Freezing Randomly

[Tech Savvy]

I have a client who's computer is randomly freezing. At first, the client told me she couldnt do anything when it froze, not even turn it off with the power button, she had to physically pull the plug. So I opened it up and my first instinct told me it was over heating, so I look at it and both fans are running, and probably against best practice, I gently touched the fan blade for the tower, it barely affected it, I did the same for the CPU fan and the fan just stopped.

I assumed that it was the CPU fan, even though I never actually saw it freeze. So I replaced it.

Then I start it up and try to make it freeze for about ten minutes, loading facebook did the trick, when i tried scrolling for about 10 min. When it froze, the images on the screen became a little pixelated (around the cursor and such) so this led me to believe it is either the ram or the video card. So I took out all the ram and reseated it. Went to boot up, and nothing, not getting a signal to the monitor at all. So I reseated it again and everything started up, haven't been able to get it to freeze, but Im no longer on the customer site. I took it back to my shop for more testing and it all tests passed, Memory test and simple graphics test. I removed two sticks of ram. But I went to boot into Hirens and it didnt load right, I got a No PXE probably bad config error.

What do you all think of this? Its hard because I cant consistently repeat the freeze.

 

[angry_geek]

What do you all think of this? Its hard because I cant consistently repeat the freeze.

I'm sure several of us would offer help, however, you may want to have a look at these two threads before you get flamed or overwhelmed with suggestions to poke it with a stick.

http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40385

http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1246

 

[compnet]

overwhelmed with suggestions to poke it with a stick.

Well to be fair, it seems like that was his first attempt at diagnosis, but he used his hand instead of a stick.

 

[Tech Savvy]

Sorry, ill try this again

Well to be fair, it seems like that was his first attempt at diagnosis, but he used his hand instead of a stick.

lol the sad part is its true.

It is an HP inspiron 570. Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. This is a clients computer, so I don't know about any recent software or OS updates, but they said that the computer was never upgraded. There are 4 sticks of ram two two gigs, and two one gigs. AMD dual core processor. I would post more detailed specs, but I am not at my workbench. I will post them when I get back in the shop tomorrow. Sometimes the computer will last days without freezing, and sometimes it cant last two minutes. When it freezes the screen becomes a little pixelated (not that bad), the mouse doesnt move or anything. The computer has to be turned off manually (my client said it used to not even do that before I swapped the fan, although I've never seen it). I cant find any triggers of the freezing. I only got it to freeze once and that was on facebook (thats when it froze for my client) when scrolling up and down and clicking rapidly.

Things Ive tried:
1. Replacing the CPU fan. - After I did, the first and only time Ive seen it freeze.
2. Reseating the RAM - After I did this there was no signal to the monitor
3. Re Reseating the RAM (pulling out the two 1GB sticks) - Started the computer again, but I wasnt satisfied because that shouldnt have happened.
-----------Left the two sticks out -----------------------------
4. Tried to boot Hirens to do memtest86+ got a No PXE stack commands(hangup means you have a problematic config) (sometimes will boot then freeze)
5. Ran built in diagnostics (not sure who its made by, im assuming HP?) and ran the extended test and it passed everything.

Any Suggestions?

 

[GeeksInKhakis]

Make sure there are no root kits or viruses, these often cause strange 'freezing' issues.

 

[brandonkick]

Remove the hard drive and then try to run the hiren disk again.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

I have a client who's computer is randomly freezing. At first, the client told me she couldnt do anything when it froze, not even turn it off with the power button, she had to physically pull the plug. So I opened it up and my first instinct told me it was over heating, so I look at it and both fans are running, and probably against best practice, I gently touched the fan blade for the tower, it barely affected it, I did the same for the CPU fan and the fan just stopped.

I assumed that it was the CPU fan, even though I never actually saw it freeze. So I replaced it.

