New Build Random Freezing

Slksht

Continuing from over here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057105347&page=7

This will hopefully be a trouble-shooting thread to see if you guys might be able to kindly help me figure out what's going on!

First of all the problem; random (seemingly) freezing while executing tasks and sometimes when doing nothing at all. The freeze requires a computer reset to get the pc working again. This freeze happens at various intervals after startup ranging from failing to boot(doesn't freeze but auto-restarts) to freezing after over a half hour of general use trying to trigger a freeze.

I have so far fresh installed windows, ran memtest, checked all connections as best I can in the build, reseated components, installed all windows updates except two that won't install and updated all drivers.

My temperatures are stable and I am not overclocking.

I will update this post with further trouble shooting measures taken as they are performed to help keep it as tidy and accessible as possible. ANy and all help is much appreciated this has wrecked my life for three days!

Baked.noodle

Perhaps you could download, burn and install a Linux distro. Maybe if Linux is stable it would indicate a problem with your Windows installation, ie. drivers. If Linux is unstable it would indicate a problem with your hardware. Another thing that might help is to rule out a faulty hard disk. If you have more than one hard disk you could try installing Windows on a different drive. If it's stable it would indicate a hard disk fault.

Slksht

This is weird it hasn't frozen again since the last restart. It seems the intervals are getting longer...

I thought for certain I was in the clear last time but it froze eventually so I don't feel confident at all that Im in the clear. Problems unfortunately don't just go away usually

Will report back if we have a re-freeze! Thanks guys

Luck100

Just read your earlier posts, that sounds really painful! What do you seen in the windows event log after a freeze?

Slksht

Luck100 wrote: »

Just read your earlier posts, that sounds really painful! What do you seen in the windows event log after a freeze?

No indication of what's happening haha. Nightmare stuff. I played Civ 5 for about 4 hours last night without a freeze though so I'm getting a small bit more hopeful that the stability issue has been resolved by some update or driver. If I hadn't had that one pesky freeze after I thought I had it fixed I'd be certain it was grand!

SterlingArcher

Maybe you moved something while messing around inside case.

Did you. Check ram one stick at a time. Didn't see in solutions.

muppetkiller

Could it be anything to do with Over heating ?
Are all fans working correctly ?

Slksht

SterlingArcher wrote: »

Did you. Check ram one stick at a time. Didn't see in solutions.

I haven't yet! I figured if it was working I shouldn't mess around until it freezes again!

All temps are reading nicely so it can't be overheating and it's not oced yet so not instability from that

Slksht

Right just ran my first tests since it didn't freezer while playing Civ 5...and... It froze

So I nee to try and sort this as it hasn't fixed itself (surprise haha)

Answers on a postcard, going to try single sticks of ram now.

SterlingArcher

Slksht wrote: »

Right just ran my first tests since it didn't freezer while playing Civ 5...and... It froze

So I nee to try and sort this as it hasn't fixed itself (surprise haha)

Answers on a postcard, going to try single sticks of ram now.

Ok slksht, do the ram sticks. See how that goes.Keep posted

Then next step is your Gpu . Need you to Disable it and run off your onboard gfx.

Slksht

Wiould memtest not have found a problem with the ram? Ive done exactly what i did a few minutes ago when it froze and now it's still working away... mustnt be something i do specifically

Slksht

Been browsing and loading unloading downloading and gaming on both separately and no freeze up. Not entirely conclusive but I guess unlikely? I dunno, gonna give it up for tonight off work tomorrow so gonna have a run at it all day.

So infuriating not being able to replicate the fault because there's no way to know if it's just chance that it hasn't happened

SterlingArcher

Slksht wrote: »

Been browsing and loading unloading downloading and gaming on both separately and no freeze up. Not entirely conclusive but I guess unlikely? I dunno, gonna give it up for tonight off work tomorrow so gonna have a run at it all day.

So infuriating not being able to replicate the fault because there's no way to know if it's just chance that it hasn't happened

Right well run on one stick till it freezes. And if it does then the other. Just want to cross it off.

You have installed your mobo driver cd that came with it.

Anyway get some sleep take a break tomorrow,Clear your head , stuff like this can be a brain drain ,you end up lying in bed thinking of solutions while it slowly drives you insane

Slksht

SterlingArcher wrote: »

you end up lying in bed thinking of solutions while it slowly drives you insane

Just put put two back in and had one more run for the sake of it and it froze loading a stream. Reset and loaded the same stream with no problems.

