Random Crashing

AaronM · 21 Nov 2010

Hello,

I've been experiencing random crashes over the past three weeks or so. With no warning the monitor shuts down and the system goes into what seems like a sleep mode -- it is still powered up, fans running, but no activity. At this point the power button does nothing so I have to reboot by turning the power switch off/on.

At first I thought it was photoshop because CS5 would occasionally freeze and I think my system crashed the first time while in photoshop. I uninstalled PS5 but it didn't solve the problem. Next, I suspected Office 2010 because the crashes actually started soon after I downloaded and installed 2010 Home and Business. Uninstalling didn't help. Last week, I finally reinstalled Windows via my Gateway recovery discs. Still to no avail.

The crashes often come in two's. That is, it crashes, I restart, and it soon crashes again. After that it may be several days before it happens again. But this is not always the case.

System is less than a year old. OS is OEM. Avast Firewall and Antivirus. Hopefully listing my system info in user bio is sufficient?

Thank you so much for any help.

reventon · 21 Nov 2010

Hi,

From the (lack of) crash evidence in the system logs and given that the problems remained after you re-installed Windows it is safe to say that this is a hardware problem.

Hardware tests to try to isolate the cause -

RAM - Test with Memtest86+

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...t-prime95.html (run the Blend test as well as the Small FFT test)

Video Card - Stress Test with Furmark

Hard Drive Testing

First run chkdsk

START -> type cmd.exe -> Right-click -> run as admin -> type chkdsk /f -> Press Y at prompt -> restart computer.

Also to check the drive's physical state run SeaTools

Download SeaTools for DOS from here: SeaTools | Seagate

Follow the instructions to run it. After it has detected the drive, select Basic Tests, then Long Test and let it run.

Of course - you could just send it in under warranty, but often the warranty process is easier if you can tell them that you think the CPU (for example) is faulty because Prime 95 failed.. etc.

Regards,
Reventon