Help with diagnosing a problem

[Toasty Pizza]

This problem started about 3 weeks after my first build. I started to get intermittent freezes in games, where the audio would just loop and everything including the mouse would freeze. At first I thought it was my video card, so I hooked my HDMI up to my motherboard to see if that was the cause and it still kept freezing during games. It also showed an error on my motherboards error codes that said " southbridge initialization before microcode loading" and it takes about a minute for the pc to full shut down and turn its fans off etc.

I then turned my attention to the RAM and performed a memtest with each of them, and they both came out with no errors, and I even tried putting in one stick at a time and it still has a slow shutdown time and would still freeze

I switched out my SSD with a friends to see if that was the cause, and it wasn't still the same two problems.

I RMA'ed my motherboard and the two problem still persist, I also swapped my PSU with a friends to see if it was that, and yet again those same two problems still occur.

The only thing that I have not eliminated is the CPU, and I was wondering if these two problems,
"southbridge initialization before microcode loading"/ minute shutdown time and freezing during games and web browsing, were possible symptoms for a bad CPU.

I could really use everybody's opinions and anything is helpful at this point, if I forgot to mention something please let me know. Thanks!

Also my build is as follows:

Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor

Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler

ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard

Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

PNY XLR8 PRO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive

Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Superclocked ACX Video Card

NZXT Phantom 410 (Black/Orange) ATX Mid Tower Case

Corsair RM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer

Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit)

TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter

 

[Shaun o]

I`m going to presume that since you said it was a new build of three weeks old.
That you installed a fresh clean version of windows 8.1.
And that you did not just use the hard drive or any existing SSD drive where windows was installed on that setup.

Because if you did it`s the whole cause of the problem.
Windows configures its core files ect to the chipset used on the mobo on first fresh clean installation.
If you swap the board, or drive over to a new system Then all hell breaks loose.

The microcode is part of the cpu that allows it`s self to be identified and its speed settings and multiplier, and voltage to be set by the bios auto detecting the settings.
The cause is to do with the bios, meaning it needs to be updated or flashed.
It`s CPU microcode list needs to be updated.
Check what version of the bios firmware you have.
And look for the latest bios update.
In basic the bios microcode needs updating, because it tells the board how to use the cpu or model/ revision with the mobo.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Extreme4/?cat=Download&os=BIOS

 

[Toasty Pizza]

I`m going to presume that since you said it was a new build of three weeks old.
That you installed a fresh clean version of windows 8.1.
And that you did not just use the hard drive or any existing SSD drive where windows was installed on that setup.

Because if you did it`s the whole cause of the problem.
Windows configures its core files ect to the chipset used on the mobo on first fresh clean installation.
If you swap the board, or drive over to a new system Then all hell breaks loose.

The microcode is part of the cpu that allows it`s self to be identified and its speed settings and multiplier, and voltage to be set by the bios auto detecting the settings.
The cause is to do with the bios, meaning it needs to be updated or flashed.
It`s CPU microcode list needs to be updated.
Check what version of the bios firmware you have.
And look for the latest bios update.
In basic the bios microcode needs updating, because it tells the board how to use the cpu or model/ revision with the mobo.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Extreme4/?cat=Download&os=BIOS

Yes, I used a fresh clean install of windows 8.1 on a brand new SSD. I don't understand that solution, because before I updated the bios it was working fine, no problems at all and now after I updated (I do have lastest version of bios) the problem of slow shutdown and freezing still occurs.