Windows Freezes When Left Idle

Atraii

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May 17, 2012
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My problem: My system stops responding if I leave it to idle for 20min - 1hour. I am forced to power off by holding the switch and restarting it.

My build:
-Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 Motherboard
-GIGABYTE GV-R795WF3-3GD Radeon HD 7950 3GB Graphics Card
-AMD FX-8120 Zambezi CPU
-Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB HDD
-OCZ Vertex 4 SSD
-Thermaltake TR2 TRX-650M 650W ATX PSU
-Corsair Vengeance 8 GB ( 2 x 4 GB ) DDR3 1866 MHz RAM

-Windows 7 SP1 x64

My tests: So far, I have played with the power settings in Windows, to no effect. I have disabled it from turning off my HDD, set sleep mode to never, disabled hybrid sleep, turned off usb selective suspend, and also disabled hibernate.

I updated my BIOS using Gigabyte's F6 (newest) for rev 1.1. I did this first after installing windows, so I am unsure if this contributes to the problem. **I re-installed Windows with no freeze until drivers were installed, further showing that this isn't the problem.

My graphics is up to date.

Prime95 - I performed a torture test using Prime, and everything worked out beautifully. 55-60 C for the most part after 1.5 hours.


***I did a clean install of Windows 7 yesterday.***
It stayed up all night idling and still responded perfectly in the morning. However, 2 hours later after I installed drivers then left, I came back and it froze.
To me this means one of 2 things:

1. The problem is with something happening between 7:50-8:10 for some reason.

2. The problem is with:
a. Realtek Ethernet Drivers
b. Realtek Audio Drivers
c. AMD Catalyst Drivers (Graphics)
d. Etron USB 3.0 Drivers

I ran a /sfc scannow - "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations."


Screen of my temps:
AYTSo.png


Other notes: I feel like (what I believe is) my northbridge temps are high on this board. Also, when I come back to my computer the CPU fan is at high RPM's which is unusual for the computer when typically idling.

Info from Event Logs:
sW1OQ.png

-I think that the computer officially stops working at 8:18 am, but for some reason still has logs at 11:40. Another thing to note is that below at 8:18, the Volume Shadow Copy service stops.

X1lJ2.png


I also thought I'd add this here: I first thought it might be a CPU problem due to some stains that were present on it when I got it, but everything still runs fine. The computer works well under full load, with prime95 tests, so I don't know what to make of this.

ylf8Y.jpg
 
Solution
Everything is on stock settings. As I understand, it is normal for the board settings to be a little high on voltages to ensure stability.
your board not always sure about volts and settings, its the default range for the most of cpus volts, just low the volts in range between 1.33~1.36, and make a test on prime to see if its stable.

I got a red screen filled with numbers, then everything went to green blocks and froze. What do I make of this?
try on 1333mhz and 1.5v and test again with default settings in memtest(make sure you're testing on the latest version), and wait till it finish, chk this memtest86 FAQ http://www.memtest.org/download/1.55/memtest86+-1.55/FAQ

Errors in MemTest indicate a problem with the RAM...

Cyberat_88

Distinguished
One thing that popped out is AMD temp at idle is 89F ? Second is CPU Voltage minimum drops to 0.88V ? That is both high and unusual, even at high load. I think that's a cause for freezes too. Personally I would've gone with Asus Sabertooth and FX-8150 but what's done is done. Try a videocard torture test, if it idles at 89F, it should freeze system quickly. Rivatuner allows you to modify Video Card Fan operation, I used to keep it at 100% at all times. For the processor, Silver Thermal paste only, I don't know which one you used. I assume of course that nothing is overclocked.
 

RyQril

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May 11, 2012
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all i can doubt of is either your motherboard or you rams, you got high temps on NB, and rams are on 1866mhz might be they need more volts

-what REV of MOBO do you have?
-try to downclock your rams to 1666MHZ 1.5V
-try to down CPU volts and make it at max 1.33~1.35, 1.44 is too high
-boot with Memtest86 and test your rams
-run Prime95 for stability test
-post back HWmonitor while testing
 

Atraii

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May 17, 2012
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Everything is on stock settings. As I understand, it is normal for the board settings to be a little high on voltages to ensure stability.

@Cyberat_88: I don't have an after market cooler in yet, and 19 C isn't terrible for a stock cooler. 60 C is getting into my uncomfortable range, but I think it is still within acceptable values. Do you have a videocard test I should try?

I will do a memtest run overnight tonight.


@ryqril: My motherboard is my greatest suspicion right now too.
-I have REV 1.1 of the UD3
-I will do that directly AFTER my memtest tonight then try it again

Thanks for the input guys. I will do some tweaks/testing and report back tomorrow.
 

Atraii

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May 17, 2012
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Woa, ok. There is a problem officers. I booted up Memtest86+, and it was testing my RAM at 667 MHz (1330). Somethings up there. When I went to use the probe option, I got a red screen filled with numbers, then everything went to green blocks and froze. What do I make of this?
 