Anyone want to buy a gaming pc? Full working order

SterlingArcher

Slksht wrote: »

Just put put two back in and had one more run for the sake of it and it froze loading a stream. Reset and loaded the same stream with no problems.

Anyone want to buy a gaming pc? Full working order

Right well tomorrow, disconnect the Gpu and run onboard gfx.

Luck100

Are your freezes blue screens? Could be a flaky power supply.

SterlingArcher

Luck100 wrote: »

Are your freezes blue screens? Could be a flaky power supply.

Could be , said its mostly freezing up. But need to leave the PSU to last ,as I'm pretty sure he has no spare.

Slksht

They're not blue screens, just complete freezes. Going to test mobo graohics to see if its the gpu

EDIT

can access a spare psu

Slksht

So today I ran windows memory diagnostic for 8 hours. Turned up nothing as expected.

Have just successfully played Civ 5 for around 5 hours without a freeze. Went online for about 2 minutes and it froze up. This has happened quite a few times, it doesn't like online, downloading files or Windows update for example.

Anyone wanna take a shot at why downloading might trigger a freeze? It's not immediately but it can't be a coincidence that I can game for hours no problem and it freezes on normal tasks?

Harddrive? Don't know enough about what's used when to make an educated stab.

Edit

Don't seem to be able to update OP unfortunately?

xhomelezz

Well, I used to have the same problem with my desktop couple years ago, it was brand new computer, no errors whatsoever,turned out to be PSU, manufacturer was putting ridiculously underpowered psu's.

Luck100

Slksht wrote: »

No indication of what's happening haha. Nightmare stuff. I played Civ 5 for about 4 hours last night without a freeze though so I'm getting a small bit more hopeful that the stability issue has been resolved by some update or driver. If I hadn't had that one pesky freeze after I thought I had it fixed I'd be certain it was grand!

Nothing under "critical" or "error" in event viewer? Go to Win 7 start menu, type 'event viewer' in the "search programs and files" box, and run event viewer.

Luck100

Here's how to find a bad driver:
http://www.speedguide.net/faq_in_q.php?qid=222
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244617

To determine what driver is causing crashes, it is very useful to enable driver verifier.

Steps:
1) Windows Key + R
2) Type in 'verifier' and hit enter
3) Make sure 'Create Standard Setting' is selected and hit next
4) Click on 'Select all drivers installed on this computer' and hit Finish
5) Reboot

There is a possibility that your computer will crash on reboot. If this occurs hit F8 when rebooting just before the windows logo screen and select the safe mode boot option. Follow the same steps above but on step 4 choose 'Select driver names from a list'; hit next; check the box next to any driver where the provider is not Microsoft; hit Finish; reboot.

This will slow the performance of you computer a little while enabled but will hopefully catch the driver causing corruption. Next time you crash the blue screen will hopefully say something like "DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION". If this occurs please see the corresponding minidump (by default it is at c:\windows\Minidump ).

Slksht

Thanks guys will try! Only thing is Luck there's no blue screen, just a complete freeze

Luck100

Slksht wrote: »

Thanks guys will try! Only thing is Luck there's no blue screen, just a complete freeze

I know, but event viewer should still show something.

I haven't tried the driver verifier myself, but from scanning the microsoft support info page it looks like it may still catch driver faults that don't cause bsod. Basically it turns on extra level of checking in drivers which catches errors (but will lower your performance).

Slksht

Hmm I'm assuming this isn't great...



http://postimg.org/image/xo5mncdch/

Luck100

That's just the summary.

Double click on the errors to see all the details. Look for ones where the time stamp matches the time where your rig froze.

Slksht

Luck100 wrote: »

That's just the summary.

Double click on the errors to see all the details. Look for ones where the time stamp matches the time where your rig froze.

System just froze before reaching the windows logo which is new. I have a feeling it's my power supply

SterlingArcher

First check connections (I'm sure you have too many times already), then Swap it out.

I know this is a pain in the hole, but you will be a pro at this **** after this.

Slksht

http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/970%20Pro3%20R2.0/?cat=Memory

Are these lists definitive? I don't see my Corsair Vengeance 4gb x 2 listed here?

