Random Freezes, stops working completely

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Ferimer

Ferimer

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Overnight I would leave my computer on and it would completely stop up and freeze, wasnt doing anything computer was just on, when i would wake up in the morning it would be frozen (last image on screen) and i had 0 response from keyboard and mouse had to do a hard reset on the computer. Just about 10 minutes ago I was playing a game and it did it then also. Today I took everything out, cleaned the inside, got rid of all the dust build up in the computer and underneath where the fans are, I did that before the Freeze happened with the game. I also replaced the Thermal paste that was on my EVO Fan as it was Stock paste.
 
Solution
panathas
That PSU isn't bad but it isn't good either. There are 2 things you should keep in mind about that PSU.

1) It's not haswell ready, meaning it doesn't officially support haswell and all future Intel CPU's. Your CPU is newer than haswell so you may face stability issues with that PSU and that's not the worst case scenario (hardware damage).

2) That PSU seems pretty old. How many years do you have it? Did you use it in a previous system? A system that has an old/aged PSU that is of questionable quality is more prone to stability issues than a system with a good quality PSU.

So if you add those 2 things you should come to the conclusion that the most likely suspect for your issues is the PSU. Even if it is in good condition it doesn't...
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Ferimer

Ferimer

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My PSU is 600W. Are you wondering what brand it is? I was thinking that because there was a large build up of dust underneath where the mesh is blocking it, that may have been the issue, i left it on all day and night last night, then it just recently happened again when i wasnt doing anything. Just went to use it and found that it had froze up. I just updated my GPU driver as well to the newest version.
 
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panathas

panathas

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Yes I am taking about tour PSU's brand and model number. A failing or unreliable PSU is certainly responsible for these issues. A cheap/bad quality PSU is more prone to this behaviour than a good quality/expensive one. Also you need to make sure that nothing one your system is overheating. So you need to test your system with another PSU. If the issues go away, then your PSU is bad, if not you may have another bad/failing component in your system.
 
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Ferimer

Ferimer

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I am not completely sold on the brand I have as it is a couple years old now. Could also be my GPU as well as it has been running a bit higher in terms of CLock and Memory Clock and that has been on non stop for awhile now.
 
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Ferimer

Ferimer

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I have been monitoring my temperatures, however the freezing seems to happen even when I am not doing anything that would be temperature increasing, it would be just sitting, turned on. I checked while i was gaming and the highest i was hitting was 50 Degrees Celsius. Which is pretty normal when gaming. The freezing happened once while I was gaming but then hasnt happened since. I am unsure as to what exactly is causing this, It could be that one day the power supply overheated and something has now burnt out in it due to the Massive dust build up preventing the fan from cooling it down but that has since been removed so my hunch is that something did burn out in the power supply
 
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Ferimer

Ferimer

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The Red light on the front of my Computer Case, is blinking from time to time and or staying on, i havent seen this before and i researched it and many answers point to the Power supply may have lost power or something is happening
 
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panathas

panathas

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Dust build up is never a good thing inside a PC system. Many hardware failures have started from excessive dust build-up that lead to overheating problems and when you are dealing with ageing electronics that's a recipe for disaster.

I don't know what PC case you may have but usually almost all cases have 2 led lights, power and hard drive activity. If I were to guess I'd say it's the latter.

Anyway I think you may have a problem with your PSU and it may be failing. Usually a bad or failing PSU causes random freezes and/or resets. Also the fact that you don't know the brand or the model number makes me think that it's a generic PSU (it's also called a firecracker among PC enthusiasts for a good reason) and those age and break prematurely. Also because they are usually cheap, they don't have protections mechanisms for the rest of your hardware.

So without more info about your PSU, I can't give any further advice but keep in mind that if you indeed have a generic PSU model, that it's failing, then the rest of your PC system is in danger and you could easily end up with a fried mobo/CPU/GPU or RAM.
 
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panathas

panathas

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That PSU isn't bad but it isn't good either. There are 2 things you should keep in mind about that PSU.

1) It's not haswell ready, meaning it doesn't officially support haswell and all future Intel CPU's. Your CPU is newer than haswell so you may face stability issues with that PSU and that's not the worst case scenario (hardware damage).

2) That PSU seems pretty old. How many years do you have it? Did you use it in a previous system? A system that has an old/aged PSU that is of questionable quality is more prone to stability issues than a system with a good quality PSU.

So if you add those 2 things you should come to the conclusion that the most likely suspect for your issues is the PSU. Even if it is in good condition it doesn't officially support your system. So you need to get a new good (it doesn't have to be expensive) PSU. Good luck.
 
