Permanent freezes a few minutes after booting, sometimes.

[jonathonveitch83]

My computer has been permanently freezing for a while now, when it does it's always a few minutes after boot when I haven't really done anything yet, and both the screen and audio stop, the mouse and keyboard also stop registering inputs (I get this from the fact that the Caps Lock light doesn't light up when I press the button), to unfreeze my PC I have the force shutdown.

Here's what I have tried to far:
I swapped the motherboard twice,
Reset windows 4 times,
Updated all my graphics drivers,
Ran Memtest86 on my RAM (both together and separately) with no errors.

Specs:
FX-8350
Asrock 970 Pro3
Corsair H60
Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB
GTX 1060 3GB
Corsair CX750M

If you have any ideas, I would love to here them.
I plan on switching a basic 500w PSU in to see if it does anything.

 

[terry4536]

Have you done a clean install of Windows? Have you reset the BIOS to the defaults? Have you updated the motherboard BIOS to the latest version?

 

[terry4536]

Have you tried breadboarding the motherboard to isolate the problem? If you have an overclock, have you restored that to stock? Since the problem occurs in windows, have you performed any diagnostics on the system drive. Have you tried switching out the system drive?

Do you have a case speaker of a diagnostic display? If so are there any errors? Have you checked out the event logs when these problems occur?

 

[terry4536]

Here are some general troubleshooting checklists.

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-1893016/post-system-boot-video-output-troubleshooting-checklist.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2041564/troubleshoot-boot-display-issue.html



Here are some bread boarding methods.
http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2176482/breadboarding-stripping-basics-troubleshooting.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/262730-31-breadboarding

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-1753671/bench-troubleshooting.html

 

[terry4536]

Is there anything that has been changed in the system just prior to these problems beginning?

 

[jonathonveitch83]

Have you done a clean install of Windows? Have you reset the BIOS to the defaults? Have you updated the motherboard BIOS to the latest version?

I reset windows using the "Reset This PC" utility within Windows 10, and also reinstalled it after putting my third motherboard in, also, the second motherboard I used had the latest BIOS version (I think) which froze after every boot, not just intermittently like the other two did.

 

[jonathonveitch83]

Have you tried breadboarding the motherboard to isolate the problem? If you have an overclock, have you restored that to stock? Since the problem occurs in windows, have you performed any diagnostics on the system drive. Have you tried switching out the system drive?

Do you have a case speaker of a diagnostic display? If so are there any errors? Have you checked out the event logs when these problems occur?

I put the system together outside of the case which had all of the issues. There is no overclock. I have not done any diagnostics, do you know how/what I should do? I have not tried switching the drive. My first motherboard had a display on it but I don't remember there being any error codes when it froze.

Edit: I just ran the Windows Memory Diagnostic which showed no errors.

 

[jonathonveitch83]

Is there anything that has been changed in the system just prior to these problems beginning?

If I remember correctly, these issues have been happening a while now, but they seem to be more frequent recently. However, I never really shut my computer down in the past, just put it to sleep and woke it up the next day, it was relatively recently that I started shutting it down everyday, so it's possible that the issue has been here the entire time but it only presents itself when the PC is actually booted.

 

[helpstar]

Check hdd by manufacturer's tool

How hot is your CPU while the freezing happens?

 

[jonathonveitch83]

Check hdd by manufacturer's tool

How hot is your CPU while the freezing happens?

I have an SSD and HDD from two different manufacturers, I'm downloading the tools now and will reply when they're done testing.

As for CPU temperature, I don't know since the freezing isn't predictable enough to have the temperature monitor open when it happens, but when playing games it doesn't reach 70 degrees.

 

[jonathonveitch83]

Check hdd by manufacturer's tool

How hot is your CPU while the freezing happens?

I ran whatever tests the Samsung and Seagate tools can run and everything seems to be normal, but I did update my SSD firmware.

 

[terry4536]

Have you done a clean install of Windows? Have you reset the BIOS to the defaults? Have you updated the motherboard BIOS to the latest version?

I reset windows using the "Reset This PC" utility within Windows 10, and also reinstalled it after putting my third motherboard in, also, the second motherboard I used had the latest BIOS version (I think) which froze after every boot, not just intermittently like the other two did.

When this was done, was the system drive formatted (or did you save the old files)? There are various ways to determine which BIOS version that you have. I would suggest just going into the BIOS and checking it (write it down so you can compare it to the motherboard BIOS list).

 

[terry4536]

Have you tried breadboarding the motherboard to isolate the problem? If you have an overclock, have you restored that to stock? Since the problem occurs in windows, have you performed any diagnostics on the system drive. Have you tried switching out the system drive?

Do you have a case speaker of a diagnostic display? If so are there any errors? Have you checked out the event logs when these problems occur?

I put the system together outside of the case which had all of the issues. There is no overclock. I have not done any diagnostics, do you know how/what I should do? I have not tried switching the drive. My first motherboard had a display on it but I don't remember there being any error codes when it froze.

Edit: I just ran the Windows Memory Diagnostic which showed no errors.

If it gets to that point, just follow the breadboard instructions that I provided. There are three of them. But if you read through them, you will get the idea. And then you can follow the one that you prefer.

For the system drive, you can use the manufacturers diagnostic. The Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic is a good one. I've heard that HDDScan is good too.

I f you haven't already run Memtest, that is a good idea too.

 

[terry4536]

Is there anything that has been changed in the system just prior to these problems beginning?

