Seemingly random freezing on new build

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
IntricateRuin

IntricateRuin

Honorable
Mar 24, 2013
9
0
10,510
Hi guys, first time poster here - finally made an account!

I recently put together a new build for my father. Mostly for office work, with a spot of gaming every now and then.

Unfortunately it's been plagued with random freezes since the first day. The first time I remember it occuring was while installing the latest graphics driver direct from the AMD website - keyboard/mouse became completely unresponsive and progress totally halted. Only way out was through a hard shutdown by holding the power button.

Since then it's happened 2-3 more times during normal use - Once when installing MS Office, and again whilst simply configuring settings in the control panel.

It passes memtest 100% which I'm pretty sure rules out a RAM issue. I've updated to the latest drivers for all hardware, installed all available Windows updates as well as flashing the motherboard with the latest BIOS available. All of which has not resolved the issue.

The problem isn't consistent with anything I've seen before. I've had the machine running for 8-10 hours fine, and yet it's also frozen within 10 minutes of booting. However, I'm able to trigger the crash by putting the machine under stress by running prime95 and opening a bunch of other programs.

It's getting increasingly frustrating now as I am unable to hand it over to my father without resolving, or at least diagnosing the issue. The last thing he needs is to have such a freeze occur when he's using the PC for work (incidentally, the same reason he's asked me to build a replacement for his current rig).

Specs are as follows:

* Gigabyte B75M-D3H Motherboard
* i5-3570 CPU
* MSI HD 7750 GPU
* 8GB Corsair XMS3 RAM
* OCZ ZS Series PSU (550W)
* 1TB WD Caviar Green HDD
* Pioneer BDR-208DBK Optical Drive

It's also using a Cooler Master Elite Case, Dell U2321HM and Microsoft 2000 Wireless Desktop, if this could help diagnose the issue.

Thanks!

Update: A friend recently mentioned that faulty RAM could still potentially pass memtest. So just to be sure, I tried a stick from my own machine and was still able to cause a crash.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
IntricateRuin

IntricateRuin

Honorable
Mar 24, 2013
9
0
10,510
Thanks both, I'll try that scan tonight and update on the results. :wahoo:

@manofchalk Very interesting information on the WD Green drive. I've been using one as a boot drive in my personal machine for years and not had issue, is there any potential risk from this?

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
IntricateRuin

IntricateRuin

Honorable
Mar 24, 2013
9
0
10,510


Makes sense, I plan on moving my OS to an SSD sooner or later!

Tried running the extended test on WD Data LifeGuard Diagnostics and was getting freezing after 5-10 minutes each time. I moved the drive to another machine and managed to successfully complete the extended test, which passed without issue.

Does this rule out a hard drive issue?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
manofchalk

manofchalk

Glorious
May 11, 2012
12,914
3
48,960
It doesn't rule it out completely, but it does suggest something else in your rig may be at fault.

My other guess as to what was causing the issue was memory, if that's bad it could be causing the random freezing (and explains why the rig fails under Prime95, as it also stresses memory).
Try running Memtest86+, that will determine if the memory is faulty in any way.
http://www.memtest.org/
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
IntricateRuin

IntricateRuin

Honorable
Mar 24, 2013
9
0
10,510


I've passed Memest86+ previously on the machine, and even tried using some different RAM that I know to be working however, I will retest just to be sure and post the results.

Thanks again.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
B

boulbox

Honorable
Apr 5, 2012
1,880
0
11,960
Wait, does that mean there is still stuff inside the HDD? Like OS, and drivers etc?

It can be that there are drivers and stuff inside the HDD and does not work for a different machine so you may need a full wipe on the HDD and reinstall OS and drivers

Also it may mean there is a problem with the BIOS and may need an update
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
IntricateRuin

IntricateRuin

Honorable
Mar 24, 2013
9
0
10,510


Thank you for your reply, boulbox.

Yes, the HDD contains a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate. Almost entirely fresh. Just a few Programs; Microsoft Office Suite, AVG Internet Security, iTunes to name a few. I'm happy to try a fresh install if that's recommended, but would love to be able to solve without.

EDIT: As mentioned in OP, I have updated the mobo to the latest BIOS unfortunately :(
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Z

zerabbit

Honorable
Apr 8, 2013
1
0
10,510
Hello,

I've been having the same problem as you for almost a year now. Random freezes here and now, preventing me from doing almost anything (playing, working, browsing, watching videos, etc).
I have a multi-boot system (Windows XP, Vista, Seven, Seven64, Ubuntu), and the freezes happened on ALL of them.

I've tried swapping/removing all the components except for the motherboard and the cpu cooler (MUX120), to no avail...
Last week, I opened my system again and with my brand new glasses (I'm getting old) I noticed that one of the cooler's mounting screws (on the cooler's back end) was in "very slight" contact with the case's motherboard mounting plate.
I stuck a tiny little sheet of paper between the end of the screw and the mainboard's mounting plate, and a miracle took place !!!! No more freezes !!!

The whole problem was simply due to a shortage between the cpu cooler and the mainboard's case !!!

I also could trigger voluntarily the freeze by pushing the CPU with a heavy game (Flight simulator for example). Now I realize that it froze because the damn screw would gently dilate with the rise of the coolers's temperature, and reach the back plate's metal. At the very moment of contact, a shortage would occur (maybe static electricity , with the air blowing from the fans), freezing the whole thing.

