Computer Freezing. Fixed by reseating RAM?

Videodrome

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Sep 12, 2013
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My gaming computer is a Republic of Gamers ASUS STRIX Notebook with 12 GB of RAM. It has a Solid State Drive and Hard Drive and where I store my Steam Games. I also dual boot Windows 10 and Arch Linux.

Steam games started to freeze in Windows and programs in Arch Linux would also freeze so it didn't have to do with the OS. I tried running a Live Linux which also froze while playing YouTube. Then I even tried a Memtest+86 which froze.

So I opened it up and tried taking out RAM sticks to test them individually and it seems like the freezing issue has gone away?

One thought on this is a few months ago my apartment building had a small fire so I wonder if some smoke got in there. I did try to blow it out with canned air but maybe some still got in there.

Just wondered if anyone else had any like this happen to their gaming rig. I'm hoping this really is fixed I just put DOOM on it.
 
I'm still getting random freezes in both Windows and Linux. This is so f***ing annoying and this Laptop is only just over a year old. When it's not freezing though, my Steam games look really good at least.

So I booted MemTest live from USB. I was looking at various tests selected Benchmark and it froze up at 50%. I just tried to reboot it and nothing happened. I tried yet again and it came up so I'm running MemTest passes.

I guess this is likely bad RAM contacts for some reason, so I'm deciding if I should get contact cleaner or let a PC Shop do it for me who actually have tools. It would be nice if the RAM is actually still good and the contacts just need to be brushed or something.

Then I can have a quick cheap fix and get back to DooM.
 
Yes, reseating RAM modules has sorted freezing issues in the past. However if you are still getting freezing issues, try another memory module if you can. It could be bad ram module or memory bank.
 
I just played through a level of DooM, but tuned to just High instead of Ultra and I didn't freeze this time.

I'm wondering if I coincidentally had two different issues with both Windows and Linux. I was running a project in Arch Linux in VirtualBox that was behaving very strangely when I ran updates. I think I'm going to let Arch Linux go and try something else. I liked Arch for being very lean and fast, but they use the newest version of packages so maybe something broke in their updates.

I'm thinking of going back to Netrunner Linux with the Debian base.
 
I'm stumped. The laptop froze with Dragonball Fighterz and just recently again with DooM.

I'm thrown many tests at it for RAM, GPU, or CPU and it passed. I opened it and didn't see much dust, but blew canned air in there anyway. The laptop doesn't feel that hot to me, but maybe it's to warm around the CPU or something. Cooling pad is still running well.

What is awkward is I played almost an hour before it froze on DooM so it's weird looking for such an intermittent problem.
 
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Heat...
Maybe the gpu/cpu paste needs to be reapplied?

I gave up and let a PC Shop look at it. They said a small fan by the GPU keeps quitting, leading to overheating, then freezing. They also said the chips are on the boards directly, not pasted.

Of course, it becomes a stupid deal where the single small fan can't be purchased anywhere by itself, only as part of a cooling set of fans + copper tubing for about $110.

Oh well, could be worse. Trying to decide if I'll keep it after having it fixed or wipe with a fresh install of Windows sell it and use the money to upgrade.
 
I gave up and let a PC Shop look at it. They said a small fan by the GPU keeps quitting, leading to overheating, then freezing. They also said the chips are on the boards directly, not pasted.

Of course, it becomes a stupid deal where the single small fan can't be purchased anywhere by itself, only as part of a cooling set of fans + copper tubing for about $110.

Oh well, could be worse. Trying to decide if I'll keep it after having it fixed or wipe with a fresh install of Windows sell it and use the money to upgrade.
Sell it and start over.
 
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Should run a hardware test to see what it tells you.

Also run some programs like Adware removal to see if there is something that go in the system that is trying to hit the resource in your computer.

I am leaning more on hardware because for the fact you are also running linux and act the same tells you have something about to go bad in your hardware. Possible hdd or cup.

Linux is no something that freeze or get any junk in the system.
 
Should run a hardware test to see what it tells you.

Also run some programs like Adware removal to see if there is something that go in the system that is trying to hit the resource in your computer.

I am leaning more on hardware because for the fact you are also running linux and act the same tells you have something about to go bad in your hardware. Possible hdd or cup.

Linux is no something that freeze or get any junk in the system.

When I ran MemTest live on USB it would randomly freeze. Since that tool only lives in RAM and doesn't need the SSD or HDD it rules those out as well as any OS problem. Whem MemTest was able to complete without a freeze, the RAM passed all tests.
 
When I ran MemTest live on USB it would randomly freeze. Since that tool only lives in RAM and doesn't need the SSD or HDD it rules those out as well as any OS problem. Whem MemTest was able to complete without a freeze, the RAM passed all tests.
well if your live usb ran with no issue with RAM did you check to see if there is any other software you can use for other test o hardware?
The only thing I can think of is the tempter.

You said this acts the same for both OS?
 
well if your live usb ran with no issue with RAM did you check to see if there is any other software you can use for other test o hardware?
The only thing I can think of is the tempter.

You said this acts the same for both OS?

Same for both OS, or with no OS when running Memtest on USB. I also ran a Live Linux OS straight off USB to memory and it froze.

The PC Shop guy did confirm the fan for the GPU keeps stopping.

At least I still have my project PC even though it's not nearly as strong for gaming.
 
Same for both OS, or with no OS when running Memtest on USB. I also ran a Live Linux OS straight off USB to memory and it froze.

The PC Shop guy did confirm the fan for the GPU keeps stopping.

At least I still have my project PC even though it's not nearly as strong for gaming.
I figure it was the temperature because that has to be the only thing that USB test cant detect.\

I just put mine together not to long ago running Linux Mint and love it.
 
Same for both OS, or with no OS when running Memtest on USB. I also ran a Live Linux OS straight off USB to memory and it froze.

The PC Shop guy did confirm the fan for the GPU keeps stopping.

At least I still have my project PC even though it's not nearly as strong for gaming.
Did you ever get that problem resolved?