Computer Problem - RAM issue, freezing computer.

[OrangeCuse41]

I've been having this persistent issue for about a week or so. After about 2-3 hours of gaming use the computer starts to stutter and lag with the visuals/audio and ends up completly freezing. Prior to this happening everything is running great, both the game performance and the computer in general run like normal.

Restarting the computer fixes the issue and gives me another 3 hours to run like normal before it happens again. I've found it is not just restricted to running the games, as when I leave the computer dormant overnight I wake up to find it frozen on a complete black screen and requiring a shut down from the power button.

I've checked to see if it was an overheating issue but neither the core or gpu would go over 70° C when it was stuttering. I ran virus scans through Mcafee and Malwarebytes that didn't find the issue. I tried reinstalling the graphics drivers (a few crashes it came up with a bsod and "system thread exception not handled"). I've tried a system restore but can up with an error due to AV and another one undefined (System Restore Error (0x800703f1)).

Now I think I've sorted the source of the problem. When it starts to slow, task manager shows RAM being occupied to the mid-90%. When I start the computer it shows around 30%. I have 8 GB of RAM so I wouldn't expect it to ever be running that high. All the processes it shows in the task manager don't add up to even several GB. The highest processes are MCafee running background scans at 220 MB and some windows systems at 130 MB. Of course when running games they occupy around 500 MB - 1.1 GB, but I don't see any combination of programs using more than a couple GB's of RAM. Though it still reads in the 90% after 2 or 3 hours of operation and freezes the computer regardless of what's running at the time, even after I close the game and all open processes.

All help is greatly appreciated as I've exhausted my limited toolbox of expertise!

Specs

Processor - i7-3770S 4.00 GHz

Mobo - Intel H77 03VTJ7

GPU - GeForce GT 640M

OS - Windows 8.1

RAM - 8 GB DDR3

HDD - 2 TB

 

[AALEXX203]

Hi,are you getting any beep codes when you boot? also on task manager go on the start up tab (windows 8) and disable all start up task that are not anti virus and things like ccc and gpu stuff. Hope this helps

 

[Tradesman1]

What PSU? Is the DRAM running to spec (can find the freq and timings in the free app CPU-Z in it's memory tab - and the model # (listed as part # in the SPD tab

 

[OrangeCuse41]

No beep codes, regular start up, regular everything until it starts to freeze. Unfortunatly I've already gone through and disabled all the unnessisary startups, I think it's more than just being overloaded with programs. 🙁

It's a factory built Dell model, so the power supply spec is only listed as

Internal (260W), 80 PLUS Gold certified, 90% efficient

In the manual, I can only assume a Dell brand?

I'll check the RAM next chance I get.

 

[OrangeCuse41]

Here are the screens from the CPUZ program.

These were taken a bit after start up, so I wasn't experiencing any issues at the time.

Oh, and the only thing that changes from slot 1 to slot 2 under the SPD tab is the Serial Number, which is 11B9086F for slot 2 in case you need it.