I'm having problems with my desktop computer. It's 5 years old already, but still works well even with the latest games so I'd really like to keep it as long as possible.
Specs listed below:
- motherboard: ASUS P5N72-T
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550
- memory: OCZ 4GB Dual DDR2
- graphics: Gigabyte GeForce GTX280
- power unit: Corsair 620W
- case: Thermaltake Kandalf with decent cooling
- CPU is cooled by a separate radiator and fan, not the standard box one
The problem started a couple of years ago. When playing GPU-intensive games it kept freezing every hour or so. The intervals began to be smaller and smaller with time. Recently, when playing Farcry 3 I had to restart the machine every 15 minutes which pretty much rendered the game unplayable for me. Also, this summer, when the days were very hot (the room was probably 40+ degrees Celsius) it started freezing even when working normally (i.e. not playing).
When the machine crashes, it literally freezes - the screen stops at the last frame, all sounds stop and it's totally unresponsive. I've tried checking the temperature - the graphics card is definitely the hottest, but remains within acceptable limits, the CPU and motherboard temperatures are OK.
It's been suggested to me that the motherboard I have is known to be problemmatic because of the memory bus bandwidth or so. I've tried downclocking the CPU and it works to a certain extent - freezes don't happen so often, but they still do.
Another interesting things is that when I boot linux on this machine, kernel bootup sometimes freezes when initialising mdev.
Would you have any hints as to how I might diagnose the part that's causing the problems?
