Urgent XP SP3 / Overclocking Issue

[Dragoon Knight]

I need some help, guys.

I've just recently updated my PC to XP Service Pack 3, and ever since I did, my PC keeps randomly freezing.  But the problem is that I also tried overclocking my graphics card and CPU (using nTune, the nVidia overclocking tool accessed via the nVidia Control panel).  It's terrifying, because I don't have another PC that works since my laptop went kaput.

I've tried looking around for answers, but nothing is showing up.  I've read scraps about XP SP3 freezes happening to other users on AMD machines, but they say it's only HP models that are suffering.  I don't know what to do.  I've tried deleting the "Best system" profile in nTune, and making a rule for the baseline profile to be loaded on Windows start (i.e. no overclocking) and the system has been stable for about 10 minutes now... but I'm really cacking myself.  I don't want to walk away from the PC, just in case it freezes again.

Please, any help or advice anyone can provide would be helpful.  Thanks in advance.

[Andrew]

First. Backup important data to cd/dvd/external hard drive.

It could be SP3 or overclock issue (duh no help from me there :P).

I've read stories about SP3 not working great, and other people have it working fine. I'm waiting a while before updating (probably with a freshly formatted windows).

Is it possible to uninstall SP3? How difficult would a format be for you?

[Megashrap]

It sounds more like the ntune program if your overclocking your cpu with it. I have ntune but never use it I have always used bios for overclocking. I have noticed that when I used ntune to do its thing and tune up my sys. it overclocked the cpu and vid card way way high...I mean very high and I also froze up alot. try getting your system back to stock speeds and see what happens.The only overclocking programI really liked is ClockGen.And thats due to being able to overclock 1 increment at a time. I really do think that ntune is the culprit. But try that first,get your sys. back to its stock speed and see how it does without ntune.

[Dragoon Knight]

Alright, I was able to force nTune to move back to factory speeds for CPU and GPU... it seems to be holding out alright now.  My PC has been on for the past few hours with no freezing.  Still wary.

I'm going to start backing up my data... dammit, it just happened again.  Firefox restored my session and what I'd just written, but it froze up just like last time.  My mouse pointer just stops and I can't do anything apart from pressing the reset button.

I forced nTune back to normal speeds, but I'm not sure how to verify it.  And I can't tell what would be happening if its a SP3 issue.  Yes, I could re-format, but... damn, happened AGAIN.  I'd rather leave reformatting as a last option.  Anything else you can recommend? :(

[Megashrap]

If your unsure about the ntune hell I would just uninstall it. The sp3 I am not familiar with at all i'm still just using sp2 with mine.

Is there any other program that your using to do any type of overclocking? Also is the sp3 uninstallable? I would try that as well and see how it does. Or if you have it enabled do a sys. restore sometime before your sp3 install then uninstall ntune. I mean thats alot easier than having to re-format.

[Andrew]

As I usually say in these types of threads, you could always boot a live cd, and it should be able to mount your ntfs partitions so you can back up the data. It could also help identify if your BIOS is somehow freezing your computer because of being overclocked (if livecd doesn't freeze, then it could be a windows OS problem).

[Dragoon Knight]

I also installed the new nVidia drivers last night, for my 8800GTX (version 175.16).  So that's three things it could be. :(

Will uninstalling nTune force my devices (like CPU and GPU) to run at factory settings?  Should I try to roll back to the older nVidia drivers?  How would I go about rolling back to SP2?

This is really crap. :(

[Megashrap]

I also installed the new nVidia drivers last night, for my 8800GTX (version 175.16).  So that's three things it could be. :(

How would I go about rolling back to SP2?

This is really crap. :(

Do a sys restore and pick the date like the day before you installed  sp3 and restore to that date. So when that is done you would by process of elimination have got rid of both ntune and sp3...then see how it does.And after the restore is completed make sure and uninstall ntune.

[Dragoon Knight]

Alright, System Restored to a couple of days before SP3, new drivers and the fiddling about with nTune.  It froze again, so I've got no idea what's going on.  This has never happened before last night.

