Inexplicable freezing on my main rig.

[Scion_of_the_Ur]

So this thing did have some boot issues, as well as a couple of bad/corrupted Win7 installs when I built it back in 2014. I never actually solved them on purpose, they just sorta went away after fiddling with cables and such. It ran perfectly all the way until the end of 2015, specifically, the 5th day after Windows 10 dropped and installed itself while I wasn't looking. At this point it started freezing with no warning and no real similar circumstance to help identify the problem, and it has been doing this basically every day since it started. Now that I'm trying to fix it, it has proven to be an even more persistent problem than I originally thought (guess that's what I get for putting it off for a whole year). I did a lot of googling about it, tried everything that I could from those posts, but it still won't stop. Just today I replaced the SSD + HDD combo for a single larger capacity SSD with a fresh install of Win7, still freezes. I thought for sure it was the hard-drive, cause when I started uninstalling Steam games it froze every single time. Now all I have to go on is that whenever the temp indicator on the graphics card turns yellow, it is close to freezing, but every site I checked says that GPU's don't do causes freezes, just black screens or straight up crashes. I'm at wits end trying to sort this nonsense out, so any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry for the wall of rant~y text, but this has been harassing for quite awhile.
Here are the specs:

CPU: AMD FX-9590
MOBO: ASUS Crosshair V Formula Z
PSU: Corsair RM 80+ Gold 1000watt
GPU: Sapphire Radeon R9 290x Tri-x 8GB edition
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4) @2133MHz
(old setup) SSD: Samsung 840 Evo 128GB
HDD: WD Blue 1TB
(new) SSD: Adata Premier SP550 960GB
Case: CM Storm Trooper Rev 2 (should be noted that do not have the X-Dock plugged in, all other front I/O is) Got 6 fans in this thing, so heat shouldn't really be an issue.

Also running an Asus Blu-ray read/write drive and a Corsair H100i AIO water-block on the CPU.
Mouse and keyboard are simple little wireless deals, so no extra drivers to worry about.

I should also mention that the RAM and PSU were upgraded sometime in the middle of all this, with the hopes they would help, they did not. Just for fun, the old RAM was Corsair LP 8GB (2x4) @1600MHz and the old PSU was a Corsair CX750 80+ silver.

 

[umairshariff23]

I sympathize with you, I have similar complaints with my main desktop. Every time I run Windows 8.1 or 10 it crashes, starting slowly (once in a couple of days) to about every 10 mins or so. Listing my specs, cause we have very similar comps

CPU: AMD FX-8350 Cooled by Corsair H60
MOBO: ASUS Sabertooth 990FX Rev 2.0
PSU: Corsair RM 850
GPU: Asus Radeon R290 - stock
RAM: Gskill 16GB (4x4) @1600MHz
PCISSD: Kingston HyperX Perdator 240 GB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 3TB + 1 TB, WD Blue 500 GB, Transcend 1 TB
Case: BitFenix Shinobi XL

Now, I am using Windows 8 on the desktop, and it runs smooth as butter on ice.

I had one question for you though, when your comp boots, do you see some messages on the top left corner of screen??

 

[Scion_of_the_Ur]

Nope, it was just the regular ROG screen for for 10, now that I'm back on 7 I get the "Windows did not shut down properly" screen. Same story on the frequency though. When it started it was pretty much just once per day, now it is so damn aggressive about freezing you'd think it was trying to kill itself. It's a good thing it boots fast cuz it will not stay on on for more the 6 or 7 minutes.

 

[umairshariff23]

Yup, exactly the same as me. Hallelujah for the speedy SSDs 😀

All we can do for now is wait for a brainy geek in shining armor to come rescue us, meanwhile, cookies??

 

[Tzn]

Guys it might be worth to do a full scan with a fully 30 day activated malwarebytes antimalware pro software and give it a go, even a registry clean with ccleaner, hope it helps in some way.

 

[umairshariff23]

Guys it might be worth to do a full scan with a fully 30 day activated malwarebytes antimalware pro software and give it a go, even a registry clean with ccleaner, hope it helps in some way.

Both of us have done complete reinstalls of Windows over and over, if there were any malware or registry issues, wouldn't they be resolved with a reinstall??

