[Hexing]

My computer has frozen repetedly in the last couple days since I got it, though two of those times it's force restarted itself afer encountering a graphical glitch. I was playing Runescape and in 2 spots so far (though I could never re-create what happened) It's had a single orginating spot or multiple points begin to graphicaly..... spaz out. Many long flat lines of color are flashing/flailing around the screen for a second or two, then the computer goes into a black screen and there's a freeze of a sort of grainy/mirror image of my mouse split in two. (at that time all sound is still working perfect on my videos that i'm running) Then it freezes (sound begins to loop in a 1 second loophole) then the computer goes to a blue screen full of text like "Windows has encoutered a problem and is forced to shut down" or something for about 1 second then the computer restarts itself.

It's happened twice in 2 weeks, 5 other random freezes -without- the blue screen/restart portion happened randomly as well. It's a NEW computer, has enough fans/cooling and I'm nowhere near 60% CPU at anytime so i'm sure it isn't overheating. Tried running different older updates on the ATI 4xxx graphics card, tried it on different settings, can't seem to fix anything. Currently in debt for a week or two more so after that if it isn't fixed i'll take it into a shop to get it checked out I suppose, but I just think it shouldn't be having such aggrrivating problems when it's new. Thanks for reading, and any feedback you could give me, thanks.

[Tanis]

If it is only a couple of week od my first port of call would be the shop I got it from as I wouldn't want to risk giving them an excuse nto to honour the warranty.

[Hexing]

Oh, I bought the parts online and a friend and I built it, he's been building them for 20-30 years, so I doubt he made a mistake, but anything could happen. So I'd need to know what part is busted/screwing up so I can contact the site and stuff, but atm it's all a bunch of pieces put together with a 2 week shipping time attached, so I can't really go to the place I got it from and bring it in. :S

[Tanis]

OK

First thing I would suggest is to disable the auto restart on system failture. Then, if the BSOD occurs again the system shouldn't restart and you can note down the exact error. In XP you go to Start > Control Panel > System > Advanced Tab > Start up and Recover Settings > untick 'auto restart'.

Also, if it crashes again and you dont get a BSOD, after rebooting have a look in the event log and see what (if any) errors or probles were reported at the time of the reboot, these two things may help to better identify the faulty component.

Can you list the make and model of all the components you are using: i.e. motherboard, cpu, graphics, soundcard, hard drives, power supply (including wattage).

It initially sounds like a problem with the graphics card (hardware or software) but that is not for definate as things like RAM issues can cause some apparently random errors to occur.

[Hexing]

P5N-T deluxe motherboard.

Intel (r) core(TM)2 quad cpu, Q9550 @2.83 GHz

RAM: 4.00 gb

64 bit OS

Couldn't find the rest of it, as I threw out packages already and can't find it on the computer. If you tell me how to find it i'll post it here.


I checked the event logs for the most recent freeze today (happened twice today already) and only thing I found that matched the time stamp was an unexpected power restart 'Kernal-Power' but nothing about errors or anything. Found something about corrupted firmware and versions, but that was at different times. Trying to get a hold of the friend who helped me build the computer.

It happens at any CPU useage, 10%, 30%, 50% doesn't matter. Or what i'm doing. But still get a whatever sound is playing makes a buzzer noise because it's frozen/looped, and a completely unresponsive computer. Zzz

[Hexing]

I'm now virtually positive it's the graphics card. Was playing a game and for about 3-5 seconds the graphics just took a literal **** on themselves. Tiny graphics were stretched across the screen violently moving around, then it shut itself off and I got the bluescreen again. In the event log once again just says I got a bluescreen and that the power being turned off was unexpected. I found the reciept so I'm going to try to return it for another one. Possibly higher grade for same cost if I don't complain like crazy to them and write terrible reviews for their graphics cards, zzzz. Damn futureshop. Bought it on the 4th, so hopefully it's got some kind of warrenty on it for making my computer try to kill itself 15 times in 2 weeks.

[LiubenX]

Hi

I myself have a VERY similar problem though my video card model is a bit different :

nVidia GeForve FX 5200

Now I've had this video card for years and have played a lot of 3D computer games but at some point of time my PC started to freeze and occasionally reboot itself. Here is what happens(please read through to the end):

It all started 1 or 2 years ago when i was playing Call of Duty 2.At some point of the game the PC just froze and vertical lines appeared on the screen as if the picture has been shifted out of place in those lines,some upwards,some downwards and my mouse gets a strange looking shadow.It continued to happen when i got to the same point in the game and it wouldn't go through - a complete freeze no response from keyboard though i could hear the music and sounds of the still running game it just froze.
A friend of mine suggested I reinstall my Windows (XP) and a miracle occurred - it got fixed. But only temporarily.It lasted some time and then the problem reappeared.So i re installed Windows again but this time it was a bit more specific - I couldn't run just some 3D games - Warcraft3 for example as well as Call of Duty.Now that was rather strange as I could play some other 3D games like NFS hot persuit 2 or Prince of Persia the two thrones(that was the last game i could play before it completely failed,very recently)!
But now I can't run even a single 3D application it just freezes like I mentioned above and on top of all the monitor shuts down or i get a blue screen saying windows has encountered a problem.