Then I start it up and try to make it freeze for about ten minutes, loading facebook did the trick, when i tried scrolling for about 10 min. When it froze, the images on the screen became a little pixelated (around the cursor and such) so this led me to believe it is either the ram or the video card. So I took out all the ram and reseated it. Went to boot up, and nothing, not getting a signal to the monitor at all. So I reseated it again and everything started up, haven't been able to get it to freeze, but Im no longer on the customer site. I took it back to my shop for more testing and it all tests passed, Memory test and simple graphics test. I removed two sticks of ram. But I went to boot into Hirens and it didnt load right, I got a No PXE probably bad config error.

What do you all think of this? Its hard because I cant consistently repeat the freeze.

freeze while scrolling? IRQ conflicts, video card, video card drivers, power supply are my initial thoughts.

 

[KH58]

freeze while scrolling? IRQ conflicts, video card, video card drivers, power supply are my initial thoughts.

I agree with CPT. Isn't the power supply the first thing to replace in cases like this? (After checking ram is seating, and all other cables and cards are, too.) For what it's worth, that what I was taught in my A+ class.

 

[Rob_NNCC]

+1 on video card, or less likely PSU.

When it freezes the screen becomes a little pixelated

I only got it to freeze once and that was on facebook (thats when it froze for my client) when scrolling up and down and clicking rapidly.

 

[Metanis]

Not to be a stickler for details but Dell makes Inspirons, not HP. And a brief look at a Dell Inspiron 570 specs indicates it is an integrated graphics motherboard using shared RAM for video. I'd clean the RAM sockets and reseat them and then run a long-term RAM diagnostic. I'd also check the power supply voltages while the system is running the test.

 

[NYJimbo]

Am I going blind or do I not see where you tried different ram, not just the same sticks ?

We just had a desktop that had 2 bad sticks and one bad slot. Slot 2 was bad (0,1,2,3) but slots 0 and 2 had bad ram.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

NYJimbo has a point. Only have seen one act that way but I've seen that as well where a ram slot goes bad. I usually do not recommend hp machines. I would say if you've got a spare power supply hook that up, run your tests again and see what it does. I've also seen a system with a bad CPU act like you describe where the computer boots and after a a little while would act up. In the case of CPU though, someone had used an aftermarket thermaltake cooler that did not entirely cover the CPU, the corners weren't covered, and the CPU slowly baked.

Also this question may sound silly but have you checked to see if any capacitors are leaking/bulging indicating possible motherboard issues?

 

[altrenda]

Good idea on checking the caps. Also, I didn't see any mention of thermal grease when you replaced the fan.

 

[Tech Savvy]

Update

Okay, so here is the update.

I cleaned the RAM sockets.
Reseated the RAM.
Updated the Video Driver
Put in new Video card (Nvidia GeForce GT610) (only one I had available)
I ran NovaBench, and got a bunch of runtime errors. I am starting to think more and more it is the RAM. Although the memtest86+ passes. I am going to order the RAM and replace it asap.

Also I applied the thermal paste when installing the new CPU fan.

Thank you all for your input, if you come up with anything more I'd be more than happy to listen. Its hard to tell if something worked or not, because it can be difficult to get it to freeze.

 

[Tech Savvy]

Okay, so I bought new ram, and tried that out, now I have a new symptom that I disregarded before. Which makes me think this may be a windows issue(even though there aren't any errors popping up) it seems like some of the common windows functions are making the computer get hung up, I was trying to run malware bytes and it got hung up while scanning, when I press control alt del the task manager icon shows up in the system tray, but it never opens, and when I restart or shut down, it ALWAYS gets hung up

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Have you checked the hard drive? If you've got a spare one maybe clone the old one onto a spare then run a windows disk check to check for file and sector errors and see if it runs better.

 

[Tech Savvy]

I'm running that right now, no second hard drive though, just on the reboot. I've also tried disabling all non Microsoft services, because everything works in safemode just fine. When in normal mode, it gets caught on LOGGING OFF... I'm going to clone the hard drive, just in case and do Sfc /scannow and probably maybe the built in repair through F8, although I think they do the same thing. It works in safe mode though.

 

[PCX]

So, maybe I am miss-understanding your OP, but did you or did you not actually run a full diagnostic before you started replacing parts and jumping to conclusions? I know that this originally started on-site, which obviously means that a full diagnostic is not practical, but once you got it to your shop, that is the first thing you should have done. What diagnostic tests have you actually run? What did you use to run those tests and what were the results? Also, how long did you run memtest86+ for? I ask these questions because you are not very on what you have actually done during your diagnostic process in your OP.