 

[Tzn]

Guys it might be worth to do a full scan with a fully 30 day activated malwarebytes antimalware pro software and give it a go, even a registry clean with ccleaner, hope it helps in some way.

Both of us have done complete reinstalls of Windows over and over, if there were any malware or registry issues, wouldn't they be resolved with a reinstall??

Well depends, if you have partitioned space on your hdd's or ssd's and you install windows let's say in c: and you have malware data in other partitions it might infect the others too, i would try a clean reinstall of video-drivers too or even a motherboard bios update.

 

[umairshariff23]

Guys it might be worth to do a full scan with a fully 30 day activated malwarebytes antimalware pro software and give it a go, even a registry clean with ccleaner, hope it helps in some way.

Both of us have done complete reinstalls of Windows over and over, if there were any malware or registry issues, wouldn't they be resolved with a reinstall??

Well depends, if you have partitioned space on your hdd's or ssd's and you install windows let's say in c: and you have malware data in other partitions it might infect the others too, i would try a clean reinstall of video-drivers too.

Ok, you sound like a pretty smart cookie. I shall run a scan and post an update.

 

[Scion_of_the_Ur]

Guys it might be worth to do a full scan with a fully 30 day activated malwarebytes antimalware pro software and give it a go, even a registry clean with ccleaner, hope it helps in some way.

Both of us have done complete reinstalls of Windows over and over, if there were any malware or registry issues, wouldn't they be resolved with a reinstall??

Well depends, if you have partitioned space on your hdd's or ssd's and you install windows let's say in c: and you have malware data in other partitions it might infect the others too, i would try a clean reinstall of video-drivers too or even a motherboard bios update.

That does make sense, but seeing as how I straight up replaced my SSD (brand new drive with no partitions) I don't think it will do much for me. I did order a new GPU (wanted to upgrade anyway), it will arrive tomorrow and I'll let ya'll know how that goes.

 

[umairshariff23]

Guys it might be worth to do a full scan with a fully 30 day activated malwarebytes antimalware pro software and give it a go, even a registry clean with ccleaner, hope it helps in some way.

Both of us have done complete reinstalls of Windows over and over, if there were any malware or registry issues, wouldn't they be resolved with a reinstall??

Well depends, if you have partitioned space on your hdd's or ssd's and you install windows let's say in c: and you have malware data in other partitions it might infect the others too, i would try a clean reinstall of video-drivers too or even a motherboard bios update.

That does make sense, but seeing as how I straight up replaced my SSD (brand new drive with no partitions) I don't think it will do much for me. I did order a new GPU (wanted to upgrade anyway), it will arrive tomorrow and I'll let ya'll know how that goes.

That is the one thing I've been meaning to try but never got around to it, I have tried swapping mobos, didnt help.

Btw, when you do use the new gpu, if you are planning on a clean install, try it with just the SSD plugged in and everything else disconnected (a while ago someone told me that, that is how one is supposed to install Windows)

 

[Scion_of_the_Ur]

Ok so, graphics card arrived today, went ahead and restarted my computer (it was frozen when I got home), uninstalled the drivers for the old card (but forgot to uninstall the amd control panel, didn't really hurt it, just annoyed me cuz it was throwing error messages at me, so don't do what I did), popped the new card in and got dem drivers. Haven't had any crashes or freezes for about 2 hours now, currently upgrading to win10, so we'll see what happens next.

 

[umairshariff23]

Ok so, graphics card arrived today, went ahead and restarted my computer (it was frozen when I got home), uninstalled the drivers for the old card (but forgot to uninstall the amd control panel, didn't really hurt it, just annoyed me cuz it was throwing error messages at me, so don't do what I did), popped the new card in and got dem drivers. Haven't had any crashes or freezes for about 2 hours now, currently upgrading to win10, so we'll see what happens next.

Good luck, may the great PC gods be with you

 

[Scion_of_the_Ur]

New GPU did not help. Honestly not sure what to do now.

 

[umairshariff23]

New GPU did not help. Honestly not sure what to do now.

Damn, I was hoping for some improvement. TBH, I am at the point where I just wanna sell all components and just build a new system. Getting super annoyed with this crap now.