RyQril

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May 11, 2012
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Everything is on stock settings. As I understand, it is normal for the board settings to be a little high on voltages to ensure stability.
your board not always sure about volts and settings, its the default range for the most of cpus volts, just low the volts in range between 1.33~1.36, and make a test on prime to see if its stable.

I got a red screen filled with numbers, then everything went to green blocks and froze. What do I make of this?
try on 1333mhz and 1.5v and test again with default settings in memtest(make sure you're testing on the latest version), and wait till it finish, chk this memtest86 FAQ http://www.memtest.org/download/1.55/memtest86+-1.55/FAQ

Errors in MemTest indicate a problem with the RAM installed in the system, the possibilities include: Failing DIMMs; insufficient voltage to the RAM; insufficient voltage to the memory controller; insufficient VCore; failing DIMM slots; incorrect configuration of RAM settings; mismatched sets of RAM not playing well with each other.

 
Solution

Atraii

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May 17, 2012
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I ran memtest86+ for 7 passes, nothing came up everything looks good for the RAM. RAM tested successfully for me at 1334mhz.

I also did a 3DMark test. That checked out fine - Score: P6548

I haven't yet set new voltages for the processor, but I don't think the high voltages are my problem currently. High voltages only occur with heavy loads(Prime95) and the system is perfectly stable except on idle.


UPDATE
I did a clean boot of my system(No services/startup progs) and it didn't crash, even after 3-4 hours. I turned on 2 services (AMD FUEL & AMD External Events Utility) and the system crashed after just 8 minutes of being idle. Second start, it didn't crash for 1.5 hours.

When I disable these two services and let it idle, the system starts doing the same thing - the fans go erratic. However, the difference is that when I press the keyboard to wake it, the screen comes up black and nothing shows but I am able to get to the Windows 7 Lock Screen by using ctrl+alt+del.
-I re-enabled the services and started back up and the system froze - no response(not even from ctrl+alt+del).

3zVk5.gif

m5zMq.png


I downloaded and installed GPU-Z and CPU-Z. I had GPU-Z log everything while the system went idle(services disabled). When I woke it back up and checked the logs, there's something interesting.

http://sharetext.org/D4HE


Check out the time at: 2012-05-19 14:50:00 'ish area. There are lots of problems going on, such as rpm's are at zero. Clock values don't exist. Entire log entries are completely glitched out. *Note: Problems start directly as soon as the memory usage jumps down to zero.* I can confirm that the fans do actually completely stop, then start back up, then stop, then start back up, etc.

I'm just throwing out a guess, but I don't think this is supposed to happen.
 

RyQril

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May 11, 2012
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wow this is actually strange, i have the latest drivers and the AMD FUEL & AMD External Events is currently running without any problems, since you mentioned that the freezing did not happen until you install AMD drivers might be AMD drivers problem with your mobo.

-enable all AMD services.

-in power setting > PCIE> Link State Power Management > OFF
> Processor Power Management > Minimum processor state > 100%
> System cooling policy > Active

-go in bios and disable any fan control, C&Q.

make an idle run see if it going to the problem


 

Atraii

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May 17, 2012
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@Ryqril:

I guessed that because the problem was with the AMD service, my graphics card might be faulty. I swapped it out with a known good one in my other system and everything ran fine, and idled fine. The other computer didn't fare so well, it started seizing up on idle too. I just happened to get a defective graphics card with a unique case of insomnia.

Thanks for all the help with pinpointing the problem, keep up the great work.

Also, how does one go about closing a thread?
 

RyQril

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May 11, 2012
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you're welcome :), that is a weird problem, i never doubt that was the gpu :S

Also, how does one go about closing a thread?
you started a question thread with an answer, you can choose the best answer that helped you. but i didnt help out to the real cause of your problem :p
 

shadow_freeman

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Oct 25, 2012
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I need help plz! Im not as computer savey as all of you but I have read the thread and I have the same problem but I do not want to jump to the conclusion that it is my GPU. For one it is brand new like the rest of my computer also it runs games like crysis 2 and other heavy load games no problem. here are my specs
6rt4m.png
 

Silibant

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Nov 23, 2013
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Atraii, you're a lot more involved in this than me, but I've experienced the same issue, except worse: when my PC is left idle for 30+ /seconds/, it will freeze. There is no BSOD, and ctrl+alt+del doesn't yield any results. I'm on a Gigabyte board with an AMD processor and graphics card, like you, but Memtest has shown my RAM to be great. I sent ASUS my GPU for a repair, and they basically flipped me off by sending the exact same one back (I sent it in with the CF plastic shield on it and that was still on it when it was returned) a week after they said they would. What do I do?
 

whothefoo

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Jul 1, 2015
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I had an issue similar to this where Windows froze after 20 minutes or so, only a hard reboot would fix it.. but when in use, it worked fine.
Seems to have been down to an option in my ssdd driver (evo), under policy tab.. wasn't expecting much, but simply unticking write caching has stopped all the crashes.

Just thought i'd add it to the list of things to try.