Computer freezes for approx 10seconds

M

Misadventure

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 13, 2003
Messages
197
My computer freezes up and just randomly when I'm playing games (wow, cs 1.6)

It was happening, then I formatted my computer and it still happens.

I have:

ABIT NF7-S
e-vga 6800 regular
512mb of geil golden dragon
seagate 120gb sata drive
windows xp sp1

any ideas what could be causing it to just freeze up like that? its mainly only in fps games and sometimes i get bluescreens from it too.
 
ok well i swaped out my ram and the same issue is still there. is it possible its my video card, is there any tests i can do?

im wondering if its video card related since it only seems to happen in 3d applications.
 
reseat your video card - double check the monitor cable (make sure not kinked/has been kinked) and its connections...
open the side of the case - watch the vid card fan - make sure its running.
inspect the card make sure that the heatsink is making good contact with the gpu.
check the hard drive cabling - check the psu's amps see if you have a weak line.
best of luck
 
System:

ABIT NF7-S Mobo Rev 2.0
Evga Geforce 6800
1.5gb DDR 400 RAM
Seagate SATA 120gb
Barton 2500+
550W Psu

What I've tried so far:

Formatting - yields same result.
Swapping RAM - I've tried about 5 different sticks of memory(which work fine in other systems) in different slots and still the same issue.
Updating windows, chkdsk, etc, all that is up to date.
Tried about 10 different vid card drivers to try to solve my 3d issue - no difference found.
All my cables are securely connected, I've reseated/reonnected them all etc.

I was thinking(however unlikely) that it may be an issue with my hard drive - however I noticed that when in safe mode the issue does not occur. With that we should also be able to rule out any issues with cabling, psu, etc - correct?

Also, is there any way to change it so that when you get a bluescreen it doesn't restart right away - it would be great if I could record the information I'm getting so I can provide some more information and also do some research on it.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions so far - I really would like to get this fixed so that my computer will run normal again :)
 
try a different video card - try your video card in a known stable system if you can - you could have a bad vid card.
 
Your best bet is to try and test each sub-system as seperatly as possible.
First test the memory with Memtest86. Three loops is ok.
If no errors then test the cpu with Prine95. 6-24 hour is good.
If it Prime stable then add a few loops of 3dMark on top of the Prime95 test.
That the order I always test a box for stability.
Any box that passes all that I know it will not normaly be a hardware issue when it crashes as long as I keep the bust bunnies under control.......

Auto-restarts are under System Propperties -> Advanced -> Startup & Recovery.

Luck.......:D
 
Feel free to poke at me if it sounds like I'm going down the wrong chain here, but:

WoW, often cited as one of the few games that will actually show improved performance from having over 1GB of memory

System has 512MB of memory

When memory runs out, it has to flip over to pagefile, which can cause a similar effect to the one described.

Maybe?

If you're getting a BSOD on occasion, you need to tell us what it says, it's a fatal error screen and tells you what the error was, and theoretically is useful to help diagnose the cause of the error.
 
I'm actually running 1.5gb of ram now - sig just isn't updated.

The bluescreens are found outside of WoW and other games as well.

The bluescreen error:

Check to be sure you have adequete disk space. If a driver is identified in the stop message, disable the driver or check with the manufacturer for driver updates. Try changing video adapters.

It also said something about updating my bios if needed - could that actually be a problem is it just a generic message?

Also,

Stop ***: 0x0000008E(0x0000005, 0x8053cdd1, 0xb74d4844, 0x00000000)

Those were the adresses included at the end of the bluescreen.

Any ideas based off this information? The bluescreens only occur in regular windows. My computer runs just fine in safe mode.
 
Tried a different video card, no difference.
Tried installing on an IDE HDD, bluescreened during install.

So I guess I can rule out vid card and hard drive as possible issues.

I just flashed my bios on my nf7-s, i was running the 19 version, the newest out was 27. I will let you all know how it goes.
 
That stop code means it probably says "kernel mode exception not handled" elsewhere on the screen. Does it mention Nv4_disp.dll at all? Sometimes that one pops up if you have corrupt / old nVidia drivers. Try running driver cleaner & reinstalling the latest drivers.
 
When you re-installed, you updated windows to SP2 offline, right? Before connecting to the internet?

I have seen computers infected in less than 90 seconds (once the ethernet drivers have been installed) if the machine is connected to the internet before the service packs/firewall are installed.

Good luck... we all feel your pain.

-Skystalker
 
Skystalker said:
I have seen computers infected in less than 90 seconds (once the ethernet drivers have been installed) if the machine is connected to the internet before the service packs/firewall are installed.
Click to expand...

When that happens, you typically get a RPC restart message. It's freaky to watch though. Especially given how old that particular problem is.
 
I thank you all very much for your help, I think I have fixed the issue.

It seemed to be a combination of a faulty RAM stick and faulty NIC drivers. I've been running good for about 30 minutes now, which is literally about 10times longer than it's ever lasted since the issue started. Here's to hoping.. ! :)
 
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