Lock ups

[AbominableJinx]

I am having some problems with my system locking up while running a couple diferent games, and even some programs. Worked perfect for 2 years and all of a sudden this is happening. I hear a chirping like sound coming from what may be the hard drive, but not sure. When the sound starts, I know its going to usualy lock. My temps are pretty normal, and I dont know what could be causing this. Any sugestions? Thanks .



AMD 64 3400+
Enermax 425 PSU
Asus K8V-SE Deluxe K8T800
GeForce 6800 GT 256MB
Seagate Barracuda 160 GB
Corsair 1GB
Win xp Pro

 

[Slugbait]

The "chirping" sound may be sleeve bearings. A fan that suddenly stops spinning (especially on the video card) will cause a fast heat build-up, and that usually leads to a system lock.

 

[oynaz]

Originally posted by: Slugbait
The "chirping" sound may be sleeve bearings. A fan that suddenly stops spinning (especially on the video card) will cause a fast heat build-up, and that usually leads to a system lock.

Yep, that sounds like the culprit. Stock video card fans are especially prone to failure.

 

[jameswhite1979]

run it with the side off and try to identify the sounds but I agree with above comments on gpu fan.

 

[AbominableJinx]

Thanks for the help people. Hmm so does that mean I have to get another graphics card, or could the fan be fixed in it? It also froze when I ran avg, and then a mp3 file on windows media at the same time.

 

[Markbnj]

Is this an AGP card? The 6800GT/AGP cards all have a problem with NForce3 and some NForce4 boards that cause hard lockups in nv_disp4.dll. I had one, and fought with the problem for over a year. There is no solution that I am aware of, aside from upgrading. I replaced my 6800GT with a PCIe 7600GT, and haven't had a lockup since. You can get a 7600GT for about $100, and a good PCIe motherboard for about $75.

 

[AbominableJinx]

Hmm I am not sure. The brand name is Evga. I opened up Everest, and it says under GPU (Bus Type: AGP 8X @ 8x ) if that means anything? And the motherboard is an Asus K8V Deluxe, I dont think it is an nforce board.

 

[jameswhite1979]

Can get another fan for it loads on the market

 

[Markbnj]

Originally posted by: AbominableJinx
Hmm I am not sure. The brand name is Evga. I opened up Everest, and it says under GPU (Bus Type: AGP 8X @ 8x ) if that means anything? And the motherboard is an Asus K8V Deluxe, I dont think it is an nforce board.

Yes, that means you have an AGP 6800GT, which is exactly what I had. The crash symptoms are a hard lock while playing a 3D game, sound is either garbled or looping on the last sound. After some period of time the machine either reboots or BSODs with an error in NV_DISP4.DLL, depending on your system settings. The error is usually a message about the driver getting stuck in an infinite loop.

If these are the symptoms you're having the only suggestion I can give you is to replace the card with a PCIe 7600 series or better, which will require upgrading the motherboard. Or you can get an ATI AGP card or roughly the same capability as the 6800 (X800 series maybe?) as they did not have the problem.

If you have the same problem I and thousands of others had, you aren't going to get it fixed.

 

[AbominableJinx]

Thanks for the info Mark. I shot some air into the card fan and a ton of dust came out. Hopefully that was creating the problem. It does run hotter than it used to though. If it locks up again, I will see about just upgrading the whole bloody thing, mobo and all to PCIe.