Someone with computer expertiese please assist.

[Sythe]

My computer is having this problem. Whenever I play and start up a game it is running very smoothly. Perfect in fact! Until it freezes. It freezes for about 20-50 seconds then goes on agains. It keeps on freezing every 2 minutes. Does anybody know how to correct the problem?

[andrewas]

Three things come to mind.

Overheating. If its a fairly standard design open up the case and see if the temps drop and more importantly if the problem clears up. A more permanent fix would involve clearing up the wiring and removing dust, and then having a look at airflow and heatsink quality and all sorts of fun things. But any shop-bought system should run at stock speed with stock cooling if you keep it in decent condition. You can use the Motherboard Monitor 5 program to see you temperatues, but if you have software specificaly for your system, that will be easier to use.

Dodgy PSU. MBM5 can show the voltages, look at the 12 an 5 volt rails, typicaly the 5 volt will drop down to about 4.4-4.2 and then crash. Dosent tend to cause freezes though.

Dodgy RAM. Sisoft Sandra, run the memory burnin test for a while. And I do not mean one cycle. Or, more simply, take out all but one stick and see if you have problems, and switch around till you identify the dead stick.

Or it could be some dodgy drivers, some malware (run adaware, spybotSD, trend housecall), some game specific problem.

[Megabot]

Yeah it looks like an heat problem so check out your cpu fan and it's cooling ribs and the ribbs on the grapich card clean them and i think it will be allright again.

[Sythe]

Okay thanks. I believe overheating is the problem. Because my fan makes a pretty loud noise and is quiet as a baby at diffrent times. I'll look into that thanks guys!

[Sythe]

Okay I opened up my computer and BOY!!! Mr. and Mrs dust bunny have been mating therfore bringing many children! I believe dust is the problem the was some on my fan and on the cards. What to use though. I've already cleaned the fan with a damp cloth. But I know it's insane to do it with the graphics card and all. What should I use for cleaning this?

[Gammit]

You can get a can of compressed air to blow dust off of parts that you do not wish to touch. These cans can be bought in most computer stores, and look like this:

http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...04717&pfp=cat3

[Larry_OHF]

Originally posted by Sythe: Okay I opened up my computer and BOY!!! Mr. and Mrs dust bunny have been mating therfore bringing many children! I believe dust is the problem the was some on my fan and on the cards. What to use though. I've already cleaned the fan with a damp cloth. But I know it's insane to do it with the graphics card and all. What should I use for cleaning this?

Ziroc had mentioned that he lost his video card to dust and cat hair that had trapped in the video card fan and let it burn out. YOu gotta be careful, man!

He uses an anti-static brush to clean parts of his PC, and I do not know where to get one of those, as I have been looking everywhere. I use the compressed air as previously suggested and let the dust get blow out as I hold the PC at the right angle.

I do this monthly.

[Sythe]

Ah okay thanks. I saw a few of those around my house. Problem is I can't find them ^^. But I will buy one and one more thing. What if I y'know shoot too much at one place on the card? Will it mess it up? Thanks again guys!

Originally posted by Sythe: Ah okay thanks. I saw a few of those around my house. Problem is I can't find them ^^. But I will buy one and one more thing. What if I y'know shoot too much at one place on the card? Will it mess it up? Thanks again guys!

You mean if you blow alot of compressed can air and it shows that white cold frost on the video card? It should dry out eventually. No harm. Just make sure it drys out. Yes, do like Larry and just clean your PC once a month. Mine is always clean. I have a Dell and for some reason, it stays cleaner than my other PC I had. Maybe the parts are anti-static which does not collect too much dust.

[Ghoul]

You can put some old nylon stockings over all fans which blow into your PC-case. This should filter most of the dust out of the air. (Sounds silly but works!)