Freezes and Crashes

HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
edited December 2007 in Hardware
Hi all, it's not an emergency but I couldn't think of a better category for spontaneous crashes.

I've previously overclocked to 3.4GHz, I've been experiencing crashing, so I put the settings back to defaults (2.67GHz). Now, every time I play Medieval 2: Total war, when I start a battle my PC freezes. It plays the normal frozen sound, where it repeats the last 0.5 seconds of sound very fast over and over again, a bit like cheap techno music. Once that happens the PC is totally unresponsive except for pressing the power button. Anyone got any ideas as to what is wrong? I've been playing loads of games before, even at the same time at 3.4hz and it hasn't crashed, only recently has it started crashing, and more and more frequently. Temps are fine )Idle: Core 0 = 15, Idle: Core 1 = 13).

UPDATE: This is no longer an "onoz, game crashes" post. I clicked "check volume for errors" and that resulted in an instant crash... I smell a reformat :( Any halp?
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Comments

  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    Another update. Crashes are more frequent, and no longer occur when gaming, they are regular. I also got a POST message saying something about a CMOS feature failing and using defaults, I also have no option to boot from a CD any more... So I can't find anywhere to repair windows.
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    another update: changed the boot device order and now I can do a repair, but the crashes are now completely random- it froze while I was trying to write another reply (I'm now using the PC downstairs).
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited December 2007
    reset your bios and set run it at the default settings. There is a good chance when you were messing around OC'ing it that when you tried to change it back to normal you don't have all your settings correct.

    Usually that's what that CMOS error means, you have a timing setting out of whack.
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    I formatted my PC and reset the BIOS settings to defaults... Was working fine until it did something strenuous... extracting a large folder (medieval total war, shockingly) and it crashed again.
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    I'm doing a stress test, but it seems anything either WinRar or Medieval Total War related causes it to crash. However I did get it before by running the SMP and Veoh.com at the same time too...
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    Test your RAM.
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    Testing RAM now, the CPU test went fine
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    Thrax, how do you do it? :P
    Tested with Orthos:



    Launching 2 threads...
    Using CPU #0
    Beginning a continuous self-test to check your computer.
    Press Stop to end this test.
    Test 1, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19922945 using 1024K FFT length.
    FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 1, expected less than 0.4
    Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
    Torture Test ran 0 minutes 18 seconds - 1 errors, 0 warnings.
    Execution halted.
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    This is brand new RAM, so that's not good o.O
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    Any ideas anyone? My PC won't go past the "Welcome" screen now ¬_¬
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited December 2007
    Test your ram using memtest. If it passes it could be that your page file has gotten corrupted from your repeated crashes. Can you boot up in safe mode?
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    I've just got a copy of memtest on disk, I'll be running that when I get home. I've formatted my PC since though, so I'm totally confuzzed 'bout this :S
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited December 2007
    If your ram is bad it could be that it's just bad. Could also be a timing issue you are missing somewhere. Could be that you fried your ram from OC'ing to much.
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    I ran Memtest and it turned out one of the chips was boned- the other one works still but I've got one broken chip. I'll return it under warranty as it's memory that comes already overclocked, so they can't refuse me another chip if it failed as a result from overclocking T_T Thanks for the help guys
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited December 2007
    Harudath wrote:
    I ran Memtest and it turned out one of the chips was boned- the other one works still but I've got one broken chip. I'll return it under warranty as it's memory that comes already overclocked, so they can't refuse me another chip if it failed as a result from overclocking T_T Thanks for the help guys

    They can and they can't really overclock memory before installing it. They make memory that is better for overclocking but it's not really overclocked until you put it in a board and then overclock it. But they can (if they got finicky) choose not to warranty it because just because it's better designed to handle overclocking they can't guarantee that it'll run at whatever specs you try and push through it....

