Weird Freeze/Restart Problem in XP Please Help...

[goblue420]

I'm having an odd problem with my PC, it started a few days ago, but what happens is that the whole system abruptly freezes i can still see everything on the screen, but cant do anything(move the mouse, ctrl+alt+del) except reboot. This usually happens 2.5 hrs after the system has been running. Event viewer shows nothing out of the ordianry other than this:

Event Type: Information
Event Source: EventLog
Event Category: None
Event ID: 6009
Date: 6/5/2004
Time: 1:55:43 AM
User: N/A
Computer: CEREBELLUM
Description:
Microsoft (R) Windows (R) 5.01. 2600 Service Pack 1 Uniprocessor Free.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

which for some reason looks suspicious to me because the time stamp on it does not follow the chronological listing. CPU/MB temps seem fine before and after, and after reboot the PC works fine for another ~2.5 hrs. If anyone could provide assistance to this bazarre problem, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.


Specs:
Asus P4T533-C
P4 1.6 @ 2.1
SB Audigy
GF4 4200
512 RDRAM

 

[OdiN]

I would suspect the horrid Creative drivers for that Audigy. That's a stretch based on personal experience with their cards, as really I don't have enough information to troubleshoot this problem. It could be many things. Try replacing your power supply with another one if you have one lying around or can borrow one. Power problems often cause random lockups. Same thing with dodgy RAM. Also, I see that you are overclocking. Try backing it off to normal speed, or less than what it's at now and see if it runs better. Overclocking doesn't always last and some chips may be fine at one speed for several months before they stop working at that speed and have to be clocked down and even back to their normal clock speed.

 

[goblue420]

i clocked the vid card and the proc back to normal speeds and the problem still continues, also tried taking the audigy out, but no luch with that either...

 

[OdiN]

Okay...from here I would try Power Supply or RAM replacement. Hopefully you can borrow some from other machines or a friend.

 

[goblue420]

ok did windows restore and i think its fixed, thanks for your help tho

 

[OdiN]

Hmmm...well glad it's a software problem. Heh...as a tech I tend to think of reinstalling windows or things like that as a last resort and check hardware first. Mainly most customers will not want to lose anything on their system, won't want to reinstall software, etc. To most of us though it's not as bad, just time consuming.