Iron is the only common factor when computer crashes
Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2018 3:06 pm
Guys/Gals,
I am at my wit's end. I have tried everything I can think of to find the cause of my computer crashing. The only thing I see that each crash has in common is that Iron is open. This has been happening for several months.
The computer will freeze and a hard reset is required. If video or sound was playing, I get a repetitive buzzing sound. Nothing works but a hard reset. The freeze occurs at random. Sometimes when I open Iron. Sometimes Iron can be open for an hour before the computer freezes. Nothing in the event viewer and no dump file is created. I have tried different RAM, on-board NIC, on-board sound, on-board video. I have also disabled (in the BIOS) and uninstalled all drivers for those on-board items and replaced them, one-by-one with add-on cards. I have tried every version of drivers and the vanilla Microsoft drivers for everything.
I thought maybe it's an issue with the Intel chipset/drivers or maybe a motherboard or CPU issue so I bought a different brand and model PC and did a fresh install of win7... same results!!!
The original PC is an HP 8200 Elite with the Intel Q67 chipset. My current computer is a Dell Optiplex 9010 with the Intel Q77 chipset.
The crashes are random and I cannot trigger them. I have also done the following:
- Tried different HDD's and SSD's
- Changed Iron settings to use and not use hardware acceleration
- A few clean Win7 installs
- A couple of in-place Win7 repair/upgrade installs
- Memtest86 all RAM
- Verified no overheating
How on earth do I troubleshoot this since the freeze occurs before a dump file and event viewer entries are created?
I am at my wit's end. I have tried everything I can think of to find the cause of my computer crashing. The only thing I see that each crash has in common is that Iron is open. This has been happening for several months.
The computer will freeze and a hard reset is required. If video or sound was playing, I get a repetitive buzzing sound. Nothing works but a hard reset. The freeze occurs at random. Sometimes when I open Iron. Sometimes Iron can be open for an hour before the computer freezes. Nothing in the event viewer and no dump file is created. I have tried different RAM, on-board NIC, on-board sound, on-board video. I have also disabled (in the BIOS) and uninstalled all drivers for those on-board items and replaced them, one-by-one with add-on cards. I have tried every version of drivers and the vanilla Microsoft drivers for everything.
I thought maybe it's an issue with the Intel chipset/drivers or maybe a motherboard or CPU issue so I bought a different brand and model PC and did a fresh install of win7... same results!!!
The original PC is an HP 8200 Elite with the Intel Q67 chipset. My current computer is a Dell Optiplex 9010 with the Intel Q77 chipset.
The crashes are random and I cannot trigger them. I have also done the following:
- Tried different HDD's and SSD's
- Changed Iron settings to use and not use hardware acceleration
- A few clean Win7 installs
- A couple of in-place Win7 repair/upgrade installs
- Memtest86 all RAM
- Verified no overheating
How on earth do I troubleshoot this since the freeze occurs before a dump file and event viewer entries are created?