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General discussion (archive)PC keeps locking up. Suggestions?(26 posts)(26 posts)
(26 posts)
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Posted December 16, 2011
My PC seems to lock up at random. The screen doesn't go blank or BSOD. Whatever's displayed doesn't go away, but nothing works either. Alt tab, moving the mouse etc, all doesn't work. In the few occasions it's locked up, I noticed that it freezes while I'm:

a) watching Youtube
b) surfing eBay
c) playing Killing Floor and then pressing Shift + Tab to open the Steam overlay to chat with friends

I have the following software installed and running in the taskbar: Steam, ZyXEL network utility manager, MSI Afterburner, COMODO, Avast, Malwarebytes Antimalware.

I've checked my running processes and there's nothing odd. Virus and malware scans don't show up anything either.

I suspect this is a driver clash. Some time ago, my PC kept BSODing due to NDIS.sys, which means that it's probably something to do with my newly installed ZyXEL USB network adapter. I "fixed" it by uninstalling COMODO, then uninstalling the ZyXEL drivers and reinstalling everything. I haven't gotten a NDIS.sys BSOD since then, but now I get these random freezes.

I've also run a GPU and CPU scan using OCCT. No errors. Gonna try Memtest86 later to test for faulty RAM, but I doubt it's the RAM too. TBH I'm rather thankful it's (likely) not hardware issues, but I'll be damned, driver issues are a bitch to locate too. Any ideas?
Posted December 16, 2011
When this kind of thing happens to me, it's usually because I hadn't formatted for a few years..
Posted December 16, 2011
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lowyhong: My PC seems to lock up at random. The screen doesn't go blank or BSOD. Whatever's displayed doesn't go away, but nothing works either. Alt tab, moving the mouse etc, all doesn't work. In the few occasions it's locked up, I noticed that it freezes while I'm:

a) watching Youtube
b) surfing eBay
c) playing Killing Floor and then pressing Shift + Tab to open the Steam overlay to chat with friends

I have the following software installed and running in the taskbar: Steam, ZyXEL network utility manager, MSI Afterburner, COMODO, Avast, Malwarebytes Antimalware.

I've checked my running processes and there's nothing odd. Virus and malware scans don't show up anything either.

I suspect this is a driver clash. Some time ago, my PC kept BSODing due to NDIS.sys, which means that it's probably something to do with my newly installed ZyXEL USB network adapter. I "fixed" it by uninstalling COMODO, then uninstalling the ZyXEL drivers and reinstalling everything. I haven't gotten a NDIS.sys BSOD since then, but now I get these random freezes.

I've also run a GPU and CPU scan using OCCT. No errors. Gonna try Memtest86 later to test for faulty RAM, but I doubt it's the RAM too. TBH I'm rather thankful it's (likely) not hardware issues, but I'll be damned, driver issues are a bitch to locate too. Any ideas?
Do you have a temperature monitor? My piece of garbage HP laptop locks up from time to time from overheating.
Posted December 16, 2011
Heat was my first thought, how old is it and have you ever cleaned the dust out of the GPU heatsink?
Posted December 16, 2011
I am certain it's not heat. I keep a close tab on the CPU and GPU heat readings all the time (having been affected by heat-related problems before). They are usually in the healthy range. The GPU (Geforce GTX 550 Ti) never goes above 50. The CPU cores never go above 40 - in fact they're usually stuck around 35C.

I have just run another set of GPU and CPU stress tests on OCCT, and so far they haven't given me any problems. GPU and CPU cores' max temps were 70+ and 55 respectively (GPU 70+, CPU 55).

The PC is relatively new. It's only about 2 months old.

:(
Post edited December 16, 2011 by lowyhong
Posted December 16, 2011
I think is gfx card - driver conflict or overheating or internal failure or incompatibility with MB. All other things should show BSOD and lock on gfx will be able to prevent that. I had similar effects in the past with my old gfx card.
Post edited December 16, 2011 by Lexor
Posted December 16, 2011
Have you tried using a different PSU? My pc had a similar problem and I solved it mounting a new PSU.
Posted December 16, 2011
I think it might be simple than that. Avast and Comodo simply could not coexist. I assume you're using Comodo Internet Security / Firewall / Anti-Virus.
Posted December 16, 2011
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wormholewizards: I think it might be simple than that. Avast and Comodo simply could not coexist. I assume you're using Comodo Internet Security / Firewall / Anti-Virus.
I'm using Comodo Internet Security, but I only opted for the Firewall. Not sure, but will that cause conflicts?
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kScope: Have you tried using a different PSU? My pc had a similar problem and I solved it mounting a new PSU.
Not yet. It could be the PSU, but TBH I'd really hate to think if that were the case. Firstly, I'm using a top of the line Seasonic model and it will erode some of my faith in Seasonic. Secondly, I've never liked removing the PSU since everything else gets in the way. I'll keep this in mind when all else fails though, unless someone can suggest a way to test the PSU (I refuse to use OCCT's PSU test as it seems quite unreliable)

The funny thing is that the system never hangs when under load, be it under stress tests or gaming. It hangs at the weirdest moments - Firefox or Steam overlay. That's what I can't wrap about my head. I'm trying to determine if there is some driver or software conflict, but I don't know how to. Quite possibly wormholewizards may be right about Comodo hating on one of my installed software, but besides uninstalling Comodo and going online without a firewall, I can't see any other way of testing this.
Post edited December 16, 2011 by lowyhong
Posted December 16, 2011
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wormholewizards: I think it might be simple than that. Avast and Comodo simply could not coexist. I assume you're using Comodo Internet Security / Firewall / Anti-Virus.
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lowyhong: I'm using Comodo Internet Security, but I only opted for the Firewall. Not sure, but will that cause conflicts?
I'm not sure. Last time when i paired ZoneAlarm firewall with Microsoft Security Essential, my PC were locked / freeze several times randomly.

By the way, this is very neat (and free) little software for troubleshooting BSOD and crash minidump.
http://www.resplendence.com/downloads

Scroll down until you see WhoCrashed. Just ignore email address box at the top, it's optional.
Posted December 16, 2011
Sweet thanks I'll check it out.
Posted December 16, 2011
If you use Windows, check out Event Viewer in Admin Tools [that's where it is in Win7 anyway]. That should have lots of info about what's been going wrong, and point you towards culprit(s).
Posted December 16, 2011
My Phenom II locked up with a Blackscreen every 1-3 weeks.. was hard to find the cause and i even got now a spare video card.. in the end the RAM needed a bit more voltage with 4 modules.. even ECC doesn't help in such a case ;)
Posted December 16, 2011
Some time ago my ATI drivers had an issue with adobe flash or some such so about an hour in the videos it just crashed and restarted with an info bar popping up about the drivers having gone kaput and flash videos just showed green background. With some new drivers the issue was fixed rather nicely.
Posted December 16, 2011
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mfeury: If you use Windows, check out Event Viewer in Admin Tools [that's where it is in Win7 anyway]. That should have lots of info about what's been going wrong, and point you towards culprit(s).
This is exactly what I was going to suggest.

My constant computer crashes were caused by a faulty SATA port. It took me a year to figure out that Event Viewer would be useful.
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General discussion (archive)PC keeps locking up. Suggestions?(26 posts)(26 posts)
(26 posts)