First build, screens freeze after idle

[Kotave]

Hey guys, I built my first PC back in February of this year. As it was my first, I expected to have problems and to have to troubleshoot, but I have one problem left to solve, and I can't find an answer anywhere.
When I leave it idle, the screens will either freeze, or go black. If a program is running it freezes, but if all apps are closed and its on the desktop, the screens go black, as if it went to sleep.
All of my research points to power management settings, but I have tried everything in the settings of power management. When this happens my keyboard and mouse lights stay on, but won't change, i.e. caps lock light won't come on if it is off, etc. I have to hold the power button for 5ish seconds to shut it down and reboot.
This problem has never occurred to me when using the pc, which I only use for gaming. BUT, I let a friend use it to view some pictures off of her SD card, and she had the screens freeze while she was viewing photos.
I don't know if it matters, but if I manually put it into sleep mode before leaving, it wakes up normally when returning, but if I forget to shut it down, or put into sleep, it will freeze, usually overnight, but it doesn't always happen. Some times I come back to it after leaving it idle overnight and everything seems normal.
This problem has been happening since after the first week. Really hoping for some insight and/suggestions as to what to do.

I'm sorry for the wall of text, but I wanted to give as much information as I could.
I'm running Windows 10 and my build is :

Case: NZXT Phantom 410
MB: Asus Z170-A
Graphic: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4GB
Processor: Intel i5-6500 6m Skylake
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 8GB DDR4 (x2)
SSD: 256GB (Gift from friend, not sure on make)
HDD: WD Blue 1TB
PS: EVGA 80 Plus Gold 550






UPDATE AND FIX
It took me forever but I updated my BIOS and it solved this problem.........

 

[Kotave]

Ok after reading up on it, the fans won't start spinning until the card reaches 60C. So that's probably not the problem. But idk what else it could be unless both sticks of ram are bad, or the dimm slots are bad???

 

[thejackal85]

Yeah, the fans aren't spinning because the GPU isn't hot. That's normal for a card of that size, no worries. I'm still sticking to a RAM issue with this, because you saw changes in your PC's behavior while we were testing with them.

I'm actually leaning more towards the RAM slots being bad. This can happen if your PC survives large data dump during a power outage. Is your motherboard relatively new? Can you RMA it?

 

[Kotave]

I built the rig in late february, and bought all parts around that time. I'm fairly certain it's been too long..... I'll give it a check though and see what I find.

 

[Kotave]

I can't find neweggs return policy and am so frustrated after reading some threads I'm tired of it tonight.
I'm going to boot into safe mode and see if the problem persists ( read that safe mode would eliminate software causing the problem). I really don't want to go through hassle of getting a new mobo so I'm hoping for other culprits..........

 

[mph101]

Can you get different sticks of RAM to test this before you go to through the hassle of pulling your system apart and dealing with problematic customer service? The process of elimination. I mean what if the slot isn't dead?

 

[Kotave]

Yea I was thinking about seeing if any friends had some ram around. I don't think any of em will have ddr4 tho, and idk if ddr3 will work on this mobo

 

[FreeerunFlame]

Damn, I'm experiencing a similar issue to yours except mine freezes even when not idle.
The freezing on my PC also started when I was viewing photos on my phone's sd card which I connected to my PC.

I've tried the power management stuff too and it doesn't solve the freezing.
Other things I've tried:
- wiping my hdd with dban, before clean install of windows (tried win 7 & 10) [time consuming]
(this solves the problem temporarily for me: no freezes for some days, weeks but freezes do eventually return)
-reflashing bios through Asus ez flash
(temporary solution as well, freezes return the next day)
-Update ALL drivers manually and using driver boosters to latest versions.
-Sfc scan, chkdsk, memtest, stress test GPU, CPU, PSU & motherboard (no issues found)
-disable fast boot, disable c6/7 in bios
-disassembled and clean all PC components
-Tested all ram sticks individually
-System recovery, restore, defray etc.
-bought new hard disk

While all these didn't solve the issue for me, you could try some of them it might work for you.
I've been trying to solve my issue for more than 6 months now. Hope you have better luck than me.

My PC build:
Asus Maximus VII Ranger
I7-4770
Geforce Gtx 780 direct cu ii
WD blue 1TB + Hitachi 500 Gb
2x Corsair Vengeance ddr3 + 1x Gskill ddr3 (12 Gb)
Corsair RM650 PSU

Thread I created to ask for help

 

[Kotave]

FreeRun, mine has frozen once when being used, but I myself was not using it at the time. I let a friend view some photos from an SD card and she had it freeze during that. So our problems may be exact. I sit down at this PC, open whatever game I'm going to play and that's it. I use it for nothing else. My phone is my browser.
The odd thing is there are no similarities between our build except brand of mobo.

Update on the safe mode: only been a day but it wasn't frozen when I got home. Will check to see if all is well tomorrow.(not home today)

 

[Kotave]

Still no freeze in safe mode. Gonna fiddle on it a little today and see if anything happens, but will be leaving in safe mode for at least a week or until it freezes.

 

[Kotave]

Another day with no freeze in safe mode.

 

[FreeerunFlame]

Do you have a network card or wifi adapter?
Safe mode doesn't have network connections so it could be the wireless device causing the freezes.

 

[Kotave]

Negative, my network cable is straight into the mobo. I'm on the PC now and ran safe mode with networking, the little icon in the system tray shows no connection, but I'm on here with it. Idk if thats normal or not.

We're going on 5 days with no freeze in safe mode.

 

[Kotave]

Alright guys, its been six days in safe mode no freeze. Going back to normal.
Im gonna try setting it to sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity. Hopefully that may keep it from freezing. I'm welcome to suggestions if you guys think you may have a solution or can help find one.

 

[Kotave]

It's been 6 weeks guys and I've had it set to sleep after 5 minutes after idle. It always wakes up perfectly fine, but I would truly love to have it working it right. Anyone got any new ideas???