Thanks in advance for helping me out with this problem.
I've just recently built a new computer. It works perfectly, when it doesn't "freeze." I'm pretty certain that this is a driver issue, as there are no freezes/crashes when I'm running in Safe mode.
Description of the problem:
Randomly; this could be while the computer is idle, while playing a game, while watching a youtube video, etc.; the computer will "freeze." The mouse will not move, the keyboard is unresponsive, the hard drive activity light on the case will not flash, all of the led lights on the motherboard will light up, and not flash like typical, all of the fans on the case, power supply, graphics card, and CPU will continue running. The debug led on the motherboard shows nothing unusual. I've been able to play video games for a few hours before this happens, or leave the computer up all night without a freeze until I get up in the morning. The freezes typically happen when I'm at or around my computer, ie. they will happen if I'm cooking dinner with my computer running in the other room, but it will usually not freeze if I leave it up all night. (I left it running last night downloading a game from Steam and it was still going in the morning, with the game downloaded.)
When the computer freezes and there is some form of sound playing, either through the onboard integrated audio, or through my Logitech USB G35 headset (which has its own sound card), the sound will loop the previous millisecond or so. This typically stops after about a second of looping. Occasionally the computer will reboot itself (which in this case there generally is no error in the error management software), but most of the time I am forced to hit the reset button on the case, or turn the power off and then back on. (in this case there will be a Windows did not shut down successfully error, as well as the option to boot into safe mode if needed). The system will not freeze in the BIOS, and hasn't frozen while being booted into a CD or off of a USB stick. It only freezes when in normal Windows 7.
There are no freezes or crashes in safe mode.
Here's my computer's specs.
Intel i5-3570 3.4ghz
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 240-Pin, 1600MHz (defaults to 1333mhz in the BIOS), 1.5V 9-9-9-24 timings (CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B)
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-GD65 (Z77 Chipset, LGA 1155, SATA3, etc)
Graphics Card: HIS ATI Radeon HD 7850, PCI express 3.0, 2GB GDDR5, etc.
Power Supply: Rosewill Xtreme Series RX850-S-B 850W Continuous @40°C, 80 PLUS Certified
2 Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB hard drives (1 Brand new, the other out of an old external hard drive)
1 SanDisk 64GB SATA III Solid State Drive, Windows is installed on this drive.
Rosewill RANGER Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Saitek Cyborg gaming keyboard
Razer Naga (original) gaming mouse (I've also tested with a different USB mouse, haven't tried a PS/2 mouse)
Samsung DVD Burner
Operating System:
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Links to all of these parts on Newegg in the following spoiler, excluding the mouse and keyboard:
Here's what I've done:
I've ran Memtest, no errors found. Reinstalled drivers several times, as well as making sure all drivers are up to date. Almost completely unbuilt, and rebuilt the computer, aside from taking the power supply, motherboard and CPU out. Ran the computer with only 1 stick of memory, and only 2 sticks of memory. Verified that all temperatures are well below maximums, haven't seen the GPU over 50, and haven't seen the CPU over 40-45. I've been using various monitoring programs to make sure that none of the voltage changes. The memory is set to the proper voltage and timings, even with the BIOS setting set to "Auto." I haven't been able to reproduce the problem on command. I've made sure that all plugs, that I know of, are seated well and that nothing is coming unplugged at random times.
I turned AHCI mode on for all SATA controllers, TRIM ( for the SSD ) is enabled. All power connectors are properly plugged in, one for the graphics card, one for the CPU, one for the motherboard itself, several for various fans, and all of the plugs for the various hard drives, optical drive, and SSD.
I do have anti-virus installed, and have had no viruses.
I have not tried new parts as this is a completely new build, that I just received and put together a few days ago on Thursday. I have not reset the BIOS by removing the battery, reinstalled Windows 7,
Supplementary Information:
Windows 7 installed fine, as well as all of my various software and games. The SSD is not full, it has 20 GB left empty. Auto defrag is off, as well as indexing, and various other things that may affect the SSD.
One of the hard drives, the old one, had some problems when plugged in to my other computer via USB (it was originally an external hard drive, which I'm now using as an internal HD). I narrowed it down to being the controller circuit board, which has been known to break. However, I'm going to test to see if there are still crashes with it not plugged into the system. (All data on the HD is still there, and I haven't had any problems copying to it, etc.)
I forgot to install the small panel that covers the ports on the back of the case/motherboard. I do not think this is a problem, but it could be. (One of my next steps if the Hard Drive isn't the issue).
I have a feeling that this is a driver issue after all of the things I've tried and read. I've reinstalled all of the motherboard, chipset, and bios drivers, as well as the graphics card drivers and drivers for the various hard drives, etc. Windows 7 is completely up-dated.
What do you think this could be?
Thanks!
I've just recently built a new computer. It works perfectly, when it doesn't "freeze." I'm pretty certain that this is a driver issue, as there are no freezes/crashes when I'm running in Safe mode.
