Comp freezes!

[Paladin Reborn]

Hiii!

I 'm not even sure if this is the right section, but here goes. Around october, I finally build myself a comp. Now however it locks up sometimes and I 'm trying to find out why. And I figured I could start looking for help by coming back to my roots ! If this board is still alive and if anyone remembers me, I used to go by the awesome name of Spectral Paladin.

As to what exactly happens, the comp simply locks up, or "hangs" or freezes, or however you want to call it. The only option is to use the reset button or hold the power one to shut it down. It has happened while I 've been doing different things; the only thing that has invariably been there was Fritz running (Deep Fritz 11 to be exact). However, that doesn't say much since I have it running pretty much all the time lately. Worth noting is that when fritz engine is running (ie it is looking for a move), it runs all four cpu cores at 100%, however the computer has locked up both when this was the case and when fritz was simply idle in the background while I was browsing the web.
What is funny is that after these lockups, my computer's date and time seem to be reset, back to 1 january 2003. I also had my resolution settings screwed up once.

A couple of interesting facts more. Ever since I build this comp I sometimes get a 4C error on the motherboard (an EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLi). There is no explanation for it in the manual - it is "reserved". I 've looked it up online and there are people who have trouble with it, but I didn't really find a solution. Fortunately, I don't get the error every time; all I have to do is keep resetting until the comp starts up. Usually when this happens, certain voltages in the bios setup are reset; and I have to go up them again. I should note that I have not overclocked at all - I had to up the voltages from grey ranges up to green ones in order for the comp to work, as it would freeze when I initially left them untouched.
Also this may seem strange, but my drivers are not up to date. I updated them when I first built the comp of course and hoping to fix the above error. However, due to so many horror stories I 've read, I decided "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", and haven't done anything ever since.
One last thing, if this could be a temperature problem; for my cpu cooler is mounted the wrong way, with its fan facing the graphics cards. I only realised after it was in place and chose to leave it there for the following reasons: it was a real pain getting it in there, I was not planning to overclock for the time being (and still haven't) and moreover, I had read that sometimes the cpu fan was actually used to "cool" the graphics cards (even though it's pumping hot air -.-). The truth is I didn't have any problems for quite a while. When I first made the comp I was primarily playing world of warcraft with no problems - now thinking back, it may have frozen once, but that was it.

I 've attached the dxdiag file, the good old fashioned way.... I hope you can be of help!

[Doc Nyar]

Seems to be a nasty issue if you ask me.

A few things that popped in my mind while I was reading your post.

1) Make sure the CPU fan is mounted the right way. Eventhough you do not overclock, it's quite important
    you mount it the right way. CPU's to tend to run hot, overclocked or not.
2) Have you checked for any BIOS updates ? If not, it may be a good suggestion.
    Please make sure you read the instructions, BEFORE updating your BIOS.
3) If the above fails, I would do a format, just to be sure. Don't install anything else then the operating system.
    If there are no lockups at that point, install additional software one by one. Once you've installed 1 piece of
    software, make sure you check for any possible signs of lockups. This should assist you in your troublshooting
    ventures.

[Paladin Reborn]

Hey,

thanks for reply.

I 'm not sure how exactly do I check for possible signs of lockups ? =P
I will do 1 and 2 for a start. I have another question btw: I noticed the dxdiag states I have 2814MB RAM, although I have 2x2gb. Is it supposed to be like that?

[Doc Nyar]

Hey,

thanks for reply.

I 'm not sure how exactly do I check for possible signs of lockups ? =P
I will do 1 and 2 for a start. I have another question btw: I noticed the dxdiag states I have 2814MB RAM, although I have 2x2gb. Is it supposed to be like that?

With signs for lock ups i meant that if you can notice anything before it locks up now. If you do, try if you see those behaviours after you've done
1 & 2 as well.

As for your ram question, I think 32 bit versions of operating systems do not show/use any memory above 3gig.
64 bit versions of operating systems do.

[number6]

I know I am late, but I have some input to the problem.

1) The fact that you are constantly resetting your machine to get it to boot and sometimes bios settings get reset sure sounds like a power issue with your system. What kind of power supply do you have installed?

2) The lockup under load problem sure sounds heat related. What is your CPU temperature normally? When you mounted the CPU fan did you correctly apply thermal compund? I know it may be a bit of work but I would definitely look at reinstalling the CPU fan.