[SOLVED] I have been stumped for a year!

[phil.r.greco]

Asus B350 Gaming Mobo
16GB of RAM
AMD Ryzen 1700X with tower cooler
AMD RX 580 GPU
256GB SSD with 2TB Data Drive
Windows 10

I built this computer a year ago. To this day I have had an unusual issue where when the system has been at idle for several hours, it will either restart itself or freeze. If it restarts, it will come back to the BIOS screen. If it freezes in Windows, I can move the mouse, but cannot click on anything. It will do it anywhere from a few hours or around a day or so. I have monitored my temps and they are fine - run memtest and it came back OK. BIOS has been updated. All drivers are up to date (I think). I put it in safe mode and after about 36 hours, it restarted itself and went to the BIOS screen again. I can play games on all settings maxed with no issues, but just this problem at idle. Nothing is overclocked. Nothing in event viewer.

Has anyone come across anything like this before? Thanks in advance.

 

[phil.r.greco]

Sorry, forgot to add PSU:

EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G+, 80 Plus Gold 850W, Fully Modular, FDB Fan

 

[Darth Sicaedus]

Have you tried wiping and reinstalling Windows? Windows can do some funky stuff even on a fresh install.

 

[sizzling]

Have you tried running MemTest?

 

[djdynamix]

Take a look in the Event Log (Access by right-clicking "Computer", selecting "Manage", and then "Event Log". Check in the "Critical" and "Error" sections for any event around the same time as the last freeze. If you find something listed but don't know what it means then please feel free to post the error message in here, and I'll try to help.

 

[Calvin7]

16GB of RAM

Part number and/or link to memory?

 

[phil.r.greco]

16GB of RAM

Part number and/or link to memory?

Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB
https://www.newegg.com/corsair-16gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820233852?Item=N82E16820233852

 

[phil.r.greco]

That's the weird part - no error in log but just something that says critical error with no explanation. It leads me nowhere when it comes to logs.

Memtest comes back with no issues.

I have not wiped Windows yet. I was thinking more along the lines of something wrong with a piece of hardware, so I may have to start doing process of elimination unless someone thinks they can pinpoint it. I know that can be difficult when the PC isn't actually in front of you, but wishful thinking I guess LOL

 

[tennis2]

Faulty stick of RAM

 

[Deleted member 14196]

yeah, use Memtest86 for full 4 passes. anything more than zero errors is a bad stick. test them one at a time.

 

[phil.r.greco]

will run the test again - does it work in safe mode? I just hope the system stays stable long enough for me to get a successful test.

 

[tennis2]

You're physically removing all but one stick at a time (if you have 2 separate kits of 2, make sure you mark what sticks were paired (I put some painter's tape on each stick of one kit)
More than likely, only one stick will be bad. So when you're testing the good stick(s) stability shouldn't be an issue.

 

[phil.r.greco]

Thank you all - i will post my results. Hoping it is as simple as a bad stick.

 

[phil.r.greco]

Both sticks tested fine. Did them one at a time - any other suggestions?

 

[phil.r.greco]

Took out data drive and so far so good. I did always hear some weird "ping" noise from it, not a click of death, but some odd piniging type noise. We'll see if that's the issue.

 

[William133]

The restarts sound like Windows updating. I had a Windows 10 for a while and it was constantly restarting with no warning in the middle of whatever I was doing to install new updates. I eventually went back to my old computer. Though it never froze on me so I don't know what that could be.

 

[phil.r.greco]

Removing data drive did nothing to help. One "big duh" on my part is, I never updated the chipset drivers when I first built the machine. Did that earlier and will see what happens. BIOS update was already done.

 

[phil.r.greco]

I have solved this one. Turns out the SSD i was using was garbage. An off brand called Silicon Power - I installed Windows 10 on another drive, installed all of my drivers, etc., and it has been working fine for close to a week now.