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Can you take a really good peek at the motherboard to see if there's anything wrong with it, say a busted capacitor or something?
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Well, unfortunately, I'm going to agree with Blake this time. Check the motherboard for dead capacitors. These capacitors stabilize the power going into the motherboard, and the annoying thing is when they die, power will still go through, but you'll start seeing issues like freezes and sometimes, boot failure.
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That article will list everything you need to be on the lookout for.
The Best Medicine > Magic. Because SCIENCE! can prove the former.
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21 August: While playing a game.
7 September: While playing a game
5 October: While playing a game
13 October: While playing a game
Haven't done anything, but a few searches online shows that one of the symptoms of motherboard capacitor failure matches with this problem. I'll see if I can open the PC and take a good look.
Though the thing is, now that holiday is already over, I don't have much free time.
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Well, if you do have to replace the motherboard, I suggest looking for a board with solid capacitors. Those usually are less prone to capacitor failure.
The Best Medicine > Magic. Because SCIENCE! can prove the former.
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Faulty RAM sticks could be a possible culprit, although sourcing an older one i.e. a DDR2 bar can be a bit of a chore.
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21 August: While playing a game.
7 September: While playing a game
5 October: While playing a game
13 October: While playing a game
24 October: While playing a game
Yeah, I have switched the RAM and the freeze stayed in his PC. And it seems to get increasingly often again. I guess time to order a whole new world. Uh, I mean... motherboard.
A different friend suggested that it might be malware, but I kinda disagree since we have checked the possibility of software-side problems, right?
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Will, right now my suspicion is that it's all down to the video card. Can you exchange the card in your PC with him and see if your PC starts freezing and his stops?
Well, I agree that i don't think it's malware.
What I do suspect now, however, is incompatibility caused by a function that the video card uses that some motherboards does not properly support (remember that I've mentioned about something called MSI-X that has caused my computer to act erratically and freeze because newer NVidia video card drivers tried to enable it on my motherboard, which after I did research found that the motherboard has a flawed implementation of the function). Although, if both motherboard and video cards are identical, this is unlikely to be the case.
The Best Medicine > Magic. Because SCIENCE! can prove the former.
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Since my PC and his PC has the exact same spec, except the HDD where his is twice the size, I'm pretty positive this is hardware failure somewhere. After quite an amount of online searching, I came to a conclusion that the motherboard is the one at fault in this case, and it's getting worse as we speak.
I have ordered a new motherboard from the shop. Hopefully I will be right this time. Motherboard is very expensive.