[SOLVED] Is anyone familiar with this behavior?

[Phaaze88]

I'm not sure whether it's hardware or software related, so I thought to post here...

A)Playing a game, browser is running in the background:
-Character/avatar will stop moving, but you can still see them 'breathing', and audio is looping, the rest of the game is unresponsive though.
-I can alt-tab or Windows key out to the browser, but clicking on anything will 'load forever'.
-If I mouse over my icons in the taskbar, they get stuck like that and the clock will freeze.
-Ctrl+Alt+Delete, no response.
-Backspace+F4, no response.
-I am forced to power off/restart.

B)Running Asus Realbench 8hr stress test overnight. If I wake up before the test is finished:
-Everything 'appears' to be running, but the first oddity I notice is that my fans aren't running as high.
-Realbench is reporting that the cpu is idling, kinda bouncing between 0-7%. The main window's timer is still running, but that smaller window that pops up along with it has frozen - a few hours in, according to it's timer.
The Luxmark render window has frozen as well.

-Hwinfo's still 'running' too: the cpu and gpu are idling, the clock's still running, all the other numbers and stuff are still running... I can even close the app without the system 'freezing' - granted, it's already frozen past this point.
-When the test does finish, it freezes.
-Ultimately, it's frozen and I'm forced to power off/restart.

C)Browse the web, watch Youtube videos all day long:
-Not a problem at all.


Because the system doesn't blue or black screen crash during these soft freezes, I can't seem to get any recent dump files for this. Running the Whocrashed Home Edition pulls up dumps for 2 errors I troubleshooted like 2 weeks ago.
Event Viewer and Reliability Monitor pull up a bunch of the following, but I can't make heads or tails out of them:
-65, AppModel-Runtime
-10005, DistributedCOM
I figure they're from the forced shut offs I've had to do, because the system doesn't crash on its own...

What I've tried so far with no success:
-Update the bios and reset CMOS, running the cpu at stock; no overclock.
-Updated Windows to 20H2.
-CMD Prompt the DISM and sfc scan.
-There's no manual gpu overclock, as I haven't needed to do that since I hybrid cooled it. I do raise the power and temp limit sliders.
-Disabled hardware acceleration in Firefox browser.
-Reconnected all the psu cable connections.
-Reinserted the gpu, and also remounted the Fractal Celsius cooler.
-DDU between drivers 457.30 and 460.89.

I reinstalled Windows back in October-November.

In progress: Gpu power limit set to 50%.

 

[Colif]

A could be lan drivers? only as entire system is waiting for something to happen, maybe lag?
could try these, Microsoft may not have newer ones yet - https://www.asus.com/au/Motherboards/PRIME-X299-DELUXE/HelpDesk_Download/
Since you have Intel LAN, try this as well - https://www.intel.com.au/content/www/au/en/support/detect.html - might help with B as well. Although if its on 2 different installs, it seems unlikely

if you not getting bsod, whocrashed won't find a lot.
updating BIOS resets it anyway, seems redundant
Everyone gets dcom errors

Asus programs aren't the best.

 

[Phaaze88]

could try these, Microsoft may not have newer ones yet - https://www.asus.com/au/Motherboards/PRIME-X299-DELUXE/HelpDesk_Download/

I forgot to include that. Those drivers are all up to date. I have that page bookmarked and check at least once a month.

Since you have Intel LAN, try this as well - https://www.intel.com.au/content/www/au/en/support/detect.html - might help with B as well. Although if its on 2 different installs, it seems unlikely

I gave it go anyway, and:
No supported driver or software updates are available for your system.
Negative, it's up to date.

if you not getting bsod, whocrashed won't find a lot.
updating BIOS resets it anyway, seems redundant
Everyone gets dcom errors

I wasn't aware of either, thanks.

Asus programs aren't the best.

I know, and Realbench is one of the more popular whole system stress tests - it's largely out of date though; the lastest version being like 3 years old...
Running Cinebench R23 for several hours doesn't seem to trigger the freeze, from what I've noticed so far... but I've been going back and forth between running the 2 applications overnight to find a lower Vcore for a cpu OC.

In progress: Gpu power limit set to 50%.

I'm a little over an hour in with this, and nothing's happened yet. So it could be the gpu or the psu?
I'll be darned if the problem actually is either of them...

 

[Colif]

I am not a hardware person, i just thought i had an answer for A..

I would be tempted to remove all asus software and see if things continue. Sure, you can't get B without Asus software, so that is a 50% fix right there (lol)

Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

 

[Phaaze88]

I would be tempted to remove all asus software and see if things continue. Sure, you can't get B without Asus software, so that is a 50% fix right there (lol)

Realbench is the only one installed. I don't mess with all that other junk.

Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

I'll get right on it.

