Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 10:16 pmI've been running my current rig now for about 18 months or so, built it myself which I've done numerous times in the past, and it's been niggle free right up until about 3 months ago when I started having an issue where the display would appear to be locked and unresponsive. Static image displayed, video card obviously still pumping out the last thing it rendered, but no other activity or response. Mouse and KBD out of action, no discernible audio from the case like HDD activity or anything. No amount of 3-finger-saluting or tongue holding would make any difference. The only way out seemed to be to hit the power off or reset.
The pattern was irregular, sometimes the PC would run all day, sometimes just for an hour or two, before the next lock-up. This was very annoying when it happened mid flight, especially on the longer legs. And was also happening during other non Sim activity (yes, sometimes we do other stuff right?)
I took a good look at what s/w I had running thinking it might be related. Updated video card drivers, made sure windows update was running ok, disabled lots of services, un-installed apps I don't use, ran virus scans and malware detection (nothing), defragged the drive and cleaned the registry etc. but nothing made any difference.
So then I figured it might be hardware. Ran some diagnostic tools on the desktop to monitor processes, temps, load etc. but nothing out of the ordinary even when I left the machine for as long as it took to cause a lock-up.
So it was I took the machine out of the office and down to my man-cave yesterday. The interior of the case was a shambles, dust everywhere. I carefully vacuumed the chunkier bits of dust out of the case, compressed-air-can blew the rest of the cr@p out, wiped various surfaces down w anti-static wipes, cleaned air filters, cooling fan blades and the CPU radiator. Pulled out the GPU, removed RAM sticks etc. then re-seated them, re-installed the fans, took the case back to the office and held my breath..........
Ran up the machine, mucked about on the Sim, hours ticked by and all good, and now after almost two days of solid running, a couple of intentional restarts at various points, numerous multi-hour sim flights (all in the name of testing darling
) and so far everything seems fine.
The up-shot obviously is, if you have screen-freezes there's a chance it could be as simple as re-seating your RAM or GPU?
Sorry for the ramble, but maybe this will save someone some time in the future should a search turn up this post
The pattern was irregular, sometimes the PC would run all day, sometimes just for an hour or two, before the next lock-up. This was very annoying when it happened mid flight, especially on the longer legs. And was also happening during other non Sim activity (yes, sometimes we do other stuff right?)
I took a good look at what s/w I had running thinking it might be related. Updated video card drivers, made sure windows update was running ok, disabled lots of services, un-installed apps I don't use, ran virus scans and malware detection (nothing), defragged the drive and cleaned the registry etc. but nothing made any difference.
So then I figured it might be hardware. Ran some diagnostic tools on the desktop to monitor processes, temps, load etc. but nothing out of the ordinary even when I left the machine for as long as it took to cause a lock-up.
So it was I took the machine out of the office and down to my man-cave yesterday. The interior of the case was a shambles, dust everywhere. I carefully vacuumed the chunkier bits of dust out of the case, compressed-air-can blew the rest of the cr@p out, wiped various surfaces down w anti-static wipes, cleaned air filters, cooling fan blades and the CPU radiator. Pulled out the GPU, removed RAM sticks etc. then re-seated them, re-installed the fans, took the case back to the office and held my breath..........
Ran up the machine, mucked about on the Sim, hours ticked by and all good, and now after almost two days of solid running, a couple of intentional restarts at various points, numerous multi-hour sim flights (all in the name of testing darling
) and so far everything seems fine.The up-shot obviously is, if you have screen-freezes there's a chance it could be as simple as re-seating your RAM or GPU?
Sorry for the ramble, but maybe this will save someone some time in the future should a search turn up this post
