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  1. #1
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    Random computer freezes

    The computer will lock up at random times. Whatever is happening will be mouse arrow on screen is frozen in place and if sound was playing it will just repeat a jitter of the sound until it is hard rebooted.

    The red light on the multi-media drive will stay lit despite being turned off in this fashion. This light otherwise is off if computer is shut down under normal circumstances.

    Upon a reboot, wherever a log would exist for the computer issue that happened doesn't exist (whether it be Norton or Event Viewer).

    Doing checkdisk and hardware memory tests show everything as perfectly fine.

    Upon looking in the case there are no "burnt" smells. It has been aired out with canned air. We have reseated all connectors on the motherboard that go to other relevant hardware and reseated all the ram.

    On at least 3 occasions this lock-up occurred when the keyboard and mouse slide tray was brought forward, yet we can't purposely duplicate it with sliding it out or jiggling the cables. We tried different USB ports for both of those devices and have tried a new mouse.

    It still continues to happen.

    The longest we have gone recently without a lock-up was 2 days and this was after everything was blown off and the surge protector thing that I mentioned.

    I am seeking help in isolating what the source of this issue could be.

    Is it possible the temperature and/or humidity of the room has any affect on this? (Just to throw some stuff out here.)

    If actual specs of hardware or software will be helpful, let me know and I'll gather it and post it too.

    Thanks a lot for any help.

  2. #2

    90% Ram or Motherboard issues. Heat is possible, but the lack of a crash report means it's not getting an opportunity to write the log which it normally would where the CPU throttles down and then thermals resets.

    Typically issues like this almost always end up being bad sectors of ram or faulty motherboard chipset, those are the two issues where the system will frequently hard lock randomly after long periods of normal operation.

    Dark horse would be PSU issue(that may have cascaded into another issue, like faulty PSU causing faulty RAM).

    I'd at least start at ram, do MemTest or equivalent, start taking sticks out and see if stability improves.

  3. #3
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    MemTest found no issues. This issue has occurred as quickly as an hour apart, the longest was just 2 days.

  4. #4
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    Are there any programs you leave open for extended periods of time? Maybe some app has a massive memory leak or is just taking a dump on your system. Not saying it's norton, but it could be norton, or anything. Try disabling some stuff in the startup tab in the task manager or otherwise disable running on startup, stuff you don't really think you need and maybe report on what starts up normally when you sign in/bootup.

    I run into system killing mem leaks occasionally since I leave my machine on for months, mainly it being either leaks or app crashes that ultimately force me to reboot heh. Stuff like bluetooth or things that require specific motherboard/manufacturer drivers (sometimes ancient versions) can also be finicky and quickly lead to system crapouts if the part is going bad or the wrong driver is installed (yet would be fine if it had no driver installed or was just pulled out).

  5. #5
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    It's locked up this way before on the login screen before any program has loaded, more than once.

    Nothing being used is wireless and bluetooth isn't enabled.

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    Sound loop crashes sound kinda familiar, my old rig had those every once in a while. Most likely cause (in my case) was the GPU driver going down the drain... But I guess any driver could cause this. That would also explain why it can happen before login, since drivers are loaded on boot.

  7. #7
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    You did mention norton, so i assume you have some kind of antivirus installed right? How old is the system? Is it a prebuilt (what brand, model, year, changes)? If old, could be a sign of the hdd starting to fail. How long has it been doing this (like since a certain windows update?)? What apps are enabled on startup? Windows version? Do you let it enter sleep/hibernate modes or just screen turns off?

    A slow or ailing hdd can sometimes cause an antivirus to fail while doing a scheduled scan or other file checking things, leading to freezes, and some do this before you ever sign in. Old or incompatible drivers can lead to this too. If you hadn't already, might want to back up stuff and prepare for the worst.


    alsoalso: sorry for the question dump but it's just some things to keep in mind when trying to think up a solution. Sometimes it could be a common issue shared among many users of said app/prebuilt/hardware/etc, so it's good to know.

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