How to find freeze problem with no log writing?

I've had a problem that has popped up recently:

Sometimes while in a game.... or even playing back a web video.... my system will completely freeze and the sound will loop. No BSOD. Just frozen and unresponsive with looping sound.

I eventually hit reset and reboot and get the boot-up message that Windows did not shut down properly. I continue on, Windows restarts, and no mention of the lockup.

I use Event Viewer to read the system logs and the only thing I find is an Error line from the reboot that says Windows shut down unexpectedly.

I can't find anything else to help me diagnose this as it seems that this lockup is not even giving Vista a chance to write something to the logs.

Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot this one?

I even went back to a restore point from about a week ago.... WELL before I was having this problem.... but it remains.

Thanks for any guidance on this one,

Paul

Hi wazoo, welcome to the board.

It sounds very likely to be overhead at the GPUs and/or driver issue. Another is bad contact at SATA connection at HDDs.

First, make sure drivers are up to date. Check or replace thrimal paste in making sure a good contact at the GPUs and the water cooling system. Next, blow house fan directly into open unit; main while shack, wiggle and tug on the SATA connectors at the HDDs. If problem persists then we try something else. Post back.

In addidtion to the post above, boot into safe mode.
If all works then you know it is not hardware related.
If it fails after going into safe mode and changing the paste etc, check the memory. Random crashes are sometimes a signal that memory is failing.

Thanks all for the replies.

Heat is always my first thought, however, I watercool and keep a close eye on the temps with temp monitors. I'm well within the safe zone on that issue.

In addition, I'm running the latest drivers for both sound and video as well as chipset.

This one is driving me a bit nutty as it is rare and random (except the fact that sound of some sort is playing when it loops thus making me think it is sounddriver related).

I just wish I would get *some* indication in the logs.