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Random freezes, do I need a reformat?

  • 04-05-2013 9:38pm
    #1
    C14N
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,656 ✭✭✭


    This has been happening for a while now but it's been more prevalent recently. Every so often my computer will just freeze and requires a reboot to work again. The screen will stop moving and any audio that was playing at the time will quickly loop the last few milliseconds. It's very tedious and annoying. It doesn't happen on any program in particular but it does seem to happen a fair bit when watching videos in VLC or when playing games (although definitely not limited to these two at all). It's crippling for games because I can't seem to play for 15 minutes without this happening.

    I'm not sure what could be causing the problem. I gave it a Google and did the standard things like check the disk for errors, use Malwarebytes to find malware problems, update GPU drivers and so on. At first I thought it was a RAM problem since I had disabled the paging file but I have 16GB and it never comes close (haven't seen it above 8GB in task manager ever). I re-enabled the paging file too to no avail. CPU doesn't seem to be struggling either (i5 3570K) as it rarely goes above 50%. Temps all seem generally okay too, nothing above 50, usually below 40.

    Is the only option to just format the drive and start over? This would be very inconvenient but I have done it plenty of times in the past. If there's anything else that could be causing the problems that people might know then I would appreciate the help.

    For reference specs are:
    PSU: Thermaltake 750W
    CPU: Intel i5 3750K
    GPU: GTX 560Ti
    HDD: 1TB Samsung, 1.5TB Seagate, 2TB Seagate
    SSD: 120GB Samsung 830
    Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro3

    I also seed a lot in uTorrent (40 active at the moment) so I'm not sure if that could be messing anything up.


Comments

  • #2
    PropJoe10
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,351 ✭✭✭PropJoe10


    Freezing generally indicates a hard drive problem, although it could be something else thats causing it. You have the OS on your SSD, I'm assuming - I think Samsung have an SSD tuning kit on the CD provided/their website. Try running that and see if it returns any errors.


  • #3
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 93,857 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Boot off a linux live CD and leave it overnight, if it hangs then it's hardware and a reformat won't help.

    Or use built in diagnostics depending on the brand.

    But check out the drive first SMART and all that
    and also reset the BIOS to defaults for testing


  • #4
    C14N
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,656 ✭✭✭C14N


    PropJoe10 wrote: »
    Freezing generally indicates a hard drive problem, although it could be something else thats causing it. You have the OS on your SSD, I'm assuming - I think Samsung have an SSD tuning kit on the CD provided/their website. Try running that and see if it returns any errors.

    Okay I got that and ran some performance optimisers but I don't think it has any features that check for errors.
    Capt'n Midnight wrote: »
    Boot off a linux live CD and leave it overnight, if it hangs then it's hardware and a reformat won't help.

    Sorry, should have mentioned that I have left the computer on overnight a few times for large downloads and it never freezes from that. It's always fine the next morning. It only seems to freeze when I'm actually using it.
    Capt'n Midnight wrote: »
    Or use built in diagnostics depending on the brand.

    But check out the drive first SMART and all that
    and also reset the BIOS to defaults for testing

    What do you mean by this?


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