PC Freezing - Can't find what's wrong.

Slydice

Ok, so I'm having trouble with one of my PCs freezing up.

Here's the specs:
PSU: CORSAIR 620WATT HX SERIES PSU
Motherboard: Asus P5E, X38, Socket-775, DDR2, ATX, Firewire, GbLAN, 2xPCI-Ex(2.0)x16
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz Socket LGA775, 8MB, BOXED w/fan
RAM: CORSAIR (4X2GB) 800MHZ NON ECC
Graphics Card: EVGA - GeForce 9800GX2 1GB PCIE DVI
Hard Drive with Vista: Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA2 32MB 7200RPM
Second Storage Hard Drive: SEAGATE 1TB 7200RPM 32MB SATA300 3.5"
CD/DVD/HDDVD/Blu-Ray: LG Blu-Ray Re-Writer/HD DVD-ROM S
Monitor: SAMSUNG 22" Wide SM223BW DVI 5ms TFT
USB Keyboard and USB Mouse

It turns on fine and boots into Windows Vista.
I've also put in a Ubuntu Live CD and it boots fine too.

After a while, it then just freezes or crashes. In general, Ubuntu Freezes and Vista Crashes.

My problem is that I can't figure out what is broken or not working.

The Mobo doesn't let off any warning noises or seem to indicate anything with lights/messages on screen

Right so, what I've tried:
Well obviously, I checked to see if it was Vista by using the Ubuntu Live CD.
Then, just in case it had anything to do with the hard drives, I disconnected them and tried the ubuntu live cd. It still freezes/crashes.
I also ran a chkdsk on the vista hard drive but it was fine.
I ran memtest from a linux cd. After 3 passes I stopped it because no errors had been found
I tried disconnecting the Blu-ray drive. Still crashes/freezes.
I updated the mobo Firmware. Still crashes/freezes.

So I'm kinda stumped as to what the problem is.

I checked windows event viewer and it has an error involving aspi32.sys so I'm gonna go google it now. I doubt this is the problem though.

So I was hoping someone might know of a program or something I could use to try and even figure out where this problem is coming from?

any advice would be appreciated

jpl888

Slydice wrote: »

Ok, so I'm having trouble with one of my PCs freezing up.

Here's the specs:
PSU: CORSAIR 620WATT HX SERIES PSU
Motherboard: Asus P5E, X38, Socket-775, DDR2, ATX, Firewire, GbLAN, 2xPCI-Ex(2.0)x16
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz Socket LGA775, 8MB, BOXED w/fan
RAM: CORSAIR (4X2GB) 800MHZ NON ECC
Graphics Card: EVGA - GeForce 9800GX2 1GB PCIE DVI
Hard Drive with Vista: Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA2 32MB 7200RPM
Second Storage Hard Drive: SEAGATE 1TB 7200RPM 32MB SATA300 3.5"
CD/DVD/HDDVD/Blu-Ray: LG Blu-Ray Re-Writer/HD DVD-ROM S
Monitor: SAMSUNG 22" Wide SM223BW DVI 5ms TFT
USB Keyboard and USB Mouse

It turns on fine and boots into Windows Vista.
I've also put in a Ubuntu Live CD and it boots fine too.

After a while, it then just freezes or crashes. In general, Ubuntu Freezes and Vista Crashes.

My problem is that I can't figure out what is broken or not working.

The Mobo doesn't let off any warning noises or seem to indicate anything with lights/messages on screen

Right so, what I've tried:
Well obviously, I checked to see if it was Vista by using the Ubuntu Live CD.
Then, just in case it had anything to do with the hard drives, I disconnected them and tried the ubuntu live cd. It still freezes/crashes.
I also ran a chkdsk on the vista hard drive but it was fine.
I ran memtest from a linux cd. After 3 passes I stopped it because no errors had been found
I tried disconnecting the Blu-ray drive. Still crashes/freezes.
I updated the mobo Firmware. Still crashes/freezes.

So I'm kinda stumped as to what the problem is.

I checked windows event viewer and it has an error involving aspi32.sys so I'm gonna go google it now. I doubt this is the problem though.

So I was hoping someone might know of a program or something I could use to try and even figure out where this problem is coming from?

any advice would be appreciated

Try running a memory test (I think the Ubuntu CD should have an option for that).

The test will take a while and if it's a purely hardware problem it will freeze in that too. It does definitely sound like a hardware problem though, perhaps overheating?

Sorry just read that you ran mem test. Perhaps get a third opinion from another Linux Live CD.

ASPI32 would be to do with IO/Disk. Maybe the controller is foobared. Try running the LiveCD from USB and see if that's any different.

CrinkElite

Not sure about aspi32.sys but it sounds like you may be having heat issues. what temps is the cpu showing in the bios?

Slydice

Thanks for the advice so far. I'll take down the temps when I get home tonight and post them up tomorrow.

One thing though, I've another PC with very similar HW (same Mobo, Processor, RAM, GFX, Hard Drives) and it runs hotter from what I know but hasn't crashed. Maybe I'm getting lucky. I'll see about putting a fan or two in.

jpl888

When Ubuntu freezes are you able to get to a console i.e. ctrl-alt-f1?