I'm trying to uninstall nTune in my System Restored state, but it doesn't seem to want to launch the uninstaller.

EDIT: Yeah, just tried restarting the PC and un-installing again, and it won't un-install. :(

[Megashrap]

You should be able to do via add remove programs, I can with mine. Try booting in safe mode then uninstall nforce first then ntune. you can also use this program to clean out nvidia items, drivers etc,. http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=745

I went ahead and installed SP3 for my XP Home Edition,I'll try and do some tweaking with ntune to see if I get any of your type of symptoms  but so far everything is fine wether I overclock cpu and gpu or not.

About that program I linked, when using it you can choose to just delete all nvidia programs,drivers altogether then all you would have to do is re-install you mainboard nvidia drivers and graphic card drivers...but rest assure it removes every spec of what you choose to remove,it's a very good program.It is for nVidia, ATI, Creative, Turtle Beach, SIS Graphics, 3Dfx and others. It will also remove anything that is left by the drivers after uninstall.

[Dragoon Knight]

Been afraid to turn on my PC in the last day or so.  Not sure what to do, or how I could still be affected when I've System Restored to a point where I hadn't mucked about with my PC at all.

Could I have somehow damaged any components by tuning them?  How can I be sure that they're running at their normal speeds?

I'll try using Safe Mode.  Never been this stressed or down.  I think that says something about how much I rely on my PC. :(

Thanks for all the replies so far.  Any more help you can offer will be greatly appreciated.

[Andrew]

It could be overheating. Take the case off and see if dust is clogging the fans/vents. Get some compressed air and clean it out if there is lots.

Maybe the overclocking did do some damage and now it is more sensitive to heat. I have no idea though.

[Dragoon Knight]

Right, I've been unable to start the PC in Safe Mode.  For some reason, I can't get the normal boot options screen when starting the PC (you know, the one where it asks if you want to use the last known good configuration, etc.)

I downloaded DriverCleaner, and I removed everything under the nVidia filter.  When I restarted the PC, nTune was still there.  So I tried using the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility, which (after just deleting the files from Program FilesnVidia and nTune Performance Application) managed to rid nTune from the Add/Remove Programs list.  I ran MSConfig, and instructed anything to do with nVidia NOT to start up.

I've also pointed a fan at the front of my PC, which has air intakes there, and (fingers crossed) nothing's gone wrong so far.  I might have a look inside the PC, but I was in there not long ago installing a new graphics card, and I gave it a good vacuum back then.  Right now, I'm running at 800x600 resolution, about to install the 169.21 nVidia Drivers (the ones I was using up until my PC went wonky).  I'll see how it works when they've been installed.

I'm going to grab on to the feeble hope that what I did just caused the PC to overheat, and when I started the computer up the next day and tried to run at the faster clock speeds, the PC (maybe nTune) somehow knew this would be unstable and made the system hang.  When I un-installed it, maybe the PC began to recover from being overheated... maybe now that I've restarted it a day later, everything has cooled down and sort of recovered?

I'm just grasping at straws, here.  God I hope nothing more goes wrong. :(

EDIT: Almost an hour now it's been on.  One of the fans (not sure which one) sounds like its running slower than normal (not as high-pitched as usual).  This might just be because it's cooler now than it has been in the last few days, but I don't really want to test that by running any graphically intensive applications.  And by that, I mean anything more than YouTube.

[D2k Sardaukar]

Right, I've been unable to start the PC in Safe Mode.  For some reason, I can't get the normal boot options screen when starting the PC (you know, the one where it asks if you want to use the last known good configuration, etc.)[c]

I don't know if I had the same thing, but my 6600gt did very strange things lately too.

Normal bios screen and start screen worked, but when the log in screen of windows, with high resolution, came the video signal went gone.

What I did was run windows in VGA mode (what somehow worked), press F8 during start up, and installed an older driver (169.21).

I also got a couple of times (with a newer driver) a strange error about me using a driver for an older or newer windows install and windows started because of that in VGA. Weird stuff.

But it works now for me.

