Computer completely freezing randomly only in games.

EightClubs

Reputable
Jun 17, 2014
2
0
4,510
This problem has been driving me up the wall for years now, I had found a temporary fix but I'm sick of using it and would like to get everything I can out of my hardware.

My system specs are;

Motherboard: Asus M5A88-M EVO 880G AM3+

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM SATAIII 6GB/S 3.5

GPU: Sapphire HD6870 1G GDDR5 PCIE HDMI DP

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4GHZ Black Edition

Cooler: Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO

DVDR: LG H22NS70 SATA 22X+- Super Multi DVDR Black

Memory: G Skill 4G(1x4G) DDR3 1333 PC10600 (F3-10600CL9S- 4GBNT)

PSU: CoolerMaster 600W Extreme Power Plus (ATX)

Case: Antec Three Hundred Tower Gaming Case

So I got this computer back in 2011 and ever since I got it, it would randomly freeze in games, sometimes I could go days without a freeze, other time it would freeze within 5-10 minutes, sometimes instantly. The freeze will completely lock the computer, the screen will be stuck on whatever was displayed on the screen at the time and will not move. The Keyboard buttons are unresponsive, and so is the mouse. The NUMLOCK and CAPSLOCK lights cannot be swapped on/off. The fans on the computer seem to power down to idle speeds as well, the fans do not completely turn off.

It's not just intensive graphics games either, it will freeze in very simple games such as Binding of Isaac, it has NEVER froze outside of a game running, not even playing HD videos, it is only games.

I had tried everything, Memtest, fresh install of windows, reflashed BIOS, lowering CPU voltages and none of those helped.

The one thing that did completely remove the freezes, was changing the slider in AMD CCC under Performance > CPU Power > CPU Processor Speed from "800MHZ - 3400 MHZ (100%)" to "800MHZ - 2700MHZ (79%)".

Ever since I changed that 1 setting it has never frozen again, except for 1 time when I disabled Cool N Quiet in the BIOS, when it started freezing again, once I re enabled Cool N Quiet the freezing stopped. Having the CPU Power at 100% with Cool N Quiet will still freeze it.

My first thought was the temperatures as I was using stock cooling at the time and Australian weather can get my room temperature quite hot, so I upgraded to an aftermarket cooler (The 212 EVO). It still freezes even with temps 20 degrees lower than before. The CPU maxes at around 53 degrees.

The only other things I could imagine are causing it are either a faulty MB, CPU or PSU. Maybe the graphics card but since turning down CPU Power to 79% fixes it I don't think it's that.

Please help! I would be ecstatic if I never have to see this problem again, it's been plaguing me for years and it's finally time to get rid of it.
 

EightClubs

Reputable
Jun 17, 2014
2
0
4,510


It's done this since it was completely new. I have cleaned out the dust just a couple days ago when I installed the Hyper 212 EVO however.