EDIT



Is this speed correct?

Slksht

Any of you boarders live around waterford?! I'm about to kill my pc. The freezing has gotten worse, so that now I can't really do anything on it without it locking up. If left alone it doesn't seem to freeze though, Wtf is going on

SterlingArcher

Slksht wrote: »

Any of you boarders live around waterford?! I'm about to kill my pc. The freezing has gotten worse, so that now I can't really do anything on it without it locking up. If left alone it doesn't seem to freeze though, Wtf is going on

I'm in Dublin myself. Slksht have you swapped out the PSU? One of the parts is broken that is a fact. Hard drive and PSU left assuming you put the CPU in proper when installing.

SterlingArcher

Slksht wrote: »

Any of you boarders live around waterford?! I'm about to kill my pc. The freezing has gotten worse, so that now I can't really do anything on it without it locking up. If left alone it doesn't seem to freeze though, Wtf is going on

Any joy?

Slksht

SterlingArcher wrote: »

Hard drive and PSU left assuming you put the CPU in proper when installing.

I can only assume I installed the cpu correctly it's not exactly difficul and the aftermarket cooler is working nicely...

Haven't gotten the other psu yet, mate is busy. How do you test a hard drive? Could it be a faulty motherboard?

Slksht

Hey guys I've just noticed that if i move around all the icons on my desktop on start up, when it freezes (and its freezing now after about 20 or so seconds!!!!!!) and I turn it back on, all of the icons are back to where they started as if I had never moved them.

Is this symptomatic of a harddrive glitch?

EoinHef

Slksht wrote: »

Hey guys I've just noticed that if i move around all the icons on my desktop on start up, when it freezes (and its freezing now after about 20 or so seconds!!!!!!) and I turn it back on, all of the icons are back to where they started as if I had never moved them.

Is this symptomatic of a harddrive glitch?

Depends, would also happen with an improper shutdown iirc.

Do you have to use the power button to turn off pc when it freezes?

Slksht

Or the reset button, one of the two.

Right so it's gone so bad right now that it can't even loads the windows icon to let me enter my password, never been this bad before.

EoinHef

Slksht wrote: »

Or the reset button, one of the two.

As far as I know it wont save the changes you made to the desktop after a improper shutdown.

Whats your next step? Are you waiting on a different psu to test with?

There are programs to test hard drives to see if there faulty, if its freezing though may be hard to test

Slksht

EoinHef wrote: »

Whats your next step? Are you waiting on a different psu to test with?

Ye my mate hasn't gotten back to me. After several times of freezing before logging in, I took out a stick of ram and it allowed me log in without freezing, just switched them around and now it's frozen again.

Coincidence or dodgy ram? None of the Memory tests, very extensive ones, showed a my problems

Slksht

Been running fine for over an hour on a single stick of ram. Could it be something to do with when both sticks are in? I have them in the correct configuration for dual channel.

EDIT

Just froze. Sad sad times.

delta36

Bit of a shot in the dark OP, and probably not relevant as it's a new build, but you're sure the speed/timing settings for RAM in your BIOS haven't been messed around with, and are set to the actual speed your RAM is?

It's really late, and I'm doing anything that isn't study currently, so it's quite possible I'm talking out of my rear.

Slksht

The ram does appear to be set to 1333 dual-channel which is interesting however I don't really see why that would be a problem? The Vengeance can go much higher but I don't know alot about ram or how its speed can affect the system.

What gets me about this horrible freezing is how absolutely random it is. It can happen from on boot up, to after an hour or not happen at all after 5 hours of gameplay. I am almost as clueless now as when I started, not confident at all that what I've crossed off should be crossed off as safe. TBH, I'm rather tired of it and want to win now

SterlingArcher

So far you have formatted your hdd and reinstalled windows. Correct?

Went to mobo site and downloaded main chipset drivers.

Checked ram.

Ran without Gpu.

Am I missing anything? And all above correct.

There is still the HDD and PSU? Worst case its the mobo.

Also try Plugging out all USB devices. Using ps2

stevenmu

Slksht wrote: »

So today I ran windows memory diagnostic for 8 hours. Turned up nothing as expected.

