alright my computer sometimes randomly freezes or restarts with seemingly no relationship between the occurences. As far as i know the only reason for this is bad RAM does anyone agree?
Printable View
alright my computer sometimes randomly freezes or restarts with seemingly no relationship between the occurences. As far as i know the only reason for this is bad RAM does anyone agree?
It could be a whole bunch of things. To rule out your memory, run a memtest.
You can get enough tools to trouble shoot with the ultimate boot cd.
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
I don't.Quote:
... As far as i know the only reason for this is bad RAM does anyone agree?
As phish said, it could be a whole bunch of things.
Before someone starts with the normal questions, ......
When was the last time you cleaned the inside of the box?
Accumulated dust in the fans, heatsinks, etc. seem more often then not the cause of such problems, at least lately. And after you clean everything, make sure those fans are still working!
It would be helpful if we knew:
1. What operating system?
2. What hardware configuration?
3. How long has this been happening?
4. How old is the kit?
5. Do you get any BIOS beeps, if so, how many?
6. Do you get any blue screens or messages?
7. Does there appear to be any link to what you are doing when this happens?(internet, gaming that sort of thing?)
8. Do you have surge protection or UPS?
As my colleagues have suggested it might be the RAM, but it could be a variety of other things. I actually had a machine in a few weeks ago that displayed similar behaviour. It turned out to be the power supply cooling fan didn't start every time :( sometimes it did, but then it didn't and the machine would freeze or restart.
IKnowNot's suggestion of a thorough clean out and check the fans is a good start.
You might try booting into BIOS setup. See if you can turn off "Quick Boot" and any "restart on error" settings. That way you stand a better chance of getting messages ;)
Also in the BIOS and operating system, turn off all power saving and hibernation.............. you want the machine set to always on.
If you are running XP or Windows 2000, have a look in the event logs.
I agree with all of the responses above and wanted to add:
If you are running a box with Xp/2000 (not sure about other versions) you can disable automatic restarts, and have your OS generate a memory dump... I am not going to go into specific details but once you have the memory dump, you will be able to get a better idea of whats going on and where to start your trouble shooting. I would use multiple dumps if possible. There are also techniques for analyzing when your system just freezes.
Check these out:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtoo...g/default.mspx
http://www.networkworld.com/news/200...ows-crash.html
I just took a quick look at these articles but they might help :D
:drink:
i just opened it up and cleaned all the fans and such last week so i dont think its that. its running 32 bit XP pro with an abit KN9 SLI motherboard, 2GB corsair DDR RAM, GeForce 7600GS card. Its been happening for a while on and off, for a while it would go as long as a week without any signs but lately within 5 minutes of turning it on it freezes, not as many random restarts as before. havent seen any BSOD's in a while. there seems to be no link to when it happens as far as what is running and ya i do have a surge protector on it. The link for WinDbg on the second link seemed promising but it brought up nothing does anyone have another link to the same program? ill make all the changes to the BIOS and work on the UBCD and repost later. thanks for all the help everybody.
how do I have it generate a memory dump?
Hi,
Please try here:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtoo...g/default.mspx
Corsair is generally pretty good quality RAM. You must have at least two strips, so try them alternately and see if that fixes the problem.
Also check the fan on your Video card. Some cards mount upside down so you don't always notice if the fan isn't spinning properly.
When you do the memory testing, try to test the video memory as well.
:)
alright i finally tested the memory and cleaned the inside of the box thoroughly. both memtest and another memory tester on the UBCD said there was nothing wrong with the RAM. The problem has also changed slightly, as soon as i sign on normally within 30 seconds it will freeze up whether runnning anything strenuous or not.
Does it happen if you boot into safe mode?
Does a surface scan of the HDD show anything?
Is there anything in the system logs?