Crashing / Freezing randomly

[1911]

I have a custom built PC, that originally had 8.1 on it and was upgraded to 10. I use to have random outages where my USB devices completely stopped working after upgrading to windows 10. I did a complete reinstall a while ago and it seemed to fix it, but I randomly have crashes / freezes that I need to hard shutdown the PC. I tried combing through the event log and I can't really make heads or tails of it. I do see a Critical Kernel-Power code but I think that's from me killing the power with the main switch. windows itself (task bar, start bar, etc) is all unresponsive while my apps are, but once I try to close an app it freezes too. It's the weirdest thing I've seen myself.

Another weird thing is that when I hit my reset button on the front of my case, it loads into a "insert bootable media" black and white screen which I have to hard power cycle the box to get it to boot into windows. Sometimes the normal power boot will give this screen, and I have to reboot the power, but that's rare too.

Can anyone tell me what data I need to give to get help in isolating this annoying issue?

Apologies in the paragraphs of text, this has been on my pet peeves list for a while, just been too lazy to fix and in the mind set "I can play games as it, just leave it be" but I really do need to get this fixed.

 

[lumineZ]

- List you hardware (cpu, gpu, ram, disk(s), motherboard, psu, case, fans, cpu cooler)
- Download HWMonitor and list your CPU temps and Vcore during idle and load. You can also if you want list the temps on your disks.

 

[1911]

Hardware:

Mobo - Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H-CF

CPU - Intel Core i5 4670k (standard clock)

CPU cooler - Corsair H100i

GPU - Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 (4gb)

Ram - 2x8gb G-Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1866 CL9-10-9-28 1.50v

Disks - Samsung SSD 840 EVO 120GB (windows 10 install), Seagate Desktop HDD 3 TB Internal HDD ‑ 3.5" partitioned together with a WD Black Performance 1 TB Internal HDD ‑ 3.5"

PSU - Corsair AX760i

Case - Corsair c70

Fans - Corsair SP120s (2 attached to h100i blowing through radiator then out of the case, 1 on back of PC blowing out, 4 on front (2 on each side of HDD rack) pulling in through case filter, 2 on bottom pulling in through case filter)

Temps/VCore @ Idle:
VCore - 0.720V
VID - 0.706V
Package - 28°C
Core#0 - 26°C
Core#2 - 24°C
Core#4 - 28°C
Core#6 - 22°C
SSD - 27°C
SG 3TB - 30°C
WD 1TB - 33°C
Intel HD GPU - 27°C
GTX770 Voltage - 0.937V
GTX770 Temp - 30°C

Temps/VCore @ 20 min run of Prime 95:
VCore - 1.188V
VID - 1.182V
Package - 67°C
Core#0 - 65°C
Core#2 - 65°C
Core#4 - 67°C
Core#6 - 60°C
SSD - 31°C
SG 3TB - 31°C
WD 1TB - 34°C
Intel HD GPU - 39°C
GTX770 Voltage - 0.937V
GTX770 Temp - 38°C

 

[hubblefrog]

Try to run system file checker to see if there is any corrupted files. Here's how....
Type cmd in search menu.
Select Run as Administrator.
If prompted to administrator, click Yes.
Type sfc/scannow in command prompt.

 

[1911]

Sorry, I should have already specified. I ran a sfc /scannow already and had no issues, passed full verification.

 

[johnbl]

any machine that was updated from windows 8 to windows 10
should have its bios updated and the updated motherboard drivers installed.

the specifications for usb 2.x changed in early 2012 and required a BIOS update to run the new USB drivers.
the specifications for usb 3 were set in early 2013 and also require a bios update if you have USB 3 on your motherboard. (you have to update the drivers also)

some motherboards used USB chips that had bugs in their logic. You have to use the OEM drivers to get a fix
some vendors did not provide a fix and the machines usb fails to respond after a while.
My wife has one of these. I ended up moving her usb devices to different usb controller just so her machine would not lock up. NOTE: windows error detection would detect the lockup, realize that it was a known hardware bug and would reboot the machine to get the USB to work again. It recorded this in a live memory dump it stored on the system. you can search your driver for .dmp files to see if this is the case. they will start with the word USB and end with a .dmp extension. they will be stored in the windows error reporting directories for being uploaded to Microsoft if you have that turned on.

 

[1911]

I do keep the Gigabyte BIOs software running to auto download and install BIOS updates / Motherboard drivers.

The idea is solid (to my basic grasp of PCs) and I will check for these .dmp files when I get home and report back.

 

[Memphisto]

Another weird thing is that when I hit my reset button on the front of my case, it loads into a "insert bootable media" black and white screen which I have to hard power cycle the box to get it to boot into windows. Sometimes the normal power boot will give this screen, and I have to reboot the power, but that's rare too.

Hello 1911

The Paragraph in the above which i quoted sounds very badly like a failing Harddrive to me...
I also had the problem once...
There i Installed Windows.. everything seemed nice but suddenly Windows Start to bug out freeze or completely turn off.. aaand thats when my Harddrive died...

The first thing I wouldd try would be to install a new copy of Windows on an other Harddrive if you have one lying around and then test if the Problem disappeared...
But even before that i would check if maybe the Powercable isnt correctly plugged into the harddrive und because of that it maybe sometimes loses power... --> "Insert bootable disk"

Greetz Memphisto

 

[hubblefrog]

It seems that you almost done all. I guess that was hard drive issue. I looked again to your specified spec. Temperature was normal when it was idle and temperature starting to rise when your computer run meaning. If all your cpu fan are running properly then, probably that was hard drive issue.

 

[1911]

I do not show the .dmp files being created, so it seems the idea on BIOS with USB 2.0 and 3.0 isn't the solution. I hate to think it's the SSD with OS on it. It wouldn't be one of the 2 HDDs that are partioned together for game storage and such would it? The PC dumps regardless what I'm running, so I assume it's a PC Hardware / OS (stored on the Samsung SSD) issue, not really related to software booting from the 2 HDDs.

Is there any tests or procedures I can do to isolate if it really is a HDD failure short of booting these drives up in another PC? I only have laptops outside of this gaming PC.

Is there a possibility of having my event log or something checked for a red flag? I personally don't know what half of the event flags even mean, if they are a problem or not. I don't want to have someone comb through so many lines of errors or even really put my personal stuff (if it happens to contain that) out there like that unless necessary.