 

[Scion_of_the_Ur]

Yeah, I kinda already picked out a new platform to replace this one. As a last ditch effort, I've decided to tear the whole thing down and do a thorough cleaning just in case there is some microscopic whatsits floating around. Failing that, I'm gonna try to take it to a local technician like STS Repair or Best Buy. If THAT doesn't work, do you think I should move to an Intel system, or just wait for the Razer core to come out and use my laptop (Asus ROG G751jt)?

 

[umairshariff23]

Yeah, I kinda already picked out a new platform to replace this one. As a last ditch effort, I've decided to tear the whole thing down and do a thorough cleaning just in case there is some microscopic whatsits floating around. Failing that, I'm gonna try to take it to a local technician like STS Repair or Best Buy. If THAT doesn't work, do you think I should move to an Intel system, or just wait for the Razer core to come out and use my laptop (Asus ROG G751jt)?

Tbh, I am quite fond of AMD. I am not a dedicated fanboy, but I like how well priced they are for their performance and I'd hate to move away from that. If I were you, I'd wait till the system is sold off, meanwhile build a both AMD and Intel systems (on pcpartpicker) and keep scouring toms for any news on comparative performance on AMD and Intel for Windows 10 and any newer OS

Since you have your laptop (presuming you are comfortable with it) I'll even consider if I'd need a desktop. If not, maybe invest in something else or just let the cash stockpile, but then again, that's just me.

I hope you find a decision that you are comfortable with and have a better time with any other system you choose in the future.

 

[Scion_of_the_Ur]

Minor update, while stripping down the system to clean it up I did find two stand-offs that didn't have screws in them, but I've since put it back together and it is still freezing. I'm just gonna build a new one, but I will still attempt to get this one working again at some point.

 

[Scion_of_the_Ur]

So after some more google searching I found this site ( https://community.amd.com/thread/197742 ) and I followed techguy's advice (at the bottom of the page) and it seems to be working. I'm keeping my expectations low, but it has already made it through 2 benchmarks with no issue, as well as several updates. As soon as The Division is done updating I'm gonna see if I can make it through a whole session then report back. Don't wanna get my hopes too high, but so far its running even better that when I first built it. Maybe the power saving options in the BIOS were under-volting my CPU? I don't know if this helps umairshariff23 at all, since your CPU isn't as power hungry as mine, but it could be worth looking into if you're still having issues.

 

[Scion_of_the_Ur]

Tower made it through a whole days use with no critical issues, all the games ran super smooth too. No hint of freezing to be found, however, I've noticed a consistent issue with the task bar "breaking". I have it set to auto-hide, cuz it looks better when its not there, but when I go to pull it up nothing happens. Nothing a quick reset didn't fix, but after the last reset it gave me that " iROG is updating" message then proceeded to hang on the ROG splash screen until I pulled the cord. Seems like I traded one issue for another, but hey, it didn't freeze on me

 

[umairshariff23]

Tower made it through a whole days use with no critical issues, all the games ran super smooth too. No hint of freezing to be found, however, I've noticed a consistent issue with the task bar "breaking". I have it set to auto-hide, cuz it looks better when its not there, but when I go to pull it up nothing happens. Nothing a quick reset didn't fix, but after the last reset it gave me that " iROG is updating" message then proceeded to hang on the ROG splash screen until I pulled the cord. Seems like I traded one issue for another, but hey, it didn't freeze on me

Thats good to know. I hope your comp continues to work perfectly. At the moment I am using Windows 8, I know its not as good as 10, but I never have any crashes whatsoever. I will look up this thread and the tips the techguy gave for future use, so that if I am planning an upgrade sometime in the future, I will give it a shot.

Good luck to you and may the great PC master race gods be with you!!

 

[Scion_of_the_Ur]

So, it has been a few months and I've had no issues with the freezing nonsense. I'm gonna go ahead and close the thread, and for anyone who finds this later, that website I posted earlier is what did the trick for me, hopefully Microsoft will address this with a patch soon, until then best of luck to everyone!

 

[Umair Shariff]

So, it has been a few months and I've had no issues with the freezing nonsense. I'm gonna go ahead and close the thread, and for anyone who finds this later, that website I posted earlier is what did the trick for me, hopefully Microsoft will address this with a patch soon, until then best of luck to everyone!

Good to know. Meanwhile I sold off all my components with this frustration. Glad to know that there is a solution that worked.