Random crashes with looping sound - tried everything

[ronisaurus]

Hi! Here's the problem:

Brand new pc crashes at random times. Screen freezes, leds on keyboard and mouse black out, and the sound loops kindof fast. Reset button resets, but that's all it responds to when this happens.

No BSOD, no event viewer logs on anything.

Here comes the worst part: I keep having my tech guy take it away to fix it, but it doesn't want to crash at his techlab. Not in 5 days. Accumulated, the PC has been in his lab for about 3 weeks now. Not once has it crashed for him, even tho he ran all kinds of stress tests. 3dMark, Memtest, and some others i downloaded myself, but don't remember which ones they are. So it's impossible to produce the crash on purpose. He opened, and kind of worked a little most of my applications simultaneously - and i have a lot of applications. Nothing, no crash, no errors. Happened three times now, that he took it away to see what's wrong but after a few days he brought it back to me - because it just didn't crash at his place. I know what you might be thinking: voltage fluctuations... right. I call bs on that, because i have a surge protected extender and it doesn't freeze even when the lights in the whole house are flickering due to fluctuations.

I contacted some other techies for suggestions on the problem, but all of them are saying different things. Some say its hardware related, and the only solution is to swap the hardware up 1 by 1, and see what happens. Some say windows is trash (ofc they use linux or apple or w/e), and it needs MemTurbo and ProcessTamer to avoid crashes, because those apps are that essential to run a windows properly. Some others say it might be my peripherals (logitech g500, some HP printer, logitech woofers, and logitech kb), or simply faulty electicity... wonder how my old pc can bare with those tho... Also some say its a typical undetectable hardware problem, and nothing helps really, so i should just bare with the occasional freezes until they stop by themselve /WTF????/.

All in all im pretty lost with this problem, and the only solution i can think of is a huge f>#&ing hammer, then forcefeeding something like "it crashed... physically... by itself... give me a new one of everything plz" to the store i bought it at. Personally i suspect some undetectable hardware problem. Which is statistically the most probable scenario after i got no feedback of any errors from my pc. Or bad memory addressing. Or a faulty video card. Or 1 of the other 9999 things.

Please help me, i'm open to any suggestions!

 

[LiquidSnak]

Sounds like a hardware problem. My thoughts are RAM, PSU, CPU, Motherboard. Do you have a spare PSU around to test? Have you tried the sticks of RAM individually? Nothing is needed like memturbo to run windows. If you bought the computer recently, is it still under warranty?

 

[ronisaurus]

Finally an answer, thank you!

Yes, i bought the PC recently, it's still under warranty, but the company will have me pay for all the components they test if i bring it back to them - only the faulty component's service price will be left out from the repair bill... which will make it cost a ****ton of money. Also, the techie, who helped me select the components and assemble the rig (yes, i'm no pro, my other rig is 9 years old, so im not quite up2date), can't make it freeze at his lab, but at least he's trying to fix my rig for free at the moment.

We are suspecting hardware failures too, but it seems, that i will have to test it at my place (where it actually produces the freezes), which means that i will have to ask for all kinds of parts to test out at my place... which is kind of hard when you aren't a techie yourself full of parts.

Pretty much a dead end, if it wont freeze at my techie's lab, because then we can't get ahead to the trial'n'error harware swapping phase, and the more time that goes by with this issue unsolved, the more depressing the problem is. I'ts not exactly awesome to have a brand new rig, which you can't use.

Ty again for your answer!

 

[LiquidSnak]

Sounds like you might have a power issue... 9 years ago, PC's had much lower power consumption.

 

[ronisaurus]

That's my other, my old PC - the 9yrs old one. Check my system specs to see the PC with the problems. My 9 yrs old rig runs without a problem.

 

[LiquidSnak]

even when the lights in the whole house are flickering due to fluctuations.

This is the part that worries me. I think that your computer might be needing more power than your house circuit is providing.

 

[MvdB]

It is strange that freezes do not occur at the engineer testing. But not unusual. It would be really strange when you test your programs at his test site and nothing happens. For the simple reason that only you use your system the way you do....

Without log-, and dumpfiles, it takes some guessing but I would try, or check this:

Often, when sending out a system for repair or test, one sends the minimum... The case only. Don't know what you did but if you did.... Please check what devices you normally connect to your system at home. For example, a known source of this kind of strange freezes without bsod's is faulty or double usb hardware. On modern mobo you'll have usb2 and usb3 and sometimes builders add extra stuff like multi-cardreaders.
In the last three months I've seen 6 freezing systems on cardreader conflicts alone. Disable in Devices and the problem is gone. Not saying it must be that in your case but I would not be surprised if the diff between home testing vs the engineer is that at home you either do stuff or connect stuff, maybe usb, that the engineer never thought to ask you...

 

[ronisaurus]

i wrote what peripherals i have. logitech slim kb (in usb 2.0/1.0 hub), logitech g500 mouse (usb 2.0), some stereo spkrs (he also connects some speakers, but i doubt small jacks cld mess my system up). some notsofancy HP printer (D2460) (usb 2.0). that's all really. i have a surge protected extender too, if that might somehow mess the system up and is relevant... but i don't think so. on that extender i have all kinds of electronics plugged, and another extender with 4 plugs, but its for the modem/router/tablelamp/printer/speakers/small lavalamp. Everybody has that kind of stuff in a room. Or more.

To the other reply: i don't actually live in a house. More like in an apartment. Should provide just enough for all kinds of electronics. Not like i have a nuke reactor in the basement. 520W PSU should do the trick just fine without craving too much. Tell me if i'm wrong im no professional, just taking wild guesses.

 

[LiquidSnak]

I would take the flickering lights up with your landlord, that is a serious concern. The fact that the computer refuses to crash in a different environment tells us something. Take everything you normally have hooked up directly to your computer to your friends house, and hook it up just how you use it at home. Then use the computer as you would normally, and see how that goes.

 

[ronisaurus]

flickering lights yes. when thunderstorms r smacking car alarms on outside. i wouldn't take this issue up with my landlord. his name is zeus and he's a bit pissy when it comes to electric issues but the other idea u had makes total sense. its probably not the peripherals themselves, but might be their hubs on the mobo. my engineer for one doesnt hook up his monitor to the same hub as me, cuz he doesnt have a proper lcd one (forgot the name - he plugs the blue plug, i plug the white... derp). usb hubs mite be the problem too. also might actually be one of the peripherals... tho it would b stupid if my printer would b smacking my system around with some stray voltages. so be it, ill hand him over my whole desktop, i wont need my mouse where i'm going anyway. lakeside, fish, girlfriend - totally anti-nerd environment. if nothing happens that way, then ill probably have to get an exorcist and force the evil spirits out of my room. with a huge hammer. in all srsness i hope that works. thank you!

 

[LiquidSnak]

Well, failing to mention the lightning storms threw me off. Flickering lights under normal conditions is an issue. Lightning is a whole other animal entirely. I have a feeling it's one of your peripherals. It could even be a problem with the DVI port on your card. Have fun fishing