Computer freezing, forces hard restart

[CodeRedR51]

A couple times now I have been watching a YouTube video and doing something else (two monitors) and out of nowhere the screen will turn a solid color (gray once, blue the other) the audio from the speakers goes all robot sounding and the whole computer locks up. It forces me to do a hard restart every time. Any ideas what might be causing it? If it happens again I will post a photo of the screens, forgot to do it this time. Thought my video card was going out but everything works fine after the restart.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Just did it again, black screen this time. Every time it has done it, these lines show up.

 

[sesselpupser]

Specs (including PSU make, model and wattage)? How old is it? The first thing I'd assume is the PSU is too old or weak and is browning out the graphics card.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Intel i5 4430 3GHz
16GB RAM (just upgraded this, but it did a freeze before upgrading so I know it's not that)
AMD Radeon HD 7970 Graphics Card

No idea on the power supply without opening the system. I guess it could be failing, I have had this computer for a few years now.

Edit: I have been messing with the virtual memory lately. Not sure if that would have anything to do with it.

 

[20832]

I'd guess the GPU is going bad, or has gone bad.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Does it have a built-in graphics capability? Try running without the Radeon. While you're there reseat all the power/data cables. Also reset your virtual memory settings, 16Gb should be enough for most things

Not many ways around this without opening the case.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Does it have a built-in graphics capability? Try running without the Radeon. While you're there reseat all the power/data cables. Also reset your virtual memory settings, 16Gb should be enough for most things

Not many ways around this without opening the case.

I put the virtual memory back on "automatic" so we'll see if anything changes. So far this morning it's OK.

 

[Rallywagon]

How often do you clean it?

 

[mazdaspeed3pc]

Try to clean PC inside,i know that worked on my PC from 2001 every time.But i suggest calling a "PC Doctor" if there is still problem after cleaning.

 

[Dobermann92]

I found this on the internet, the image looks like the one from this topic:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...my-screen-to-fill-with-vertical-lines.564470/

 

[CodeRedR51]

Just did it again. Tried to hard reset the computer and all I get on initial loading is this, followed by a black screen:

Time for a new video card?

Edit: 3rd hard reset and it's working fine now. WTF.

 

[Dobermann92]

Can you switch out your GPU to another?

 

[TB]

Take your GPU out and use the onboarding graphics. If the problem persists, it's not the GPU.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Can you switch out your GPU to another?

Don't have another.

Take your GPU out and use the onboarding graphics. If the problem persists, it's not the GPU.

Going to try updating the drivers first if I can figure out how to do so.

Edit: was updating the graphics card drivers and near the end of the installation the screen went black again. And now blue lines again on restart.

Edit 2: pretty sure it's toast. It shows the boot up screens fine (with the lines) then when it tries to switch to the windows login screen, it just goes black.

Edit 3: giving up on this because it's over 5 years old and I wanted to upgrade anyway. See my other thread:

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/yet-another-pc-build-thread-help.318465/page-2#post-12651479

 

[Nexus]

Going to try updating the drivers first if I can figure out how to do so.

Edit: was updating the graphics card drivers and near the end of the installation the screen went black again. And now blue lines again on restart.

Edit 2: pretty sure it's toast. It shows the boot up screens fine (with the lines) then when it tries to switch to the windows login screen, it just goes black.

Have you tried using your onboard graphics yet?

Use Display Driver Uninstaller to uninstall the current drivers, then try to install the latest drivers.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Have you tried using your onboard graphics yet?

Use Display Driver Uninstaller to uninstall the current drivers, then try to install the latest drivers.

Can't even get to the desktop now to do anything. I'll try on board tomorrow.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Just did a random search on Google for "PC crash blue lines", clicked the image tab to see if there were any in there that looked like mine and came up with two at the following links:

https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...cally-across-the-screen-possible-fix.3298626/
https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/...gfx-problem-help~~-5539042.html#post105609103

Sounds like I need a new GPU.

 

[TJ13]

Sounds like I need a new GPU.

How long have you had your GPU?

I had a 550 ti since about release and they just stopped updating the drivers about a year ago so if you had it more than 5-7 years it's time to change.

 

[CodeRedR51]

How long have you had your GPU?

I had a 550 ti since about release and they just stopped updating the drivers about a year ago so if you had it more than 5-7 years it's time to change.

I bought the whole computer on craigslist about 5 years ago.

 

[TJ13]

I bought the whole computer on craigslist about 5 years ago.

Well it's time for a new one.
Or do what I was doing,
Part by part upgrading.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Well it's time for a new one.
Or do what I was doing,
Part by part upgrading.

I had planned on it, just spending too much money on my car.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Card came. Just installed but only one of the cables coming from the power supply can connect to it. Hopefully that's fine.

Edit: so I just found out that this card doesn't support windows 8.1. WTF. Wish I had known that before purchasing.

Edit 2: downloaded and installed Windows 10. Gotta do what you gotta do I guess.

 

[Rallywagon]

Card came. Just installed but only one of the cables coming from the power supply can connect to it. Hopefully that's fine.

Edit: so I just found out that this card doesn't support windows 8.1. WTF. Wish I had known that before purchasing.

Edit 2: downloaded and installed Windows 10. Gotta do what you gotta do I guess.

View attachment 803270

Honestly, windows 10 is far better than 8.1, and is still under support.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Honestly, windows 10 is far better than 8.1, and is still under support.

It was rather slow at first but I had a feeling I would have go in and disable superfetch again. For some reason, with 8.1 and now 10, windows would just hog up all my disk usage to 97%. Had to disable superfetch on 8.1, then while trying to do the same on 10 I discovered that they changed the name of it to something else. All good now.

It's nice to have 8GB of video memory. Was able to crank up the settings in GTA5 and Wreckfest and it's pretty smooth. 👍