[UnrealQuaker221]

Ever since my HDD hard drive failed, I have been getting these random freezes, usually during gaming but it can happen any time. The broken drive has been removed, of course. I have been told that this is a symptom of over heating. I used RivaTuner but I was told on this forum that it is unstable so I uninstalled it. I looked for a program to limit my FPS, I heard that high FPS can increase heat buildup, but I could not find one.

 

[VirGnarus]

I don't see any BSODs, but yes, I do see many, many cases of it shutting down unexpectedly, most likely due to you manually shutting it down.

When did you replace the drive?

If you wanna check temperatures, you can use HWInfo. Run it with Sensors only checked and log 30 minutes idle and 30 minutes during high load (like playing a game).

You may also test the GPU using MemtestG80/CL. Do a couple runs with one or both of em. Note that your GPU is not guaranteed to worth with either of em, but if one does run, give it a couple goes.

 

[UnrealQuaker221]

Thank you for the quick response.

I will use the tests, but I am not sure that my GPU has a thermometer. I do have to manually shut it off after a freeze. I did not replace the drive because I had 1000 gb left and that is more than enough. I just unplugged it and left it in the case.

The webpage to download MemtestG80 says that I should reset my clock speed to the reference frequency first. How can I do that, if my cards are overclocked?

 

[VirGnarus]

While your GPU won't have a thermometer, I'm sure it'll have a thermal sensor. Pretty much any GPU that has been made for the past several years have had thermal sensors builtin, so you need not worry bout that.

Now that you mentioned the overclocking, if you have anything overclocked, you must reset them to factory defaults. I'm not sure how you are not aware how to do so, as it requires manual editing in the BIOS or some overclocking software like RivaTuner in order to overclock em. Did you make sure to reset everything in RivaTuner before you uninstalled it? You may need to install it again to reset everything, then uninstall it. Also, you'll want to go into the BIOS and there should be an option to reset everything to normal defaults. That should ensure that any overclocked settings would revert to stable industry levels.

 

[UnrealQuaker221]

I never used RivaTuner to adjust clock speed, just fan speed.

In the BIOS I found these settings that were not set to "auto" or "optimal":

"CPU N/2 Ratio" was set to enabled
"CPU Multiplier" was set to 8X
"C1E Function" was set to enabled
"Execute Disable Bit" was set to enabled
"Virtualization" was set to enabled
"SpeedStep" was set to disabled
"EPP 2.0 Memory" was set to disabled

 

[UnrealQuaker221]

I selected the option "Load setup defaults" and saved the changes to the CMOS. Those settings I just posted were recorded before doing this.

 

[VirGnarus]

Let's see if things stabilize from factory defaults. The only settings I'd be concerned about that you mentioned was the CPU N/2 Ratio and the CPU Multiplier set to 8x. Of course, it all depends on what the standard settings are supposed to be. The rest are typical functions of a CPU and doesn't really need to be changed unless under specific conditions.

 

[UnrealQuaker221]

I am still getting freezes, but much less often. After I reset the settings to the default, the CPU Multiplier was still set to 8X, should I lower it?

 

[VirGnarus]

Nah, don't, that's the default multiplier. Go ahead and provide us those HWInfo logs as previously requested.

 

[UnrealQuaker221]

Here are the results for running HWInfo for 30 minutes while idle.

 

[UnrealQuaker221]

Here are the results for running HWInfo for 30 minutes while gaming (Skyrim). Sorry for the gap, I had stuff to do.

 

[VirGnarus]

It doesn't look like HWInfo is reading your temp and voltage sensors correctly. While this could be a compatibility issue, I doubt it, given this is a standard OEM (Dell) PC. You may need to go on the Dell website and download an update for the Motherboard/chipset drivers as well as the BIOS if they exist for your PC. If you do find and successfully install updates for either of these, then post a couple more HWInfo logs as previously instructed and we'll see if that helped fix things.

The thing I'm most concerned with is when there's small moments in the log when the readings for everything is completely bonkers. Typically a compatibility issue doesn't cause this, but a failing motherboard will.

 

[UnrealQuaker221]

I could not find any mobo drivers, but I did find the newest BIOS. I already had the newest BIOS.

I searched for mobo drivers under the support section and it brought me to a page where I could download the newest BIOS.

 

[VirGnarus]

It won't label mobo drivers as motherboard, it would instead label them as CPU or Chipset drivers.

 

[UnrealQuaker221]

This is where I searched for drivers:

Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]

I could not find CPU or chipset drivers for Win7 64bit.

 

[UnrealQuaker221]

Win7 64bit was not an option in the Operating System box, does that mean that my system is not fully compatible with Win7 64bit?

 

[VirGnarus]

It's one of the problems with owning an OEM computer like Dell. You are limited to whatever drivers they happen to produce for that particular system.

You may have luck in using Vista 64-bit drivers instead, as Win7 is fairly compatible with them. They may also have hotfix versions of the chipset drivers, but they're only provided when you contact their technical support and have them install it for you.

 

[UnrealQuaker221]

There are no Vista 64-bit chipset drivers on the website.

I do not think that my computer is still within warranty and I would like to avoid screwing around with Dell tech support until I have to. Is there a way to scan my BIOS to see if it is corrupted or uninstall it and reinstall it?

Looking in the Dell.com tech support section reminded me to tell you something. Back when this first started to happen, I executed the command "sfc /scannow" and no problems were found.

 

[VirGnarus]

You can't uninstall a BIOS, and you must make sure to only flash a correct BIOS to replace the current one, and it must be done correctly, otherwise your motherboard will brick and your computer will be completely inoperable and you will most likely not be able to recover it aside from getting a brand new motherboard. However if the one you install is lower version or same version as what you already have, you're fine as long as it flashes correctly.

Anyways, I do see only XP chipset drivers, so that will most likely not help. Unless Windows Update has some up its sleeve for your system, I don't think there will be any available. Your best bet right now is to flash the BIOS with what they have on the site, and hope for the best. Provide me some HWInfo logs as before after you're done to see if it fixed anything. Otherwise, you may have to end up replacing the system/motherboard after-all.

 

[UnrealQuaker221]

I ran the BIOS update application and I think it worked. I did not see any evidence of it flashing my BIOS though. The application said that it would restart my computer then flash the BIOS. It restarted, but when it was booting up it was as if I had just clicked restart. Nothing was displayed besides what I normally see on start up.

If it did work, it did not stop the freezing.