[Megashrap]

It could be overheating. Take the case off and see if dust is clogging the fans/vents. Get some compressed air and clean it out if there is lots.

Maybe the overclocking did do some damage and now it is more sensitive to heat. I have no idea though.

Well,if you think it could possibly be an overheating issue what I do in that case is just boot up straight to BIOS and just watch the cpu temp for a bit in the Hardware Monitor section.(half an hour or so to see if it goes higher than expected.) But generally speaking on overclocking, overheating and lock-ups,freezes always come into play...I really doubt you physically hurt a component by using ntune.(although in can happen rarely which goes hand in hand with any overclocking).

[Dragoon Knight]

I'm glad to hear that damaged components are rare.  With regards to hardware and tuning it up or down, I'm strictly an amateur.  I know the basics, but I guess I fell for the "if it's made by nVidia, it must be safe" trap.  I figured that a stress test would make sure my card was running at the best stable clock speed, but obviously not.

With nTune removed, it seems like everything is OK.  I've backed up all of my essential data to two DVDs (the only flash drive I have is a paltry 256MB).  As far as I'm aware, DVD burning is pretty processor-intensive... would that be a correct assumption?  If so, I'd hope I'm out of the deep end.

Of course, now I have to decide whether or not to risk upgrading to SP3 or the newer drivers.  I think I'll leave it for a few days, see how my PC runs between now and then.  Thanks again for all your help guys. :)

[Megashrap]

Yea I do alot of DVD movie burning and the dvd conversion process is cpu intense. By the way last night I got the SP3 and an updated version of ntune.There are some nice features with ntune, it's just that overclocking part that I dislike altogether. I do like the video adjustments and a few other parts of it like the monitoring etc. The only other third party overclocking utility I ever really use is ClockGen.That and the overclocking utility that came with my video card cd.

[Andrew]

I'm currently downloading/installing SP3 for MS office. Hope it works, otherwise I'll simply remove office and force myself to use openoffice.

Windows update is also telling me XP SP3 is available. So I'll try downloading/installing that later. Hopefully it works or else I'll use ubuntu more ;)

[Dragoon Knight]

Well, I eventually mustered the courage to install XP SP3 again, and after a few days, nothing has gone wrong.  I also updated my drivers, and again, no problems.  So looks like it was just nTune.

Suffice it to say that I'm never using it again. :P

[Andrew]

I'm downloading SP3 for XP and the progress bar is not showing at all (not moving or anything). But my firewall is showing lots of bandwidth being used by it. Odd that it is not showing that it is downloading the file. Maybe it only shows the progress when more than 1 file is downloading?

EDIT:

I think its done downloading and now installing, computer is making lots of noises.

EDIT:

Installing. It installed. It phoned home to MS when it was done, I allowed it in case it screwed the install process up. This usually happens when software tries phoning home and I block them. Odd that Windows firewall did not notice SP3 phoning home. eh?

When computer restarted it asked me if I wanted to turn on automatic updates. I said no. My firewall said a couplet files had changed and were trying to connect to internet (ntkernel, generic host process)

[D2k Sardaukar]

Installing. It installed. It phoned home to MS when it was done, I allowed it in case it screwed the install process up. This usually happens when software tries phoning home and I block them. Odd that Windows firewall did not notice SP3 phoning home. eh?

How can you see it's phoning home? What program(s) do you use for that?

I wish I had some more control over my connections, the router's firewall, windows firewall and AVG Anti-Virus is all that protects me from the internet, but also gives me sometimes trouble in letting me play old games over internet (portforward stuff).

[Andrew]

I use sygate firewall (check software guide thread in general board). It is really outdated (not supported, since they got bought out symantec) but does the job for me.

[gryphon]

Just like raptor all good things have a tendency to be bought by that famous company.

Sygate was one of my favorites to btw. :) The PRO version had a lot of simple but jet nice options you don't see around that much anymore

[D2k Sardaukar]

I'm now starting to use Comodo Firewall Pro. I'm new to this, I always used Windows Firewall.

The program looks to have a good amount of options/settings.