    Bottom line don't tell them you overclocked it.
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    Well, my dad works at Kingston, and when he asked he was told that Hyper X is already overclocked, like the chip I have is at 800MHz Regular but it's Overclocked to 1066, that's the way they sell it afaik.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited December 2007
    Harudath wrote:
    Well, my dad works at Kingston, and when he asked he was told that Hyper X is already overclocked, like the chip I have is at 800MHz Regular but it's Overclocked to 1066, that's the way they sell it afaik.

    I could argue this all day. But it's not overclocked - outside of it's own specs unless you do that on your board. So for all intents and purposes it's a 1066mhz chip of ram that is backwards compatible.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    No memory comes overclocked out of the box. If you stuck it in any old board without support for faster memory (Like 1066), it'd run all day long at 800 speeds. You manually have to tell the RAM via the mobo to use the higher speed grades, therefore you yourself are overclocking it.

    However, the overclocking is covered under warranty. I thought it was the RAM, glad you've got a fix under way.
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    RAM issue is now fixed, one module short still, but that's not stopped the crashing... It shuts off as though I've just pulled the power from out the back... Wondering if the PSU's up to it tbh >.<
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    Just flashed my BIOS, downloading new Chipset and Sound drivers (graphics are done) and reduced my overclock, it's producing about 10 degrees less heat for a 200Mhz reduction :P I'll do a proper PC mark test to see the performance: power: heat ratio
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    Hmm, something's not right. I stopped the overclock, moved the RAM chip to the slot the previous one was in, since I'm only running one now, and the second chip is getting an error now too...


    Test 1, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19922945 using 1024K FFT length.
    FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
    Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
    Torture Test ran 0 minutes 55 seconds - 1 errors, 0 warnings.
    Execution halted.
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    Okay, fixed it- Both RAM modules are working, but if I run them in dual channel I get the FATAL ERROR Message on Orthos :S
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    Do you have the RAM positioned in the correct slots for dual channel? It should be slots 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 for dual channel with two modules.

    It would also help us if you posted your computer specifications. That's one of the reasons many of us post specs in our signature - not for bragging rights, but for information purposes.
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    I did, yeah. I tried running in 2 and 4 and they both instantly came up with errors, 1 and 3 took a little longer to screw up, then 1 and 2 worked ¬_¬ the crashing has stopped now
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    1 and 2 worked, tried putting in 1 and 3, worked for a bit then the PC froze again :confused:
  • adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    What motherboard are you using? While 'most' motherboards run in dual channel when RAM slots 1 and 2 or 3 and 4 are populated, some boards (an MSI board I currently use for example) run in dual channel when slots 1 and 2 or 3 and 4 are populated. Next, (again, what is your motherboard?) what is your northbridge cooling solution? Separate fan? Passive heatsink? If you have a fan on your NB, is it working properly? Has the NB heatsink pulled away from the chip itself? If all of these hardware issues are A-OK, let's go back to your overclocking. You know that formatting the hard drive does nothing relative to overclocking. Overclocking is held in motherboard memory (not RAM but on-board). Sometimes clearing the CMOS won't completely clear an overclock. I have had stubborn overclocks that have almost been impossible to return to default. Once more, what is your motherboard? Some clear the CMOS by moving a jumper with the power supply and battery still attached (off but attached). Others require disconnecting the main power supply dongle (20 or 24 pin) from the board and moving a CMOS jumper momentarily. Sometimes the CMOS jumper has to be moved for more than a few seconds. I had one that had to be moved to the clear position over night before the CMOS cleared and returned to default. Still others want you to remove the CMOS battery for a time.