So I really don't know what to do anymore. I have run some software diagnostic programs I found on the web and they all say my video card is in perfect condition (I did manage to play the latest prince of persia at the time).

This is my problem
I would be very thankfull to anyone who can offer me some advice.If you require some more information just write and I will respond with the info needed.

PS.:Recently i lost my original driver CD and am relying on internet downloaded ones from the original NVIDIA site(if it will help).

Thank you in advance.

[winterchronic]

These both sound like definite graphics card issues.

the blue screens can have two causes, hardware or software.

I.E your driver may be corrupted ( software )

in which case, try updating the driver, or rolling back to a more stable one.

or, the card itself is damaged, not seated properly or overheating. (hardware)

to try and eliminate this, a can of compressed air into the GFX fan to clear out any gunk, check it is seated properly in the PCI slot, and if it requires a power connector, check this is properly attached.

then use a program such as rivatuner or something similar to check temperatures of the card. Each card will have different normal temperatures. google around to find what yours should be running at.

and finally, sometimes graphics cards just die, slowly and painfully.

[Hexing]

Was watching a video on yt and the graphics got all messed up again. The box where the video was turned pure yellow, everything else was black besides a ghost image of the cursor (both images of the cursor had lines going through them) as well as some randomly placed horizonal white lines all around the screen. The audio worked fine for another 30 seconds or so while it waited even when the screen went black for a moment, then i got a bluescreen message flashed up for all of 1-2 seconds then it restarted itself.

Each time I've looked at the event logs somewhere at the time of restarting it'd say something about corrupt memory, and this is one of the interesting logs I found when looking around this one. The freeze graphic thing was around 3:36, retstart around 3:38, though all logs were at 3:38.

(This was for the information ACEE log)

0000000002: 2010-09-08 15:38:26:029 FAILED:ADL_Display_SLSGrid_Caps and return value is: -1
Error Called by: ATI.ACE.CLI.Caste.Graphics.Runtime.RT_GraphicsAdapter_N::CheckSLSSupported processID:02848 threadIDCCCThreadNew:Runtime) domainNameCCC.exe ) assemblyNameCLI.Caste.Graphics.Runtime, Version=2.0.3748.36826, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e)

------------

and this happened yesterday, I've found a fair few other mentions of corrupt memory in other logs when I looked around, could this mean anything for the graphics spazzing/rebooting?

The platform firmware has corrupted memory across the previous system power transition. Please check for updated firmware for your system. (Was in admin events, under HAL at the end)


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EDIT: this was happening with my other graphics card I got about 3 weeks ago, so I returned it and got another one TWO DAYS AGO. I also uninstalled the driver it came with and I isntalled, for older version attempts on the ATI website. All 3 4 in total that i've tried have had the same issues. 10.7, 10.8, 10.6 ( i think) and I tried like 10.4 or something recently for good mesure of really DOWNGRADING. All end up eventually having the same problems. I've got 5 fans running, and I don't even hit 50% cpu on my computer normally, so I really doubt it's overheating, though I can check if you like and it'd help. And everything i'm working with, especially the GFX card is VERY new, so I'm sure it's not a problem of age either. Hope that cleared some things up, lemme know what I can do to check around for things to help solve this with next.


(Note): My old gfx card/other driver updates had a different freeze style, it'd usually just outright freeze (this one has once, but the others more so) and the freeze would usually just freak out with graphics spazzing all over the place for java gfx, or for something like starcraft 2/youtube it'd do the thing that happened on this one. Does the different types of graphical errors mean anything? I can explain them more in-depth if needed.

[Tanis]

If you have had several graphics cards in the system and they all produce the problem then it is unlikely to be the graphics card.

Download Memtest86, go to the free download link and get the ISO Image for creating bootable CD. Create the CD and then boot from it to do a test of your RAM.

When you get the option, run a full memory test, ensure it completes at least 2 full tests. It will take a while to complete (probabaly a few hours) so I usually leave it running over night. When done, see if it reports any errors.