Been having random computer problems..

[Big Roachy]

Hey, I've been having random computer problems and I thought mabye some of you guys could help.

Usually this only happens while I'm playing a game or something, but my computer will randomly freeze. I've done spyware checks and virus checks and everything. But, during a game, I'll just be playing away when all of a sudden I'll hear a quick and quiet little fuz noise and everything will freeze. Just suddenly. No questions asked.

If anyone could help, I would be so greatful.

[BloodBuster]

Hey, I've been having random computer problems and I thought mabye some of you guys could help.

Usually this only happens while I'm playing a game or something, but my computer will randomly freeze. I've done spyware checks and virus checks and everything. But, during a game, I'll just be playing away when all of a sudden I'll hear a quick and quiet little fuz noise and everything will freeze. Just suddenly. No questions asked.

If anyone could help, I would be so greatful.

If you are getting a funny noise in your machine there could be several reasons why you are experiencing random freezing. The noise could be a fan that needs replacing. If one of your fans starts to go, then your CPU could be overheating - this can cause freezing. If the power supply fan is starting to go - this can also cause freezing. Or, the sound may be coming from your hard drive or one of your hard drives. If the heads are sticking your machine will freeze.

I would do the following:

1. Copy your data to another drive/external drive/cd/dvd
2. Run some hardware diagnostics to make sure your drives are functioning properly
3. Take the cover off your computer, switch it on and listen for the noise - try to identify where it is coming from - BUT - do not touch anything inside your machine. There are dangerous voltages present and you should only do this if you are comfortable with it.
4. Disconnect any extra drives you have and see if the problem goes away.

You must copy your data. I was experiencing the same thing - I could occasionally hear a low clicking/whirring sound - then my computer froze. It was one of my hard drives - which is now completely dead. I had backed up most of my data to another hard drive about two weeks before but I still lost some stuff.

You might also just want to take it to a repair shop.

[Big Roachy]

Well you see, the fuz noise is just a short noise that comes from the speakers. Like static interference.
But that is a good suggestion, I've had this computer for over 2 years now and some of the stuff could use replacing.

I have sprayed out the inside before, but I havn't done it recently, so I'll give that a shot.

Thanks.

[spyware]

Take a look at your event viewer too.

[BloodBuster]

If the noise is coming from your speakers then it is likely being caused by interference from another component. I would definately run some hardware diagnostics on your machine and I would definately get your data backed up as soon as possible.

I think your drive may be dying. Or, it is also possible you have a driver problem. Do you have the latest drivers installed for all your devices - sound card, controllers, chipset, network card, monitor etc etc

Is there anything else you can tell us about it? Does it happen after a certain amount of time? When you say freeze - can you do anything with it or do you have to force a reboot? Does chkdsk or scandisk run when you reboot?

[Big Roachy]

You're probably right about my drive, it's very old. The sound is just a minor detail.

Mabye I should get some new hardware and spray out the fans. When it freezes, it just happens suddenly, and there's nothing I can do about it, I just have to reboot.

I'm probably gonna get some professional help over here to fix it soon.

[spyware]

My computer was doin that ! In the EVENT VIEWER it said "hd 1 did not respond within the timeout period" It was my power supply going not my hd.
erase all events then after it freezes tell me what it says when you restart.

[Big Roachy]

My computer was doin that ! In the EVENT VIEWER it said "hd 1 did not respond within the timeout period" It was my power supply going not my hd.
erase all events then after it freezes tell me what it says when you restart.

It doesn't say anything when I restart. It just goes on like nothing happened.

The weird thing is that I just replaced my power supply.

[spyware]

There's nothing in your event viewer? that is strange
umm.. you do know how to look at the event viewer dont you?
sorry if thats a silly question but I'm tryin to help.

[Frag Maniac]

...your voltages, like PC Health etc, and try to determine if any of them are fluctuating erratically.

How good a PS did you get, and did you make sure to hook up the video card to a separate rail from the HD?

[Grinder1989]

My computer has been making strange noises too, kinda like the fan on something is rubbing. When i put pressure on the top of my case the sound goes away. Power supply?

Grinder

[Frag Maniac]

...even proc cache related errors.

For some time I've had occaisional memory error messages, which I'd passed off to app hangs, as some of the progs I was using were acting a bit strange clicking out of them. There's also been a red blured stripe along the bottom of the screen I see when rebooting.

Lately I get End Now messages which flash quickly just before the system reboots, and most recently a window that flickers faintly and instantly when the desktop comes back on.

I just formatted, and I still see some of this stuff happening.

I've ran antivirus scans before and after the format, with two different progs, and HighjackThis logs, Ad Aware, CCleaner, nothing was found.

I've got a Memtest disc I made, that I'm going to use next.

Do you have to test the memory sticks one at a time though, I'm running them in dual channel?

I was wondering too, if anyone can tell me if there are any processor testing programs I can download, or tests that check specifically for boot/reboot errors, and what causes them?

[Karthik@KANE]

Hey, I've been having random computer problems and I thought mabye some of you guys could help.

