Thread: Home Built Freeze Issues

I am using:
Q6600 Core 2 Quad CPU @ 2.4 Ghz
MSI P35 Neo-2 FR Motherboard
2Gbx2 OCZ Reaper PC2 6400
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS
500Gb HDD Sata
PC Power and Cooling Silencer 610w Power Supply
Windows XP Home SP2

The issues I am having appear rather frequently lately. I play a lot of Steam ( Valve) based games and when I load in to game sometimes it locks up on the map or when loading to the next map. I can turn off the comp via power button and when it restarts it boots but will not load Windows. Then I have to power down and restart it again. Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated as I am quite a noob when it comes to properly troubleshooting comp issues.

Thanks

When a year-old rig freezes, there are lots of possibilities. So eliminate the easy ones quickly.

Drivers: Uninstall all nVidia software except Motherboard chipset stuff (I didn't check your Motherboard specs). Download the latest drivers (let nVidia try to detect your gcard) and install. Fixed? If no, did you update drivers recently before the crashes started? If so, try going back to a previous driver.

Steam: Steam itself, if the only source of freezes, as mentioned above.

Heat: Use CPUID Hardware Monitor and watch your core and gpu temps. Any Correlation?

Stress test: If no correlation to heat under normal load, run Prime95 for at least an hour, if temps allow. This will drive memory and cpu without agitating your gcard. Does it fail? If so, this tends to eliminate gcard, and point to psu, Motherboard, timings, memory.

Memory: If Prime95 fails and it’s not heat-related, remove one stick of memory and redo the stress test. Then the other. If both these tests fail, increase memory voltage by small steps up to but NOT OVER 2.1V. Repeat tests.

Finally, I don't like the trouble rebooting after a power off. You might try clearing CMOS and making whatever few changes in BIOS you really need, then save and try again.