Hard locks when gaming

[Coros]

Hey there, I've been having some odd hard lock issues with some of my games on my new rig. Firstly, here are the specs:

Asus A8N-SLI premium mobo
AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 2.8ghz
2 sticks of 1 gig Kingston ram (these are on loan from the computer shop while my Corsair Xms 3500LLPRO gets replaced since it died)
2 BFG geforce gtx 256 mb video cards in SLI mode
250 gig Maxtor Diamond max 10 hard drive
Plextor DvD-RW/CD-RW drive (can't remember the model number offhand)
Sound blaster audigy 4 Pro.

Now to the problem. I've been having my computer hard lock when playing several games, World of Warcraft and Lineage 2 for example for no apparent reason. I have noticed what seems to be a pattern to it though. If I restart my computer fresh and immediately boot up one of the games that ususally hard locks before doing anything else with my computer i can play for 8 hours or more with no lock ups.

However, if my computer hasn't been freshly restarted or i've been browsing with it or watching videos or downloading torrents etc hard locks will occur within 5-10 minutes of playing, sometimes before i even get to log in.

Oh yea, and my board has the 2 lan controllers, I've been using the NV-lan just FYI.

Thanks in advance for any insight anyone can bring into this problem.

 

[Mutilator]

Are you getting any errors logged in your Event Log? (Right click My Computer -> Manage -> Event Viewer) These might tell you if it's a driver issue or not if it's able to log an entry before locking up.

I was going to say it was heat related... but that wouldn't explain why you could play for 8 hours with no lockups after a fresh boot.

You could also try using just 1 video card or the other for a few days each and see if you notice the problem happen with 1 card and not the other.

 

[Coros]

I've had the box for about 2 months now, it only started doing this about a month ago. I decided to format my drive last night, haven't had a chance to see if thats solved anything yet though. Its possible it could have just been a very very weird software oddity which could have been fixed with the format, but i guess i'll know later today.
If it does continue though, i'll check that event log as you suggested though.

Oh and yea I doubt its a heat issue, my geforces only go up to like 69 Celsius on load, my cpu goes to about 61.

If the games were just crashing to desktop I wouldn't even care, I just can't stand having to reboot my computer several times a day, it can't be good for it to have to aswell.

 

[pol II]

I second the idea of trying a single card. Could be a power issue. Also ensure that the RAM you are using is on the QVL for that board. You might also try unhooking all peripherals, including sound card and uninstalliung sound card drivers (use driver cleaner to get rid of the last of the entries).

Memtest your RAM, one stick at a time, then in dual-channel.

If you suspect a software conflict, reinstall using minimum hardware (HDD, CPU, mobo, one stick of RAM, optical drive). Start adding in programs and one by one until you can isolate the offending program.

 

[Coros]

I don't know if this helps any, but i did notice the last few times its done this, the mobo makes a quiet but unusual buzzing sound as it locks up. then it stops buzzing shortly after.

 

[Mutilator]

Check the motherboard for swollen caps... they're the little battery looking things sticking off the motherboard that typically have a X on top of them and should be flat, if they're bulging out or leaking then your MB is going bad and will need to be replaced.

 

[OCedHrt]

I have the exact same issue. Considering replacing the board, as nothing else seems to be the culprit.