If I remember correctly, these issues have been happening a while now, but they seem to be more frequent recently. However, I never really shut my computer down in the past, just put it to sleep and woke it up the next day, it was relatively recently that I started shutting it down everyday, so it's possible that the issue has been here the entire time but it only presents itself when the PC is actually booted.

The only thing that comes to mind that would result in instability at the boot up is the CMOS battery. If the battery is low, it can cause some really strange things. But primarily the indicators are a varying system time (which is sometimes difficult to see if it is being updated by the internet). The other major thing is that settings in the BIOS need to be reentered.

But if you are concerned, change it out. They are inexpensive (probably CR2032).

 

[terry4536]

I would recommend getting a case speaker or a pci PC diagnostic board. This will help diagnose problems with the motherboard, memory, and CPU.

 

[jonathonveitch83]

Part of me doesn't want to say it's solved in case it's a bit premature, but the problem hasn't presented itself in about a week so I'll say what I did. As helpstar suggested, I ran SeaTools by SeaGate which presented an error when performing a long test on my secondary drive, after launching the SeaGate OS it kicked out a lot of errors that apparently couldn't be repaired, Windows Event Viewer also gave me a lot of Bad Block Disk Errors every now and again, so something's definitely up. I unplugged the SATA cable for this drive about a week ago and since then the freezing issue has gone away (I hope) so I'm gonna conclude that it was the drive causing problems, not sure why though, maybe it was damaged.

 

[terry4536]

Part of me doesn't want to say it's solved in case it's a bit premature, but the problem hasn't presented itself in about a week so I'll say what I did. As helpstar suggested, I ran SeaTools by SeaGate which presented an error when performing a long test on my secondary drive, after launching the SeaGate OS it kicked out a lot of errors that apparently couldn't be repaired, Windows Event Viewer also gave me a lot of Bad Block Disk Errors every now and again, so something's definitely up. I unplugged the SATA cable for this drive about a week ago and since then the freezing issue has gone away (I hope) so I'm gonna conclude that it was the drive causing problems, not sure why though, maybe it was damaged.

Can you print the errors or provide a screen shot. Perhaps I can help you out from the errors.

 

[jonathonveitch83]

Part of me doesn't want to say it's solved in case it's a bit premature, but the problem hasn't presented itself in about a week so I'll say what I did. As helpstar suggested, I ran SeaTools by SeaGate which presented an error when performing a long test on my secondary drive, after launching the SeaGate OS it kicked out a lot of errors that apparently couldn't be repaired, Windows Event Viewer also gave me a lot of Bad Block Disk Errors every now and again, so something's definitely up. I unplugged the SATA cable for this drive about a week ago and since then the freezing issue has gone away (I hope) so I'm gonna conclude that it was the drive causing problems, not sure why though, maybe it was damaged.

Can you print the errors or provide a screen shot. Perhaps I can help you out from the errors.

Unfortunately, after a week of no issues, my computer froze again a few hours after my last update, which means it might not be the HDD after all since it was unplugged, although unplugging it did seem to increase the time between freezes. I have the HDD back in my system and I'll see what I can do about getting those error codes for you.

 

[helpstar]

downclock your CPU / undervolt it to decrease stress for the voltage regulators of your motherboard

install an additional fan directly blowing to the VRMs of the motherboard

 

[jonathonveitch83]

downclock your CPU / undervolt it to decrease stress for the voltage regulators of your motherboard

install an additional fan directly blowing to the VRMs of the motherboard

I have been through the whole VRM overheating scenario, I have tested with a motherboard that has far better VRMs + heatsink and I already have a fan blowing onto them, I don't think they're overheating, sorry.

 

[helpstar]

Which motherboards were you testing with this CPU?

 

[jonathonveitch83]

Which motherboards were you testing with this CPU?

I think it was the Gigabyte ga-970a-ds3p but I can't be 100% sure, but when I used this board the system would freeze 2 minutes after boot EVERY time, no matter what. So whatever the issue is it was worse with this board apparently.

 

[helpstar]

If you really can sort out VRM failure/ overheating:
Do you have the possibility to check with another power supply?

Btw., the Gigabyte ga-970a-ds3p has only 4 +1 power phases (VRMs) too, like the Board you have now. Only 8+2 can provide enough continuous power for >95Watt FX CPUs, like 990FX chipset motherboards.
http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1754&title=970m-pro3-vrm-components

 

[jonathonveitch83]

If you really can sort out VRM failure/ overheating:
Do you have the possibility to check with another power supply?

Btw., the Gigabyte ga-970a-ds3p has only 4 +1 power phases (VRMs) too, like the Board you have now. Only 8+2 can provide enough continuous power for >95Watt FX CPUs, like 990FX chipset motherboards.
http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1754&title=970m-pro3-vrm-components

The board I used was a 4+2 phase board, I couldn't remember the name but I knew it was Gigabyte so I just put the last board I searched in my reply. Anyway, I don't have another power supply but I think I'll buy a new one just to be safe.

Also, I remember reading a couple posts where people said you'd only need an 8+2 phase board when you're overclocking, and I have my CPU at stock speeds.

 

[helpstar]

Well, it really depends on the quality of these VRMs and it´s always better to have more of them (6+1/2), especially with CPUs more than 95Watt. These FX CPUs are very power consumpting and therefore stress the boards very much. These can work with a good quality 4+1 or 4+2 board, but it´s more likely that it doesn´t run stable. So all I´m saying is, it´s a recommendation for the CPU you have and I think this is the problem in your case.

Next thing after the PSU replacement: eventually the CPU itself is faulty