Hello everyone. A few months ago, my old motherboard died, and I wound up getting 4 new parts since I was planning on upgrading anyway. Since then, I have been experiencing two issues related to system stability (I am not sure if they are related or not), and I have not been able to successfully troubleshoot either of them. This will be a long-winded post because I have gathered a lot of data and observations and tried many things to troubleshoot these problems. If you would rather not read a short novel, I would suggest leaving immediately. If you wish to stay and help, thank you very much. Here is a list of my current system specs:
NEW PARTS:
CPU : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67GHz (Old CPU was a Q6600 quad core)
Motherboard: Asus P7P55D EVO (Old MB was an Asus P5K Deluxe)
RAM: 3x 2GB OCZ DDR3 Memory @ 1333MHz (I am aware this is more RAM than XP can use, I will go into that later in this post)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 Lightning (1792GB version) - Upgraded from 8800 GTX
OLD PARTS
HD1: 74GB Western Digital Raptor
HD2: 500GB Western Digital Caviar
Optical Drive: Memorex DVD+-RW, CD-RW
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Gamer
800W PSU (I can't seem to find the make and model of it)
THE PROBLEMS:
Problem number 1: Random computer freezes. As stated, these freezes happen seemingly completely at random, whether I am gaming, listening to music, browsing the web, or even when the computer is idle (sometimes I will come back to the computer after being gone for a few hours and it will be locked up). Everything freezes for about 5 seconds (mouse/keyboard input, and the screen itself), then it unlocks for another 5 seconds, and then it freezes again permanently until I physically hit the reset button on the computer case. The sound loops continuously while it is frozen. This may happen 2-3 times a night, or 2-3 times a week. It is totally random.
Problem number 2: Somewhat less random computer restarts. This seems to happen only when I am playing videogames on the computer. I will be in the middle of a game, and then the computer will restart as if someone turned the power off and then on again; black screen followed by re-boot. Adding to my puzzlement is the conditions in which the crashes occur. There are some parts of certain games where this crash will happen almost all of the time. However, it will happen completely randomly in other parts of the games as well. Normally, when confronted with a problem like this (where it crashes at a specific point in the game), I would assume it was the game's fault. However, the crashes also happen in a multitude of games at random times, so instead I must suspect that my computer is at fault.
TROUBLESHOOTING:
Here is a list of everything that I have done to try to diagnose and resolve the issue(s).
1.) Check for heat. Heat does not appear to be the problem. I have a massive heat sink with a 120mm fan attached to my CPU that keeps temperatures well under 40C even when it is under heavy load. My GPU temperatures (under load) also remain at around 40C. There is good airflow in my case, and my motherboard sensor remains at even lower temperatures. I do not believe heat to be the cause of any problems.
2.) Uninstall/reinstall latest drivers. I downloaded the latest drivers for my current video and sound cards. I uninstalled my drivers, re-booted the computer, installed the up-to-date drivers, and rebooted again. This did not resolve the issue
3.) Memory diagnostics. I let Windows Memory Diagnostic run overnight and it discovered no problems. I have also tried every combination of my three sticks of RAM (including running them one at a time), and found that the problems persisted no matter which stick(s) I was using.
THINGS I HAVE NOT TRIED AND WOULD LIKE ADVICE ON:
1.) BIOS update. I am currently using the following BIOS for my Asus P7P55D EVO motherboard: BIOS : American Megatrends Inc. 0209 (07/28/2009). The newest version is 1207. I have heard that updating the BIOS could be potentially harmful - is this true?
2.) Re-installing Operating System. Would it be possible that the problems might go away if I were to re-install Windows XP Pro, or upgrade to Windows 7?
3.) Getting a new PSU. Even though mine has more power than what is needed for my system, I have heard that older PSUs can lose their stability over time. However, considering a good PSU upgrade would cost a considerable amount of money, I would only do that as a last resort unless someone with a lot of experience is confident that this is my problem.
Thanks so much for reading (if you haven't dozed off by now). *Any* advice to help me with this situation would be greatly appreciated, as I have been pulling my hair out for months trying to figure this out.
NEW PARTS:
CPU : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67GHz (Old CPU was a Q6600 quad core)
Motherboard: Asus P7P55D EVO (Old MB was an Asus P5K Deluxe)
RAM: 3x 2GB OCZ DDR3 Memory @ 1333MHz (I am aware this is more RAM than XP can use, I will go into that later in this post)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 Lightning (1792GB version) - Upgraded from 8800 GTX
OLD PARTS
HD1: 74GB Western Digital Raptor
HD2: 500GB Western Digital Caviar
Optical Drive: Memorex DVD+-RW, CD-RW
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Gamer
800W PSU (I can't seem to find the make and model of it)
THE PROBLEMS:
Problem number 1: Random computer freezes. As stated, these freezes happen seemingly completely at random, whether I am gaming, listening to music, browsing the web, or even when the computer is idle (sometimes I will come back to the computer after being gone for a few hours and it will be locked up). Everything freezes for about 5 seconds (mouse/keyboard input, and the screen itself), then it unlocks for another 5 seconds, and then it freezes again permanently until I physically hit the reset button on the computer case. The sound loops continuously while it is frozen. This may happen 2-3 times a night, or 2-3 times a week. It is totally random.
Problem number 2: Somewhat less random computer restarts. This seems to happen only when I am playing videogames on the computer. I will be in the middle of a game, and then the computer will restart as if someone turned the power off and then on again; black screen followed by re-boot. Adding to my puzzlement is the conditions in which the crashes occur. There are some parts of certain games where this crash will happen almost all of the time. However, it will happen completely randomly in other parts of the games as well. Normally, when confronted with a problem like this (where it crashes at a specific point in the game), I would assume it was the game's fault. However, the crashes also happen in a multitude of games at random times, so instead I must suspect that my computer is at fault.
TROUBLESHOOTING:
Here is a list of everything that I have done to try to diagnose and resolve the issue(s).
1.) Check for heat. Heat does not appear to be the problem. I have a massive heat sink with a 120mm fan attached to my CPU that keeps temperatures well under 40C even when it is under heavy load. My GPU temperatures (under load) also remain at around 40C. There is good airflow in my case, and my motherboard sensor remains at even lower temperatures. I do not believe heat to be the cause of any problems.
2.) Uninstall/reinstall latest drivers. I downloaded the latest drivers for my current video and sound cards. I uninstalled my drivers, re-booted the computer, installed the up-to-date drivers, and rebooted again. This did not resolve the issue
3.) Memory diagnostics. I let Windows Memory Diagnostic run overnight and it discovered no problems. I have also tried every combination of my three sticks of RAM (including running them one at a time), and found that the problems persisted no matter which stick(s) I was using.
THINGS I HAVE NOT TRIED AND WOULD LIKE ADVICE ON:
1.) BIOS update. I am currently using the following BIOS for my Asus P7P55D EVO motherboard: BIOS : American Megatrends Inc. 0209 (07/28/2009). The newest version is 1207. I have heard that updating the BIOS could be potentially harmful - is this true?
2.) Re-installing Operating System. Would it be possible that the problems might go away if I were to re-install Windows XP Pro, or upgrade to Windows 7?
3.) Getting a new PSU. Even though mine has more power than what is needed for my system, I have heard that older PSUs can lose their stability over time. However, considering a good PSU upgrade would cost a considerable amount of money, I would only do that as a last resort unless someone with a lot of experience is confident that this is my problem.
Thanks so much for reading (if you haven't dozed off by now). *Any* advice to help me with this situation would be greatly appreciated, as I have been pulling my hair out for months trying to figure this out.