6 replies to this topic

[JAGO]

Well, once again, I've experienced a completely (not completely) random freeze. I was playing Guild Wars, minding my 34C temps, when all of a sudden -everything- stops. And not just for a minute. I let it sit for an hour before I held that button on the front of my case.

I do suspect the hard drive because, well, it's the hardware of lesser build quality. I suppose though, there are plenty of other factors that may cause my computer to freeze completely. Any ideas? I had been playing Guild Wars for about an hour before it happened, but I don't think temperature was at all a problem.

[Andavari]

Some antivirus scanners real-time protection can also cause games to freeze to the point of locking up the whole PC!

[JAGO]

I have no AV installed.

[hazelnut]

JAGO, on Dec 19 2006, 02:56 PM, said:

I have no AV installed.

Is there a reason why you don't, it's rather a risky thing to decide to do.

[Andavari]

Well since you have no AV installed that rules that out. How about your installed DirectX version, is that up-to-date?

Since you suspect the hard disk you may want to run a thorough surface scan with HD Tune (freeware), as well as look at what it displays for the S.M.A.R.T. status.

[JAGO]

hazelnut, on Dec 19 2006, 10:06 AM, said:

Is there a reason why you don't, it's rather a risky thing to decide to do.

I don't browse the internet in such a manner where that would bring any issues, and when I did have AV installed (about the past year, displaced a month or so), I never found anything. If I have suspicions, I'll use Kaspersky's online scanner or BitDefender's online scanner.

I'll give that HD Tune a try.

dxdiag shows DirectX at 9.0c.



Edit:
HD Tune showed SMART enabled and that (what I assumed to be a check for bad sectors) health scan came up 100% green.

Perhaps a memory test would be next in line?

[Andavari]

JAGO, on Dec 19 2006, 12:58 PM, said:

Perhaps a memory test would be next in line?

Yeah there's Memtest86+ and Microsoft Windows Memory Diagnostic, however as according to the original Memtest86 if you have more than one stick of memory installed you should check them individually (e.g.; unplug the extras and only test one at a time) versus all at a time so that you can narrow down which one "may" be faulty.

Although it could be a failing power supply, or anything else. It could also just be that something is loose inside the PC so unplugging everything and plugging it back in also wouldn't hurt.