Arrrgh, Computer Hard Locking

Sir Carcass

So I built this computer in early March and it's largely been fine, except for one problem. It randomly hard locks. Sometimes it'll be in the middle of the game. Sometimes it'll be while browsing the internet. Sometimes it'll be while sitting at the desktop. Sometimes it'll do it several times a day, sometimes I'll go a week without it doing it. Sometimes it'll do it a few minutes after turning it on, sometimes I'll do some intense gaming for 5 hours and it won't do it. This is a hard lock, nothing moving. One weird thing is my optical mouse will stay with the brighter light if I was moving it while it locked up, whereas it'll normally dim after a second of non-movement, and I believe if there was hard drive activity, the light will stay on. If there's sound currently playing while it locks, there will be this loud annoying BWAARRRRR sound. Otherwise, nothing. Also, usually I just have to hold down the power button or reset button for a few seconds until it shuts down, then it'll reboot fine with the Windows Didn't Shutdown Properly thing. Except for the other day. After rebooting it said something about my BIOS settings (don't remember the exact message) and when I went into my BIOS, all of my settings were reset. I should mention that I haven't overclocked or anything. Really the only setting I changed was setting the RAM timings and RAM voltage to the recommended specs. The only thing I tried was unlocking cores when I built it, but when it was hard locking I thought the cores were bad so I relocked them (or un-unlocked them).

First, I don't think it's heat related. I don't remember specific temps, but the cpu is around 40C after a reboot and the videocard is cool as well. I have plenty of ventilation and 4 fans on this case.

Also, I ran memtest with no problems found. Though when I try running prime95, it pretty much locks up immediately, which seems a bad sign. Unfortunately, I don't have anyway to swap in parts, though I have a feeling it's maybe either the processor or the motherboard. The power supply is fine, 650 watt Antec Earthwatts.

Does this ring any bells? Anyway I can test through software where the problem might be? No viruses or nasty malware. All drivers are up to date and updates installed.

Here are my stats:

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz
ASUS M4A77TD
XFX Radeon HD 5770 XXX Edition
OCZ Gold 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Continuous Power
Windows 7 Professional

Buttcleft

Go download core temp, and enable logging to find out what your temps are when you crash.

Also get memtest and run that for a few hours to make sure your ram isnt bad.

I'd suggest temp logging your GPU too, but I dont know a program for that

Sir Carcass

Already ran memtest and it was fine, but I'll look for core temp.

Buttcleft

how old is you PSU, too.

It looks like it is handling a lot for only being 650 watt. Especially if its old and/or running hot, both are things that decrease capacity

Sir Carcass

PSU was bought at the same time. It should be plenty for this system.

I ran CoreTemp but the log files were blank. I could see the display saying 39C for the cpu temp, though.

Buttcleft

Sir Carcass wrote: »

PSU was bought at the same time. It should be plenty for this system.

I ran CoreTemp but the log files were blank. I could see the display saying 39C for the cpu temp, though.

OI think at default it logs every 10 seconds

Sir Carcass

Buttcleft wrote: »

Sir Carcass wrote: »

PSU was bought at the same time. It should be plenty for this system.

I ran CoreTemp but the log files were blank. I could see the display saying 39C for the cpu temp, though.

OI think at default it logs every 10 seconds

Ah, yeah. The last few entries:

Time,CPU 0 Temp.,,CPU 0,Low temp.,High temp.,Core load,CPU speed,
18:51:40,36°,,,34°,38°,12%,3100.20 MHz,
18:51:41,36°,,,34°,38°,3%,3100.20 MHz,
18:51:42,36°,,,34°,38°,2%,3100.20 MHz,
18:51:43,37°,,,34°,38°,17%,3100.20 MHz,
18:51:44,37°,,,34°,38°,2%,3100.20 MHz,
18:51:45,37°,,,34°,38°,0%,3100.20 MHz,
18:51:46,37°,,,34°,38°,0%,3100.20 MHz,

Buttcleft

Post the results from the log when your computer crashes again.

Sir Carcass

...that is from when it crashed.

Buttcleft

Sir Carcass wrote: »

...that is from when it crashed.

oh it just crashed?

Sorry then

I dont know what to say, Memtest was good, temps are ok, I dont know what else to say. Sorry

Sir Carcass

Yeah, like I said, it pretty much crashes instantly whenever I start prime95, so at least I can crash it at will. I guess.

Buttcleft

Sir Carcass wrote: »

Yeah, like I said, it pretty much crashes instantly whenever I start prime95, so at least I can crash it at will. I guess.

Do you have another CPU to test in the motherboard?

Or, can you test this CPU in another board?

and sorry for missing some info in your posts, my eyes have been bloodshot to hell and bothering me all day

Sir Carcass

Unfortunately I don't have a way to swap out parts for testing.

blakfeld

If it's hard locking, my reasoning would be CPU (especially if it crahses instantly upon running Prime 95), or motherboard, and since you haven't had any heating issues, I would be reluctant to call out the motherboard. I sadly don't know of a good CPU test, Anytime I've needed one it was at work, and they sprung for a copy of PC Check. You're best bet is probably just to RMA the CPU, and check the mobo for swollen capacitors

Sir Carcass

Now I'm starting to wonder. I left the RAM stuff at Auto (it defaults to a lower clock speed than the RAM is rated for) and prime95 ran for a few minutes before crashing. Yet memtest finds no errors.

I still find it strange that the BIOS is occasionally corrupted on a freeze.

blakfeld

Sir Carcass wrote: »

Now I'm starting to wonder. I left the RAM stuff at Auto (it defaults to a lower clock speed than the RAM is rated for) and prime95 ran for a few minutes before crashing. Yet memtest finds no errors.

I still find it strange that the BIOS is occasionally corrupted on a freeze.

Oh that is weird, I must of glanced over that. Maybe a short on the Mobo? I can't think of a reason for that happening outside of the Cmos Battery dying and that shouldn't be an issue. Is it grounded maybe? I'm kind of grabbing straws now

Buttcleft

my bios gets funky if I have several hard crashes in a short amount of time, but mine usually result in having to cut the power to get it restarted

Sir Carcass

After digging around and try different things, I think it just may be something with my RAM. It's OCZ 1600 RAM, but it seems they have stability problems with some setups at that speed. Lowering it to 1060 or whatever seems to have cured the majority of the lockups. I also flashed my bios with the latest version, whose release notes said, "Improves stability". It still locked up at full speed after flashing during prime95, but I haven't had it lock up yet (though I haven't run prime95 for more than a minute) outside of that. I was able to play Black & White 2 for several hours today, when for some reason that game would always lockup pretty quickly into the game.

I'll keep an eye on it, but so far so good.

Sir Carcass

Just thought I'd post an update. After setting my RAM to 1333MHz several weeks ago, I haven't had a single lock. I haven't run prime95 for any significant length of time, but through normal use (including heavy gaming), it seems to have fixed the problem.