 

[alceryes]

Full system specs? (I don't want to assume it's the one in your sig)

Maybe I missed it, but does the freezing only happen when you are alt-tabbing between different things?

How are your Windows power management settings (including device specific like USB and NIC)?

Do you experience the issue when the GPU is all default (including power settings)? Or maybe even try undervolting...?

 

[Phaaze88]

Full system specs? (I don't want to assume it's the one in your sig)

It is. That's why I have it there.

Or maybe even try undervolting...?

Lowering the power limit already does this, really. There's no real need to touch that on Pascal.
I was playing around with 50% power before trying Colif's suggestions.

@Colif
That didn't take very long...
So I followed those instructions and disabled all those non MS programs. It wasn't a long list - like about 10 of them.
Anyways, I did that, restarted when prompted, opened up Steam, started up Trials of Mana, loaded up my Fiery Gorge save file, dash attacked the first enemy I saw, and - DERP! The same symptoms from before, XD!
Suspecting that was a coincidence, I force restarted and tried again... didn't even get to the enemies this time; I spun the camera around a few times, took a few steps forward, and DERPed again.

Ok, so I tried a different game, Redout: Enhanced... froze in the game menu... LOL.
I thought about starting up the Dolphin emulator and seeing what would happen there, but nah, I think it's pretty clear there's a hardware problem... CRAP.

 

[Colif]

I would suggest safe mode but you can't really play games in safe mode.

It looks like hardware problem of some kind.

 

[Cascote]

I'm not sure whether it's hardware or software related, so I thought to post here...

A)Playing a game, browser is running in the background:
-Character/avatar will stop moving, but you can still see them 'breathing', and audio is looping, the rest of the game is unresponsive though.
-I can alt-tab or Windows key out to the browser, but clicking on anything will 'load forever'.
-If I mouse over my icons in the taskbar, they get stuck like that and the clock will freeze.
-Ctrl+Alt+Delete, no response.
-Backspace+F4, no response.
-I am forced to power off/restart.

B)Running Asus Realbench 8hr stress test overnight. If I wake up before the test is finished:
-Everything 'appears' to be running, but the first oddity I notice is that my fans aren't running as high.
-Realbench is reporting that the cpu is idling, kinda bouncing between 0-7%. The main window's timer is still running, but that smaller window that pops up along with it has frozen - a few hours in, according to it's timer.
The Luxmark render window has frozen as well.

-Hwinfo's still 'running' too: the cpu and gpu are idling, the clock's still running, all the other numbers and stuff are still running... I can even close the app without the system 'freezing' - granted, it's already frozen past this point.
-When the test does finish, it freezes.
-Ultimately, it's frozen and I'm forced to power off/restart.

C)Browse the web, watch Youtube videos all day long:
-Not a problem at all.


Because the system doesn't blue or black screen crash during these soft freezes, I can't seem to get any recent dump files for this. Running the Whocrashed Home Edition pulls up dumps for 2 errors I troubleshooted like 2 weeks ago.
Event Viewer and Reliability Monitor pull up a bunch of the following, but I can't make heads or tails out of them:
-65, AppModel-Runtime
-10005, DistributedCOM
I figure they're from the forced shut offs I've had to do, because the system doesn't crash on its own...

What I've tried so far with no success:
-Update the bios and reset CMOS, running the cpu at stock; no overclock.
-Updated Windows to 20H2.
-CMD Prompt the DISM and sfc scan.
-There's no manual gpu overclock, as I haven't needed to do that since I hybrid cooled it. I do raise the power and temp limit sliders.
-Disabled hardware acceleration in Firefox browser.
-Reconnected all the psu cable connections.
-Reinserted the gpu, and also remounted the Fractal Celsius cooler.
-DDU between drivers 457.30 and 460.89.

I reinstalled Windows back in October-November.

In progress: Gpu power limit set to 50%.

It could be two things that i feel lke they could be causing this.

- Drivers issues: Windows behaves strangely with old drivers. When u have old drivers working, windows tends to "load things forever", as if it freezed but the UI still works to a certain extent. Loading configuration would keep the blue screen loading forever.

- The main disk is dying: Usually, when disks are dying, tend to freeze the whole machine because the latency rises so much that the CPU keeps waiting for it.
In this case, you can check this by looking at the task manager -> Performance tab -> Click on your main disk -> Look at the "response time". Freezes usually occur when this value is over 500 with a low disk usage. Sometimes, it can go to values like 1000 ms or more, but those are extreme cases.

I would bet your case is the first one.

 

[Phaaze88]

I just went through the first half of Fiery Gorge - the other half is story locked - destroyed several groups of enemies on the way in and out.
All at 50% gpu power limit.

Screw me, this had to happen when prices are crappy right now...
Obviously, I'm going to try a psu replacement first.
I can't use the warranty for this: Oh, the 4 year, 4 month old psu can't handle a 1080Ti anymore? It's not actually broken, so...


