Computer freezes unless I underclock my CPU

[rich0523]

Specs

Asus M5A99FX Pro R2.0
AMD FX 6300
Kingston Hyper X Blu 4GB x 2
OCZ Agility 2 90GB SSD
Nvidia GTX 750TI
Corsair CX 430
Win8

I bought this setup minus the video card back in August. By Oct/Nov my computer started freezing up while loading Windows. I was able to underclock the CPU slight to about 3.2 and the computer was fine. About a month ago I bought the 750TI and updated the BIOS on the mobo. It reset to clock to default and my computer had been running fine until last night. Now I have it dialed down to 2GHZ and the computer hasn't frozen yet but it was freezing at 3.2 shortly after Windows loaded. The temperature on the CPU looks fine as well.

Is it definitely something with the CPU? I believe I ran a Memtest back in Oct/Nov when it first started happening and it came up clean. I can try running it again now too. Any other suggestions are appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Alec Mowat]

Are you getting a bluescreen?

Try Prime95 and see if it gives errors.

Make sure your RAM timings, speed and voltage as set correctly (especially if you are overclocking)

 

[The Letter Mu]

What are you using to overclock/underclock? BCLK or CPU multiplier?

 

[coastie65]

If it isn't over heating and that was my first suspiscion, then something else is off, such as Voltages or the like. OCing is a tricky business and there is a lot involved to get it right. One thing you can do is to reset the CMOS and that will put things back to the factory default such as the BCLK, Multiplier, And Voltage settings.

 

[rich0523]

I never overclocked it. I was running at stock speeds. I have to underclock it just to get it to fully boot up or it freezes while my profile is loading in Windows. So I won't be able to even run Prime unless I underclock it. I'm using the CPU multiplier to underclock it. And no blue screens. I'm posting from it now but i have it clocked at like 2.2Ghz and it seems to be stable.

 

[Alec Mowat]

I never overclocked it. I was running at stock speeds. I have to underclock it just to get it to fully boot up or it freezes while my profile is loading in Windows. So I won't be able to even run Prime unless I underclock it. I'm using the CPU multiplier to underclock it. And no blue screens. I'm posting from it now but i have it clocked at like 2.2Ghz and it seems to be stable.

Try booting into Safemode? F8 on boot screen.

 

[rich0523]

Same thing in safe mode. It doesn't freeze in the BIOS or during Memtest or if I boot into Linux off a flash drive. Not sure if that means that it could be the Windows installation or possibly the SSD? But that doesn't make any sense to me that underclocking the CPU will let the PC run stable.

 

[Alec Mowat]

Same thing in safe mode. It doesn't freeze in the BIOS or during Memtest or if I boot into Linux off a flash drive. Not sure if that means that it could be the Windows installation or possibly the SSD? But that doesn't make any sense to me that underclocking the CPU will let the PC run stable.

Sounds power related IMHO.

 

[rich0523]

I haven't checked the power but when this first happened I had access to another PSU so I hooked it up and it still froze when the CPU was at default clock speeds. I currently don't have access to another PSU is there any other way I can test it?

 

[the_metal]

I have the same problem as you do and i also have to underclock my cpu so that it won't freeze.
w w w .tomshardware. com/forum/357962-28-computer-freezes
hope to get a solution one day .

 

[rich0523]

It was a cooling issue the whole time apparently. It's what I had suspected at first but the temps never seemed out of line. But I took everything apart cleaned out the case and reapplied thermal paste and haven't had any issues since.