Determining why my systems keep crashing?

Rlad78

Rlad78

New Member
So if you were to rate me on a scale of 1 to 5 on my computer knowledge, I'd probably be a 3.5. Built my first desktop 5 years ago, 2nd year of college in Computer Engineering, etc etc just thought I should give some perspective for what I'm about to ask.

I have two very different desktops, one 5 year old 2.5ghz Core Duo machine that's running 14.04 Xubuntu, and a Dell XPS 8700 w/ quad 3.5ghz i7 running Win8. For some reason, I've had bad experiences with both of these machines having periodic freeze-ups.

These freeze-ups aren't during regular use, but when I'm away from the machine. I'll come back to find that keyboard input (USB) doesn't do anything to wake them, and pressing the power button does nothing either. Holding the power button of course will shut them down, but they are definitely not in any kind of sleep mode, nor are they configured to ever be (unless there's some tricky setting the the BIOS I'm missing).

Are there any files that get written to that might help me determine why my computers lock up like this? Any kind of software that might help me find the problem? I understand I'm talking about two completely different OSes here, so any kind of help for either of them would be largely appreciated!
 
Can you do us a favour and post full system specs for each, download PC Wizard from my sig, install it on both machines, run it and go to FILE, SAVE AS and click OK. Copy the text out of each file into this thread along with the PSU you have in each too?
 
Okedokey said:
Can you do us a favour and post full system specs for each, download PC Wizard from my sig, install it on both machines, run it and go to FILE, SAVE AS and click OK. Copy the text out of each file into this thread along with the PSU you have in each too?
Click to expand...

XPS 8700:

Windows 8.1 64-bit
Intel Core i7 4770 @ 3.40 GHz
2x 4GB DDR3 RAM @ 804MHz
Dell Inc. 0KWVT8 (mobo)
1024MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 645
932GB Seagate ST1000DM003-1CH162 (SATA)
112GB VisionTek GoDrive 120GB (SSD) (OS)

Can't comment on the PSU yet, don't have physical access to the machine until 2 hours from now. Also don't have graphical access to my Xubuntu machine and I can't find a good terminal program to list out hardware. I will run the software in your sig as soon as I get home. Thanks for your help.
 
Ok, so the PSU is a 460w on the XPS 8700. It's stock, just like everything else besides the additional SSD that my OS is loaded on. Here's the results of PC Wizard on my XPS 8700:

http://pastebin.com/DTrPNsmF

As for my Xubuntu PC, I ran HardInfo instead. It doesn't give the GPU for some reason. It's a GeForce 8800 GT. The PSU is a 600w Thermaltake TR2.

http://pastebin.com/MAUy8G3h
 
Ok lets work on system one first (XPS 8700)? Im also assuming you wont skip steps and have a backup of your files etc and given your training understand the inherent risks of individual tasks (e.g. BIOS updates).

I would if you haven't already, start with the basics - by doing all this in order, you know your hardware is completely up to date and working:

  1. Set a System Restore Point
  2. Update your System BIOS. Yours is A01, previous version (A04 updated for Win 8.1 support) and the latest is A06.
  3. Restart.
  4. Ensure you have the latest intel drivers. Download, install them and restart.
  5. Install this and ensure you have all the latest drivers for your machine. The application should give you a complete list of updates, but if not they can be found here - be careful to update to the latest. - Download each/all, then install individually, restarting after each install.
  6. Download and conduct a 'fresh install' of these graphics drivers.
  7. Restart.
  8. Set another restore point if all is well - call it - part system upgrade or similar. That way you don't have to go all the way back if something goes wrong from here.
  9. Restart
  10. Update Direct X here.
  11. Restart
  12. In Windows, go to command prompt (elevated) and type sfc /scannow
  13. Let it scan and run.
  14. Update your Seagate HDD firmware (currently CC47) - latest is CC4H
    read/follow these instructions carefully.
  15. Restart
  16. Back in Windows, right click on the each drive and conduct a checkdisk (scheduling the Windows disk for next restart)
  17. Restart and let Windows complete checkdisk
  18. Once back in Windows, download Seatools (to test your seagate HDD) and run it.
  19. Let it finish, restart.
  20. Back in Windows, update Windows completely
  21. Restart and check Windows Update again, repeat process until no more updates available.
  22. Download Malwarebytes, run it and let it remove any malware it may find.
  23. Restart
  24. If all well, set final System Restore
  25. Download Auslogic Defrag, run it on your 1TB drive (not the SSD though).