To everyone who has this issue, before even thinking about changing memory and all other components, look carefully inside your system. You might have a shortage between the case and some other component of your motherboard. Even the tinyest one can get you into hell...
The cpu cooler is one of the trickyest, because everything happens BEHIND the motherboard. These coolers become larger and heavier, and their back-ends are almost always in the way...

Cheers




 
Upvote 0 Downvote
IntricateRuin

IntricateRuin

Honorable
Mar 24, 2013
9
0
10,510



Thanks zerabbit, very interesting info. I will be checking this out tonight! Since I'm using the stock Intel Cooler (with the dreaded push pins) it was a bit of a nightmare to get on, so this could more than likely have occurred.

Thanks again, I'm certain that I would have never have thought to check anything like this; shall update after checking it over this evening.

Cheers
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
IntricateRuin

IntricateRuin

Honorable
Mar 24, 2013
9
0
10,510
Apologies for the lateness, been trying to work on fixing the machine around work and other life commitments. Either way, an update:

I've tested zerrabit's method by completely removing the side of the case to prevent any possible contact between the CPU cooler and the case itself, no luck unfortunately; still freezing when doing a WD Disk Diagnostics Check.

I also noticed the computer freezing up when plugging in a USB KB/Mouse receiver, which caused me to look into the USB drivers. After downloading the latest Intel USB 3.0 Driver from Gigabyte's website, I came across a few issues installing. Firstly, I was told that the current installed driver was a later version of than that I was trying to install, and was asked if I was okay to replace. After agreeing, I experienced a freeze during the driver install. After a few more failed attempts, I tried to install the driver in Safe Mode. On the first go, I had a freeze on the 'Please Wait' screen, just before hitting the W7 login dialogue. Eventually I was able to boot into safe mode and install the drivers without issue. Popped back into normal Windows, and noticed the PC did seem more stable. I was able to run WD Disk Diagnostics, extended test (purely because I know that this has caused freezing in the past) and was able to run for 20-30 minutes (probably 30% through the complete test) before experiencing a freeze. This is considerably longer than in the past.

I've also tried downgrading to the F11 BIOS (August 2012) as per boulbox's suggestion, which unfortunately has not fixed the issue either.

After reading a few other threads with similar issues, it has been suggested to try with another OS, to rule out a software issue - so I am currently installing Ubuntu to see if I have any luck. Will update as soon as I know anything.

Thanks again!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
butremor

butremor

Honorable
Oct 23, 2012
1,563
0
12,160
Everything you just wrote corresponds with the issues of having bas sectors on HDD. Before it's too late better get new HDD and backup all the important and valuable info you have to it. Installing Ubuntu might solve the problem for the time being, because while doing it installator maps HDD and marks bas sectors as not available for use, thus not writing\using them. But if your hdd started crashing, it will continue. Another way to make sure, is run Defragmentation, which will cause freezing. If you have the means, download Hiren's boot cd, there is a bunch of good bad sector finder tools. Though there is a few programs on this cd that are protected by copyright and depending on your region it may cause you problems, i think.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
IntricateRuin

IntricateRuin

Honorable
Mar 24, 2013
9
0
10,510


Thanks for the advice. I tried Ubuntu several times, but it just froze about 5-10 minutes into booting into the live cd. I'll look into Hiren's boot CD tomorrow. As mentioned previously, I have had the hard drive in another machine and ran a full extended WD disk diagnostics test, which passed successfully. Is this still a possibility if the HDD has bad sectors?

Thanks again

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
IntricateRuin

IntricateRuin

Honorable
Mar 24, 2013
9
0
10,510
Hi All, another belated update!

Over the last few weeks, I have worked together with a friend to individually test each part individually in a machine that we knew not to have any issues. Unfortunately this has not yielded any concrete results. There was one interesting observation:

Initially, I tested everything on my machine (working perfectly) with no issues, until we got to testing the CPU on the following motherboard: GA-PH67-DS3-B3

When this was tried, nothing was displayed on the monitor at all, the PC powered on successfully, did not issue any POST noises, but nothing output to display. This was tried with both the graphics card, and onboard graphics with the same result.

Out of curiosity, I tried to use my own CPU (Intel Core i5-2400) in my father's PC with exactly the same result: blank screen.

At this point, we started to suspect the CPU could be the culprit. fortunately, my friend owns almost exactly the same CPU used with the machine (Intel Core i5-3570k) which worked fine. I was able to perform a full defrag / WD Disk Diagnostics test without any freezing when using this CPU. Even left the PC running for a further 4 hours without issue. The last test was to try the original (believed to be faulty CPU) in my friend's rig. This however ran perfectly fine - To be sure, I asked him to use his PC as he normally would for a day (heavy gaming / 1080p streaming videos) but (un)fortunately everything ran smoothly.

I am now beyond baffled at what could be the cause of the issues. Each part works perfectly when tested individually, but not at all when put together. As mentioned in a previous post, I've tried 2-3 previous versions of the Motherboard BIOS. I've suggested my father sends the mobo back as faulty, in exchange for a different model, but I'm really not sure that will fix anything.

Thanks again for all the helpful responses, I am extremely grateful.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom