PC freezing only when gaming since late June

[radioactivejawa]

Hi, I've been dealing with some hard freezes since the end of June that always happen during gaming since late June. I've not modified any hardware since March and I rolled back all of my updates and drivers several times just in case. I've also run some memory and hard drive tests. No problems whatsoever. Temp also isn't a problem, it stays on the safe zone across the board.

After trying to fix it on my own, I brought it to a computer shop nearby. They let the PC run a game for over 24 hours. No freeze whatsoever, which was weird af, as it never got past 10 minutes at home. However, it played well for a few weeks after picking it up (I thought maybe a piece of hardware was readjusted). In late July, the problem came back and brought it to a different store a second time just in case the other guys missed anything. After 3 days of hard testing using 3D applications and overnight gaming, they also told me it had no problems. At this point, I believe it has something to do with one of my peripherals.

Over the last few days I've been uninstalling and cleaning drivers to no avail, I've also used Sony Vegas for hours while rendering huge 21:9 videos and the PC takes it like a champ. It's only when gaming that I get these random freezes with looping sound that force me to reset. I managed 2 or 3 times to squeeze in a good 2-3 hours of gaming though. I guess I got lucky. It seems really random and probably driver-related, but I'm at the end of my wits and don't really have much time right now to be scrambling around the dark.

Please help me.

Here are my specs:

Summary
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i7 4790K @ 4.00GHz 42 °C
Haswell 22nm Technology
RAM
16,0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 1066MHz (9-11-11-31)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. Z97-A (SOCKET 1150) 35 °C
Graphics
M237WD (1920x1080@60Hz)
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB (ZOTAC International) 46 °C
Storage
111GB KINGSTON SA400S37120G (SSD) 38 °C
1863GB Seagate ST2000DM001-1ER164 (SATA) 38 °C
930GB Western Digital WD My Book 1110 USB Device (USB (SATA)) 45 °C
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH24NSB0
WD Virtual CD 1110 USB Device
Audio
Razer Surround Audio Controller
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Computer type: Desktop

 

[mcbrwl]

Freezes are difficult because there can be so many causes. Since it works fine at the repair facilities, 2 things come to mind. First, what is the quality of AC power to your PC? Are you using a UPS? Is the PC on the same electrical circuit as an appliance? Is the PC physically near a source of electrical noise? A good UPS should address power type problems. Second, what is the ambient temperature of your room compared with the repair facility? Is your room significantly warmer? If so, open the case, make sure all the fans are working and that there is no lint restricting airflow to CPU or video card. You can also download a utility like HWINFO and look at the temps while you are gaming. A simpler test of possible heat problems is to game with the case open and a box fan blowing into the PC. If no freezes with the fan, it's a good indication that there is a heat problem somewhere. You wrote that temps are OK, but you also wrote that it started in June, which is of course the start of summer, so I'm still wondering about heat. Also, AC brownouts are also more likely in the summer months, so again we can wonder about the quality of the AC to your home.

For the moment, I am not exploring software problems since the software cannot change between your house and the repair place.

 

[radioactivejawa]

Freezes are difficult because there can be so many causes. Since it works fine at the repair facilities, 2 things come to mind. First, what is the quality of AC power to your PC? Are you using a UPS? Is the PC on the same electrical circuit as an appliance? Is the PC physically near a source of electrical noise? A good UPS should address power type problems. Second, what is the ambient temperature of your room compared with the repair facility? Is your room significantly warmer? If so, open the case, make sure all the fans are working and that there is no lint restricting airflow to CPU or video card. You can also download a utility like HWINFO and look at the temps while you are gaming. A simpler test of possible heat problems is to game with the case open and a box fan blowing into the PC. If no freezes with the fan, it's a good indication that there is a heat problem somewhere. You wrote that temps are OK, but you also wrote that it started in June, which is of course the start of summer, so I'm still wondering about heat. Also, AC brownouts are also more likely in the summer months, so again we can wonder about the quality of the AC to your home.

For the moment, I am not exploring software problems since the software cannot change between your house and the repair place.

Dunno about the details of the AC quality, but I've never had problems before with pretty much the same setup and over the course of summer. I'm not using an UPS. PC is connected to the same circuit as the monitor and a router. Can power chords go bad? I've been wondering about that despite voltage being within the expected the range.

HWINFO temps look good even when under load, I've been checking them since this whole thing started. Room temp is definitely similar to the stores'. I'm definitely not ruling out temp problems, but the PC was fully cleaned recently and the airflow was revised a few months ago.

I agree software cannot change between places, but the use of peripherals which use some of it definitely can, right? That's why I was currently looking at my devices.

Again, thanks for your help. I look forward to your suggestions.

 

[mcbrwl]

What power supply do you have on the PC? Does it still freeze with all the peripherals connected? You are right to explore every difference between your home setup, and the repair facility. On the UPS, not sure where you live, but here everything purchased has a 30 day return policy. It is an easy thing to try; return it if it doesn't solve the problem. Multimeters can show the AC voltage measured over a period of maybe a second, but they cannot show transients which can easily cause a freeze. Yes, power cords can easily go bad. Change everything between the wall AC socket and the PC as an experiment; including the cord at the back of the PC. It is also good to unplug and re-plug every wire from your power supply to all the internal components of your PC; motherboard, hard disks, SSD, etc. Over time, low voltage low current connections degrade. You could do the same with your memory also.

 

[radioactivejawa]

What power supply do you have on the PC? Does it still freeze with all the peripherals connected? You are right to explore every difference between your home setup, and the repair facility. On the UPS, not sure where you live, but here everything purchased has a 30 day return policy. It is an easy thing to try; return it if it doesn't solve the problem. Multimeters can show the AC voltage measured over a period of maybe a second, but they cannot show transients which can easily cause a freeze. Yes, power cords can easily go bad. Change everything between the wall AC socket and the PC as an experiment; including the cord at the back of the PC. It is also good to unplug and re-plug every wire from your power supply to all the internal components of your PC; motherboard, hard disks, SSD, etc. Over time, low voltage low current connections degrade. You could do the same with your memory also.

My PSU is a Talius 700W (not a well-known brand, bought it last March and hasn't crapped on me even under heavy video-editing load).

Today I changed the power chord and connected the PC directly to the wall socket. Didn't help. Also started unplugging one by one peripherals such as my webcam (I use its surprisingly good mic for gaming), the Bluetooth dongle and the external HDD. No change. Still crashing 7-10 minutes into gaming. I also crashed for the first time while opening Google Chrome and Discord quickly after restarting, which is def new and has me wondering if the Ethernet driver has somehow gone bad.