Computer freezing multiple times a day with no recognisable pattern.

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  1. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 Pro x64 SP1
       #1

    Computer freezing multiple times a day with no recognisable pattern.


    Hello everyone,
    First of all, I know that this isn't a BSOD issue but I wasn't sure about where else to post this thread.

    Like the title says, my computer screen freezes with mouse movement and numlock / capslock activation until I ctrl+alt+del and then even those stop but the audio (if I was was watching a video when the freeze happened) still plays. So I have to press the power button until the system turns off, wait a little and turn it back on again. In the past week it's happened at least 35 times. I also get graphical glitches when I'm running programs like chrome. These freezes can happen at any time such as when I'm browsing on Chrome, reading messages on my email client, a couple of minutes after coming out of hibernate etc. Over the last couple of days the freezes have been happening more frequently, I've frozen 4 times in the last 2 hours.

    I've run Malwarebytes as well as Avira, I've checked the health of the hdd, the ram (memtest for a couple of hours), the temperature (even had a 140mm pointed directly at the cpu and gpu heatsinks). There's no point looking for gpu driver updates because mine is not supported anymore and I have the latest one. Turned all my startup services off apart from Avira and I've also run sfc/scannow and that didn't come up with anything either.

    My gut feeling is that the gpu is dying because if I run the amd test in Catalyst Control Centre to check load temperatures the test fails after a couple of seconds even though the temperature of the gpu is really low.

    Hope someone can help.
    Thanks for reading.




    Apologies if this is in the wrong place, please move it to the correct forum section.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 21,004
    Desk1 7 Home Prem / Desk2 10 Pro / Main lap Asus ROG 10 Pro 2 laptop Toshiba 7 Pro Asus P2520 7 & 10
       #2

    Ok mate one thing sticks out a mile - that you only ran memtest for two hours - no good! it has to run for at least 8 passes until you have done that then it is futile trying to track down anything else.

    MEMTEST

    The memtest you will need to make a bootable disk / stick andset the BIOS to boot from the optical or USB and it will take a fair time torun- some leave it overnight. http://www.memtest.org/

    But one thing is very important you must let the test run for at least 8 passes any less and thefindings are no good. Now if errors come up straight away then you can stop it- see my pics. Now if there are errors and you have more than one stick of RAMin then you will need to test each stick ie remove the sticks and replace stick1 in slot 1 and test no errors do the same in slot 2 with stick 1 no errorsthen repeat the process with stick 2 - that will show up the faulty stick - theother thing is it could be a faulty slot but most unusual.
    It is a very lengthy and tedious process but worth it if you have errors
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 Pro x64 SP1
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Thanks for taking the time to reply.
    I didn't run it for only 2 hours, it was way more than that but I can't remember the exact number.

    I haven't had time to run memtest yet but in the meantime I ran each individual stick of ram in each of the two slots while using the computer normally and I always get the freezing issue, doesn't this mean that the problem lies somewhere else?
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 21,004
    Desk1 7 Home Prem / Desk2 10 Pro / Main lap Asus ROG 10 Pro 2 laptop Toshiba 7 Pro Asus P2520 7 & 10
       #4

    doesn't this mean that the problem lies somewhere else?
    Absolutely but really you need to get the simple stuff out of the way first and the memtest is one of them and just as a suggestion try it overnight that way it will not have you sitting around for ages waiting for any results. I think too that being some fairly aged RAM now it is probably more important before we go digging elsewhere.

    By the by if you can keep the machine running long enough can you run Speccy https://www.piriform.com/speccy/download and post back the temps please it could be just a matter of the thermal compound on the CPU needs replacement - if you do that before the memtest it would be good
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 Pro x64 SP1
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Ok, I'll try memtest tonight.

    I ran speccy twice, one with just the laptop and the other time with a 140mm fan pointed directly at the bottom (I normally run like this for better temps).

    Just laptop at idle and browsing chrome: cpu 42C, motherboard 46C, gpu 67C, hdd 37C
    Browsing with fan: cpu 29C, motherboard 33c, gpu 42C, hdd 33C

    The crashes are getting much more frequent as well. It crashed 4 times in the time it took me to run speccy twice and write this post.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 21,004
    Desk1 7 Home Prem / Desk2 10 Pro / Main lap Asus ROG 10 Pro 2 laptop Toshiba 7 Pro Asus P2520 7 & 10
       #6

    Ok mate now if you can do this little ditty I havedone up

    CLEANING ALAPTOP FAN & COOLER RAD

    The thing you do is to turn over thelaptop and shine a very bright light into the air intake aperture (you will seethe fan there) and then while doing that look at the outlet vent on the end ofthe laptop you should see the light quite clearly shining through the cooling" radiator" if not it is clogged and will need cleaning as willprobably the fan opening.

    You can do this by blowing it outusing a compressed air can in short bursts.

    BUT ONE WORD OF WARNING DO NOT blow the air intothe fan opening without inserting say a plastic rod or large cable tie to stopthe fan from spinning as the air blast will spin the fan at a very high speedthat it is not designed to take and may wreck the bearing!!

    To clean the “rad” use one of thosepipe cleaners / chenille craft wires – see pic/s

    NB the pics are just for examples your machine might look different but it is the same principle and I think the temps anyway are an issue if there is that much difference between the two methods of cooling. I am sure you will get my drift if not please ask:)
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 Pro x64 SP1
    Thread Starter
       #7

    I've already cleaned the fan and the exhausts.
    The big difference in the temperature is because when I cool with the 140mm fan I remove the bottom of the laptop so the hardware is getting direct cooling.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 21,004
    Desk1 7 Home Prem / Desk2 10 Pro / Main lap Asus ROG 10 Pro 2 laptop Toshiba 7 Pro Asus P2520 7 & 10
       #8

    Ok have got that but I must say that is a drastic measure to have to take. Any way lets seewhat the memtest comes up with first.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 Pro x64 SP1
    Thread Starter
       #9

    I ended up doing a much more thorough cleaning of the radiators. There was a bunch of stuff there which was really difficult to get to and after I did that the temperatures are way better, I only wish that this solved the problem. The cpu temps have gone down by 7C, motherboard by 5C and the gpu went down by 16C.

    I've run the requested number of passes on the ram and no errors were found.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 21,004
    Desk1 7 Home Prem / Desk2 10 Pro / Main lap Asus ROG 10 Pro 2 laptop Toshiba 7 Pro Asus P2520 7 & 10
       #10

    Ok mate then if like you say the GPU is dying then that is going to mean a new or replacement motherboard as that GPU is a built / soldered in chip and unlike just unplugging the GPU for a desktop makes for no other option.
    The other things that may cause the crashing are any connecting cable to the monitor or maybe the monitor itself. I can think of no other option right now.
      My Computer


 
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