Hi all, and thank you in advance for looking.
So 2 days ago I booted up my PC and found a few of my defaults had been reset out of nowhere. Ok. I left it on for 30 mins and when I came back, the screen was black (it shuts off after 10 mins for power saving), but would not wake up. I tried switching the cables from the monitor to an HDMI but to no avail. The monitor light was steadily blinking but unresponsive. I did a manual restart, and it booted up normally, but after 5 minutes, completely froze up again, forcing another manual restart. In some cases, the num lock is still responive, and other times not. I noticed the "clr CMOS" light lit up in the back which seemed new to me. I pushed it and presumably reset my mobo to it's default settings. Honestly, it didn't help nor make the problem worse. I cannot use the computer, even for light browsing without it freezing up after a few minutes of use. After keeping it off for roughly 16 hours, it lasted longer before freezing, but froze nevertheless. Also, no BSOD's.
I tried starting in safe mode, but it froze in that as well. In addition, I attempted booting Ubuntu via a USB drive thinking it was the OS that was corrupted, but it froze there as well. At this point, I assume it's a hardware issue. I have been running a memtest scan for the previous hour and it has been fine - no freezing, no high temps or anything out of the ordinary.
I keep it clean and as dust free as possible inside, and measured the temperatures, with no component going over 45 degrees Celsius while idle. It's not overclocked, the fans are running as they normally have for the previous 2 years. The memtest scan has been running for an hour and a half now with no errors found, nor freezing, and it pushed it to about 97% RAM usage. I have completed multiple virus scans with different programs. All the drivers are up to date.
I'm running out of ideas on what else to try and would love any input. From everything I've noticed, it freezes regardless of the mode it is in, and only when I start moderately using it (i.e. web browsing, gaming, etc). I haven't flashed the bios, but from what I read, it's a possible fix, albeit a risky one if screwed up.
Edit: I decided to let the freeze run its course and see if it would fix itself, and after a good 10+ minutes, it did in fact unfreeze. And froze again 30 seconds later. I gave this freeze 20 minutes but no recovery. Still unsure of why. I have screenshots of my temp/voltage readings at the time of the freezings as well, from my semi-limited knowledge, nothing seems too high or out of the ordinary.
It's a custom PC built about 2 years old, with a fresh OS install about 3 months ago and an SSD about 7 8 months old. No new hardware since then.
Some specs:
Windows 8.1
ASRock 870 Extreme R2.0 mobo
AMD Phenom II x4 960T
8G RAM
Samsung SSD 840 EVO 120G
AMD Radeon HD 6900 series
I don't have a recovery/installation CD either, but regardless, it feels like a hardware or heating issue.
If you need any additional details please let me know.
Thank you!
So 2 days ago I booted up my PC and found a few of my defaults had been reset out of nowhere. Ok. I left it on for 30 mins and when I came back, the screen was black (it shuts off after 10 mins for power saving), but would not wake up. I tried switching the cables from the monitor to an HDMI but to no avail. The monitor light was steadily blinking but unresponsive. I did a manual restart, and it booted up normally, but after 5 minutes, completely froze up again, forcing another manual restart. In some cases, the num lock is still responive, and other times not. I noticed the "clr CMOS" light lit up in the back which seemed new to me. I pushed it and presumably reset my mobo to it's default settings. Honestly, it didn't help nor make the problem worse. I cannot use the computer, even for light browsing without it freezing up after a few minutes of use. After keeping it off for roughly 16 hours, it lasted longer before freezing, but froze nevertheless. Also, no BSOD's.
I tried starting in safe mode, but it froze in that as well. In addition, I attempted booting Ubuntu via a USB drive thinking it was the OS that was corrupted, but it froze there as well. At this point, I assume it's a hardware issue. I have been running a memtest scan for the previous hour and it has been fine - no freezing, no high temps or anything out of the ordinary.
I keep it clean and as dust free as possible inside, and measured the temperatures, with no component going over 45 degrees Celsius while idle. It's not overclocked, the fans are running as they normally have for the previous 2 years. The memtest scan has been running for an hour and a half now with no errors found, nor freezing, and it pushed it to about 97% RAM usage. I have completed multiple virus scans with different programs. All the drivers are up to date.
I'm running out of ideas on what else to try and would love any input. From everything I've noticed, it freezes regardless of the mode it is in, and only when I start moderately using it (i.e. web browsing, gaming, etc). I haven't flashed the bios, but from what I read, it's a possible fix, albeit a risky one if screwed up.
Edit: I decided to let the freeze run its course and see if it would fix itself, and after a good 10+ minutes, it did in fact unfreeze. And froze again 30 seconds later. I gave this freeze 20 minutes but no recovery. Still unsure of why. I have screenshots of my temp/voltage readings at the time of the freezings as well, from my semi-limited knowledge, nothing seems too high or out of the ordinary.
It's a custom PC built about 2 years old, with a fresh OS install about 3 months ago and an SSD about 7 8 months old. No new hardware since then.
Some specs:
Windows 8.1
ASRock 870 Extreme R2.0 mobo
AMD Phenom II x4 960T
8G RAM
Samsung SSD 840 EVO 120G
AMD Radeon HD 6900 series
I don't have a recovery/installation CD either, but regardless, it feels like a hardware or heating issue.
If you need any additional details please let me know.
Thank you!
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