Audible Pop... Hard System Freeze

wkitchen · Sep 15, 2014

Hey folks! This is my first post. I've been a long time lurker on these boards and I've learned a lot here. I'm stumped at the moment though. I could really use some guidance. Situation follows:

Last year, I fried my I7 chip when my H100 cooler quit working. I decided to completely rearrange my machine to an AMD architecture. I'm using the 8350 Black Edition Vishera and the Asus ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 motherboard with 8GB of Corsair Vengence RAM and an Nvidia GTX 560 ti GPU. My power supply is a generic 1000w. I have three 1TB WD HDD's.

The system is stable under normal conditions. I dual boot Mint 16 and Windows 7. The issue occurs while playing Skyrim, Rome Total War (first edition) and Napoleon Total War.

At random times during any of these games, I will hear an audible "POP" or "CLICK" through the head phones and my system will hard freeze. No BSOD. No error message. Just the last frame on the screen and a cold kill to restart.

I am trying to figure out if this is a hardware or software issue.

Has anyone experienced this phenomenon before? How did you troubleshoot it?

Thanks in advance!

Karsten75 · Sep 15, 2014

I'd guess hardware.

wkitchen · Sep 15, 2014

Could it be a failing PSU not driving enough power during higher demand from the GPU? Could it be the PCI slot being defective?

Sooth1 · Sep 15, 2014

You said "generic 1000w"? It's usually a bad idea to use a low quality PSU and could cause all sorts of bad things to happen to your system. If you can try a different (high quality) PSU.

wkitchen · Sep 15, 2014

I thought, as a general rule of thumb, that if a power supply was faulty, the PC would simply power off or other more direct symptoms.

wkitchen · Sep 15, 2014

After a little more research, I have come up with something to try. I have two copies of Windows 7. One has SP1 built in. The other does not. Another person on this board had a hard freeze issue that went away after they installed Win 7 64-bit that did not have SP1 built in. I will post the results tomorrow if I have time to make this change tonight.

wkitchen · Sep 16, 2014

PROBLEM SOLVED

Solution: I installed Windows Vista 64-bit on my third hard drive and set the OS up to support nothing but Steam. I believe there is a conflict on the Windows 7 drive that relates to some software that my wife uses as a teacher of the visually impaired. It works for her so I'm leaving it alone and set up my own Vista sandbox. I have played all three of the above mentioned games without a freeze.

Karsten75 · Sep 16, 2014

Bizarre. And different user accounts under Windows 7 does not solve this?

I do not know if it is a Windows license violation, but perhaps if you install Windows 7 on two hard drives (only one of which can be booted at a time) on the same machine this is another way to work around the issue? After all, Vista is a rather extreme punishment.

wkitchen · Sep 16, 2014

Karsten75 :

I agree. Vista is extreme. It wont stay long. I'm going to replace it with 7 Pro tonight and then repair the GRUB. All should be back to normal.

wkitchen · Sep 18, 2014

UPDATE: Hard Freezes Continue

After a short freezing break, the system has continued the trend while playing Skyrim. I have delved deeper into GPU troubleshooting methods and these are the tests I have ran. I believe I have a degraded GPU from months of heat related abuse.

Test One: Prime 95
Processor: AMD FX 8350 Stock settings
Goal: Rule out CPU degradation

Prime95'ed for one hour blend test
System entirely stable
Max temp reported by CPU-Z: 62C

Test Two: Furmark 1920x1080 27" Full burn in
Goal: Isolate GPU and stress for failure
Instant system freeze as soon as benchmark started
Rebooted

Test Three: Lower GPU Core Clock and repeat Furmark
MSI Afterburner & GTX 560 ti
Lowered GPU core clock to 960mhz from 1000mhz
Started Furmark 1920x1080
Furmark is stable
Ran for 10 minutes
Exited Furmark
Started Skyrim new game
Opening scene is alive for about 30 seconds
Hard Freeze
Reboot

Test Four: Lower GPU core clock to 950mhz from 960mhz and repeat
Furmark is stable for 10 minutes
Skyrim is now stable for roughly 1 minute
Hard freeze after 1 minute in game

I believe my GPU is failing. Do you folks concur? I seem to have bottomed out the GPU core clock. Can't take it any lower.

