It's happened, my PC has started crashing :(

[deh-cheesekake]

So, it's finally happened. Windows has decided that for what ever reason, it will stop working at random times. Here's all I know:

At random intervals my PC has frozen up. This is getting more frequently, now on a daily basis. And by freezing up I mean completely dead, the mouse will not move, Ctrl+Alt+Del will not work, any audio stops and the visual feed to my monitor freezes on the last thing it showed me.

Sometimes the PC will just black out, no freezing required and restart, sometimes it will hang for a few seconds before going out and sometimes it will stay on the last thing it showed me until the end of time. I don't see the BSOD but when I reboot the PC windows will tell me it has "recovered from an unexpected shutdown" and says it BSOD'd

I have an AMD FX-4100, 8GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 560, and windows 7 HP 64bit.

This may be conspiracy but It feels like the PC is bottlenecking because quite a lot of the time it will go under when it is activly doing something (loading a web page, playing a game)

I understand that PCs like to develop problems and sooner or later you will have to do a clean install, the time may have come. Any help would be appreciated as I do not want to have to reinstall my complete steam library and all my programs I use on the PC

I have the feeling that the problems are windows related because I have a linux mint partition on this PC that I have been using quite a lot lately and I have not experienced any problems on there. Another thing to note, windows has been sending me a lot of updates lately, I am thinking this may be the cause of the problem

 

[deh-cheesekake]

Right, after futher investigation it turns out that the problem may not be the operating system but the GPU. Fisrtly the only time I have experianced the PC completly not responding was when my GPU crashed on my old laptop (windows is great at making sure that no matter what happens, the mouse pointer still moves in coordination with the mouse. The only time the mouse locks up if is there is a critical error and the system simply cannot operate, such as a dodgy GPU)

Secondly, whilst testing my PC for crshing in 3D games (specifically portal 2)I noticed some artifacting about 20 mins in. This lasted for about 2 seconds at which point I noticed the grometry and shading for the game fail, the PC gave a shudder then the screen froze. At this point I took some photographs (sorry, no screencaps) of the artifacting

I experianced a similar problem with my old laptop when I installed the wrong graphics drivers for it and when playing 3D games experianced lighting and geometry failures. This would make me more suspicious that it may be my GPU and not windows

For the record I am running the latest grapgics drivers from nvidias website

There are the photos I took:
http://imgur.com/a/CeVse

 

[ubuysa]

Is this a PCS built PC? When did you get it?

When was the last time you cleaned the dust out of the vents and fans? It might just need a good spring clean.

What sort of temps do you see on your CPU and GPU when it "locks up"? HwMonitor is a good tool for measuring temps.

 

[deh-cheesekake]

Firstly, the PC is from PCS

The last time I took an air can round the entire PC was around April

On max the GPU goes up to 80c, I have never seen the CPU going high than 45c

 

[Boozad]

Sounds for temps, they're virtually identical to what I get on mine.

 

[deh-cheesekake]

I am thinking that if the problem is my GPU then I will need to act fast if I am to get it replaced as my warranty only has 1 year parts and its about to expire, what would you suggest I do

--EDIT--

Just checked the dispatch date on my PC "20-07-2012". I have about 5 days before the 1 year parts warranty runs out

 

[ubuysa]

Ok, so it doesn't look to be overheating, but what you say about the graphics card is worrying. Linux Mint must be using it though? Or do you also have an iGPU?

If we assume for now that it's a Windows problem though, you mentioned Windows updates, did the problems start after you'd applied a bunch of updates? If so, can you do a System Restore to before the updates were applied? Or even do a System Restore back to before you noticed these problems (if you still have those restore points).

I think the only way to find out for certain whether it's a Windows or graphics card problem is to do a clean reinstall of Windows. Painful I know, but it's cheaper than buying a new graphics card to test...

 

[Rakk]

I am thinking that if the problem is my GPU then I will need to act fast if I am to get it replaced as my warranty only has 1 year parts and its about to expire, what would you suggest I do

If you think it is a hardware problem then I would contact PCS, especially if you're getting close to your warranty end.

 

[deh-cheesekake]

Right, I've been quiet for a few days so I thaught I would fill you all in on what happened. I did a clean install of Windows where the only third party aplications were my drivers, steam and one video game. I played it for about 30 seconds before the system crashed. This is confirmation that this is infact a hardware fault. With 2 days left on my warranty I returned the card and they said they will be able to repair or replace it.

My only question now is seeing as the card is no longer in officialy in production, what will they do if they replace it (I imagine its pretty hard to repair a dodgy GPU). Will they give me a newer card that is like for like or just send me the cheapest thing they can get their hands on?

 

[keynes]

My only question now is seeing as the card is no longer in officialy in production, what will they do if they replace it (I imagine its pretty hard to repair a dodgy GPU). Will they give me a newer card that is like for like or just send me the cheapest thing they can get their hands on?

They will send it to the manufacturer for a replacement, if they can't replace/repair it then you should be offered a similar GPU.

 

[ubuysa]

Right, I've been quiet for a few days so I thaught I would fill you all in on what happened. I did a clean install of Windows where the only third party aplications were my drivers, steam and one video game. I played it for about 30 seconds before the system crashed. This is confirmation that this is infact a hardware fault. With 2 days left on my warranty I returned the card and they said they will be able to repair or replace it.

My only question now is seeing as the card is no longer in officialy in production, what will they do if they replace it (I imagine its pretty hard to repair a dodgy GPU). Will they give me a newer card that is like for like or just send me the cheapest thing they can get their hands on?

+rep for proving it to be a hardware fault.

I've no idea what PCS will do but my experience has been that they will be more than fair with you. I wouldn't worry.