New PC Freezing Every 5 Minutes

[iamhoops]

Hey, I'm hoping someone can help me with this. I recently (3 months ago) built a new gaming rig and...

The title pretty much says it all. It's freezing completely. Sometimes I don't even get to the windows login screen. My specs are as follows:

MoBo: ASUS P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX
CPU: Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz LGA 775
GPU: EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition
RAM: Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM
PSU: Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W
HD: Some kind of Western Digital SATA drive (I think it's 320GB)
Case: XCLIO Windtunnel, Fully Black Finish, Full tower ATX
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Ultimate for System Builders

So here's the story. I bought the parts, built the dream machine, and everything seemed to go smoothly. After I installed the OS I got some games up and running and found that whenever I was running a game the computer froze up. No big deal, not enough RAM probably. I was planning on getting more in the near future anyway. Well, slowly (over the next couple of months) the freezes became more and more frequent.

At this point the computer is unusable. It freezes all the time for no apparent reason. I thought the Hard drive might be going, but I've tried three different hard drives (reinstalled Vista three different times as well) and no luck. I ran Memtest86 on the RAM, no errors. I'm getting worried because it's coming down to the big expensive parts.

(tl;dr:)
Are there any good GPU/CPU/MoBo tests I can run that might help diagnose the problem? Preferably ones that can be done in under 10 minutes, or from BIOS or DOS before the OS starts up, 'cause otherwise I'm gonna get a freeze-up before the test ends. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

~iamhoops

[marnamai]

Are you sure your ram sticks are seated properly? I once had a similar issue in the past where every program/game would crash 1 minute after startup and one of the ram sticks wasn't properly in place.

[iamhoops]

Are you sure your ram sticks are seated properly? I once had a similar issue in the past where every program/game would crash 1 minute after startup and one of the ram sticks wasn't properly in place.

Yeah, pretty sure. I only have one stick of RAM in there, it's in the right slot according to the MoBo manual, and it shows up in BIOS and in Windows.

[marnamai]

Overheating cpu perhaps? Don't be too greedy with the termal paste :p

[iamhoops]

Overheating cpu perhaps? Don't be too greedy with the termal paste :p

Perhaps... I hope not, and it seems weird (or at least troubling) that it would be getting progressively worse, but any way to check that? I have a monitor for case temp, but that never spikes beyond 37 degrees Celsius. Something like Real Temp maybe?

http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/

[iamhoops]

Okay, well I've got Real Temp, EVGA Precision, and Task Manager's Performance tab up on my screen. Will report the readouts at the point when the computer freezes.

[whiffen]

1: Make sure everything is seated correctly. Try re-seating. Make sure power connections are in all the way.

2: Make sure temps normally stay below 80c

3: Possible failing PSU

4: Have to go to work so cannot help more atm T_T

[zombie@computer]

first thing id rule out is the videocard. Standard overclocked videocards may seem safe but the producer still goes over the normal boundaries of the chip producer, which is high, whatever way you look at it.

[iamhoops]

Okay, it just froze.
Real Temp readout:
Quad Q9400 2666.66 MHz 333.33 x 8.0
GPU 45ºC Load 11.7% 0:10:11
Temperature (ºC)
49 44 49 55
Distance to TJ Max
51 56 51 45
Minimum Temp (ºC)
39 35 38 39
Maximum Temp (ºC)
57 51 54 56
Thermal Status
OK OK OK OK

EVGA Precision readout:
GPU Temp 45ºC
Fan Speed 40%
Core Clock 301MHz
Shader Clock 602MHz

Task Manager "Performance" tab readout:
CPU Usage 29%
Physical Memory 57%
Memory 1.15GB
Processes 48

Physical Memory (MB):
Total 2045
Cached 1381
Free 0

Kernel Memory (MB):
Total 321
Paged 266
Nonpaged 55

System:
Handles 13457
Threads 667
Up Time 0:12:05
Page File 1387M / 4332M

Case Temp:
28ºC

I don't see any heating problems, it all seems ok. That having been said, the computer usually freezes before I reach the login if it JUST froze, but if I let it sit for a little while after turning it off I can get it to run for 10-15 minutes before freezing.

[iamhoops]

first thing id rule out is the videocard. Standard overclocked videocards may seem safe but the producer still goes over the normal boundaries of the chip producer, which is high, whatever way you look at it.

Sorry... you had me at hello, but lost me at producer. I get the gist of what you're saying, but how do I "rule out" the video card? Is there some kind of test/diagnostic check that I can run?

I've been thinking it's the video card, but I don't know how to PROVE it; that's the problem.

EDIT: I did run dxdiag the other day, and everything checked out fine

[zombie@computer]

try another video card if you have one. Offcourse whiffens' 1 and 3 are suspects too.

[coder0xff]

Were you careful about controlling ESD when you assembled it?

[iamhoops]

try another video card if you have one. Offcourse whiffens' 1 and 3 are suspects too.

Eh, well I can call up my friend who probably has a comparable card and see if I can test his card. Other than that, I have an old (at least 6 years) ATI Radeon RX800, but I don't know how well it's going to work with a 64-bit intel PC.

As far as wiffen's advice, 1 shouldn't be a problem, and 3... well I don't even want to go near the CPU. It's brand new, and I almost had a heart attack installing it. I was so scared I was gonna screw something up.

Were you careful about controlling ESD when you assembled it?

Yeah, no ESD. That should be fine.

[iamhoops]

Ok, so first and foremost, thank you so much to everyone who's been helping out so far. Second...

The problem is far from fixed, but I tried running on the really old video card to see if things would freeze up at all. after 15 minutes, bam. Frozen. That's the longest recorded time I've got it to run since I started keeping track, but it's far from proof that the video card is the problem. I was hoping to run for 30 minutes without freezing and then successfully shut down the computer, which to me would be enough proof to RMA the new video card.

[coder0xff]

If you can get a friend to let test out his PSU (hook theirs up to your PC, not the other way around), that's a good next step. Could do the RAM too.

Assuming that's out of the picture, that leaves your mobo and CPU.

Unfortunately, a bad PSU can also damage a mobo or CPU. Keep in mind that you may be dealing with multiple faults, and if your PSU is faulty and causing damage, you may replace your mobo just to find that something is still wrong and you now have possibly damaged another part.

If you want insurance, take your PSU to a computer repair shop and have them plug it into their PSU tester (hoping they have one.)

edit: or just buy a tester lol. I should get one.