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Author Topic: My computer is having seizures out of nowhere  (Read 5001 times)

JoshuaFH

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My computer is having seizures out of nowhere
« on: October 09, 2015, 12:35:36 am »

I'm at my wits end, I can't stand this anymore and I've looked everywhere for an answer and can't find anything.

When I say my computer is having seizures, that's pretty much the bluntest way of explaining the symptoms. Just at random, internet connection completely locks up, processing power locks up, there's jilting audio stuttering, and with no apparent cause...

specs are:

Windows 7 64-bit
AMD Athlon x4 760k quad core processor
ASUS 7790 series
8GB Ram
ST1000DM Sata disk drive

I'd say about 2 years old now.

I bought and built my computer for gaming, but if and when a seizure happens I might as well be getting DDOS'd. Help badly needed.
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Bumber

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Re: My computer is having seizures out of nowhere
« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2015, 02:37:37 am »

Check what's going on in Resource Manager when that happens. (Can be found under Programs->Accessories->System Tools or from a button on the Performance tab of Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc).) If the problem is software, you'll likely find it there. You can view all the important stuff at once on the Overview tab.

Edit: I'll also add that it sounds sort of like what happens if you start messing with process priorities (e.g. setting DwarfFortress to realtime), but that's probably not the issue.
« Last Edit: October 09, 2015, 03:05:34 am by Bumber »
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Re: My computer is having seizures out of nowhere
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2015, 08:40:15 am »

If you have a recent version of Windows (8+), check the disk access time in task manager. If that is high (e.g. >1000ms) then it's most likely your disk is dying and possible your pc is stalling on disk accesses.
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Bumber

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Re: My computer is having seizures out of nowhere
« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2015, 09:35:27 am »

If you have a recent version of Windows (8+), check the disk access time in task manager. If that is high (e.g. >1000ms) then it's most likely your disk is dying and possible your pc is stalling on disk accesses.
::)
specs are:

Windows 7 64-bit
...
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Reading his name would trigger it. Thinking of him would trigger it. No other circumstances would trigger it- it was strictly related to the concept of Bill Clinton entering the conscious mind.

THE xTROLL FUR SOCKx RUSE WAS A........... DISTACTION        the carp HAVE the wagon

A wizard has turned you into a wagon. This was inevitable (Y/y)?

nenjin

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Re: My computer is having seizures out of nowhere
« Reply #4 on: October 09, 2015, 10:24:22 am »

Disable all your non-essential start up items.

Open up Performance in the Task  Manager.

Observe it when the spikes happen.

It could be disk, it could be CPU, it could be memory, it could be network saturation.

I've had Waterfox 64 lock my whole machine before when trying to close tabs, especially video tabs. Windows Update can lock up your machine, especially if it kicks off during gaming.

If you're not actually getting BSOD'd, it's not as bad as it could be.
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i2amroy

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Re: My computer is having seizures out of nowhere
« Reply #5 on: October 09, 2015, 12:11:09 pm »

Just for completeness sake I'd like to throw in that you shouldn't forget to do the standards like running a virus scan either.
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JoshuaFH

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Re: My computer is having seizures out of nowhere
« Reply #6 on: October 12, 2015, 12:26:25 am »

Here's a picture of my Resource Monitor during a freakout:

http://imgur.com/6LUUdQq

I honestly have no clue what I should even be looking for. Please pardon my utter cluelessness, my 10+ years of computer usage have not prepared me for for this baffling mystery.

But yeah, I've checked my computer from top to bottom for any malware. It's thoroughly defragged. I've checked the harddrive for bad sectors. There doesn't seem to be anyone hijacking my internet (if they are, it's some intense sneakiness happening at all hours of the day at random). I'm just stumped.
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Bumber

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Re: My computer is having seizures out of nowhere
« Reply #7 on: October 12, 2015, 12:59:17 am »

Here's a picture of my Resource Monitor during a freakout:

http://imgur.com/6LUUdQq

I honestly have no clue what I should even be looking for. Please pardon my utter cluelessness, my 10+ years of computer usage have not prepared me for for this baffling mystery.
It's hard to tell from the screenshot. The usage seems very low at the time of the screenshot, so I'm beginning to suspect hardware. Is this taken during the seizure or right after? Sometimes the resource manager has to wait to catch up on its statistics (if, for instance, another process is using all the system resources.)