If you still are having issues after that, I would test memory using Memtest. Burn to a DVD/CD and boot from it and run it overnight.

Finally, contact VisionTek and ask them if they have a firmware update for your SSD, as that Sandforce controller is known to have issues. There is no drivers at all that I could see on their website.
 
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Sorry for taking so long to get back, it's been a busy couple of days for me.

First off, let me just say how grateful I am that you've taken the time to give me so much help. I went through all of your steps and was able to complete all of them successfully...except for updating the Seagate HDD firmware. The executable gave me issues, which I researched on and found out it's a common problem. I then found out there's a bootable version of the firmware update, but I had some issues with that as well and decided it was better to hold off on the firmware update than risk bricking my HDD.

So far so good though! My system's been up for a good 26 hours, and I usually find it'll crash somewhere between 6-30 hours of uptime. I'll let you know if it crashes any.
 
Ok cool. Good decision making there. Well done. Let us know how you go.

You can also follow the same approach to the other machine, obviously with different drivers etc.
 
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Sorry to bump this, but my system is crashing again :c

I feel like it could possibly be my SSD which my OS is running on, but I don't see why it would cause the system to crash completely. I'm pretty sure something's wrong with it though.

Moving files in Explorer doesn't really happen immediately, I sometimes have to press F5 to see the results. When creating a new folder, sometimes the folder doesn't show up unless I press F5, and then it gives me the chance to name it. Then, once I name the folder, the name remains New Folder unless I press F5 or wait a good 6 or 7 seconds. Uploading files via browser ("Choose File") also gives some problems. It takes awhile for the browser to recognize the file, and if I press a submit button too soon it'll say there was no file chosen.

I've had the same thing happen to another SSD of mine in a different system. Do SSDs just decay like this over time or is there something I can do about it?
 
As I said in my last post I would contact VisionTek and ask if they have a firmware update for your ssd.

Also, please download Memtest as per my instructions previously and test the RAM.

I would also begin backing up your system. Probably at this stage a clean install is the best course of action, that way negating any software issues.

In the meantime, download Whocrashed , install it and run it.

Select analyse and tell me what comes up.
 
Okedokey said:
As I said in my last post I would contact VisionTek and ask if they have a firmware update for your ssd.
Click to expand...

Whoops, I forgot to mention in my last post that I did contact VisionTek. In fact it was the first thing that I did, but alas, they have informed me there's no updates at this time.

I will run Memtest86 tonight and see what the results are.

I'm actually in the middle of zero-writing my external HDD so that I can be sure I can back up my system safely. It's been giving me some trouble lately (both the system and the external hard drive :b).

And I will install that software right now. Thanks! I'll report back once I've done all of this.

EDIT: Here's the results of WhoCrashed:

Crash Dump Analysis
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crash dump directory: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump

Crash dumps are enabled on your computer.

No valid crash dumps have been found on your computer

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crash dumps are enabled but no valid crash dumps have been found. It may be that there are problems which prevent crash dumps from being written out. Check out the following article for possible causes: If crash dumps are not written out.

In case your computer does experience sudden reboots it is likely these are caused by malfunctioning hardware, power failure or a thermal issue. To troubleshoot a thermal issue, check the temperature using your BIOS setup program, check for dust in CPU and motherboard fans and if your computer is portable make sure it's located on a hard surface. Otherwise it's suggested you contact the support department of the manufacturer of your system or test your system with a memory test utility for further investigation.
Click to expand...

Thermal issue is definitely out, as my machine is idle during these crashes and does fine during times of heavy use (gaming). Temps at idle across the board are below 40C.

Hoping it's not a hardware failure. I've tried plugging my PSU into both the wall and the strip, both produce the same crashes. Plus, the system stays on, it's just unresponsive. I wonder if there's a way to monitor the PSU.
 
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Test your memory and conduct a checkdisk on the SSD. Also make sure the correct timing and voltage settings are correctly set in the BIOS prior to doing that.
 
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