Increasing, random freeze problem. Replace mobo?

[SLOMike]

Quick version:

Computer is locking up. I?ve troubleshooted (troubleshot?) it to (I believe) the motherboard. I?m about to order another one. I haven?t troubleshooted the processor due to lack of an extra for testing. I?d like to confirm that ordering another mobo is the right move.



Long version:

Computer is a little over a year old. Been used mostly as a game box, and mostly for WoW. I?ve built a handful of computers over the last 10 years.

Haven?t had any significant troubles for the first 6-8 months. Around 8-9 months the occasional freeze would occur. Very rare and no big deal.

A year in, the freezes started occurring more frequently. Typically while in game, after the computer had been running for a while.

In the last month, the freezes have become epidemic. Sometimes the computer will work for an hour with no problem, but oftentimes we can?t even get it to load. It will freeze in any number of places:
1. During the initial boot-up, showing the mobo logo, pre-bios
2. In the bios menu
3. After bios but before loading windows
4. While loading windows
5. After loading windows, just sitting on the desktop
6. In-game
7. After playing for a little while and just going afk? come back and it?s frozen

As of the last few reboots?
1. Several experienced immediate freezes.
2. A third reboot successfully got all the way into windows.


Troubleshooting:

1. My first thought was that the hard drive was dying (back before freezes were happening pre-OS), so I swapped out the drive on the parts list for an older drive. Things seemed to get better ? no more freezes? for about a week.

2. Ultimate Boot CD. I?ve memtested the ram twice, over night ? no problems with the ram. I?ve done a short and long test of the hard drive itself ? again, no errors found.

3. I went through and jiggled connections, unplugged and re-plugged power cords, etc. This actually seemed to work? for a day or two. Freezes started occurring again quite soon, unfortunately.

4. Whatever the problem is, it seems to have eventually killed the HD. I can no longer get the original HD to be recognized, even on a spare computer that we?ve been using as a temporary replacement. Putting a functional HD into the problem computer changes nothing, freezes still occur.

5. I have swapped both the power supply and video card into a spare computer and they functioned fine.

6. Tried a new power supply in the problem computer - OCZ ModXStrem-Pro 600 watt - ran fine for 10ish hours. Got a full freeze the next morning, though, and several more the next couple days.

7. Tried taking out the two 512 rams, just leaving in the two 1Gs... still froze.

8. The computer is clean, no significant dust build-up.



Any ideas?


ASUS M2n-SLI nForce 570 deluxe mobo
Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Proc 6000+ (no fiddling or OCing)
Antec Earthwatts 430W (functions fine in alternate computer)
Replaced PSU with brand new OCZ ModXStrem-Pro 600 watt
EVGA Nvidia 8600 GTS (functions fine in alternate computer)
MEM 1Gx2|A-DATA + MEM 512Mx2|A-DATA DII800
Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (original
HD, now apparently dead)
Maxtor HD replacement (functions fine in alternate computer)

Windows XP fully updated
Dell 2407WFP Widescreen Monitor (native 1920 by 1200)

 

[Old Hippie]

I like your PS but if it were me, I'd be swapping another PS into your machine.

I've seen failing PS rails do funny things including errors like yours.


If you haven't already, check the event manager for errors.


BTW....Welcome to the forums and an excellent first post! :thumbsup:

 

[wanderer27]

Yes, welcome to the Forums

I'm Pretty much of the same mind as Old Hippie on the PSU.

One question though, did your HD actually become unusable (dead) or just unreadable?
If you're able to reformat it and use it, then there's a chance something either changed (or corrupted) in your BIOS or your MB is not right.

 

[Gunbuster]

Swapping the PSU into another machine is not a good test. You need to try a Known good beefy PSU in your box having problems.

 

[SLOMike]

I put in a new PSU (OCZ ModXStrem-Pro 600 watt). It seemed to solve the problem - computer ran great for 8-10 hours that first day.

Next day, though, experienced another freeze (similar MO as before - wife used the computer for a few minutes, then went afk, and when she came back it was locked up)... Looks like it's back to the drawing board.



For the HD problem (I guess either the PSU or the constant freezing messed it up?), I've done a little bit of troubleshooting on it. Basically bios isn't recognizing it. It spins up and gets warm, but doesn't seem to be communicating with the rest of the computer. No idea what I can do from here.

 

[tzdk]

May be an idea to check capacitors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague see under Symptoms.

 

[SLOMike]

Interesting. There are a lot of capacitors on a mobo, heh... but all of mine appear fine after a quick inspection.

Just had the one freeze today. It ran the rest of the day with no problems.

 

[tzdk]

Thought so but strange story so perhaps also strange cause. Mainly old stuff and some newer with cheap components suffer from those capacitor problems I think.

Ok, well you said memtesting had been done but if we forget that then 2x1gb + 2x512mb might not be perfect for that chipset? They all use same chip? Memtest86 can be passed and yet even bsod can be blaimed on ram, timings/voltage/speed settings (oc). That is why you could try 1. Take out modules, test and see what happens. And 2. With all 4 inserted run Prime95 Blend test in Windows - should not fail more than memtest86, and if it does there is probably a ram problem of some kind. And they can show themself in many weird ways. If computer freeze in bios even and ram is to blaim I dont think you will survive in Windows for many seconds - but who knows.

Think I would also try to reset cmos - perhaps flash to latest bios. Load optimized defaults and edit any special settings you need. Ram voltage, timings? Restore original setup based on optimized defaults preset. Asus will have this in manual. Bios can become corrupted - another who knows but what you can try. Will be excluded like you have done with other parts. If you dont feel like flashing then just reset cmos, load preset and do the editing.

If nothing helps it could be motherboard is dying slowly - but sometimes have a good day.

In case you dont know Prime95 get it here http://mersenne.org/freesoft/ unzip and start exe. As said use blend test, you find it under options, torture test. Should be able to run forever but 4-6 hours should be plenty to say ram is not that bad. If it fails it will stop, does not continue like memtest86.

 

[SLOMike]

Two more lock-ups today. One while she was afk, one while she was actively browsing the web.

I'll yank out the two 512 ram sticks and see what happens.

 

[SLOMike]

Locked up today... I took out the two 512s, booted it up this morning, and then left it alone. Checked it at noon and it was frozen.


So, at this point... could this possibly be a CPU problem? Or does replacing the motherboard sound like a good bet?

 

[tzdk]

Dont know. I would think more motherboard but would not hurt to take cooler off cpu - cpu temps are normal? There could be more than 1 problem

Would be strange if you can use Ubuntu Live cd with 3D graphics and all without lockups. Waste of time if it continues to lockup even in bios or initial load. Must be hardware or wrongly set up bios. You said it help to reseat stuff etc. (nr. 3 action in troubleshooting list) - for a day, then back to problems. Because whatever got out of place again? Video card? Ram slot bad? Cable? Bad contact between motherboard and whatever item? Same with cable. If problem is dying motherboard what you did should not help but it did. Very strange.

"killed the HD" so you use same cable with new hd? Same sata slot? Change both, who knows. Also pull out cables to any dvd drive, actually anything not necessary to boot. Away with usb gadgets and so on. Must be something weird and not so obvious. Try exclude as much as possible, use only 1 ram module perhaps.

 

[SLOMike]

Just to wrap up, I ordered a new mobo and it seems to have fixed the problem.

I took the old one out, swapped out everything (had a little issue with the CPU sticking to the cooler as I was taking it off the old mobo, didn't know that could happen, now I know... had to bend a few pins on the cpu back into place with some tweezers *noobish grin*).

The new system has been up and running for days now and there have been no problems.