Hard Lock

is anybody else geting hard locks ? when it crashes everything including windows [if your useing windows i guess] its doing it a random times... sometimes after 5 mins sometimes after hours. im not doing anything crazy.. and it leaves no mem dump because its hard locking..

 

Hard locks are usually a sympton of a hardware problem unless the program has crashed and the OS doesn't get the mouse input back. See if you can use whatever keyboard shortcut there is to logoff or logon a new user.

 

Specs of your computer please (CPU, RAM, motherboard, PSU, video card )
Driver version of graphics card please
Which Service pack you running for windows?

When it locks up, is there looping sound..does the screen go blank or does it freeze on the last image?

LOTS of possibilities here:
Driver conflicts
Chipset conflicts ( VIA chipset / ATI video card anyone? )
Video card not getting enough power
System overheating
SP2 for windows is known to be a bitch for gamers
and the list goes on :D

Get me those specs and I'l do my best to help you with what I've experienced, heard of and fixed

 

cpu: p4 3.4 ht
ram: 2 gigs corsair 333
mobo: chaintech 9CJS ZENITH
psu: oh man i dont even know prob generic powersupply
vid: pny 5950 ultra 256meg latest drivers
xp sp2

we had a few power outages about a month ago and its been doing it sence then wich would lead me to the power supply but i generaly only am noticeing it while playing on the stormed servers that are very far away and i get like 150/200 ping and that leads me to think its not my psu

 

well i dusted out the pc.. reseated all slots and its not done it yet, 4 hrs gaming , cpu had way to much thermal grease on it, i re applied new stuff and not as much this time

 

Well I can rule out chipset conflicts, your motherboard has an intel chipset.
Testing your memory wouldnt hurt:
http://www.memtest86.com/

As for the PSU, if your computer case has a window then there should be a sticker on the side of how much wattage it is. But based on the low range video card I dont think it could be much of an issue.

SP2 is known to cause issues with games, which is always the main topic on alot of hardware and gaming sites. So if you continue to experience problems try downgrading to SP1 for the day and see if it helps.

Also if your motherboard / CPU supports it you can get a program called 'Motherboard monitor' which will monitor the temperatures of your CPU and log it. That way if it crashes again, you got the log to check if it had a heat spike right when it crashed. ( Above 60*C temperature wise, expect crashes)

 

thanks for the assist phaser, i dig the rammstine banner, well i gamed all day on stormed server2 and im beat... it didnt lock once... i think what it is was that its goten warmer out and i just needed to blast out the fans that were blocked with dust heh.. either that or last time i smacked my desk with my knee it jiggled out a card ... i know i had abruse on my knee and its around that time that it started doing it but anyhow its runing good from what i can tell today.. after a few hard locks though i did instantly goto my bios and check the pc health status and the temp was around 47-52c every time

 

Glad to be of help
( In my family I am the only one who actually has a damn clue about computers :/)

 

If its a Iinter board, try Intel desktop utilities.

Same for me. If its broke call tech support is like a family motto, and I'm tech support.

 

This has been fixed.
No problems.
Topic can die nowz.

 

put down the calculator... ...slowly

This thread didnt need any reviving, you arent a necrophile are you? x)