Have just successfully played Civ 5 for around 5 hours without a freeze. Went online for about 2 minutes and it froze up. This has happened quite a few times, it doesn't like online, downloading files or Windows update for example.

Anyone wanna take a shot at why downloading might trigger a freeze? It's not immediately but it can't be a coincidence that I can game for hours no problem and it freezes on normal tasks?

Harddrive? Don't know enough about what's used when to make an educated stab.

Edit

Don't seem to be able to update OP unfortunately?

Very long shot, but it could be a problem with the onboard NIC. I'm not familiar with onboard NICs these days, but in a past life I ran into problems with expansion card NICs which have a hardware buffer, if there's some fault in that it can work fine under very light loads, but freeze/crash the PC when dealing with heavier traffic.

You should be able to disable the onboard NIC from your BIOS, then try running for a few hours offline to see what happens. If you don't get any freezing that could indicate either hardware problem with the NIC, or possibly a driver issue.

Slksht

SterlingArcher wrote: »

There is still the HDD and PSU? Worst case its the mobo.

Also try Plugging out all USB devices. Using ps2

Yep that's correct mate! Have run ckdsk on the hd but I'm not sure how to check it further. It doesn't seem to be making any of the strange noises you might expect?

From reading a lot of people have had issues with the as rack mobo not auto setting the ram correctly. If that's the case, memtest wouldn't have picked up any problems.

Waiting for my mate to bring up the psu and my old ram. See if I can narrow it down that way. I do have a few USB devices in use, can they trigger problems?

SterlingArcher

Yes they can trigger freezing so try plugging all out and using ps2 keyboard mouse or using different ports. it can be something so simple that gets overlooked so narrowing down is the game.

So you just need to keep a cool head and get to the bottom of it Sherlock

delta36

Slksht wrote: »

The ram does appear to be set to 1333 dual-channel which is interesting however I don't really see why that would be a problem? The Vengeance can go much higher but I don't know alot about ram or how its speed can affect the system.

AFAIK, underclocking RAM shouldn't lead to instability, so that shouldn't be a problem, unless the timing is different to that set on the RAM, but most MOBO's will just automatically detect that if you haven't messed with any settings. Stevenmu's post about disabling the NIC might be worth a go, seems like one of the few areas you haven't tried yet.

Edit: Also, as someone suggested a few pages back, did you try booting the computer using a Live version of Linux for a few hours? That would help determine if it's a problem with Windows/driver conflicts, or with your hardware.

Slksht

"delta36 wrote: »

Edit: Also, as someone suggested a few pages back, did you try booting the computer using a Live version of Linux for a few hours? That would help determine if it's a problem with Windows/driver conflicts, or with your hardware.

Don't really know anything about Linux, might give it a go. It seems to crash faster when there are a lot of things going on at once, like loading chrome quickly after booting or opening a lot of pages at the same time. I can't help feeling it's the ram but I just don't know why haha

delta36

Slksht wrote: »

Don't really know anything about Linux, might give it a go. It seems to crash faster when there are a lot of things going on at once, like loading chrome quickly after booting or opening a lot of pages at the same time. I can't help feeling it's the ram but I just don't know why haha

This'll help you out for linux. You don't really need to know much about linux to do this. Go to the download page, download the iso, burn it, boot your computer from the iso and select Live Boot. This loads the linux operating system into RAM, and runs it from there, it's designed for people to get a taste of linux, without needing to install it to their harddrive.

In your case, if your system still crashes while using a live iso, it indicates the problem isn't with your harddrive or windows os/drivers, but with your RAM, mobo, CPU, GPU, Power supply or possibly NIC as said above. It'll at least help narrow it down.

Slksht

Can't believe I just lost my whole post that I wrote!!! Goddamnit!!

I'm just going to summarise now because I can't write it all again. After all my troubleshooting the culprit turned out to be my Asrock mobo. Have since replaced it with a new i5 cpu and gigabyte mobo, with all new components now installed in my today acquired Carbide 300r case.

Took me so much longer than I ever expected! Thanks for all the suggestions and I hope someone still cares about this finally working haha.

Will upload pics tomorrow

SterlingArcher

Bahahahaha ( losing the long ass post) don't go postal.

Glad to hear you sorted man. Hopefully see you on arma 3 so.

delta36

Good to hear you got sorted! Must have been insanely frustrating.