Karsten75 · Sep 18, 2014

Very excellent testing setup. Only thing that we cannot rule out is the PSU that has to deliver power to your system. If you lower the GPU clocks, you also demand less power from the system. Check for heat on the PSU, maybe? I don't usually advocate this, but if you have (or can get) a Kill-a-Watt test meter, you can perhaps observe if this happens somewhere at a lower rating than your PSU can deliver.

I know of no simple, affordable method to load- test a PSU on the delivery side (you can test voltages with a PSU tester for around $25).

Reason I'm saying this is a PSU costs a fraction of a high-end video card.

You can try and shine a flashlight into the crecices in the PSU housing to see if you can see any damage (unlikely) and the old smell-tests may also come in handy after a shutdown.

Finally, feel the temps on your GPU - if it shuts down, it should be hot.

wkitchen · Sep 18, 2014

Karsten75 :

Thanks for the encouragement. I would think that a PSU failure would power off the system entirely instead of just freezing it. Here is my plan for the first PSU test:

The old paperclip trick. Disconnect all the system devices from the PSU including the 24-pin connector. Short the Green and black pins together with a paper clip (while PSU is unplugged) to power on the PSU after it is plugged in. Use a multi meter to test the power on the 12v rails.

No matter what, the 12v rails should provide the full 12 always right?

Karsten75 · Sep 18, 2014

It's not whether they deliver 12V, it's whether they deliver the correct number of amperes at 12V. the old load vs no-load issue. If you have failing capacitors, then the load may be failing or it may be unable to maintain voltage on the rail supplying the GPU - hence apparent GPU and not complete system.

wkitchen · Sep 18, 2014

Karsten75 :

Which would explain definitively why the freezes in Skyrim occur after a few seconds: The load increases as the GPU asks for power until a ceiling is hit and bam. Underclocking the GPU widened the gap between the two resulting in slightly more time before the ceiling was reached. Does that sound right? Newegg has a good deal on a Corsair RM1000 that delivers 83 amps over one 12v rail.

Karsten75 · Sep 18, 2014

That is one of the two theories - the other being your GPU being kaput.

I don't usually like to do this, but yes, you can order the PSU from Newegg (it seems way over the specifications you might need) and if it doesn't fix your problem, return it with the cost of shipping/restocking.

I have both Shoprunner and Newegg Premier, so those costs are reduced for me. Still don't like to do that because I think it takes advantage of retailer return policies in an unethical way.

For me, I've usually got a PSU around I can swap to test with.

wkitchen · Sep 18, 2014

Karsten75 :

They also have a 750w Corsair HX750 on sale for $109. I'm going to get it. My current PSU is very generic and has taken some abuse. I think this will be a good solid upgrade for the system in general and I can wait a couple months until Christmas to get a new GPU.

Karsten75 · Sep 18, 2014

Really, really hope the PSU is the problem. Would hate to have led you up the wrong track. But I'm feeling encouraged now that you mention "generic" and "abuse".

Say "hi" to the baby in your avatar!

And please let us (me) know if the PSU solved anything.

wkitchen · Sep 19, 2014

Good Morning!

It was the PSU to blame for my hard freeze ups in modern 3d games. Voltages for the old PSU seemed way out of spec in the BIOS. I went to my semi local big box electronics store last night and bought a Thermaltake 850w 80 bronze certified PSU. After installation (which was easy) the system would not boot. Just a flickering white cursor. I inserted my Win 7 disk and scanned for startup issues. They were detected and corrected. I then booted up the system and verified voltages in both the BIOS and CPU-Z. Everything looked well within specs for this PSU. This PC feels like an all new machine! Everything seems to work better!

Many thanks to Karsten75 for collaborating with me on this issue and helping me to ensure that I adequately diagnosed everything before pulling the trigger. Due to that, I now have better honed hardware diagnostic skills.

Also thanks to Sooth1! Right on the money!

Audible Pop... Hard System Freeze

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