Description of the problem:
Randomly; this could be while the computer is idle, while playing a game, while watching a youtube video, etc.; the computer will "freeze." The mouse will not move, the keyboard is unresponsive, the hard drive activity light on the case will not flash, all of the led lights on the motherboard will light up, and not flash like typical, all of the fans on the case, power supply, graphics card, and CPU will continue running. The debug led on the motherboard shows nothing unusual. I've been able to play video games for a few hours before this happens, or leave the computer up all night without a freeze until I get up in the morning. The freezes typically happen when I'm at or around my computer, ie. they will happen if I'm cooking dinner with my computer running in the other room, but it will usually not freeze if I leave it up all night. (I left it running last night downloading a game from Steam and it was still going in the morning, with the game downloaded.)
When the computer freezes and there is some form of sound playing, either through the onboard integrated audio, or through my Logitech USB G35 headset (which has its own sound card), the sound will loop the previous millisecond or so. This typically stops after about a second of looping. Occasionally the computer will reboot itself (which in this case there generally is no error in the error management software), but most of the time I am forced to hit the reset button on the case, or turn the power off and then back on. (in this case there will be a Windows did not shut down successfully error, as well as the option to boot into safe mode if needed). The system will not freeze in the BIOS, and hasn't frozen while being booted into a CD or off of a USB stick. It only freezes when in normal Windows 7.
There are no freezes or crashes in safe mode.
Here's my computer's specs.
Intel i5-3570 3.4ghz
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 240-Pin, 1600MHz (defaults to 1333mhz in the BIOS), 1.5V 9-9-9-24 timings (CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B)
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-GD65 (Z77 Chipset, LGA 1155, SATA3, etc)
Graphics Card: HIS ATI Radeon HD 7850, PCI express 3.0, 2GB GDDR5, etc.
Power Supply: Rosewill Xtreme Series RX850-S-B 850W Continuous @40°C, 80 PLUS Certified
2 Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB hard drives (1 Brand new, the other out of an old external hard drive)
1 SanDisk 64GB SATA III Solid State Drive, Windows is installed on this drive.
Rosewill RANGER Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Saitek Cyborg gaming keyboard
Razer Naga (original) gaming mouse (I've also tested with a different USB mouse, haven't tried a PS/2 mouse)
Samsung DVD Burner
Operating System:
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Links to all of these parts on Newegg in the following spoiler, excluding the mouse and keyboard:
Samsung DVD Burner:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151244
WD Caviar Green 1TB HD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136939
Corsair 16GB RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145347
i5-3570 CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115233
HIS ATI Radeon HD 7850: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161406
Rosewill Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147061
Sandisk SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171645
Rosewill Power supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182072
Edit: Some of those links were a bit off, sorry about that!
WD Caviar Green 1TB HD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136939
Corsair 16GB RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145347
i5-3570 CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115233
HIS ATI Radeon HD 7850: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161406
Rosewill Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147061
Sandisk SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171645
Rosewill Power supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182072
Edit: Some of those links were a bit off, sorry about that!
Here's what I've done:
I've ran Memtest, no errors found. Reinstalled drivers several times, as well as making sure all drivers are up to date. Almost completely unbuilt, and rebuilt the computer, aside from taking the power supply, motherboard and CPU out. Ran the computer with only 1 stick of memory, and only 2 sticks of memory. Verified that all temperatures are well below maximums, haven't seen the GPU over 50, and haven't seen the CPU over 40-45. I've been using various monitoring programs to make sure that none of the voltage changes. The memory is set to the proper voltage and timings, even with the BIOS setting set to "Auto." I haven't been able to reproduce the problem on command. I've made sure that all plugs, that I know of, are seated well and that nothing is coming unplugged at random times.
I turned AHCI mode on for all SATA controllers, TRIM ( for the SSD ) is enabled. All power connectors are properly plugged in, one for the graphics card, one for the CPU, one for the motherboard itself, several for various fans, and all of the plugs for the various hard drives, optical drive, and SSD.
I do have anti-virus installed, and have had no viruses.
I have not tried new parts as this is a completely new build, that I just received and put together a few days ago on Thursday. I have not reset the BIOS by removing the battery, reinstalled Windows 7,
Supplementary Information:
Windows 7 installed fine, as well as all of my various software and games. The SSD is not full, it has 20 GB left empty. Auto defrag is off, as well as indexing, and various other things that may affect the SSD.
One of the hard drives, the old one, had some problems when plugged in to my other computer via USB (it was originally an external hard drive, which I'm now using as an internal HD). I narrowed it down to being the controller circuit board, which has been known to break. However, I'm going to test to see if there are still crashes with it not plugged into the system. (All data on the HD is still there, and I haven't had any problems copying to it, etc.)
I forgot to install the small panel that covers the ports on the back of the case/motherboard. I do not think this is a problem, but it could be. (One of my next steps if the Hard Drive isn't the issue).
I have a feeling that this is a driver issue after all of the things I've tried and read. I've reinstalled all of the motherboard, chipset, and bios drivers, as well as the graphics card drivers and drivers for the various hard drives, etc. Windows 7 is completely up-dated.
What do you think this could be?
Thanks!