Help, please, to diagnose freezing problem..

Piliger

Bought a PC from the German company with help from you guys about a year ago (see spec list below). We had some Windows and Linux problems but solved those.

However in the last month or so we have started developing a regular freezing problem with artifacts on the screen. We checked the innards and there was a LOT of dust in the big graphics card heat sink. We cleaned out that and I was very optimistic.

However the problem didn't go away. After 2-3 hours of gaming/browsing ... chronic slowing - frame rate slowing - then 40 mins later it completely freezes with audio going crazy, graphics breakdown. It ends by complete freeze.

Can anyone suggest diagnostic tools that we could use to ascertain if it is a motherboard problem or a Graphics Board problem or a temp. problem or if there may have been damage caused by possible overheating when it was choking with dust ? Temps are 22-28 and have always been so.

Tks.


Intel Core i5-3570K Tray, LGA1155
Thermalright True Spirit 120
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9
ASRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3, Sockel 1155, ATX
BitFenix Shinobi Midi-Tower USB 3.0
EVGA GeForce GTX 670, 2048MB DDR5, PCI-Express
LiteOn iHAS124-19 schwarz SATA
Seagate Barracuda 7200 500GB SATA 6GB's
Samsung SSD 830 64GB SATA 6GB's Paper Box
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 650W
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit (SB-Version)
BenQ GL225
Scythe GentleTyphoon 120 mm Lüfter 1150 rpm
Rechner - Zusammenbau

White Heart Loon

Glitches and artifacts usually point to graphics. Monitor the temps of your graphics card as you game. Use msi afterburner

If it's overheating you have a few options, replace the thermal paste to see if it cools, increase the airflow in the case to ease temps, replace the stock cooler with a better aftermarket one or after a year you may just want to upgrade to something newer.

whizbang

Have you got fans pulling and pushing airflow. i.e. in and out, all in, or all out? I don't think i believe temps of 25Deg.
Is the processor fan blowing opposite to the case fan?
have the drives got airflow?

try turning the box upside down, some graphics cards and power supplies cool better that way.

uncle_sam_ie

Run a benchmark like Heaven, http://unigine.com/products/heaven/ to test the GPU.

Piliger

Tks guys ... hoping to do all that this evening.

-( i )- Wicker

Maybe try update or roll-back the graphics drivers