Question My computer freezes about 3 times a day.

[aidanperry0]

Hi,

I have a prebuilt computer I've had for about 6 years. I've listed the specs below.

• Windows 10
• CPU: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920x
• GPU: NVIDIA Geforce RTX 3060Ti
• Motherboard: Gigabyte X399 Designare EX-CF
• 4 8gb sticks of DDR4 RAM, 2133 MHz
• 3 storage drives, 1 NVME M.2 SSD and 2 3.5" HDDs
• Corsair 850W PSU

A long while ago, I was getting these same freezes. Everything completely stops, can't move the mouse, no audio, I have to manually hold down the power button to restart the computer. It took many trips to a computer repair shop to find out my old SSD was faulty. CrystalDiskInfo said it had a Media and Data Integrity Error. I switched it out and had a few months of no more freezing.

A few days ago, I downloaded Valorant and my computer was acting super buggy and sluggish trying to launch it, and crashed a couple times. Since then, it's been doing the exact same freezes, about 3 times a day on average.

CrystalDiskInfo says all my storage drives are good. I switched out my DisplayPort with an HDMI, which didn't fix it. I updated my chipset drivers. I did a DDU to remove all drivers and installed the most recent ones from GeForce Experience. I used OCCT to do a stability test on my CPU + RAM, then VRAM, then memory, all of which completed with no errors. I ran MalwareBytes which said everything was clean.

Reliability Monitor only ever says "Windows was not properly shut down", "Windows shut down unexpectedly", or "Windows stopped working", with no additional technical details.

Event Viewer shows a Critical error that says "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."

In Event Viewer I will also get errors that say "The Secure Boot update failed to update a Secure Boot variable with error Secure Boot is not enabled on this machine."
As well as "The description for Event ID 56 from source Application Popup cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted."

I'm at quite a loss now. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[boju]

Coincidence with similar symptoms, might be something different this time.

Check cpu temps with Hwinfo. What cooler are you using and how old?

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www.hwinfo.com

 

[aidanperry0]

Coincidence with similar symptoms, might be something different this time.

Check cpu temps with Hwinfo. What cooler are you using and how old?

Free Download HWiNFO Sofware | Installer & Portable for Windows, DOS

Start to analyze your hardware right now! HWiNFO has available as an Installer and Portable version for Windows (32/64-bit) and Portable version for DOS.

www.hwinfo.com

Hi, forgot to include in original post, I've been monitoring temps during the crashes with CoreTemp and they're all normal. They never got that hot with the stability tests either. I replaced my old cooler a few years ago with a Cooler Master Wraith Ripper, and had a professional install it since I was having some cooler issues way back then.

 

[boju]

Next i guess is troubleshoot memory, try one or two at a time.

 

[aidanperry0]

Next i guess is troubleshoot memory, try one or two at a time.

Sorry, I'm forgetting everything in the OG post. I did a memtest as well with no errors reported.

 

[boju]

Sorry, I'm forgetting everything in the OG post. I did a memtest as well with no errors reported.

It's still possible for memtest to pass and still have issues. Since freezes are frequent it won't take long to physically try different combinations.

Run system file checker as well. Sfc /scannow in cmd ran as administrator.

 

[Bob.B]

Hi,

I have a prebuilt computer I've had for about 6 years. I've listed the specs below.

• Windows 10
• CPU: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920x
• GPU: NVIDIA Geforce RTX 3060Ti
• Motherboard: Gigabyte X399 Designare EX-CF
• 4 8gb sticks of DDR4 RAM, 2133 MHz
• 3 storage drives, 1 NVME M.2 SSD and 2 3.5" HDDs
• Corsair 850W PSU

A long while ago, I was getting these same freezes. Everything completely stops, can't move the mouse, no audio, I have to manually hold down the power button to restart the computer. It took many trips to a computer repair shop to find out my old SSD was faulty. CrystalDiskInfo said it had a Media and Data Integrity Error. I switched it out and had a few months of no more freezing.

A few days ago, I downloaded Valorant and my computer was acting super buggy and sluggish trying to launch it, and crashed a couple times. Since then, it's been doing the exact same freezes, about 3 times a day on average.

CrystalDiskInfo says all my storage drives are good. I switched out my DisplayPort with an HDMI, which didn't fix it. I updated my chipset drivers. I did a DDU to remove all drivers and installed the most recent ones from GeForce Experience. I used OCCT to do a stability test on my CPU + RAM, then VRAM, then memory, all of which completed with no errors. I ran MalwareBytes which said everything was clean.

Reliability Monitor only ever says "Windows was not properly shut down", "Windows shut down unexpectedly", or "Windows stopped working", with no additional technical details.

Event Viewer shows a Critical error that says "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."

In Event Viewer I will also get errors that say "The Secure Boot update failed to update a Secure Boot variable with error Secure Boot is not enabled on this machine."
As well as "The description for Event ID 56 from source Application Popup cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted."

I'm at quite a loss now. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Reseat all psu plugs....both ends.....test.

 

[ubuysa]

A few days ago, I downloaded Valorant and my computer was acting super buggy and sluggish trying to launch it, and crashed a couple times. Since then, it's been doing the exact same freezes, about 3 times a day on average.

Valorant bring with it Vanguard, an anti-cheat tool that causes no end of problems, typically BSODs. The driver that causes these problems in vgk.sys, so look in C:\Windows\Minidumps and upload all dumps you find in there, especially those dated after you install Valorant.

 

[aidanperry0]

@boju I see what you mean now, my apologies. I just completely wiped Valorant / Vanguard / Riot Client from my PC and so far no freezes, though its only been a few hours. If I get another freeze I'll try taking out my RAM sticks. My sfc /scannow came out clean. Thank you everyone for your help so far!

 

[Ralston18]

Seconding @boju

Also look in Reliability History/Monitor and Event Viewer for error codes, warnings, and informational events being captured just before or at the times freezes occurred.

And if you remove RAM, double check the motherboard's User Guide/Manual to ensure that the RAM is correctly reinstalled.

Some motherboards require that the first physically installed RAM be placed in a specific slot. Likely DIMMA2.

 

[aidanperry0]

SOLVED:

I had to update my BIOS. It has now been 10 days without a freeze!