Crashes

[Arakorn]

In the past week, my computer has started crashing suddenly while playing games. Some days it's even been 4 crashes a day!

I want to state now, that when it crashes, it reboots automatically and immediately! Although today I've had a fe CTD:s also...

It only happens when I play games, and a error comes up: (Finnish)



It doesn't seem to matter which game it is, but I've been playing 3 games lately, and all have crashed; Tony Hawk's Underground, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - The Sith Lords and Star Wars: Battlefront II.

The errors says (roughly translated):

The system has recovered from a serious error.

A "report" has been formed out of the error.

Notice Windos about the problem.
"things that isn't anything important"

And then I can view the error report (clicking on the blue text), which shows two files, but the pathway is faulty, it's:

C:\DOCUME~1\"my user name"~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER5620.dir00\Mini062106-04.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1\"my user name"~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER5620.dir00\sysdata.xml

The pathway is often different BTW.

I can also send it, or don't send it, I've sent it once, but I really think that it won't help.

I don't think it's a virus, since I ran a full system scan with my anti virus software yesterday, and it only found one spyware thingy which it deleted (it's been a while since I got something, it often shows 0 on both (virus and spyware)).

Any ideas?

Is it just a new comp or?

BTW, can I delete all contents of the Temp folder? Because it's currently 800-900 MB and I'm kinda short of HDD space right now.

Also, Fatsheep suggested it might be a temperature issue.

So I used http://www.sisoftware.net/index.html?dir=&location=downandbuy&langx=en&a= to check my CPU temperature, and while being idle (actually, I was browsing the web) it stayed quite stable at 62 degrees (C!). And when playing, it raised with one degree maximum.

[Proximus]

Hard to say but I would bet it's either (as Fatsheep said) overheating, a driver incompatibility problem or a faulty or to weak PSU.
If your CPU temp is fine there’s a great chance it’s your video card that is getting to warm and causing reboots and ctd’s. What’s your video card?

To solve driver issues download the newest driver from either ati.com or nvidia.com, download drivercleaner and uninstall your old drivers, run drivercleaner and install the new drivers.

[Arakorn]

My system:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2400+
GPU: NVidia GeForce 4 TI 4200
Memory: 512MB
HDD Seagate 120GB (abouyt 15GB left)
OS: XP Home Fin

I don't think it's a driver, why have I only encountered it now?

[wipeout140]

Its not spyware is it....

[Arakorn]

No, I ran a complete system check, no viruses found, one spyware found.
Then I deleted the spyware obviously.

But then when one of the crashes happened today, my virus scanner (F-secure) said that the chivalry TW beta uninstaller contained a trojan downloader! (http://www.stratcommandcenter.com/fo...dpost&p=186528)

[wipeout140]

No, I ran a complete system check, no viruses found, one spyware found.
Then I deleted the spyware obviously.

But then when one of the crashes happened today, my virus scanner (F-secure) said that the chivalry TW beta uninstaller contained a trojan downloader! (http://www.stratcommandcenter.com/fo...dpost&p=186528)

Its the trojan virus then

[Arakorn]

No it's not, I already deleted it, besides I had these crashes before too...

[wipeout140]

No it's not, I already deleted it, besides I had these crashes before too...

Worest case you reformat hard drive

[Aristocrat]

62C is very hot for an AMD chip...are you sure that temp is accurate?
ANd when you play a game the cpu temp will rise more than 1 degree Celsius.
Do yourself a favour, download motherboard monitor (if you did...sorry but that link you posted doesnt go anywhere...I assume it was SiSandra) and then tell us your cpu temp on idle.
Then download Prime95...another free program (just google both...I don't have direct links atm) and run it's torture test, provided it doesn't crash straight away, tell us what the maximum temp the cpu gets to, my guess is your computer will in fact crash and reboot after a period of time as it is overheating.

If it isn't a temp issue it could be your ram...but we will cross that bridge if we come to it.
(Or perhaps not ram but a new driver causing instability).

Edit: On spyware, etc, do yourself a favour and download Spybot search and destroy, and Adaware from Lavasoft, both a good free programs for getting rid of junk like that.

[Incinerate_IV]

62C! Thats WAY too hot, especially when its idle! Download Prime95 (google it) and run the max heat torture test, if it crashes during the test then it must be a temperture problem.