    At this point, if your NB cooling is good, I am betting on stubborn overclocking settings that won't erase as planned. The first thing to do when an overclocked system gets snotty is to fully erase the overclock and start clean and clear. If it then runs OK not overclocked, you probably have identified the problem. Also, keep in mind that when overclocking goes bad to the point of hurting hardware, RAM is usually the first victim. GL!
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    ASUS P5N-E SLi
    Northbridge uses a regular heatsink
    Unplugging the power and removing the motherboard battery clears my CMOS fine. The RAM is working fine, and 1 and 2 are single channel. I've tried reducing the overclock/removing it completely but it seems to be the RAM slots that are being bitchy. Unless you suspect my NB is overheating?
  • adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    OK, if I remember correctly, your mobo can be snotty about RAM and needs to have the timings entered manually rather than by SPD to get the best stability. You don't say what RAM make and model you are using unless I missed that part. Whatever brand you are using, go to their website and make sure your motherboard is listed as approved for that particular RAM module. FYI, I also run a system with a similar ASUS board: P5N32-E SLI. Contrary to popular belief "RAM is RAM is RAM" is simply untrue. There are certain modules/makes, even though speed ratings appear to be the same as QVL approved modules, that just don't play nice in certain motherboards. Yours, like my P5N32-E, happens to be one of those finicky ones. GL!
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    Aww crap :P It's Kingston HyperX KHX8500D2K2/2GN. I don't know what to manually set the speeds to, so I've got some reading to do :S Unless anyone can explain it to me?

    The problem might be my northbridge actually.. it's hot to touch
  • adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    Well, according to the Kingston HyperX memory finder, your RAM is NOT approved for that motherboard. Sorry to tell you that. :/

    ASUS/ASmobile P5N-E SLI Motherboard

    Part Number Description Price Buy
    KHX4300D2/512 512MB 533MHz DDR2 Non-ECC CL3 (3-3-3-10) DIMM $39 BUY NOW
    KHX4300D2K2/512 512MB 533MHz DDR2 Non-ECC CL3 (3-3-3-10) DIMM (Kit of 2) $65 BUY NOW
    KHX4300D2K2/1G 1GB 533MHz DDR2 Non-ECC CL3 (3-3-3-10) DIMM (Kit of 2) $78 BUY NOW
    KHX5400D2/512 512MB 675MHz DDR2 Non-ECC CL4 (4-4-4-10) DIMM $40 BUY NOW
    KHX5400D2/1G 1GB 675MHz DDR2 Non-ECC CL4 (4-4-4-10) DIMM $68 BUY NOW
    KHX5400D2K2/1G 1GB 675MHz DDR2 Non-ECC CL4 (4-4-4-10) DIMM (Kit of 2) $80 BUY NOW
    KHX5400D2K2/2G 2GB 675MHz DDR2 Non-ECC CL4 (4-4-4-10) DIMM (Kit of 2) $135 BUY NOW
    KHX6400D2/512 512MB 800MHz DDR2 Non-ECC CL5 (5-5-5-15) DIMM $29 BUY NOW
    KHX6400D2/1G 1GB 800MHz DDR2 Non-ECC CL5 (5-5-5-15) DIMM $53 BUY NOW
    KHX6400D2K2/1G 1GB 800MHz DDR2 Non-ECC CL5 (5-5-5-15) DIMM (Kit of 2) $58 BUY NOW
    KHX6400D2K2/2G 2GB 800MHz DDR2 Non-ECC CL5 (5-5-5-15) DIMM (Kit of 2) $105 BUY NOW
    KHX6400D2LL/512 512MB 800MHz DDR2 Non-ECC Low-Latency CL4 (4-4-4-12) DIMM $32 BUY NOW
    KHX6400D2LL/1G 1GB 800MHz DDR2 Non-ECC Low-Latency CL4 (4-4-4-12) DIMM $57 BUY NOW
    KHX6400D2LLK2/2G 2GB 800MHz DDR2 Non-ECC Low-Latency CL4 (4-4-4-12) DIMM (Kit of 2) $113 BUY NOW

    http://www.valueram.com/datasheets/KHX8500D2K2_2GN.pdf

    If you can, return or exchange that RAM for one that is approved. If not, you can sell it or try to play with timings to "make it work" on your board. Bad break there bud. :(
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