Hey guys I'm in need of some advice here. I'm sorry for the long read, but as I've already tried many things that haven't worked to solve my problem I had to detail a lot. Here is my case:
When I built this computer about 7 months ago, I got some random freezing when gaming. Everything was brand new, but at the time I did memory tests, disk checks, changed the memory timings, everything. I had bought a 1600mhz RAM, but I noticed that if I brought it down to 1333 I had to play longer for it to happen. Even longer if I moved the sticks to the other pair of slots. Soon I realized that it was because the RAM was heating (moving them to the other slots took them farther from the cpu cooler, which has some copper tubes on the side that must get really hot, and they *almost* touch the stick). Anyways, I bought a RAM cooler, which consists in two fans that throw air on top of the sticks, and the problem went alway for good, for the next 5-6 months.
But then a while back I had to transport my PC to an event I went to, and the night I brought it back home it started freezing again. It is worth noticing that when passing through security to exit the event the stupid x-ray lady made the CPU hit the balcony. Not very hard, but it's the only thing I can remember that's worth of note, because during the event it was just fine.
So here I am with this shitty freezing again. I already did RAM tests and check disks from windows (the ones you set by command prompt, and I know, they are sucky) but it passed with flying colors. I cleaned all the fans, including the RAM ones. I thought my 9500gt was heating this time, and as a coincidence I had just bought my new GTX560, but changing seemed to make it more frequent (which leads me to think it's a heating problem, as this card is very big, and heats a lot, so much it could make the whole system hotter. My case is rather small for my hardware, but the air flow is... decent. As decent as I could make it be. I've also already messed with memory clock timings, with no luck.
The only thing I haven't tried is a fresh windows install, and I don't really have time for that these days so I'd like to avoid it unless I'm sure that's the problem. Also, my directX is acting weirdly recently, after changing the gfx card and reinstalling its drivers. The antialias isn't working, for instance, and when I open up my dxdiag, it takes a very long time to load. Game performance doesn't seem affected, but it wont enable AA in most games.
Also, for the memory timings, the BIOS SPD and AUTO settings are both 8-8-8-29, but the memory has a sticker in it with 8-8-8-27 written, which one should be better?
So I don't know what to do about this. Any suggestions?
When I built this computer about 7 months ago, I got some random freezing when gaming. Everything was brand new, but at the time I did memory tests, disk checks, changed the memory timings, everything. I had bought a 1600mhz RAM, but I noticed that if I brought it down to 1333 I had to play longer for it to happen. Even longer if I moved the sticks to the other pair of slots. Soon I realized that it was because the RAM was heating (moving them to the other slots took them farther from the cpu cooler, which has some copper tubes on the side that must get really hot, and they *almost* touch the stick). Anyways, I bought a RAM cooler, which consists in two fans that throw air on top of the sticks, and the problem went alway for good, for the next 5-6 months.
But then a while back I had to transport my PC to an event I went to, and the night I brought it back home it started freezing again. It is worth noticing that when passing through security to exit the event the stupid x-ray lady made the CPU hit the balcony. Not very hard, but it's the only thing I can remember that's worth of note, because during the event it was just fine.
So here I am with this shitty freezing again. I already did RAM tests and check disks from windows (the ones you set by command prompt, and I know, they are sucky) but it passed with flying colors. I cleaned all the fans, including the RAM ones. I thought my 9500gt was heating this time, and as a coincidence I had just bought my new GTX560, but changing seemed to make it more frequent (which leads me to think it's a heating problem, as this card is very big, and heats a lot, so much it could make the whole system hotter. My case is rather small for my hardware, but the air flow is... decent. As decent as I could make it be. I've also already messed with memory clock timings, with no luck.
The only thing I haven't tried is a fresh windows install, and I don't really have time for that these days so I'd like to avoid it unless I'm sure that's the problem. Also, my directX is acting weirdly recently, after changing the gfx card and reinstalling its drivers. The antialias isn't working, for instance, and when I open up my dxdiag, it takes a very long time to load. Game performance doesn't seem affected, but it wont enable AA in most games.
Also, for the memory timings, the BIOS SPD and AUTO settings are both 8-8-8-29, but the memory has a sticker in it with 8-8-8-27 written, which one should be better?
So I don't know what to do about this. Any suggestions?
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64bit Creators Update
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 960 @ 3.6 GHz
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 2GB GDDR5
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-870A-USB3 AM3+ Revision
RAM: HyperX 8GB Dual Channel @ 1600Mhz
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 960 @ 3.6 GHz
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 2GB GDDR5
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-870A-USB3 AM3+ Revision
RAM: HyperX 8GB Dual Channel @ 1600Mhz