@Cascote
Highest I'm seeing is 14ms...

I reinstalled the OS like month or 2 ago and have been keeping up with Windows and mobo driver updates.
I also tried the Clean Boot as suggested by Colif... If there were any old drivers, they wouldn't have been active, right?
It froze even in Clean Boot - I suspect it's because I didn't touch the gpu's power limit slider.

Even now, as I'm typing out this post, the game's running in the background, I can alt-tab back and forth, browse the web, no problem.
I'm sure soon after I restore the gpu power limit - DERP. I don't want to actually find that out, so I'm going to leave it where it is.

 

[Colif]

clean boot doesn't stop drivers, it just stops programs.
Safe mode would have stopped drivers but its hard to play games in there.

 

[Phaaze88]

clean boot doesn't stop drivers, it just stops programs.
Safe mode would have stopped drivers but its hard to play games in there.

Doh! Right, right - I got them mixed up.

Anyways, I've placed an order for a Corsair AX850. I'll see what happens when that comes in.
I really hope it's not the gpu... I'm not ready for that right now; the RX 6800XT is what I have my eyes on currently...

 

[Colif]

I would have booted off a Ubuntu live USB and tested using linux benchmarks to see if you experience same problems on another OS. If you did, then you likely have a hardware problem.

I don't like telling people its hardware unless I am sure

 

[Phaaze88]

@Colif
Thanks for your concern.

But yeah, I'm pretty convinced it's hardware now. I've been going back and forth between this game and Firefox, and not a single hiccup, with the gpu power limit set to 50%.
It would happen pretty darn quickly otherwise.

10-12 year warranty looks funny now, even though I couldn't use it for something like this.

 

[alceryes]

It is. That's why I have it there.

But you always have it there. With no indication in the post that this is the system you are referring to I just wanted to be sure.

If you're planning a reinstall, try running your test(s) on just the basic Windows 10 drivers. to see if you experience the same symptoms.

 

[Phaaze88]

But you always have it there. With no indication in the post that this is the system you are referring to I just wanted to be sure.

Apologies. It's something that slipped my mind as I was typing the post out.
I should know better than to leave that out!


I've already ordered a new psu. Imma wait and see what that does first.
There's been no trouble since capping the gpu power limit.

 

[alceryes]

I'm more inclined to think it's your 1080Ti than your Seasonic PSU but either way you'll find out.

 

[Phaaze88]

I'm crossing my fingers and praying it's not the card. I'm not ready yet, plus there aren't any nice gpu hybrid cooled options available yet.

 

[boju]

Grasping at straws, maybe it's time to run everything on max power settings and see what you get. I mean run high performance modes in Windows, Nvidia CP, never turn off devices such as usb controller, nic, drives, display, hibernation, whichever else may be power regulated that you use. Maybe turn off low power Cstates in bios too. Then if everything is fine, return power options for each component one at a time.

 

[Phaaze88]

Grasping at straws, maybe it's time to run everything on max power settings and see what you get. I mean run high performance modes in Windows, Nvidia CP, never turn off devices such as usb controller, nic, drives, display, hibernation, whichever else may be power regulated that you use. Maybe turn off low power Cstates in bios too. Then if everything is fine, return power options for each component one at a time.

Already been there, since I started overclocking this cpu a few years ago.
I updated the bios and cleared CMOS; cpu at stock, power saving settings restored, and nada.

It triggers under a gpu load... go figure.
I skimmed over that Cinebench R23 has no effect even after 8 hours - it finishes normally.

 

[Crosslhs82x2]

Merry Christmas Guy's
Phaaze Any chance it's a Nvidia updates that may not be agreeing with the 1080ti??????

 

[boju]

Merry Christmas Guy's
Phaaze Any chance it's a Nvidia updates that may not be agreeing with the 1080ti??????

Yeah good point. Nvidia broke optimal power setting once before, so who knows what else. Could be prefer maximum setting this time.

Merry Christmas

 

[Phaaze88]

Phaaze Any chance it's a Nvidia updates that may not be agreeing with the 1080ti??????

I went from 457.51, to 460.89, to 456.71, and no dice.

 

[Obiwancanabi]

my initial thought was ram, sounds like what mine used to do when the ram was iffy. try disconnecting all but 1 or 2 sticks, in different configs, might change something

 

[Phaaze88]

I figured I'd try raising the power limit slider to see how far I get:
50%: the lowest option for this model and what I've confirmed to be stable.
60%: so far, so good, but I only ran it like this for 15 mins...
70%: Nope! It didn't even take 3 mins for the symptoms to pop up.

@Obiwancanabi
I will run Memtest tonight and in the morning, try different ram configs if I have time.