Display makes a 'pop' sound and system freezes

[CarlosMarcos]

Hi Guys,

This problem is making me nuts and I can't find a fix anywhere. Here's how it goes:

1. Built in speakers on the monitor make a "pop" that sounds a lot like the noise a sound cable makes when you unplug it from a speaker. The same sound happens on two different monitors that I've tried.

2. At the exact same time I hear that sound, the computer freezes. Hard. Image on the monitor is frozen. Keyboard unresponsive. Everything else whirring away normally.

This usually happens when I'm playing games but that's almost all I do on this rig, so hard to tell if there's a correlation. But its definitely only ever happened with a game on the screen.

Help. Please. So much please.

Specs:

CPU: Intel i5 3570k@3.4ghz
GFX: EVGA Geforce GTX 660
Mobo: Gigabyte Z77M-D3H-MVP
RAM:2x Corsair Vengance 4mb
HD: 1TB Toshiba ATA
PSU: Corsair CX 600
OS: Win 7 x64

Thanks!

 

[regularguy290]

it's not a monitor or speaker problem. something is making your computer crash. the pop noise is a byproduct of the crash.
do you overclock? maybe the clocks are too high and unstable.
did you build the computer yourself? maybe the CPU or GPU are overheating and you should try to re apply the thermal grease.
is there some junk programs running the background? maybe try a virus scan and use Malwarebytes.

 

[CarlosMarcos]

yeah, I figured it wasn't an issue with the display (maybe I should post somewhere else?) but since that pop is the only unique symptom of the problem besides the screen freeze I didn't know where else to start.

I did build it myself but its not overclocked. The problem does seem to occur more often when either 1. the ambient temperature is high 2. there are lots of programs open and running, which would suggest its a problem with heat somewhere but that doesn't explain the popping sound coming from the display.

With 8 gigs of ram, whatever junk may be running in the background shouldn't be an issue unless the problem is with the ram itself, which it could be.

I will take a look at the gpu and cpu and see if they need more grease.