Gaming system seizing up

[MotzTech]

This is for a personal system of mine. Normally I don't get to deep into these types of setups, so I feel like I might be missing something.

I have a gaming system I built back in 2009. I don't really playing cutting edge games so it's been fine for my use. However it has started randomly seizing up. Sometimes I can game for hours without issues but other times it seems to randomly seize up. It might make it all the way into a game before seizing, seize up before post, or seize somewhere in between.

The weird part is it will work fine for a long time and then just suddenly decide to stop posting. Nothing I do seems to help, but it just starts working fine on it's own. When it's in this non bootable state I tried disconnecting all non essential hardware, including the hard drive. I also swapped out the memory and PSU with known good parts with no change.

I'm thinking it must be the CPU or motherboard, I'm leaning towards motherboard because it seems a faulty CPU would never work vs only work sometimes. Visually the motherboard looks fine, no bulging caps or anything like that.

Is there anything I might be over looking?

Here are the specs I'm running
ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb Quad-Core 3.4 GHz Socket AM3
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB
Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Creative 70SB073A00000 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition
PNY XLR8 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (Added in 2011)
TP-LINK TL-WN751ND Wireless N150 PCI Adapter (Added in 2015)
Windows 7

 

[MotzTech]

One thing I forgot to mention, when the system is seized and the power button is pressed, the system shuts off immediately. Not like a long press like you would use to force the system off, the millisecond the button is pressed the system powers down hard.

 

[discipulus]

What testing have you done so far?

*edit* saw the memory and psu swap. Gut tells me thermal - CPU. Stock cooler? Try new thermal paste on it.

 

[Mainstay]

Agreed with discipulus... heat is the first thing that comes to mind.

How are the ram and drive testing? Any issues?

Also, what is the heat like on that GPU?

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

One thing I forgot to mention, when the system is seized and the power button is pressed, the system shuts off immediately. Not like a long press like you would use to force the system off, the millisecond the button is pressed the system powers down hard.

it only happens while gaming though?

Edit: Oh nvm you said can sieze up prior to post and some where in between

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Did you get this bios update?

Description M4A79XTD EVO BIOS 2102
Fix the issue that system may hang during POST when using certain graphic card.
File Size 736.99 KBytesupdate 2010/07/30
Download from Global

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

If you already have that bios i'm not really sure what the issue is. You can try disabling cool'n'quiet and C1E support just to see if that increases stability.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I highly doubt it's heat related....especially since you say it can occasionally happen before/during post. She ain't had time to heat up yet, coming from a cold start! The CPU isn't even engaged yet during POST...just given power but it's not "working" yet.

Going back many years ago I used to get into huge heat sinks, and tons of different thermal pastes....I used to overclock systems beyond the moon, and used to build lots of higher end gaming systems. But after the Pentium 3 years...going into the Pentium 4 years after the first generation or so of P4s...Intel starting chipping CPUs with pretty dang good HSFs, with very effective "thermal pads". Putting thermal grease on has to be done properly..and most of the time I saw people putting way too much on, spilling down the sides 'n stuff. Stock HSFs with the thermal pad, because they're easily installed properly, end up being more effective than most of the home job custom HSFs with thermal grease.

Anyways...I doubt that's the issue, since you're saying it can happen during post.

You say the mobo is from '09. So it's possibly old..eyeball it for bulging or leaking capacitors.

I'm a huge HUGE fan of Crucial. But I'll admit their Ballistix rammage can be picky and twitchy. A lot of it runs at higher than standard spec voltage...so make sure you check the voltage requirements, and bump up accordingly on the mobo. Even if it's running at what the RAM is spec'd at...try bumping .05 or maybe even .10 up. While we're on the subject of rammage...did the particular ram you get for it specifically mentioned on Crucials website as being approved for this specific motherboard? Or did you just get RAM that appeared to be the correct speed? There are many variations of RAM under the same speed...you should get the specific part number of RAM that the manufacturer recommends for your exact motherboard.

Another thing I learned...don't skimp on power supplies! I used to love Antec and Seasonic....towards the later years I focused on Seasonic power supplies. Many of the other higher end brand power supplies are actually made by Seasonic...just marked up a bit more in price. So purchase a Seasonic direct and save some cash. Speaking of power supplies...if you have a higher end graphics card (which..being a gaming rig, I sure you do)...many of them are very picky about proper amps at the 12v rail. So this is another reason to to get a power supply that matches/exceeds the particular voltage requirements of your graphics card. Many times this important thing is overlooked...everyone just "assumes" any old power supply will work for any old graphics card. NOPE! Not of stability is important to you!

 

[Krynn72]

I'm also leaning to Stonecat's last suggestion, the PSU. I've had several "lock up" issues on desktops due to bad PSUs. I'd suggest removing everything from the motherboard except the power button, and CPU. Remove the extra USB ports, audio ports, PCI cards. etc also. Then plug in a known-good power supply, and single module of known good RAM. Boot Parted Magic via the built in USB.

Test for awhile, and if it happens again you know its MB/CPU. If not, add in parts one by one and test again, starting with the original PSU,

 

[ohio_grad_06]

I've learned gaming systems seem to like a psu with a large, single 12v rail. I've seen systems with dual rails just shut off when you applied to much load. Seasonic is good, evga seems to be making some decent units these days.

 

[brandonkick]

ditto to a lot of what has been said

Start off with the bare minimum hardware and if that is stable
keep add one part at a time until you get a failure. I've seen things
like optical drives, mouse, keyboard and even 56K modems causing
issues before. I've had systems either being extremely unreliable or
refusing to post at all.... remove a optical drive and bam no issues.
I had one that was throwing fits all day... moved it to another location
to continue work on it and it works like a dream (mouse and/or keyboard)

One thing you don't mention is the size of this power supply. Are you sure
its large enough power wise? As stonecat also said, does it have the required
amount of amperage at the 12v rails? Many power supplies have multiple rails
with each rail have a relatively small amount of amps. I'm not familar with that
card but some cards need a fairly large amount of amps. Under feeding them will
cause them to throw fits. Also, if your graphics card has an extra power connector
please make sure you plug it in.

Start off with the power supply, motherboard, a single stick of memory, the processor, HSF and
graphics card (unless you have integrated video). Boot into a portable OS and do some
stress testing. The machine should be stable. Be sure to stress test not only the CPU and RAM
but also stress test the GPU as well. If it's stable (I'd probably go a few hours at least) then add
in other things. Add in more ram and test again, add in the optical drive and test again, add in
the sound card and test again. So on and so forth.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

does it have the required

amount of amperage at the 12v rails?​

​

"amps" at the 12 v rail....yes. I typed volts...LOL..brain farted....went back and corrected my post.

 

[MotzTech]

Thanks for all the feedback. I hardly ever get time to work on this system, as client issues come first and I hardly have time to game anyways. When I get around to it I'll review all this and see if I can't get it resolved.