Win 8.1 freezing every hour, hard reset required to restart

TokyoTom

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My PC was working fine until this afternoon, and now all of a sudden I am seeing my machine freeze up about every hour, almost like clockwork.

It does not seem to matter what software I am using or if the machine is completely idle. All active windows freeze, keyboard does not respond, and the only thing that is responsive is the mouse cursor.

I ran CHKDSK and got no errors on my C: drive. I uninstalled a few applications this morning, which triggered a restore point, so I tried restoring the system to its previous state. This did nothing to remedy the problem. All overclocks have be disabled and processor and GPU set to stock clocks. I also installed all optional Windows updates and still freezing.

I am running 64-bit version of Win 8.1 (legit OEM copy purchased alongside motherboard and CPU), system specs below:

i5 3570k / ASRock Z77 Extreme 6 / Radeon HD 7950 / Corsair XMS3 8 GB
DDR3 1333 (4x2) / Crucial M4 128GB + Samsung Spinpoint 1TB /

Any ideas?

 
Solution
Okay, I’ve been up and running for 4 hours with no issues. I think I finally figured it out after further Google searches.

I noticed there were quite a few threads with people mentioning 1 hour reset cycles and then came across this:
http://icrontic.com/article/crucial-m4-5200-hour-error

I have a 128 GB M4, but I ran a check with CrystalDiskInfo, and sure enough I recently crossed the 5200 hour mark for disk usage.
So I downloaded the firmware update for the M4 2.5 inch SSDs and have not crashed at all since installing.

I had never heard of this but it was what was causing the hourly resets.

Tom’s even ran a story about it just a little after I bought the drive but I missed it...

TokyoTom

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Thanks for the reply.

I recently installed a driver for a Canon wireless printer, and have had a few issues with it. But the problem is simply that it doesn't print sometimes.

Windows update suggested an optional AMD driver "WDDM1.3," Intel graphics adapter "WDDM1.1, 1.2, 1.3" and Samsung Mobile "USB driver". I installed these along with "Update for Win 8.1 for x64 based systems" (KB2962409) after the first two freezes today. I later did a system restore to an earlier point after the machine continued to freeze all afternoon and evening so the drivers/updates are not installed are currently being suggested by Win update again.
 
The only freezing I experienced under Windows 8.1 that matched what you are describing, an unresponsive system with active mouse cursor, seemed to vanish after driver updates for the graphics card. I would certainly update to the latest drivers for both graphics adapters, whether they seem to address the issue or not.

I personally wouldn't suspect your Canon printer as being a culprit here, despite the issues you mention having with it.

You mention having two graphics devices in your system. Are you using both graphics adapters? If you're not using both adapters, I would certainly disable one during troubleshooting.

I would also take a look at the power management settings for the computer. Are you having the display turn off after a certain period of time, or the computer put itself to sleep? You might try turning these features off for the duration of troubleshooting.

If you have web browsers open when freezing occurs, you might look into disabling hardware accelerated web browsing, if it's even enabled on your system, as it doesn't behave well on all systems.

Instructions for disabling hardware rendering by browser:
Internet Explorer
Firefox
Chrome
 

TokyoTom

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Okay, an hour passed, and the PC froze up again.

This time instead of just hanging I got a blue screen saying CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED.

Full message: "Your computer has experienced and error and needs to be restarted. Collecting error info. Computer will automatically restart" There is a progress indicator showing info collection, but it stays at 0% and computer doesn't restart properly.

Here is an image (sorry, Japanese OS):
WORrNHj.jpg




 

TokyoTom

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bigpinkdragon286,

Thanks for the detailed response. I just saw it after my last post.

I am currently running just one 7950. (Running Catalyst 14.4)

I will look into the power management settings as you suggested as well as hardware accelerated browsing.

Thanks again!

 

TokyoTom

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Well, I thought I isolated the problem with BlueScreenView when I found that I was getting an “atikmdag.sys” error related to an AMD driver.

I uninstalled the driver, restarted, deleted the Catalyst 14.4 folder from my driver, downloaded and installed the latest 14.6 RC and I am still experiencing the same problem.

The machine functions fine for one hour and then hangs/freezes regardless of the application being used.

I changed my power options, which were set to turn off my display after 10 minutes, and to put the computer to sleep after 1 hour of inactivity. I thought this could be the issue since the machine crashes hourly.

I just timed the last crash – It was exactly 1 hour after Windows fully booted up when it crashed. It is crashing on a very specific cycle.

I tried doing a registry cleanup and using Windows “repair” but nothing works.

This is driving me nuts. I cannot get my work done.

Is it possible my GPU is failing? It seems to work flawlessly until I hit the hour mark.

I’ve searched the forums and seen tons of people with Win 8.1 freezing/hanging problems but no real solutions.

What could cause a machine that is running flawlessly to suddenly start freezing on an hourly basis?

I installed Adobe Lightroom 5.5 just before I started having these issues, but I can’t imagine that would be a real problem. It is a legitimate copy (I am Creative Cloud subscriber), no cracked software being used.
 

TokyoTom

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Okay, I’ve been up and running for 4 hours with no issues. I think I finally figured it out after further Google searches.

I noticed there were quite a few threads with people mentioning 1 hour reset cycles and then came across this:
http://icrontic.com/article/crucial-m4-5200-hour-error

I have a 128 GB M4, but I ran a check with CrystalDiskInfo, and sure enough I recently crossed the 5200 hour mark for disk usage.
So I downloaded the firmware update for the M4 2.5 inch SSDs and have not crashed at all since installing.

I had never heard of this but it was what was causing the hourly resets.

Tom’s even ran a story about it just a little after I bought the drive but I missed it:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Crucial-m4-Firmware-BSOD,14544.html

This has got to be the strangest bug I have encountered.

Thanks for the help bigpinkdragon286! That blue screen tool is totally helpful!
 
Solution
SSD? Interesting cause and solution, if that's the case. Now that you mention it, years ago I had random reboots and system lock-ups after purchasing my first SSD, a Corsair, but that was sorted out through firmware updates. Hope that's all it takes for your own system and thanks for sharing your find with the community. :)
 

TokyoTom

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Yes, it was definitely the SSD firmware update that solved the problem. Been up and running for two days straight.

Thanks again for your help and suggestions!
 

drjones666

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BIG THANK YOU!!!! I also was having this problem the past couple days, and I was going crazy! Every hour, the computer would freeze, with active mouse. Only a Hard Reboot would restart it... but every hour, it was the same story again.

I tried many things, but it's the SSD FIRMWARE UPDATE that fixed it for me.

Note that it was not the same SSD as mentioned in this thread. Mine is the Samsung SSD 840 PRO.
I had never updated its firmware... And now since I updated the firmware, the crash has not happened.

Strange!!!