Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

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?

Have you tried running it with the case open and a fan blowing in? Or have you decided that its not temps this time? What temps are you getting on the CPU and GPU?

It's hard to tell if it is the temps. GPU goes up to 80+ degrees, but that's normal for that model. CPU wont pass 70, cause the cooler is good. I've tried running it with the case open, only seems to heat more, because two of my three fans are on the side.
Could it be the operating system? This is getting annoying.. :/

(03-25-2012, 11:35 AM)Runo Wrote: [ -> ]CPU wont pass 70, cause the cooler is good.

Phft, mine never hits 60 C with (slight) OC and stock cooler (While playing dolphin :O)

well like I said all temps went up after I changed the gfx card, before that it was 65, sometimes a little lower, in not so hot days. Ill buy another case. I guess even if te problem isnt heating. disassemblying it entirely to put in the other case will hopefully fix it. As the problem started in the exact day I moved the PC back home, Im suspecting it might be a bad contact in some conctor or hardware piece.

If it were my rig I would have disassembled it, clean the parts and assembled it back again with new cooling paste for the CPU and maybe try to find a good cooling solution for the GPU and the rest of the case.

Last time i had freezing problems, my computer would work for 30 secs, freeze for 30 secs and the circle continued on and on, the culprit for me turned out to be a windows update, after i reverted back it was as good as new

@Zee
I'm reluctant to think this is a software problem, since it only happens when gaming and the freezes don't show up any errors, just stop everything and the auido loops really fast making it look like some static noise. If nothing works tough I will do a fresh windows install.

(03-25-2012, 05:26 PM)Gabriel Belmont Wrote: [ -> ]If it were my rig I would have disassembled it, clean the parts and assembled it back again with new cooling paste for the CPU and maybe try to find a good cooling solution for the GPU and the rest of the case.

Thanks for the cooling paste tip, I didn't think of that. I'm gonna do just that, because I was already planning on getting a better case, this one was very cheap (about 30 dollars), now I'm gonna buy a decent one. That alone should lower the temps a bit, things are too close to each other in this one.

What really annoys me is that the freezing started to happen on that night I brought the PC back home, after the x ray lady bumping it against the balcony.
But that could be just a coincidence, since it only freezes after an hour or more of gaming. The PC can stay on all day if I don't enter a hardware heavy game it won't freeze. Another funny thing is that when it isn't under load it stays really cool, which means my air flow is actually working. The GPU stays on 40 degrees, and the CPU falls all the way down to 30-35. As soon as I start playing it goes up to the numbers I said before in about 7-8 seconds.

so its either hardware issue (psu, heating etc etc) or software (drivers , like nvidia's shit driver)

reinstall windows and find out?

So.. It could be a software issue? thats kind of a relief, I was ready to blame my parts. I thought software issues would necessarily give me some error like BS, but not freeze the entire Os, I thought modern OSes didnt even let software afect that low level stuff needed to do something like that.

I try reinstalling it this weekend.