computer freezing

[MightyKhan]

Hi,

while this is not just NWN or HG related (it happen with ALL games I play), i decided this was the best place to ask.

Sometimes, the screen freezes, music continues playing for a few secs, then repeats half a sec of it over and over for a few secs, continues while i can hear fan activity going up and after a few secs, the game too continues.

sometimes, it happens with about 20 seconds intervals. and most of the time when theres a lot of gfx violence happening...

Call me stupid, but would I be able to solve this problem by rigorously cleaning the insides of my computer (clearing it of dust mainly)? I figured i would be the video card having some heat problems, but putting a huge fan blowing fresh air into the machine did not work either. (and it was even happening in the winter times...)

Thanks for reading,

Khan

PS by all means, move this post if the place is unappropiate

[miraborg]

id try open the computer and vacuum clean the processor heatsink + gfx card heatsink from dust. I had the same thing on my old machine and that was the solution that worked for me.

cheers

miraborg

[darc]

I'd be extremely cautious about using the vaccum.

The typical method is to use canned air to blow the dust off in short, high powered bursts.

[soultaker]

Vacuums could cause ESD Charge - Unless you have a Vac that was created for such a task (Designed to not ESD Discharge)

after checking the Physical part of your PC. Some manufacturer's have a Blown Caps issue. (transitor). Check the tops to see if they look ok. If blown then you will have to replace the Motherboard.
Run A Scandisk, Then Defrag.
Also check the PC for any Spyware/Malware.

Hope some of this helps.

[Torin]

And update Drivers for Grafixcard/Soundcard (in most cases a good idea).

[MightyKhan]

thanks for all the advise guys, will try them asap

[MightyKhan]

dust elementals suddenly became reality o.O

Apr 3, 2009 16:04:29 GMT miraborg said:

id try open the computer and vacuum clean the processor heatsink + gfx card heatsink from dust. I had the same thing on my old machine and that was the solution that worked for me.

cheers

miraborg

worked like a charm, thanx =)

[bhao]

Apr 3, 2009 16:17:36 GMT darc said:

The typical method is to use canned air to blow the dust off in short, high powered bursts.

and don't ever turn the can upside down before you spray, especially other people, or into plastic bags that you then seal and throw in the garbage. don't do that. it's not fun at all.

[gandoron]

install some temp monitoring programs for your CPU, MB, gfx and powersupply. I think CPU-Z and speed fan work the best. overheating can cause all kinds of nasty problems that are extremely hard to diagnose. Def update your drivers. Otherwise the problem sounds like it's based on computational limits, so that would either be gfx or cpu based. it might be possible to buy a replacement. mb and memory could also be to blame. however memory generally just causes a complete crash, running memtest86 is always a good idea just to make sure.