Games Freezing then unfreezing - New build PC - Help!

[NinjaBadger7]

Hi everyone!

This is my first post as I have really hit a brick wall with my newly built PC.

The basic issue is every time I play a game it will randomly freeze (showing Not Responding in task manager) then after a certain amount of time (maybe 30 secs, maybe a minute or two) and then will carry on as normal.

Here is my specs -

Gigabyte 970A - DSP AM3+ Motherboard
AMD FX6300 3.5Ghz CPU
8GB (2 x 4GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3 RAM
Radeon HD 6670 1GB video card
Corsair CX430w PSU
64gb Sandisk SSD
250GB Maxtor sata HDD
Windows 7 Pro 64 bit

Everything is brand new apart from the 250gb HDD. I have Windows installed on the SSD, with games and data stored on the HDD.

Things I have tried so far -

* Memtest86 no issues
* OCCT PSU and CPU test - fine
* Windows RAM test - fine
* Furmark GPU test - fine
* Updated BIOS
* Updated graphics drivers
* Used MSI Afterburner to test temps etc - no issues
* Tested my old graphics card - still same freezing issue

When the games freeze, the CPU and RAM are low (i.e CPU is not maxed out etc).

The majority of games are via Steam (on the HDD) do you think makes a difference? I.e is the HDD struggling?

I did try Crysis (installed on the SSD retail DVD copy of game) and seems to have no freeze issues.

This issue seems to be purely game related, i.e Windows etc seems to have no freeze issues.

Any help is very appreciated!!!

 

[13thmonkey]

I would suggest a hdd issue, that will be a very slow hdd as that size doesn't feature in the later architectures.

 

[NinjaBadger7]

I would suggest a hdd issue, that will be a very slow hdd as that size doesn't feature in the later architectures.

Thank you for the quick reply!

Do you mean you think the HDD is too old compared to the newer components around it?

 

[AMD Radeon]

driver issue?

 

[NinjaBadger7]

driver issue?

I'm using the most current Radeon drivers.

Before I installed the 6670, I was using my old Geforce 7900GT in it from my old PC, and that had the same freezing issue on this new PC.

 

[13thmonkey]

the HDD will be slow, and might end up with very slow seek times, this might cause an issue. If you have space could you install one of the smaller offending games on the SSD and see what happens?

 

[NinjaBadger7]

the HDD will be slow, and might end up with very slow seek times, this might cause an issue. If you have space could you install one of the smaller offending games on the SSD and see what happens?

I will try that now

I did a HDD test with Seagate tools for the HDD, but came back as a pass

 

[13thmonkey]

it may not be broken, just slow, 250GB is not made with new platters and processes. what are your read and write speeds on that disk?

 

[NinjaBadger7]

it may not be broken, just slow, 250GB is not made with new platters and processes. what are your read and write speeds on that disk?

Well I have installed a couple of the problematic games onto the SSD rather than HDD, and there seems to be no freezing, so im guessing it must be the HDD

So if I am now buying a new HDD what am I looking for so its its line with the rest of PC? (apart from storage size obviously)

 

[13thmonkey]

Anything vaguely modern will work. you might be something like 50MB/s vs 100+ for newer drives, and slower seek times etc. run it through a disk performance analysis tool to see what readings you are getting. Compare them to these: http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/5790/nas-hdd-showdown-wd-red-vs-seagate-nas/index.html then you'll see how bad yours is, obviously only compare single drive results.

 

[NinjaBadger7]

Anything vaguely modern will work. you might be something like 50MB/s vs 100+ for newer drives, and slower seek times etc. run it through a disk performance analysis tool to see what readings you are getting. Compare them to these: http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/5790/nas-hdd-showdown-wd-red-vs-seagate-nas/index.html then you'll see how bad yours is, obviously only compare single drive results.

Thank you for your advice

What is the best tool to get the readings with?

 

[13thmonkey]

can you get hold of hdtach?

 

[NinjaBadger7]

can you get hold of hdtach?

I used CrystalDisk Mark and gave read & write speeds of about 51/52Mbs, so im guessing that is pretty slow for today's standards!

 

[13thmonkey]

yep, and it's going to be the random access nature of mid level loads that will cause the problem.

 

[13thmonkey]

yep, and it's going to be the random access nature of mid level loads that will cause the problem.