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I've got a real problem with a rig I built a few months ago. I've been so busy that I haven't had time to fix it. When I try to do anything serious with it (gaming, any serious tabbed browsing, even basic diagnostics) it freezes. I can browse the internet and the computer will stay running for days if I'm not using it... no freezes.
I'm running Windows XP Pro on a Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale, gygabyte GA-EP43-DS3L, with a PNY 9600GT. My mobo has the most current bios. Edit: Also running 2 gigs of OCZ PC 800 ddr2 ram, voltages are stock but solid. Temps are stable and quite cool, less than 40C at load (well... what I can load up on it.)
My PSU is the Corsair VX 450. Nothing is OC'ed and there shouldn't be an issue with wattage (the whole thing is estimated at less than 300 W). Voltages are very solid, almost no variance on the rails. The 12 volt rail is a little high, 12.61 or so which is just beyond 5%. Everything else is well within 5%.
When I started having the problem I had 2x2gb sticks installed. I found when I installed the nvidia drivers for some reason my system would freeze randomly, even without doing anything but booting the system up. I removed a stick of ram, to go down to 2 gb, and that problem disappeared. Basic computing was no problem.
I've run memtest86, it freezes at something like 6% on the first run through every time in Test 4. Not always the same spot but always the same test. This requires a hard reset.
In Windows, I loaded up CoD2 as a basic fairly easy to run game on what my system should be able to handle. It'll run for randomly between 10-40 seconds and then it'll lock up and it requres a hard reset. Same thing with basic internet browsing, I can do one tab easily but when I start pushing it to more than one tab, video, etc, it'll lock up and require a hard reset.
I played with memory voltages 1.8 - 2.0 to see if maybe that was causing the instability. Nothing fixed it. I tried running the ram at 667, that didn't change anything.
I'm at a loss... it seems to me its bad ram or a bad PSU but I can't tell which it is... or if its something else entirely. I don't want to go around buying random parts till I fix it and I don't have a Frys or other B&M store close by that is reasonable. Best I could do would be to go to BB, buy parts and return em if its not the solution (no thanks
)
Anyone have an idea on this?
I'm running Windows XP Pro on a Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale, gygabyte GA-EP43-DS3L, with a PNY 9600GT. My mobo has the most current bios. Edit: Also running 2 gigs of OCZ PC 800 ddr2 ram, voltages are stock but solid. Temps are stable and quite cool, less than 40C at load (well... what I can load up on it.)
My PSU is the Corsair VX 450. Nothing is OC'ed and there shouldn't be an issue with wattage (the whole thing is estimated at less than 300 W). Voltages are very solid, almost no variance on the rails. The 12 volt rail is a little high, 12.61 or so which is just beyond 5%. Everything else is well within 5%.
When I started having the problem I had 2x2gb sticks installed. I found when I installed the nvidia drivers for some reason my system would freeze randomly, even without doing anything but booting the system up. I removed a stick of ram, to go down to 2 gb, and that problem disappeared. Basic computing was no problem.
I've run memtest86, it freezes at something like 6% on the first run through every time in Test 4. Not always the same spot but always the same test. This requires a hard reset.
In Windows, I loaded up CoD2 as a basic fairly easy to run game on what my system should be able to handle. It'll run for randomly between 10-40 seconds and then it'll lock up and it requres a hard reset. Same thing with basic internet browsing, I can do one tab easily but when I start pushing it to more than one tab, video, etc, it'll lock up and require a hard reset.
I played with memory voltages 1.8 - 2.0 to see if maybe that was causing the instability. Nothing fixed it. I tried running the ram at 667, that didn't change anything.
I'm at a loss... it seems to me its bad ram or a bad PSU but I can't tell which it is... or if its something else entirely. I don't want to go around buying random parts till I fix it and I don't have a Frys or other B&M store close by that is reasonable. Best I could do would be to go to BB, buy parts and return em if its not the solution (no thanks
)Anyone have an idea on this?
