
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=586183
as well as others on the evga forum about people experiencing random freezes with their gtx 400 series cards.

I am also only running with a stock heatsink and fan, and have been for the past 4 months. I was told that this could damage my card and I should get a cpu cooler ASAP.
My CPU temp in BIOS is 47.5 C
My Mobo temp in BIOS is 29 C

I also have a thread started at http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?high=&m=716637&mpage=1#717042 with a few more details.

Any ideas to what is causing these random crashes?
 
Solution
I'm wondering if your graphics card is damaged somehow. You should never have to downclock it from the factory default, that is unless you aren't getting enough power to it or you are not cooling it properly.

Have you talked with EVGA support? You may need to RMA it, unless someone has some other ideas.

c0d3ster

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coretemp.jpg
 

Pallimud

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Is this only happening when your gaming? Otherwise it is stable?

You might want to check on your graphics card temp too, see if it is overheating.

First guess, I would reinstall the nvidia drivers. If the heat is fine and the driver update did nothing, then... I'd have to troubleshoot more based on exactly when the instability happens.
 

c0d3ster

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This started happening when I was gaming..
Upon restart, it started happening all over the place, randomly.
Sometimes it wouldn't get past the post, sometimes it wouldnt get past the welcome screen, and sometimes it would lock up on desktop.

It seems to work ok in safe mode, so I disabled all services and started enabling them one by one.
I have mostly everything enabled now except the special graphic services for windows 7.
what program can I use to check graphics card temps?
I just did a clean install of drivers to version 260.99
 

c0d3ster

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i was able to play 1 round in bad company 2 before it crashed..
all I noticed is the processor got up to 81-82 degrees..
Would running it this hot for hours on end this weekend cause issues that would be affecting me now?
 
Your CPU is getting too hot. Consider taking off the heatsink and reinstalling it to ensure a good seal. For a more advanced technique: take off the heatsink, clean the CPU and heatsink surfaces with isopropyl alcohol, apply new thermal paste, then reinstall the heatsink. Finally, as a last resort, get a new heatsink if the first two suggestions don't work.
 

c0d3ster

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Cool, I had my girlfriend pick up some thermal paste.
So the best way is to dis-assemble, clean surfaces with isopropyl alcohol, apply new past, and reinstall?
How much thermal paste should I apply? and what technique is best for applying?
Thanks
 
You would be wise to look that up on the web. There are various techniques. The key is to use a very small amount. You can put a pea-sized amount in the very center of the CPU and let the pressure of the heatsink spread it out. You can also lightly spread the paste over the entire surface of the CPU. Some people draw lines with the paste on the CPU. The type of heatsink does make a difference for the technique. My preference is to spread the paste out thinly and evenly over the entire surface, that way you make sure it covers all the way to the edges.
 

gravysauce13

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here's a link to an article that shows how to properly apply thermal paste depending on heatsink design. it also tackles on how to properly apply TIM on a design similar to Intel's rather anemic stock solution.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...ask=view&id=170&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=3

you almost have the exact same build as the one i built for a friend, except his VGA is a bit less powerful (9800GT 1GB) and only has a 650W PSU. and his CPU barely goes past 59*C on load. and that's with the stock cooler. but then again, he has a Thermaltake V3 midtower case, so heat simply goes up the 2 120mm fans on top of his case.

hope that helped. :)
 

c0d3ster

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thank you very much for the link!

I have a Haf 922 case, which has a huge fan on the front and top, and a huge air intake on the side.. the case should not be the issue.

also to be of note: it froze again, yet i was still able to open and close the CD drive.. Seems like if it was completely frozen, it wouldn't respond when I push the button to open it..
 

Pallimud

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As everyone has mentioned your CPU shouldn't get to 80C. I have the same CPU and even when gaming, like a 4v4 SC2 game with max units, my CPU maybe gets to 65C.

For sure try re-applying the heatsink/fan to the CPU. Once you've done that, you need to check to make sure your CPU fan is spinning properly.

Also, another tip, go into your BIOS and go into setup. Once there, you can change your fan settings to automatic for your CPU fan and also your other case fans. The manual for your MB shows how to find it if you are confused.
 
I didn't see any thing about a after market cooler so make sure that every push pin is properly snapped into place is you are using such a cooler. Also replace the stock compound that intel uses and they really haven't changed much in that respect in the days of the Pentium 2. Dries up all the same and performance is terrible and is easily out performed by even the cheapest compound out there.
 

c0d3ster

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ok, so I took all the parts out of my motherboard, took out the processor, applied new thermal paste, reset everything (Processor, heatsink, ram and video card), reconnected all of the wires. Wow, doing that improved my CPU temps BIGTIME!
I now idle at about 35 C
However, my freezing problem still persists. It seems that when I have minimal services running that it prolongs the freezing problem, but it will still lock up. It is VERY hard to disable and re-enable the services to find if it is one of those, because it doesn't seem to be any specific service because it's so random..
I really don't think it's a memory issue, because I ran memtest overnight and it ran 8 1/2 passes with 0 errors. But it ended up freezing on the 9th pass at 50%... So I dont know what that means exactly..
 

Pallimud

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Still monitor your CPU/GPU temp before it crashes. Do you have dual monitors? If so, keep HWMonitor open and load your intensive game until it crashes. Keep an eye, not on the game, but on your temps so you can quickly write them down. It may be that while it is cooler in general, it is still overheating when pushed.

How long have you had this graphics card installed? How long have you had your computer? If you could give some background on when this started as a comparison to when you started using the comp and if you installed new hardware, that would help a lot.