Random PC freezes

[Outsider]

Hey guys,
I got some problem with my machine after I left it switched off for about a month (never had any troubles before and was out the country).
Now, it just freezes, no sound errors or bluescreen messages, at random times. I could play a high end game AC4 Black Flag for hours straight and nothing happened, then would restart the computer into crashfests. No pattern or anything
I did a chkdsk and it ran for 5 hours, no change.
I downloaded the usual crashdump analysis software such as BlueScreenView, but there aren't even any dump files/logs.

Right now, I am trying to at least find out what is causing the freezes, Any suggestions and help would be greatly appreciated.

[Oniya]

Have you gone in with some compressed air and blown out any dust that might have accumulated?  I had one machine that used to shut down because of heat reasons.

[Outsider]

Yes, I opened it yesterday and it wasn't all that dusty. Cleaned it anyways.
Windows Event Viewer isn't any help at all; it only shows the critical power losses (which were forced shutdowns after freeze)
I cleaned my registry, ran memtest and another PC health program, no success. Updated most of the drivers.

I wish I would be getting a single BSOD just to figure out what exactly is causing problems.

[Outsider]

So after a bit more than a week without problems, they suddenly are back.
The Computer doesn't freeze anymore, it just shuts itself off (with the same kind of clicky noise it does when you force shut it down), then repowers automatically without loading bios  or any boot system or anything (the screen keeps marking it as no signal). Then, after around a minute of pure stand still, it reboots by itself again into an actual boot screen and loads windows.
Each time these crashes happen, it takes longer and longer to load Windows.

I have no idea what is wrong.

[scarletgender]

Hi there,

I work in IT.  Screen freezes could be a graphics card fault - we had an issue with capacitors popping on a certain graphics card (you could physically see the burst capacitor on the card).

If your computer is now shutting down/restarting there should be something logged in the event viewer.  You can get to this by typing Event Viewer in Windows 7 start box, or Start > Run > eventvwr.exe for XP.

Take a look at the System and Application logs around the time of the shutdowns to see if there are any relevant looking Errors.  If you find anything that looks relevant you can post it here (error ID and brief description) and I can try and help.

[The Dark Raven]

Scarlet,

He said in an earlier post the Event viewer wasn't telling him anything.

Outsider,

My hubby says make sure all your fans are spinning (sometimes your case can be clean, but the ball bearings in the fan may be seized), and check that your power supply is working (he said that the failure of a 12V rail can make it look like the graphics card is dying, and that the PS failing can make it look like the motherboard is toast).  Those are relatively cheap fixes before saying a MB is dying.  His first thought after me reading this to him is that your computer is overheating.  (He has been working in IT as an entrepreneur since he was in high school and has fixed every problem I have ever had on a computer since I've known him.)

[Emmykins]

Scarlet,

He said in an earlier post the Event viewer wasn't telling him anything.

Outsider,

My hubby says make sure all your fans are spinning (sometimes your case can be clean, but the ball bearings in the fan may be seized), and check that your power supply is working (he said that the failure of a 12V rail can make it look like the graphics card is dying, and that the PS failing can make it look like the motherboard is toast).  Those are relatively cheap fixes before saying a MB is dying.  His first thought after me reading this to him is that your computer is overheating.  (He has been working in IT as an entrepreneur since he was in high school and has fixed every problem I have ever had on a computer since I've known him.)

+1. It definitely sounds like overheating. The fan in the PSU could even be dead, so check that one specifically as well.

[Autumn Sativus]

It sounds like overheating to me. Actually the first thing it sounded like was a harddrive at end of life, but that sort of thing is usually logged in the Event Viewer to confirm.

[Outsider]

Hello and thanks for your help, guys. I will check the fans and everything, but the right now a new problem has risen from the depths of this rusty PC: is it not even starting anymore ( as in: freezing in the Windows loading screen, startup repair says its attempting to fix it by reloading an older system save point.)

[Autumn Sativus]

Very well could be your hard drive on its way out and falling to leave a trail. Do you have another computer? Try downloading a bootable version of Linux (Ubuntu or Lubuntu) to a USB stick and see if your machine will boot from there (you may need to select boot from disc in bios). Should tell you if your rig is still working and allow you to run diagnostics on hardware if it is. If the harddrive is still connected you should be able to access your files, and I would recommend saving what you can to dropbox/drive/etc.

Could also be that there was a write failure during one of the power-offs that's now making Windows inaccessible. Hopefully your repair will work. Otherwise, my best guess is PSU related.