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Ferimer

Ferimer

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Could it at all be my HDD? I bought this PSU around the same time i bought my GPU. It is probably going on 3 years or so of having it. I have ran my GPu on a higher boost and ive left my CPU on like that for the last 5 months and constantly being on, hardly ever shutting down. My HDD is older than the GPU and PSU though and have had some issues before. I ran the HDTune and it showed 0 issues with it. There was one day where my PSU was making a very loud noise and I didnt think anything of it and then i shut it down and started ti up and didnt hear much from it. My Case has "mesh" where the fans so that its easy to clean, adn three was a large build up blocking the PSU fan underneath, It runs a pull up and push out the back for air. MY PSU sits on the bottom of my CASE. The solution is to change the PSU and monitor it and make sure that isnt the suspect? If it still happens the other thing could be the HDD??
 
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panathas

panathas

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What HDD do you have? Each HDD manufacturer provide software that test the HDD and give you info about the health of your drive. You could also use Crystal Disk Info but it won't thoroughly test your drive. As for your question, yes a failing HDD can cause system freezing but in that case you would also have other symptoms such as loud HDD noises, slow system response and maybe some OS messages-warnings. One other possible suspect is your motherboard, but since it's new it isn't very likely.

Finally your PSU is old and not compatible with your system. Also what you just said about your PSU makes me think that it got damaged due to overheating from excessive dust that somehow blocked its fan. That very loud noise was the PSU's fan that was working at its maximum RPM. Now if you add the 2 things about the PSU that I mentioned in my previous post, you can come to the conclusion that the PSU is the most likely suspect for your issues and needs replacement. Just make sure to get a new good haswell+ ready PSU.
 
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panathas

panathas

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It's a pretty good PSU but you don't need really a 650W PSU. You should better get the 450W or the 550W version of that PSU. You current system doesn't really need more than 200W so 650W is too much. On the other hand having a bigger PSU is good for future upgrades. So if the price difference between the 450W and the 550W version isn't too big, the 550W is the better choice. Good luck.
 
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panathas

panathas

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Who told you that? Here is the official Nvidia page about the 750ti => https://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-750-ti/specifications.

As you can see it only needs a 300W PSU. A 650W PSU is a waste of power and money in your case.
 
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Ferimer

Ferimer

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The brand I went with on that was ASUS brand and it requires the PCi adapter plug in, i believe the box said something like 300W minimum but with all the other stuff I have in there as well a 500W made more sense just to be on the safe side at the time
 
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panathas

panathas

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Yes, it's logical to assume that but Nvidia says 300W for a reason. If you carefully look at the specs it says that the graphic card needs only 60W. Now if you add a normal system it may need another 100-150W or 200-230 if it has a high end multi-core CPU. So in reality a system that has the 750ti will almost never exceed the 300W limit.

Now if we take a look at your current system we can conclude that it doesn't more than 180-200W. That's who you don't really need a 650W PSU. In fact a 350W PSU may be more appropriate for your system but in order to be able to cover future upgrades, a 450W unit is the perfect choice. Unfortunately 450W PSU prices are very close to the 550W units so a 550W PSU might make more sense prise-wise but anything more than that is a waste of money.
 
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Ferimer

Ferimer

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So i am unsure if this may have been a factor but i bought a 4gb ram not too long ago that wasnt part of the other kit i bought. What I am getting at is that they are different. I bring this up now because i noticed my previous SIG didnt have that written in. Also my computer hasn't been freezing up at all. I am still unsure if it is my PSU or if it could be the RAM ?
 
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panathas

panathas

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Did you get the new PSU? The freezing has stopped while you still have the old PSU?

As for the RAM, yes mixing different sticks isn't recommended and can cause stability issues. Generally in those circumstances you have to manually tune the RAM and usually you use the settings of the slowest stick. You should also run memtest in order to know whether your RAM combination is producing errors or not. However in your case, testing may be much simpler. Just remove the 4 GB stick and monitor your system's behaviour, if the issues are gone then the extra RAM probably was responsible and you may have to do some manual RAM tuning.
 
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Ferimer

Ferimer

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I have yet to receive the new PSU so i am still using the OLD one, I have been leaving the computer on all night and day again and so far it has not froze. I am going to try and run the memtest to see if there is an issue there. I don't know if changing the PSU will correct the problem but that is going to be changed regardless.
 
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panathas

panathas

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As I see it, a new PSU is necessary because the old one doesn't officially support your system. Such a PSU can't guarantee you a stable system and you can't rule out a possible hardware damage to the rest of your system components. Even the CPU/motherboard warranty may not cover you because of that PSU. Whether or not those freezes are PSU related isn't as important right now. Off course you have to also solve that issue but every system needs a stable PSU and you don't seem to have that.

Now if you get a new compatible PSU and those freezing issues persist then you should check your RAM and your HDD. Both can certainly cause that issue when you rule out the PSU. For RAM run memtest and check for errors. You can also remove the 2nd 4GB stick and monitor your systems behaviour. As for the HDD, check it for errors with the windows tool. Download Crystal Disk Info and look for Smart warnings. Finally western digital provides software on its site (Data Lifeguard Diagnostic). It has 2 tests, run them both (the 2nd one will take 2-3 hours to complete) and if your HDD is able to pass both of them successfully then it's probably fine. Good luck.
 
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