 

[Tech Savvy]

Sorry I am unclear

I am no very good at explaining. Here is a full recap of what I did, in order

1.) Gently touched the fan, CPU Fan Stopped, Replaced Fan with new (cleaned off old with isopropyl) Thermal Paste
2.) After about ten min of scrolling on FB and clicking like crazy PC Froze. Screen became mildly pixelated. Reseated RAM. Booted it up and nothing was displayed on the screen at all, no POST or anything.
3.) Took out two 1 GB RAM sticks (Left two 2GB RAM sticks) Re Reseated RAM. Computer booted up fine, I couldn't get it to freeze, but I wasn't satisfied because it should have displayed something on the screen, so I thought something was still wrong
4.) took it back to the shop and Tried to Run MemTest86+ from Hirens, but Hirens wouldn't boot, gave No PXE Stack Error.
5.) ran Dell Extended Hardware Diagnostics. Everything passed.
6.) Added Video Card
Ran NovaBench stress test Looked great, Supply Voltages are spot on and temperatures are pretty low
Ran Aida64 Extreme Test Same thing
Still was acting weird (what seemed worse) so I took the video card out.
7.) Cleaned RAM Sockets
8.) Reseated RAM - Ran Memtest86+ Overnight From UBCD Passed
9.) Running Weird, I got a runtime error from a dell Back up, by DSUpdate.exe abnormal program termination
10.) Replaced RAM just to rule it out. I don't get the error anymore and it runs smooth now, except when I go to shut down it gets hung up on the logging out portion.
11.) Ran Malwarebytes in Safe Mode, otherwise it gets hung up on different files.
when I press control alt del the task manager icon shows up in the system tray, but it never opens
12.) Tried Cleaning some junk too, couldn't remove windows live, it would keep getting hung up
11.) 5 step Disk Check (Right Click C Drive Tools--> Check Disk for Errors --> Checked the two boxes) Rebooted

I think I want to try and run uphclean and maybe system cleaner. to try to fix any registry bugs (log off issue). But My next step is going to be to back up all documents and product keys. and run sfc /scannow and hopefully try to restore any corrupt files (if any)

if that doesn't work I think I might do a reformat. I've spent way too much time on this PC, at this rate I'll be making $5/hr in no time !

 

[HFultzjr]

lol the sad part is its true.

It is an HP inspiron 570. Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. This is a clients computer, so I don't know about any recent software or OS updates, but they said that the computer was never upgraded. There are 4 sticks of ram two two gigs, and two one gigs. AMD dual core processor. I would post more detailed specs, but I am not at my workbench. I will post them when I get back in the shop tomorrow. Sometimes the computer will last days without freezing, and sometimes it cant last two minutes. When it freezes the screen becomes a little pixelated (not that bad), the mouse doesnt move or anything. The computer has to be turned off manually (my client said it used to not even do that before I swapped the fan, although I've never seen it). I cant find any triggers of the freezing. I only got it to freeze once and that was on facebook (thats when it froze for my client) when scrolling up and down and clicking rapidly.

Things Ive tried:
1. Replacing the CPU fan. - After I did, the first and only time Ive seen it freeze.
2. Reseating the RAM - After I did this there was no signal to the monitor
3. Re Reseating the RAM (pulling out the two 1GB sticks) - Started the computer again, but I wasnt satisfied because that shouldnt have happened.
-----------Left the two sticks out -----------------------------
4. Tried to boot Hirens to do memtest86+ got a No PXE stack commands(hangup means you have a problematic config) (sometimes will boot then freeze)
5. Ran built in diagnostics (not sure who its made by, im assuming HP?) and ran the extended test and it passed everything.

Any Suggestions?

Might want to look towards a power supply issue.

Or, do some more extensive hardware diagnostics.

I don't see where you've checked the hard drive or power supply.

Power supply......try a known good replacement, not a "cheapie" tester.