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Odd computer hangups

BlueDestinyBlueDestiny Registered User regular
edited March 2008 in Help / Advice Forum
Recently, whenever I play a game it will run fine for a while but eventually freeze, loop sound, become mute, start looping the sound again, and then unfreeze. This repeats with greater frequency until I stop playing. I don't know if it's related, but I heard a loud popping noise come from the general area my tower is in, which may have been a static electricity discharge. After that, the odd effects started showing up. I have a feeling my RAM got zapped, but any advice would be appreciated.

BlueDestiny on

Posts

  • Mr_RoseMr_Rose 83 Blue Ridge Protects the Holy Registered User regular
    edited March 2008
    Three possible things: Dying HDD; Dying PSU; Dying case fan accelerating the demise of the first two by allowing the case to overheat.

    The easiest to fix is the PSU, so check that first - unplug everything, open up the case and unplug the main power connector to the motherboard. If any of the pins are charred or otherwise disfigured, you likely have a dead PSU in the offing - replace it as fast as possible.
    If this isn't the case, now is also a good time to give the thing a good blasting with an airduster to unclog it.

    Case fans are also relatively easy to diagnose, but you really need the system running under load with the case open, so fire up that game that pops and check out what the fan's doing.slowing, stuttering or just getting stuck are all bad signs.
    Again, if this isn't the case, now i a good time to clean the fan as well.
    Actually, while you're at it, clean everything; I swear my old beater of a system got five percent faster after just a thorough cleaning out of all the collected dust....

    Dying HDD is a bigger problem - you will need a new HDD and some backup/imaging software for est results, though installing the OS on a new drive and manual copying can work too, you will definitely need to reinstall all your software by hand if you do that.
    To diagnose this, do all the previous steps then try the gem again - if the problem persists, it's probably the drive, sorry.

    Of course, I can't guarantee that these are the only solutions, but I would consider shorted ram unlikely since random ram damage is typically far more catastrophic than sound distortion under load.

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  • BlueDestinyBlueDestiny Registered User regular
    edited March 2008
    Mr_Rose wrote: »
    Three possible things: Dying HDD; Dying PSU; Dying case fan accelerating the demise of the first two by allowing the case to overheat.

    The easiest to fix is the PSU, so check that first - unplug everything, open up the case and unplug the main power connector to the motherboard. If any of the pins are charred or otherwise disfigured, you likely have a dead PSU in the offing - replace it as fast as possible.
    If this isn't the case, now is also a good time to give the thing a good blasting with an airduster to unclog it.

    Case fans are also relatively easy to diagnose, but you really need the system running under load with the case open, so fire up that game that pops and check out what the fan's doing.slowing, stuttering or just getting stuck are all bad signs.
    Again, if this isn't the case, now i a good time to clean the fan as well.
    Actually, while you're at it, clean everything; I swear my old beater of a system got five percent faster after just a thorough cleaning out of all the collected dust....

    Dying HDD is a bigger problem - you will need a new HDD and some backup/imaging software for est results, though installing the OS on a new drive and manual copying can work too, you will definitely need to reinstall all your software by hand if you do that.
    To diagnose this, do all the previous steps then try the gem again - if the problem persists, it's probably the drive, sorry.

    Of course, I can't guarantee that these are the only solutions, but I would consider shorted ram unlikely since random ram damage is typically far more catastrophic than sound distortion under load.

    Thanks! I'll get to work on at least cleaning out the inside now. The popping sound only happened twice, and so far it seems to have affected GTA:SA the most. I was going to pass it off as a game glitch, but Overlord froze up completely after a while.

    BlueDestiny on
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