Computer freezing/locking up at random intervals when using Google Chrome.

[XX55XX]

Hello. I have a computer with the following specifications:

Intel Xeon X3350 (it's a Q9450, basically)
5GB DDR2-SDRAM (in a 3x1GB + 1x2GB configuration)
EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Several Western Digital hard drives
Corsair HX650W PSU
Gigabyte GA-P43-DS3L motherboard.

The issue here is that, the machine would randomly lock up and freeze after several hours of use. The mouse cursor becomes sluggish and general unresponsive, CPU activity jumps to around 30%, and all I can do is force a hard reset. I have suspected that malware/spyware might be the culprit, but after several system scans, I have eliminated this possibility.

I did add 2GB of Crucial DDR2-667 RAM to my computer, so perhaps that might be faulty? Or is it the GTX 560 Ti and its drivers? I only got these random freezes after I installed my GTX 560 Ti.

There are no temperature issues that I can take note of. The CPU, hard drives, and GPU are running within their normal ranges.

Furthermore, I have noted that the lockup occurs only when I am using Google Chrome. Additionally, whenever I try to bring up the Task Manager, the system would give several random beeps.

 

[denis280]

Hi. this sounds like drivers issue.and are you running on ddr2 667 for all the memory cards. and witsh OS are your running.

 

[BoomerD]

Simple solution...stop using Chrome.

If this problem started after adding the Crucial RAM, try removing that and see if the problem continues. Ram is not always compatible, even if the sticks have the same general timings and specs...they may not "play well together."

Mixing RAM is iffy at best.

 

[DirkGently1]

Do you also have problems when playing video using DXVA? Any general graphics corruption, perhaps when playing flash video?

 

[Brainonska511]

Have you run memtest86+ on the new RAM? It seems an odd configuration for RAM across 4 slots. I'd suggest run memtest on the RAM individually (at least on the newest addition, if it was all running fine before), then run it with them all installed.

 

[XX55XX]

Hi. this sounds like drivers issue.and are you running on ddr2 667 for all the memory cards. and witsh OS are your running.

Yeah, the three 1GB sticks are running at 667 MHz. They are capped at that speed. The 2GB stick (Crucial) can run at 800 MHz, but is running at 667 MHz at the moment.

OS is Windows 7 x64.

 

[XX55XX]

Do you also have problems when playing video using DXVA? Any general graphics corruption, perhaps when playing flash video?

No corruption whatsoever. The lockup occurs suddenly and without warning.

 

[XX55XX]

I have yet to run Memtest86+, but the lockup just occurred again. I managed to close Chrome (took a few minutes), and when that closed, the computer regained responsiveness. I suspect the RAM doesn't like how Google Chrome uses it.

Hmm. I love Chrome, but I'll settle with Firefox for stability if these issues continue.

 

[XX55XX]

Sorry for the fourth consecutive post, but I noticed something interesting on the Google Chrome support forums:

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=30177989f20a0afc&hl=en

I started getting the lockups shortly after I updated Chrome to the latest version. It has to be Chrome, though I wouldn't necessarily rule out RAM instability either.