[SOLVED] computer is cleaned + healthy, STILL freezes, I'm going insane, help?

Mar 14, 2021
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Hello,

A while ago my computer started freezing and crashing at random. After trying my very best to locate the source of those and trying to fix them, I ended up getting a PC technician to help too.

With him, we did all of those;

  • Reinstalled windows
  • Reseated RAM in another slot
  • COMPLETELY replaced windows SSD and moved it to SATA
  • Reformatted a cloned hard drive that wasn't correctly formatted
  • Tested ALL drives several times (all came out clean)
  • Used chckdsk, crystal disk... etc.
  • Tested the GPU with furmark (it went well)
  • Kept an eye on the temperature (which was fine too)
No use, it STILL freezes at random, sometimes when I am just playing a youtube video, sometimes when I'm playing a very simple non-demanding game, EVEN opening task manager sometimes (that happened just now)... I'm going insane. I don't know what else could cause this.

The ONLY thing I can add that could remotely help is that when it freezes, in task manager, I noticed my CPU and GPU utilization SPIKES like crazy for a second. And that I use a power extension cord. That's it.

I had 2 freezes yesterday, here are the screenshots:

Freeze 1 (while gaming, my computer wasn't overheating), 3 screenshots:
https://ibb.co/YbGZZBW
https://ibb.co/1R3MpKK

Freeze 2 (watching a youtube video without anything else playing), 2 screenshots:
https://ibb.co/1MhqgGN


I spent about 300 bucks so far because of it, can someone help? I don't know what else to do. Thanks a bunch.
 
Solution
Try PC Doctor Toolbox, at https://www.pc-doctor.com/solutions/toolbox. It's only $20 for the full, unlocked version.

It's basically a stripped-down version of PC Doctor Service Center, which is a full-service computer software for $300. The Toolbox version differs in mainly two ways: (1) Toolbox lets you select specific tests (e.g. CPU, memory), but not sub-tests (e.g. MMX, SSE), whereas Service Center lets you select specific sub-tests. (2) Service Center comes on a USB that you can use on multiple computers, while Toolbox is a downloadable Windows EXE that can be installed on only one computer.

I just discovered Toolbox the other day. I had been using Service Center myself, but I obviously couldn't recommend a $300 software...
Mar 14, 2021
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What are your system specs? Especially the PSU, GPU and CPU.
Have you done anything with the power supply?
Have you checked voltages?

My specs:

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700 CPU @ 3.20GHz 3.20 GHz
GPU: NVIDIA geforce gtx 1080
PSU: 500 W

Motherboard: HP 8437
RAM: 16,0 GB (15,9 GB usable)

If that helps, it's a HP OMEN 880-181nf


Haven't done anything with the power supply except changing the extension cord a while ago, before it started freezing.
Haven't checked the voltage (I don't have anything to check it)
 
Mar 14, 2021
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Try running a diagnostic/burn-in program like PassMark's Burn-In Test to isolate an individual component.

Back with some updates:
I bought a new extension cord, just in case (didn't help, but at least I've got it.)
Dled Passmark and ran a test on everything relevant, my computer passed everything quite smoothly except the bluetooth test. (I don't use it + have it deactivated but still wanted to check.)

92 erros total, 91 coming from the bluetooth test and 1 that seems to be not marked.

Here's a screenshot:
https://ibb.co/5Tcjh2D
 

mikewinddale

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Dec 22, 2016
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Hmm. Try physically removing the Bluetooth device, if you can.

It's possible that your Bluetooth device is the source of the crashes.

Also, it looks like you ran Passmark for "only" 15 minutes. Try running it overnight. Maybe there's a more intermittent problem that takes hours to randomly happen?
 
Mar 14, 2021
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Hmm. Try physically removing the Bluetooth device, if you can.

It's possible that your Bluetooth device is the source of the crashes.

Also, it looks like you ran Passmark for "only" 15 minutes. Try running it overnight. Maybe there's a more intermittent problem that takes hours to randomly happen?

Back again,

Passmark won't allow me to go over 15 minutes in the trial version, sadly, but I did with what I had and did another test, while it was running I couldn't get my pc to freeze for the life of me (even clicking drives and opening task manager didn't get it to freeze when it nearly always did before).
It gave me 1 single error at the last second of the test, but to my surprise I don't even see it. Only "critical" event log was that my computer exceeded the temperature threshold for a second (90.3° instead of 90° ), that's it.

Here's the screenshot:
https://ibb.co/4V8Dmf4

Ironically, just a minute after the test ended and I opened task manager, it froze again.

I don't really know how to remove the bluetooth on my pc, since I've never used it. But there is a driver I could uninstall? I'm not sure it would do anything, since it was here before my computer started having issues.

EDIT: If that also helps, my monitor occasionally turns off and back on again completely randomly (often at a late hour, but I'm not sure it's relevant), it never did that before, until my PC started freezing.
 

mikewinddale

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Dec 22, 2016
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Try PC Doctor Toolbox, at https://www.pc-doctor.com/solutions/toolbox. It's only $20 for the full, unlocked version.

It's basically a stripped-down version of PC Doctor Service Center, which is a full-service computer software for $300. The Toolbox version differs in mainly two ways: (1) Toolbox lets you select specific tests (e.g. CPU, memory), but not sub-tests (e.g. MMX, SSE), whereas Service Center lets you select specific sub-tests. (2) Service Center comes on a USB that you can use on multiple computers, while Toolbox is a downloadable Windows EXE that can be installed on only one computer.

I just discovered Toolbox the other day. I had been using Service Center myself, but I obviously couldn't recommend a $300 software to regular people with occasional computer problems. As soon as I discovered that PC Doctor makes a $20 version, I was excited.

So try that out.
 
Solution

mikewinddale

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Dec 22, 2016
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If PC Doctor Toolbox doesn't find anything, then I'm going to suspect that either your power supply has a problem, or else one of your components has a power problem.

Power supply problems often create intermittent, mysterious problems like these. And the monitor turning on and off makes me wonder if either your graphics card is creating a power feedback to the rest of the computer, or if the power supply isn't supplying enough clean power to the graphics card.

Ask the PC technician if he can try swapping in a known-good PSU.