How do I figure out what's causing my system's instablilty?

[Shawn]

Basically I've had my computer running great for at least a year without doing any upgrades and I've had the mobo, ram, and cpu probably close to 2 years. Never had any problems in the past. Reciently for some reason my computer has been randomly freezing and restarting for no apparent reason. It seems completely random! I don't think it's a heat issue either. I got out my can of compressed air and cleaned out all the dust just in case. Here are the specs:

Pentium 4 1.6 @ 2.1GHz
Gigabyte GA-8IHXP
640MB RD-RAM
Radeon 9600 Pro 256MB DDR
WD 200GB w/ 8MB Cache
WD 100GB w/ 2MB Cache
some other useless stuff

I remembered I was using beta video drivers for better Doom 3 performance and thought that might be the cause so I replaced them with the latest final drivers with no luck. I don't really think I have done anything from the time my computer worked and now. Checked for viruses, ect. and it is clean, so I'm pretty sure this is a hardware issue. Also there are no BSOD when it crashes either. It just freezes/resets. It's been forever since I had to hunt down a hardware problem. Any suggestions on where to start?

Edit: I had completely forgotten I had my computer overclocked. It's been this way for 3 years. Think I finally killed it?

 

[Aleksandar]

Edit: I had completely forgotten I had my computer overclocked. It's been this way for 3 years. Think I finally killed it?

Yeah man i Think so get it on 2Ghz see if it still happens if yes then try to rise the voltage on the CPU
if it is still the same get it to 1.9ghz and so on i know my cup did the same thing at very high speeds

 

[dmw16]

I dont think you killed for CPU. Unless you were running insanly high voltage settings it is probably fine. My guess is that your PSU is going. I suppose you could try clocking it back to normal speeds, but I really wouldnt be suprised if this is a PSU related issue.

 

[JWMiddleton]

You might try removing the Heatsink and reapplying some Artic Silver. After a few years the stuff gets cooked and does not work as well. I have had this happen.

Good luck with it!

 

[Shawn]

Well I underclocked it and it hasn't crashed thus far. However it's only been a day, I'll have to wait a few more days to be sure it is infact a cpu issue. Is there anyway to monitor my cpu temps from windows?

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: dmw16
I dont think you killed for CPU. Unless you were running insanly high voltage settings it is probably fine. My guess is that your PSU is going. I suppose you could try clocking it back to normal speeds, but I really wouldnt be suprised if this is a PSU related issue.

How would I be able to determine if it's the PSU (short of buying a new one)? Also I've never increased the CPU's voltage. It's always been stock.

 

[Fern]

Is there anyway to monitor my cpu temps from windows?

Download free proggie Motherboard Monitor 5. It'll show your temps on screen.

How would I be able to determine if it's the PSU (short of buying a new one)?

Same solution (MBM5). It has a "sys log" option that will write your voltages and temps to a text doc. Which you go back and reveiw in case pc freezes or reboots. On the main screen of MBM5, look to the lower left for this option and elect to have it set up the text doc. You can also choose the intervals it records the measurements (voltage and temps every second, or every 10 seconds etc.) as well as how many entries to have it record (ex. save 25 entries, or 50 etc.)

 

[Shawn]

My computer crashed again last night but this time I had changed my settings so it wouldn't restart after a BSOD. This is what I got

STOP: 0x000000D1
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

And had something to do with the driver IDECHNDR.SYS

Now I'm not sure it was a hardware failure that caused it to crash or a driver issue, but I looked up that driver and it appeared to be connected to the Intel Application Launcher. I uninstalled that and am waiting to see if that was the cause or not.

Fern, thanks for that info. I'll look into that too.

 

[disastinator]

If you're still experiencing instability problems ....

Take a close look at the capacitors around the CPU and Northbridge chip on the GA-8IHXP. If the capacitors show signs of bulging or leaking (tops are not flat and/or brown liquid residue leaking from top or bottom) this may be the cause of instability.

I have the same mobo and I had to RMA it for two reasons (1) the condition described above, and (2) the Norbridge fan had seized. They replaced several caps and the fan.

If you're pretty sure the problem is with the mobo (i.e. not with software, or cards, memory, or CPU) this mobo is covered by a 3-year warranty so you may still have time to RMA it.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Supercharged
My computer crashed again last night but this time I had changed my settings so it wouldn't restart after a BSOD. This is what I got

STOP: 0x000000D1
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

And had something to do with the driver IDECHNDR.SYS

Now I'm not sure it was a hardware failure that caused it to crash or a driver issue, but I looked up that driver and it appeared to be connected to the Intel Application Launcher. I uninstalled that and am waiting to see if that was the cause or not.

Possible, but keep in mind that low-level hardware problems, to the OS, often cannot be differentiated from driver crashes and that sort of thing. If you want to rule out hardware issues, run memtest86 and Prime95's torture tests.