My computer keeps restarting/freezing

[Super-Buu-5]

My computer keeps randomly freezing or restarting. It started around the time I tried to dual boot with xp on a separate drive, although a little before that I was streaming a movie to my ps3 with a program called ps3mediaserver from dashhacks. Several times throughout the movie the computer would restart but not freeze. It could have been a ram thing, but I uninstalled it a little after I tried to dual boot just in case it was that. I've updated my bios but it still restarts or freezes. I also fixed the master boot list I think it's called with the windows disc. Also once when I started up my computer it checked my hard drive for inconsistencies then re-wrote a bunch of indexes on the drive, and a little before that I was running Linux to transfer files since I didn't wanna do it on windows but it still restarted, so could it be a hardware or firmware thing? I'm running windows 7 pro 64 bit on a mid tower

These are screens of cpuz

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QYDWG5IQ

plz help!

[† L4ugh]

Have you made sure it's not overheating?

[mando_22]

First I would suggest have a look at the system error logs with event viewer and see if there is anything there. If its an overheat/hardware failing type issues don't always generate an error message or dump but its worth a look.

At the same time you can try to see if there is any pattern ("right before each crash I see this error" type thing).

When it restarts is there a blue screen and/or dump file created? Or does it just click off?

If you think its a RAM issue you could try memetest86+ to check it.

[Super-Buu-5]

I recorded that motherboard temp screen and played a flash game which always makes it crash. The temp was fine right up until the very end when it flashed a bunch of error codes like f3, f6, 68, c1, c3 then went down to around 25 and even 03 then all the way up to 96. I've looked around a bit and found they're all memory related. I have 2 different types of ram in my computer and 2 of them (same ones) run at a different speed than the rest. I'll try running it with 1 or 2 sticks and get back to you, but the ram thing's never been an issue until I tried installing XP and failed.

I'm actually not sure if it's the temp that's shown there but that's what I saw.

Mando sometimes it'll shut off even if I just leave it logged on and doing nothing for a while, and it's just a sudden freeze or restart. It's never made a blue screen either.

Where would I find the dump file?

[Renzourin]

yeah sounds to me like i know whats wrong looks like your RAM is likely the issue mate if your running 2 different types of ram then they got two different timing sequences meaning your computer is going to hate you and likely freeze judging by the fact that it even resets while your inactive states to me not overheat but ram mismatch try running only ONE ram stick and see if that settles it

[Super-Buu-5]

I just finished running memtest86+ and got no errors. I'm not sure if that's the issue cause it's never been a problem before the xp thing, but I'm gonna try it with one stick of ram some time tomorrow and see how that works out

[mando_22]

For mini-dumps C:\Windows\Minidump Or in the system root folder for large dumps. But quickest way to find them is to do a search for all ".dmp" files.

However if one was created it would be noted in the system error logs (usually only created when there's a BSOD), so if you don't see anything noted there then nothing was created.

If you look at event viewer is there anything significant around the time of the crashes? If not than it is probably hardware, I guess after you try the one RAM stick if your still having problems I would advise running a Drive Surface Test on you HDD and see if it passes.

Failing hard drives (at least at the beginning) can sometimes cause random freezing and rebooting.

[Super-Buu-5]

I ran it with my 2 2gig ram sticks and it didn't crash, although it was kind of slow. I put the 3 1gig ram sticks back in but in a different order and it seems to work fine and hasn't crashed yet, but I put them in a different order. Before the order was 12121 but now it's 11122. My hard drive was almost full so could that have done it? and what's a good surface test application?

Everyone thanks for the replies btw!

[mando_22]

Good to hear its not still crashing, sometimes just resating the RAM can fix things.

To answer you question each major drive manufacturer publishes there own tools, still seagate seatools works with all brands and is pretty easy to use.

Theres a short DST (normally sufficient) and a long DST option if I remember right.

[Wolfwood]

Ummmmm, not sure but you should at least reformat your computer. Thats what I do when I encounter problems and it usually works. If you did this, I would suggest bringing it to a professional to get this problem diagnosed.