PC Locks Up When Idle. Help please!

[CTraviss]

Hi everyone. A friend of mine told me this was the place to come for some strange issue I'm having with my PC.

I see a lot of traffic in here, so I'm sure someone can provide assistance... even though the computer store can't!

Here's what I have:

Asus A7V600
Athlon XP 3200+
AOpen Q50 case
Ultra V-Series 400W
Two sticks of SuperTalent 512MB PC3200 RAM
Winfast 6600GT AGP
Lite-On DVD/CDRW combo and Lite-On CDRW
WD 80GB SATA HDD
Zalman Reserator cools only CPU
Front 120MM fan controlled by little Zalman rheostat gizmo (turned all of the way down)
Windows XP SP2
HP USB printer, scanner, USB hub... USB KBD, mouse... I guess that's about it.

Now the problem....

The PC will HARD LOCK. Whatever was up on the monitor will still be up on the monitor... just locked, even if it's a screensaver (which is typically what it is because I try to leave the PC on 24/7.)

Three finger salute does nothing. I have to hit reset. Reset brings it back up just fine. I don't have to cold boot (power cycle.)

I took it to a computer shop and they said they couldn't duplicate the problem. They ran burn in on it and said it never locked up.

History.....

Since the lock ups started, I had changed the water in my Reserator. Before I had distilled water with Water Wetter, but now I have water and that blue Coolermaster stuff. My CPU temps haven't changed, though.

I even thought it was chassis temp since I only have one case fan and the PSU fan, but I can play Quake 4 for hours and never have a problem. The lock ups seem totally random.

I had a PATA hard drive fail on me recently. Don't know what happened except for that it was really old. It just started giving me errors in Windows and then the SMART error. I bought the new SATA drive and copied everything over and now everything works great. No errors in Wndows, no SMART errors... just the hard locks. LOL!

TIA for any assistance!

 

[pcman83]

Think about what they have at the computer shop. If you have a printer hooked up at home and they dont have the printer at the shop try running your computer with no external devices. Like disconnect the network jack, and only have the keyboard, mouse, monitor and power hooked to your computer. See if it still locks up. Try a different AC outlet too. Oh also make sure its not set for screen saver, or set to shut down your hard drives after a couple minutes. Make sure your power profile is always on and no standby or anything.

 

[Luckyboy1]

Post your diagnosis please. If you need instructions, see Luckyboy's Guide For Complete Users. Google for Luckyboy and it's the first choice.

 

[CTraviss]

Originally posted by: pcman83
Think about what they have at the computer shop. If you have a printer hooked up at home and they dont have the printer at the shop try running your computer with no external devices. Like disconnect the network jack, and only have the keyboard, mouse, monitor and power hooked to your computer. See if it still locks up. Try a different AC outlet too. Oh also make sure its not set for screen saver, or set to shut down your hard drives after a couple minutes. Make sure your power profile is always on and no standby or anything.

Yeah.. When I first got the computer back, I didn't hook any of that stuff back into it for a couple days. Still had lock ups.

The PC is plugged into a UPS w/ AVR and provides a steady 120V (high, but acceptable.) I do have the PC set to always on, but do use a screensaver. I will disable the screensaver and see what happens.

Thanks pcman!

 

[CTraviss]

Originally posted by: Luckyboy1
Post your diagnosis please. If you need instructions, see Luckyboy's Guide For Complete Users. Google for Luckyboy and it's the first choice.

I'm sorry. I don't know what you mean by posting diagnosis. If I had a diagnosis, I wouldn't be here. And I Googled Luckyboy and found the page, but nothing really pertaining to my problem. Are you a Spambot?

 

[Luckyboy1]

Go to...

Start

Run

and type in...

dxdiag

give it a few minutes to give you the results, they will be in wordpad format.

and hit the enter key. Then paste the entire nausiating mess to this thread please.

 

[CTraviss]

My DXDiag is all good. As is 3DMark, CPUMark, PassMark, etc. That's what's weird and why the computer shop couldn't do anything for me. The PC is rock solid except for the occasional random lock up. 🙁

I disabled the screensaver and made myself a sandwich. I came back and this thread was still up on the screen. I moved the mouse and nothing. I did a CTRL ALT DEL and Taskman didn't come up. Had to hit the reset button.

Very frustrating.

 

[pcman83]

scan for spyware and viruses.

 

[imported_rod]

Disabling the screensaver had no effect...

Have you checked your power settings to make sure that the HDD's don't switch off after a certain idle time?

Have you tried running it without the UPS?

RoD

 

[CTraviss]

Originally posted by: pcman83
scan for spyware and viruses.

I did using both McAfee and the Trend House Call. None found. Also ran Adaware.

Originally posted by: rod
Disabling the screensaver had no effect...

Have you checked your power settings to make sure that the HDD's don't switch off after a certain idle time?

Have you tried running it without the UPS?

RoD

Thanks for the replies.

Again,The HDD's are set to "Never." I did try it without the UPS. Same thing.

 

[Luckyboy1]

Originally posted by: CTraviss
My DXDiag is all good. As is 3DMark, CPUMark, PassMark, etc. That's what's weird and why the computer shop couldn't do anything for me. The PC is rock solid except for the occasional random lock up. 🙁

I disabled the screensaver and made myself a sandwich. I came back and this thread was still up on the screen. I moved the mouse and nothing. I did a CTRL ALT DEL and Taskman didn't come up. Had to hit the reset button.

Very frustrating.

One more time Mr. Frustrating... post your diagnosis please! What, is it some kinda State sensitive battle plan? I'm trying to respect your time here and you could at least take the time to copy and paste to help me help you.

 

[CTraviss]

I don't like you Mr. Spambot.

I'm not having problems related to drivers, performance, et al. I can play games for hours and never see a problem. The problem only occurs when the system is idle.

If this is the kind of ass clowns I have to deal with trying to get a little advice, never mind.