Usually this only happens while I'm playing a game or something, but my computer will randomly freeze. I've done spyware checks and virus checks and everything. But, during a game, I'll just be playing away when all of a sudden I'll hear a quick and quiet little fuz noise and everything will freeze. Just suddenly. No questions asked.

If anyone could help, I would be so greatful.

Sounds like your mainboard is going fubar. How long has this been going on? I used to have the ame problem. I used to think it was overheating, but even cooling it wasn't sufficient. As the weeks went by it got to a point where it would just randomly freeze even when surfing on the net. I lost 2 mainboards because of this problem.

[glflagg]

...even proc cache related errors.

For some time I've had occaisional memory error messages, which I'd passed off to app hangs, as some of the progs I was using were acting a bit strange clicking out of them. There's also been a red blured stripe along the bottom of the screen I see when rebooting.

Lately I get End Now messages which flash quickly just before the system reboots, and most recently a window that flickers faintly and instantly when the desktop comes back on.

I just formatted, and I still see some of this stuff happening.

I've ran antivirus scans before and after the format, with two different progs, and HighjackThis logs, Ad Aware, CCleaner, nothing was found.

I've got a Memtest disc I made, that I'm going to use next.

Do you have to test the memory sticks one at a time though, I'm running them in dual channel?

I was wondering too, if anyone can tell me if there are any processor testing programs I can download, or tests that check specifically for boot/reboot errors, and what causes them?

I have seen this problem many time over my years with differant computer systems. The problem you experancing, I belive is related to mother board memory or CMOS memory. What I would do first is zero out your bios CMOS memory (ie remove battery unplug and short clear the CMOS) and then try again. If this does not solve the problem, then check your system memory sticks and make sure that thay are working within spec. I have seen people with what was thought to be motherboard problem replace their motherboard and install their old memory and CPU and found that the problems would creep in again over time. Almost all motherboard problems would show some sort of POST Error during booting and it s rare that a motherboard componet would slip through a POST startup with out being identified. Also you might want to slow things down and see if that improves things. If it does, then it definatly a memory problem.

Excuse my spelling as my wife "CHFLAGG" is not proof reading this message. She brought your problem up with me this morning and wanted me to put my two cents into the conversation, ""Happy Dear.."".

I'll keep an eye on you responses to see if the problem has cleared.

Good Luck, Greg

[CHFlagg]

Excuse my spelling as my wife "CHFLAGG" is not proof reading this message. She brought your problem up with me this morning and wanted me to put my two cents into the conversation, ""Happy Dear.."".


Good Luck, Greg

Yes, I'm Happy now. Thank you

[Bjossi]

If this is happens in more than one game using a different engine, some hardware is problematic.

My computer has done this, it was my old Athlon overheating. And I heard noise before it happened.

I hope this gets sorted out for you. :)

[Frag Maniac]

I have seen this problem many time over my years with differant computer systems. The problem you experancing, I belive is related to mother board memory or CMOS memory. What I would do first is zero out your bios CMOS memory (ie remove battery unplug and short clear the CMOS) and then try again. If this does not solve the problem, then check your system memory sticks and make sure that thay are working within spec. I have seen people with what was thought to be motherboard problem replace their motherboard and install their old memory and CPU and found that the problems would creep in again over time. Almost all motherboard problems would show some sort of POST Error during booting and it s rare that a motherboard componet would slip through a POST startup with out being identified. Also you might want to slow things down and see if that improves things. If it does, then it definatly a memory problem.

Excuse my spelling as my wife "CHFLAGG" is not proof reading this message. She brought your problem up with me this morning and wanted me to put my two cents into the conversation, ""Happy Dear.."".

I'll keep an eye on you responses to see if the problem has cleared.

Good Luck, Greg

...and knew it must have been CH's hubby!:)

You know what you said didn't occur to me Greg, but I think you are right. I did clear the CMOS via the jumper method as per the MB instructions once, but never removed the battery. I think I'll definately try that.

The reason I cleared the CMOS at that time, was due to a nasty lockup that involved my monitor coming on, then shutting off, when I tried to turn the system on. I took it into the store I bought it at, after the CMOS trick didn't work, and the guy at the store got it working, but he said it was because I had the video card connected to the same rail as the 2nd HD I installed.

I'm not sure he was right though, because the same problem happened again a while later, after he reconnected them to separate rails, and I was able to get around it by taking the power cord off the back of the tower, and unplugging the main power connector from the PS that goes into the MB, then left it that way overnight.

Their tech also assembled the thing using both SATA and Legacy in hooking up the HD, which their other guy at the store said was not the way to do it.

I've got a feeling the RAM sticks are fine, the system is only about 7 months old, and has high quality OCZ Platinum RAM, which runs pretty cool.

Also, the only thing that worked a bit quirky when I first got the system was that the MB BIOS wanted to boot through the nic, which I eventually solved via BIOS setting changes, but it took a bit of doing to get it to take.