Also, expand the Disk, Network, and Memory groups. Sort in descending order: CPU by CPU, Disk by Total (B/sec), Network by Total (B/sec), Memory by Working Set (KB). Look for any suspicious increase in usage during and after the seizure. I'm not sure if you'll find anything, but it's at least better information.
« Last Edit: October 12, 2015, 01:06:35 am by Bumber »
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Reading his name would trigger it. Thinking of him would trigger it. No other circumstances would trigger it- it was strictly related to the concept of Bill Clinton entering the conscious mind.

THE xTROLL FUR SOCKx RUSE WAS A........... DISTACTION        the carp HAVE the wagon

A wizard has turned you into a wagon. This was inevitable (Y/y)?

Thief^

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Re: My computer is having seizures out of nowhere
« Reply #8 on: October 12, 2015, 04:06:11 am »

Yeah nothing at all seems to be out of the ordinary in that screenshot, unfortunately.
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Dwarven blood types are not A, B, AB, O but Ale, Wine, Beer, Rum, Whisky and so forth.
It's not an embark so much as seven dwarves having a simultaneous strange mood and going off to build an artifact fortress that menaces with spikes of awesome and hanging rings of death.

H4zardZ1

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Re: My computer is having seizures out of nowhere
« Reply #9 on: October 24, 2015, 04:24:38 am »

Quote from: System Interrupts
Deferred Procedure Calls and Interrupt Service Routlines
I wonder what that is.

Might as well as hardwares. Try checking every device that uses USB. Clog them into other computer. See what happens.
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H4zardZ1

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Re: My computer is having seizures out of nowhere
« Reply #10 on: December 21, 2015, 11:40:13 pm »

Bump.
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Shadowlord

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Re: My computer is having seizures out of nowhere
« Reply #11 on: December 22, 2015, 09:08:51 am »

Quote from: System Interrupts
Deferred Procedure Calls and Interrupt Service Routlines
I wonder what that is.

Something that's supposed to be there.

If it's still software the most likely culprit would be something monopolizing the hard drive to the point that nothing else can run. You'd be able to see this in task manager if you had a newer version of windows than 7. With 7, you lack a % disk usage, but you might be able to see if something in the Disk tab goes ridiculously high in resource monitor or taskmgr.

You can also check the SMART diagnostics on your hard drive(s) to look for clues as to whether it might be failing. I usually use SpeedFan. (You would think reading them and showing them to you would be part of windows, but apparently not. Apparently it's supposed to warn you if it's going to fail, but it's never warned me.)
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wierd

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Re: My computer is having seizures out of nowhere
« Reply #12 on: December 22, 2015, 02:45:09 pm »

I believe the free sysinternals process explorer is the "super taskmanager for win7" that you are looking for there.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/processexplorer.aspx

It will even let you control the service processes inside the srvchost.exe wrapper, let you see exclusive file locks, and other fancy things.

If not that one, there are other sysinternals apps that can reveal who is hogging the disk with exclusive locks.
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Bumber

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Re: My computer is having seizures out of nowhere
« Reply #13 on: December 22, 2015, 06:36:53 pm »

If it's still software the most likely culprit would be something monopolizing the hard drive to the point that nothing else can run. You'd be able to see this in task manager if you had a newer version of windows than 7. With 7, you lack a % disk usage, but you might be able to see if something in the Disk tab goes ridiculously high in resource monitor or taskmgr.
He already posted:
Here's a picture of my Resource Monitor during a freakout:
Useage doesn't look to be the issue.
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Reading his name would trigger it. Thinking of him would trigger it. No other circumstances would trigger it- it was strictly related to the concept of Bill Clinton entering the conscious mind.

THE xTROLL FUR SOCKx RUSE WAS A........... DISTACTION        the carp HAVE the wagon

A wizard has turned you into a wagon. This was inevitable (Y/y)?

i2amroy

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Re: My computer is having seizures out of nowhere
« Reply #14 on: December 25, 2015, 08:39:02 pm »

CPU has flatlined at 100% looks like though. Post another picture with it sorted by CPU (just click on the CPU thing once or twice till the big numbers are visible) and that should let us be able to take a much better shot at solving the problem.
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It would be brutally difficult and probably won't work. In other words, it's absolutely dwarven!
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - A fun zombie survival rougelike that I'm dev-ing for.
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