[SOLVED] Help Diagnosing Constant System Freezing

[uria702]

I’m having a lot of trouble diagnosing an issue with my PC. Every 30-90 minutes I’ll get a system freeze for about 20-60 seconds where I just get a blue spinning circle. Everything else freezes. At first, I thought it was a software issue so I reformatted the system. I then began a long list of troubleshooting. I tried everything I could think of but I can’t find anything that works. I’ll get 1-2 days without a crash after upgrading a part but then it’ll come back. I’ve been trying to fix this issue for literally months. It makes working very difficult. Below are my specs. When the issue occurs while browsing, I see a “waiting for cache” on the bottom of the screen.

A990fxm-a
AMD FX 8350
16gb PNY XLR8 DDR3 1600mhz ram
R9 280x – in crossfire
EVGA 1000 watt GQ power supply
Cooler Master HAF912 case
Crucial MX100 256gb SSD
2tb WD disk drive

What I’ve Tried
-Full reformat and reinstall of windows using ISO from microsoft’s website – problem occurred on new install without any 3rd party software install.

• replaced PSU
• replaced CPU
• replaced SSD
• disconnected 2tb drive
• tested ram thoroughly using memtest86
• testing cpu using prime95
• video card stress test using furmark

-disconnecting one video at a time and trying the system with only one card

Event Viewer:
In event viewer, there is only one error which comes up constantly. Below is the message. I tried changing permissions to allow full control to all administrators but the error still occurs.
The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID
{2593F8B9-4EAF-457C-B68A-50F6B8EA6B54}
and APPID
{15C20B67-12E7-4BB6-92BB-7AFF07997402}
to the user DESKTOP-IHQ7RDI\Admin SID (S-1-5-21-1370946278-2610276949-3569882361-1001) from address LocalHost (Using LRPC) running in the application container Unavailable SID (Unavailable). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

So, right now I’m at the point where I’m not sure what to do anymore. I’ve thoroughly tested or replaced all the hardware. It is possible it is a motherboard issue, but it may be a underlying compatibility issue with windows 10. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I’m running out of ideas. The only idea I have left is to upgrade the cpu/mobo/ram to a ryzen and ddr4 and see if that works out. If there’s any other thing anyone could think of, please help! Thank you.

 

[ElectrO_90]

Looks like you have done a very indepth process of covering it all.
Have you checked for Malware? - Zhpcleaner and Malwarebytes are useful tools
Hard Disk Sentinel to check failing HD's although you said you have replaced them.
Reinstalled Windows from fresh?

 

[uria702]

Looks like you have done a very indepth process of covering it all.
Have you checked for Malware? - Zhpcleaner and Malwarebytes are useful tools
Hard Disk Sentinel to check failing HD's although you said you have replaced them.
Reinstalled Windows from fresh?

Yes, I've done all of these. None of them has fixed or helped the problem. I reinstalled windows on a fresh SSD using the ISO from microsoft and a new activation key. The problem still persists.

Also note that a way I can reproduce/trigger the freeze is by opening a lot of tabs in Chrome - 100 or more (like opening all my bookmarks at once). That will cause the freeze to happen every time.

 

[ElectrO_90]

I run about 50 tabs in Firefox, never get problems.
So I would have said memory, but you have tested it. (or a bad website/virus/flash)
Then from the conclusion of everything you have done passed and everything you changed made no difference, the only thing left is the motherboard and CPU and it's probably motherboard.

 

[uria702]

I run about 50 tabs in Firefox, never get problems.
So I would have said memory, but you have tested it. (or a bad website/virus/flash)
Then from the conclusion of everything you have done passed and everything you changed made no difference, the only thing left is the motherboard and CPU and it's probably motherboard.

Last night I was doing more reading and it looks like people who had similar issues attribute it to sata drivers or something similar. In BIOS, my sata controller was set to IDE mode. I set it to AHCI and I haven't had a freeze yet even after opening 200 tabs. I'll be doing more testing today. I hope I found the culprit!

 

[ElectrO_90]

good find

 

[AjaxTM]

If you were correct and you fixed the issue, please update. I'm running an almost identical system with an almost identical problem and would love to know if you managed to fix yours.

 

[uria702]

If you were correct and you fixed the issue, please update. I'm running an almost identical system with an almost identical problem and would love to know if you managed to fix yours.

I will update in a couple of days. As of the last 24 hours, the issue hasn't come up, but I want to wait a couple of more days to be certain because one day isn't near long enough to say definitively.

 

[uria702]

If you were correct and you fixed the issue, please update. I'm running an almost identical system with an almost identical problem and would love to know if you managed to fix yours.

The freezing was occurring many times a day, but I haven't had a freeze in 48 hours and that's with many attempts to recreate the issue. I might be jinxing myself but saying it's gone but, for now, it hasn't come back up.

Here are the steps I took right before I stopped experiencing the issue.

Step 1: Set windows 10 to boot into safe mode on the next reboot. See here for details - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode
Step 2: restart computer and head into the bios
Step 3: find the SATA configuration settings and set to AHCI from IDE mode
Step 4: Save changes
Step 5: Computer will boot into safe mode. The required registry changes are made automatically like this.
Step 6: Restart back in normal operating mode

Without booting into Safe Mode, there are some registry issues that will cause a BSOD when you change to AHCI mode. Once in safe mode, you don't need to do anything, windows handles it all. Just get into safe mode and then restart back into normal mode and it should operate fine. From what I've read, IDE mode is meant for older drives. SSDs work better with AHCI. The IDE mode was somehow causing my SSD to jump up to 100% usage during the time period in which I experienced freezes. I now see much less usage in task manager's performance tab (around 4% even with 200 tabs opened in chrome).

 

[uria702]

In case anyone is wondering, I am on day 5 of no freezing. I suspect this is a very commonly overlooked setting that causes freezing on many systems that are never properly diagnosed. So, if you have the same type of freezing, check your bios' sata controller setting and make sure it isn't set to IDE. At one time, it was set properly in my motherboard, but I suspect at some point I did a reset on the bios settings and it reverted back.