[Arakorn]

Aristocrat, I have those both (spybot and ad aware), no spywares etc currently. My guess it's too much crap in the casing, I must clean it when I get back from vacation (1 week).

[Aristocrat]

If the temp you said is correct you will need to reseat your heatsink.

[Arakorn]

Umm, I have no idea what motherboard I have, though I'm pretty sure that it's one fo the Fujitsu-Siemens ones. How can I find this out (needing it for Motherborad Monitor setup)???

[Aristocrat]

Download another small free program called cpu-z (google it..there will be tons of links).
Just extract it anywhere and run it, go to the mainboard tab and it will tell what motherboard/mainboard you have.

[Arakorn]

Yeah, saw that and apparently I have a gigabyte MoBo.

Well, here's the motherboard monitor results: 62-63 degrees!



I will now try to crash test it with Prime 95.

EDIT:

Uhh, I ran a options>torture test, with the second option (In place large FFT's), because it said that it tests maximum heat. After a while the temperature raised up to 71 degrees, at which point i got a warning, and ended something...

(I think it was MBM that warned me, because when I shut down MBM, a same looking window came up. So the error in Prime might have been something else...)

[Incinerate_IV]

Yep, it looks like its a heat problem. The stock thermal paste probably dried up or something. The only way to fix this would have to be taking off the CPU heatsink and clean off the old thermal paste, then apply some Artic Silver on there. Also you could try to open your computer case, 45C case temp is pretty hot too!

[fatsheep]

Yep, it looks like its a heat problem. The stock thermal paste probably dried up or something. The only way to fix this would have to be taking off the CPU heatsink and clean off the old thermal paste, then apply some Artic Silver on there. Also you could try to open your computer case, 45C case temp is pretty hot too!

^^ Tis good advice:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835100007

Clean off your processor and heatsink base with cleaning alchohol and a coffee cleaner (that's what I use ). Put a dab of the AS5 (and I do mean a dab you only need a bit) right in the center of the processor and reattach the heatsink.

Do remember to ground yourself (touch something metal like the case, preferrably do not work on a carpet or anything else that could cause an ESD, especially not with socks on... :wink: )

[Aristocrat]

Artic Silver instructions are here.

Pay important attention to this part:

ONLY Arctic Silver thermal compound should be between the processor core and the heatsink. Remove any thermal pads or other interface material from the heatsink before applying the Arctic Silver. Thermal pads can be scraped off with a plastic tool that will not scratch the bottom then the remnants can be removed with a xylene based cleaner, (Goof Off and some carburetor cleaners) acetone, mineral spirits, or high-purity isopropyl alcohol.
Never use any oil or petroleum based cleaners (WD-40, citrus oil based cleaners and many automotive degreasers) on the base of a heatsink. The oil, which is engineered to not evaporate, will fill in the microscopic valleys in the metal and significantly reduce the effectiveness of any subsequently applied thermal compound.

And you only need a tiny bit of artic silver as fatsheep said, about the size of one rice grain (or whatever rice is).

While your at it clean your case of dust, dust can trap heat and raise temperature. You could get a new heatsink and fans but none of that should be needed unless you are overclocking...

Edit: On static electricity, you could just buy a wristband for around $5 (maximum)...or you could a really cheap route and wrap a metal coathanger around your wrist and attach it to something metal...it should work in theory....or you could take my brothers route when taking apart his laptop and do it on carpet with socks on and leave the components on carpet...crazy kid.

[fatsheep]

Edit: On static electricity, you could just buy a wristband for around $5 (maximum)...or you could a really cheap route and wrap a metal coathanger around your wrist and attach it to something metal...it should work in theory....or you could take my brothers route when taking apart his laptop and do it on carpet with socks on and leave the components on carpet...crazy kid.

You can go out and buy a wristband for $5 or so at radio shack if you want but I doubt it's worth the trouble. I, as have many others I have talked to, do not use them. All I do is rest one hand on the metal of my case or touch it occasionally. Also, as I said, obviously you don't want to be working on a carpet (especially not with socks on) or any other surface that is a source of static electricity. I have found that to be enough through experience- haven't fried anything....

yet...