Slydice

jpl888 wrote: »

When Ubuntu freezes are you able to get to a console i.e. ctrl-alt-f1?

eh I randomly tried different combinations of keys at the time but didn't know ctrl-alt-f1 gets you a console.

I'll give it a shot later

jpl888

If you manage to get to a console when it happens run "dmesg" and it should tell us a lot.

CrinkElite

Slydice wrote: »

Thanks for the advice so far. I'll take down the temps when I get home tonight and post them up tomorrow.

One thing though, I've another PC with very similar HW (same Mobo, Processor, RAM, GFX, Hard Drives) and it runs hotter from what I know but hasn't crashed. Maybe I'm getting lucky. I'll see about putting a fan or two in.

That may be but it is possible that your cpu cooler has moved from it's proper position.
anything at or above 70C at idle and you'll know you have a problem.

jpl888 wrote: »

If you manage to get to a console when it happens run "dmesg" and it should tell us a lot.

That's good advice.
try typing

dmesg > dmesg.txt

dmesg output will be saved to a text file called dmesg.txt which will be located in the directory you ran the command from, save this to a USB or a location on your HDD.

Slydice

I an effort to sort out the aspi32 thing, I went looking and found an install of an old version of daemon tools. I reckon it might not be compatible with the 64 Windows I've installed. So I uninstalled daemon tools.

The computer still frooze/crash last night and I could not get to ctrl+alt+f1 when it did.

but

Then I opened the box again, had a look again to see if I could spot anything wrong. Still couldn't see anything.

Closed the box. Had a think. Came up with nothing.

Turned on the PC and it worked ok. Windows worked without crashing.

So I took the opportunity to check temps.

The program that comes with the Mobo said roughly the temps were
Mobo: Ranged from around 45C to 55C
CPU: About 50C-53C @ Idle. I got 2 HD videos playing and a regular SD video playing at the same time and that got the CPU up to a max of 63C.


Then I tried Ubuntu again. This time no crashes. So I took the opportunity to get the dmesg. It's attached and called dmesg.txt in case anyone might see something in it. I had a look but couldn't spot anything that looked bad.


So, I'm baffled as to why it's ok. This morning I've been thinking that maybe a wire is loose or something. I'm gonna open the box this evening and check that all wires are connected properly. I'd really have thought the mobo would have complained if this were the problem tough.


Hopefully though, it's sorted itself out.

totally baffled though, never came up against something so unexplainable before.:(

hearny

When Vista Crashes what exactly happens, do you get a blue screen / error message / doews it reboot or just shut down.

Do you get any dump files from vista usually found in C:/Windows/Minidump.

List of things you could try:

1) Reseat the RAM
2) Run with different RAM Combinations, i.e. take out 2 and run it, then replace if it crashes
3) Restore Defaults from BIOS
4) Try a different PSU if you have a similar machine the PSU should be compatible.

The most likely issues are overheating or bad power supply but I would run with the least amount of devices possible. Download a temperature monitor program for vista and run a stress test like prime95 to see if you can force it to overheat.

jpl888

Yes that dmesg looks fine.

Perhaps one of the SATA cables was loose/not getting contact properly and the lid removal and reputting sorted it out.

I've also managed to catch SATA cables in lid lips and what not before.

Slydice

No crashes again last night. I opened the box and pushed all cabled and cards to hopefully have them properly in place.

I ran another memtest from a different cd overnight and after 5 passes, there were no errors.

hearny: It gave different errors each time on the blue screen. Some were page faults which had me thinking it was the ram. I'll check out the location of the dumps tonight and look into prime95.

jpl888: might have had something to do with a SATA cable. I'm not sure. One of the hard drives sticks out near the bottom of the mobo where the cables that control the power switches and LEDs go so I pushed at all them to hopefully have them in their place.

It's looking good now. Hopefully it keeps that way.

I'll keep the temp display program that came with the mobo going for a few weeks and keep an eye on it. Hopefully, that'll be the end of it.

hearny

If you are getting a blue screen with different messages each time the culprit is usually RAM or PSU then.
Since you have tested the RAM and it passed the PSU could be to blame.

An unclean power supply can do strange things to a pc.

Maybe pushing in all of the cables has fixed a loose connection and hopefully you wont have any more issues with it.

Slydice

Well, it's back crashing again.

Never got a chance to try prime95

I've copied the contents of c:\windows\minidump over to my other pc and I'm trying to use windows debug tools to look at the files. Getting a lot of symbol errors at the moment.

Gonna try and figure out what I need to install on my pc to sort out analysing the dump files and hope that'll give some sort of pointer.

bhickey

If you can rule out temperature and cabling as sources of the problem then the next thing I'd try would be to swap the RAM from the other machine for a while to see if that makes a difference. If not then swap any other similar parts that you can until you get somewhere.

hearny

I have PM'd you my email address. Send on a few of the latest dump files.
You need windows debug tools, and Symbols packages for vista:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/symbolpkg.mspx