The MB is an MSI 865PE Neo2-P, and it's well powered by an Antec 550W Truepower PS, so I doubt there are any problems due to voltage fluctuations.

Thanks for the advice Greg, I'll let you know if it works.

[Frag Maniac]

Hey Greg,

Well I just tried clearing the CMOS via the jumper, and even took out the battery, as well as unplugged the ATX plug that goes from the PS to the MB, and left it that way overnight.

I'm still having the same problems though.

AS far as memory testing, I wasn't able to make a boot disc this time of the latest version of Memtest86, or Memtest86+ (more on that later), so I ran the old disc I made of version 3.0.

I only ran through the standard test, and 1 pass, so I've yet to check it for 100% accuracy.

I read recently that you have to select a much lower amount of memory to be tested than the amount you have in your system, or the program will spend most of it's time writing to disc, rather than testing the RAM.

In the config settings under memory selection, I only see 4 options (1) BIOS - Std, (2) BIOS - All, (3) Probe, and (4) Cancel.

By default, it's set at BIOS - Std as far as I can tell, becasue it says Std under test type. It also says 96K - 1024M, under Testing, which I thought meant it's testing 96k of the total 1024MB of RAM.

At this point, following an overnight run of Memtest86, I'll be searching for more thorough spyware removing and antivirus programs to do more thorough tests for malicious content.

I'd like to be able to successfully make another boot disc of the latest version of Memtest86 though. Do you have to use a special prog to extract the content of the ISO file before burning it to disc?

My 3.0 disc automatically goes to the Memtest blue screen with white text and runs it's test upon boot up. The ones I just tried to make of vers 3.2 go to a black screen with lots of white text I don't understand.

One of the weird things that's happening is the registry will allow me to delete certain things I've uninstalled, but after they disappear, they come back up later when I keep hitting F3.

[fleabay]

The weird thing is that I just replaced my power supply.

You have problems after you replaced you power supply? Or did you replace your power supply because you were having problems?

[Big Roachy]

I replaced my power supply because I was having problems. That worked wonders for a while.

According to my uncle, I've got loads of spyware on here. He's gonna come on here and clean it all out for me. :/

[T'krau]

...I've got loads of spyware on here.
Try these (if you didn't already know of them) -

http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?part=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=button

http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022-10122137.html?part=dl-spybot&subj=dl&tag=but

Both are free downloads, both come with update support, and both really work.

[Big Roachy]

I use those.
They never get rid of the whole problem.

[T'krau]

Oh. Never mind.

Out of curiosity, just what kind of crap is infecting your machine?

[Big Roachy]

No clue really..
The stuff the Spyware programs pick up are your usual SAVE NOW!! programs and stuff..

[Frag Maniac]

I just spoke to a tech at length about the probs I'm having, and his first opinions were that it's likey one of 3 things:

1) Processor
2) Harddrive
3) XP corruption

He did go on to say after more discussion, though, that the 3rd possibility was probably what it was, and due to spyware corrupting the OS.

His fave tool for spyware is Spysweeper, though he and one other person I spoke to said they'd heard good things about one Microsoft has one their site, which is a beta at this point, called MS Antispy or something.

He also said his preferred antivirus is Norton, though he and the other guy I spoke to said EZ Antivirus is also very good.

His bottom line on how to get the protection though, was not to get it free online, and that they are never as thorough programs as the ones you buy. Obviously you also risk spam and spyware when searching for them and downloading them too.

I found my memory is fine, after passing 8 hrs worth of standard memtest runs (53 pases), and 3 successful passes using the full test (about 2.5 hrs), all with 0 errors.

Roachy, please let me know what your uncle uses, and if it works.

[Big Roachy]

My problem is fixed!
Frag: My uncle used a program called PestPatrol. It kicked ARSE! Everything runs like it used to now!

[Frag Maniac]

Pestpatrol huh, I've heard of that, it's a spyware program right?

Mine's been checked with Spysweeper, MS Antispyware Beta, VIG, HighjackThis, Spybot, Ad Aware, and nothing but low threat tracking cookies have been found so far.

My problem is beginning to look like it's caused by an incompatibility issue with Total Recorder. It may have even corrupted the OS, but they've yet to do a deep scan for trojans and viruses, so it's too soon to tell.

Can you tell us what Pestpatrol found that was causing the problem?

[Big Roachy]

Limewire was a big problem for me.
And a load of other stuff.

It picked up 60 highly critical files.

[Frag Maniac]

WOW, glad I stayed tuned, I was seriously considering trying Limewire, but I can't say the alternative I chose has exactly been trouble free.

I just found out lots of people are having a problem like I am, with End Now messages appearing that say Trd ww at the top, which is a conflict between the Total Recorder audio recording program I use, and antivirus programs, video/audio editing programs, even SP2.

I thought it would be a lot safer to use TR to record off the audio streaming subscription I have, rather than go p2p, but the problem appears to be still lingering even after a format.

I am very pissed off at the company that developed this software, it appears to have been made very irresponsibly, and I've already invested $36 in it.

[Emultra]

Temperatures?