Random lockups

**R650R** · 27th April 2016, 16:22

An on going intermittent issue with desktop is reaching boiling point here, will detail history and then what its doing now.

Not long after Facebook starting autoplaying vids the screen would look like a giant wet paint swipe, think after deleting flash I fixed this.
Occasionally youtube would have issues and stop halfway through vids.
Now nearly everyday at least 1 - 4 times the display will freeze and ctrl alt delete doesn't work. It happens randomly while playing intensive graphics game or doing easy stuff like browsing stuff news etc.
The display looks normal except in a game the gameplay freezes or the mouse pointer is just stuck on screen. Only solution is power off button and restart.
Sometimes it does it again soon and other times it is fine.
Graphics card is AMD HD7550 I think, have tried the new beta driver and also reverting to older drivers.
Have done hardrive disc check/scan.
Other night was watching you tube vid and the display froze but you could still hear the speech/sound running fine, so CPU still processing incoming content.
My brother thinks possibly power supply issue but have made no changes recently etc....

**bogan** · 27th April 2016, 16:29

Sounds like a hardware fault. Tried checking internal connections? temperatures? You could also log PSU voltage if you think it is that; I assume the card has auxillary power input, it's not a dual rail PSU is it?

**Gremlin** · 27th April 2016, 17:15

Yeah, test your hardware first. Run it through Chkdsk or similar to check the hard drive for corruption / issues. Run memtest to check the memory (do all the memory at once, then if you have issues, you need to narrow down which stick is the problem).

Do you have onboard graphics as well? Try switching to that (general browsing can be tested but obviously gaming would be compromised). If you find it better, it could be the graphics card, the drivers, or the power supply (most graphics cards have separate feeds for power).

Ultimately, if you haven't changed anything and are suddenly experiencing issues, then it's hardware failing...

**Akzle** · 27th April 2016, 21:07

im with you brother. PSU. Rail/caps failing.

But could also be your northbridge +/ video bus and their respectives.

Or virus. You did mention windows shit.

Chkdsk wont pick up shit. Have they re written it this decade??

Zero your drive and reinstall your os. If it persists, it's hardware.

**Erelyes** · 29th April 2016, 18:09

When it freezes, can you turn numlock on/off?

Do you do anything more GPU-intensive than youtube vids, i.e. games?

Memtest as above is a good idea.

My further suggestions, download Furmark (GPU stress test) and run that.

Also try running a CPU stress test such as Passmark.

If Furmark, Passmark and Memtest pass I would format/reinstall.

If the stress tests fail, you can try a few things...
- If you have multiple slots, see if the GPU will run in a different PCIe slot.
- Try a mate's PSU. Or, if you have an OEM one, you may wish to just do yourself a favour an invest in a decent one. Silvertone, Corsair, Antec, whatever. Not Thermaltake...
- Try removing GPU and running onboard. Will probably be fine, but if it still does it, you can rule out the GPU.

Oh - and back up anything important, there's a slim chance stress testing may cause your PSU to pop. If your PSU is a particularly shit OEM make that a 'fair chance'.

**Akzle** · 29th April 2016, 18:21

hey, weren't you going to post pics of her tits for the last free tech support you got??

fucksake.

**eldog** · 29th April 2016, 18:42

I have had something similar happen recently to me. It was getting worse once every couple of days, in random events.

Finally got got my program update so I bit the bullet and installed W10, from 8.1 took a day to download and install W10 and my main software upgrade just a few more Gb

stretched it over the cutover monthly download limit. Kept the accountant happy!

its been running constantly now for a full week no hassles like what I had previous.

upgraded the Nvidia driver too which has had the odd strange moment recently-but it recover which was nice.

**jim.cox** · 30th April 2016, 08:18

I've had similar problems in the past

Could be the hardware overheating and shutting down

Try giving the inside of the case, the fans and the cpu heatsink a good clean

**R650R** · 30th April 2016, 17:54

Well I thought I had been keep the vents clean.... but actually pulled desktop out from under desk and Holy Mother of Hoarders it was post apocalyptic nuclear winter dust covering in there.
Mount Pinatubo would have been proud of the ash fallout look.
After three tanks on the air compressor/duster it seems to be running better, time will tell....

**Akzle** · 30th April 2016, 18:28

dont keep the box on the floor. Plebian.

**R650R** · 1st May 2016, 08:29

Originally Posted by Akzle

dont keep the box on the floor. Plebian.

Yeah I know.... thought I was doing pretty mean with the vacumn....

**Akzle** · 1st May 2016, 08:59

Originally Posted by R650R

Yeah I know.... thought I was doing pretty mean with the vacumn....

funnilly enough most cases also act as a vacuum. And dust trap.

Combined with a bit of gravity and the fact that you moult 7 layers of skin... The floor is not the place. Chuck that bitch on your desk. Or up on high.
Or hermetically seal it, orient the fans for negative case pressure with hepa filter on the intake...

**jim.cox** · 1st May 2016, 09:13

Originally Posted by Akzle

funnilly enough most cases also act as a vacuum. And dust trap.

Combined with a bit of gravity and the fact that you moult 7 layers of skin... The floor is not the place. Chuck that bitch on your desk. Or up on high.
Or hermetically seal it, orient the fans for negative case pressure with hepa filter on the intake...

Or just clean it out every now and then...

**R650R** · 1st May 2016, 11:25

Well I gave it thrashing on World of Warships and all seems well, even the way internet explorer is loading quicker and windows shit its all better again.
Amazing something so simple could cause such random problems, I thought most circuit boards were sealed with thin varnish these days.
Now do I upgrade to Windows 10 or not, I already have 7 professional....