[SOLVED] Newish PC Build, Chrome 'Freezing'

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SyDiko

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I built a new gaming PC a few months ago,

• i5-8600K (Cosair Cooler)
• ROG Strix Z390 MB (formerly Gigabyte Z370 SLI XP)
• 16GB GSKILL V (2 x 8)
• 500GB m.2 (Samsung Evo 960)
• + 1 TB WD Black
• MSI RX 580 8GB
• eVGA SuperNOVA G3 650w Gold PSU

The system itself,

Its not overclocked yet, but while gaming, the build is perfect. Since building it, there have been no crashes. The PC is also very stable and temps show the CPU is not stressed at all.

The annoying problem,

The one problem that I’m having is while using Chrome or Firefox some websites can ‘lock up’ my PC for up to 60 seconds without any events or blue screen errors. The websites that cause the most problems are specifically video websites, but it has happened while browsing other sites like Amazon or eBay as well. What I have found is that the PC isn't actually 'locked up', but rather Chrome's network usage is extremely high and the application is locked up completely, but it isn't doing anything. (Please see pictures.)

(This is basically a screenshot 5 seconds after the ‘lock up.’ As you can see the network usage in Windows Task Manager is extremely high, but in Chrome Task Manager it isn’t doing a thing! The spikes can go upwards of 600mbps and lock up the browser completely.)

Gavqmfi.png


Troubleshooting,

I’ve literally tried everything to troubleshoot this problem.

  1. Several reinstalls of Windows 10 Pro (Actually, after each major change below, was a reinstall of Windows.)
  2. I even went so far to change the USB stick and Install media to see if that helped
  3. I ran several Memtests (Windows & MemTest86) and it came out fine.
  4. I’ve stressed the CPU and it came out fine.
  5. Stressed the GPU and its actually performing as expected
  6. I’ve changed the primary HDD from a CM100 (2.5 SSD) to the Samsung Evo 960.
  7. I’ve even tried switching motherboards (just installed the ROG Strix last week) and the errors persists. (I thought it might be network driver related.)
Last steps,

I’m at a loss, but even though I’ve tested them, the last 3 items that I have not changed are the CPU, RAM, and GPU. I suspect that one of these are likely causing the issue. I also just rebuilt my girlfriends PC (its a mini version of mine) and I can literally interchange any part, but she’s not letting me touch hers lol.

Any thoughts?
 
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Final Post - Its been over a month and still lockup free. :)

Problem: I219-V NIC connected to an EdgeRouter X on router firmware less than v2.0.6 may cause a broadcast storm.

Symptoms,
  1. Any type of network traffic can cause the system to become unresponsive/lock up.
  2. Sometimes immediately before or during the lock up, the system's network usage will spike extremely high and sustain the high bandwidth. I'm not sure how high it actually reaches, but I've seen usage between 400 and 3,000Mbps. (See earlier troubleshooting screenshots as an example.)
  3. If you unplug the network cable from the system during the broadcast storm, the system will return to normal.
My Troubleshooting steps, (over the course...

SyDiko

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Good news!

After providing Intel support a crap load of information about my issue (including this thread/journal), they are issuing me a refund for the chip. Thankfully, they don't have any more in stock and I'll be able to get off the 8th gen line altogether. Needless to say, I'm relieved I was able to prove my case with them, which took just 3 days.

In case anyone's wondering, I'll briefly go over my particular experience with the process below,

1 - They wanted me to update all drivers, etc.
- In my situation everything in my system was up-to-date driver-wise, so that wasn't something I could try.

2 - They asked about my motherboard version and BIOS
- Like my drivers it's also kept up-to-date, and set to its defaults. (No overclocking done.)

3 - Remove the RX580 and run off the Intel graphics alone. (In which case, the issue persisted.)
- This was essentially the sticking point for the processor being the culprit. I also provided some logs from Core Temps in which it's clear that core 0 and 1 were going from an average load of 3% and then spiking to 100% out of no where and locking up the PC for about 30 seconds. They didn't even bother having me try anything else after seeing this.

That said, with the refund coming in I'm going to leave Intel's 8th gen behind and pick up an i5 9600k as a fair gain. There is the choice of spending an extra $100 and grabbing an i7 8700k, but some of those chips have been on the shelf for about 2 years and I don't want to risk getting another dud.
 
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SyDiko

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Good riddance.

Seriously! And, I feel like I'm the only person that bought an 8th gen CPU lol. My buddy at work bought the i7 8700k, but isn't having any issues.

I've been debating on the i5 9600k or just go for the $400 i7 9700k. My last chip was an i7-870 first gen and it was solid until last year when it really started showing its age.
 
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SyDiko

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It's been awhile since I've posted in this thread, but just a quick update... Went ahead and purchased the i5-9600K and installed it (just 5 minutes ago). I'm going to be sending the i5-8600K back to Intel for my refund.

Fingers crossed this chip runs flawlessly, will post back after ample testing.
 

SyDiko

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Few months later and I'm still trying to solve this problem.

Found an interesting thread: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/ethernet-causes-windows-to-freeze.3415407/, not sure how I didnt read through this when I first started troubleshooting.

Essentially, 2 folks with the same network driver, and same problem! One guy mentioned the ER-X router and guess what I have?! An ER-X router! I think I've finally found the culprit to this problem.

This is probably my last ditch effort at this, but I think I have a new game plan.

First i'm going to troubleshoot the router and upgrade the firmware. Its not super behind on updates, but perhaps the snuck a fix in since the guy in the other thread said he'd reach out. Hopefully he did! Then, I'm going buy another router and hopefully bring some closure to this whole thing once and for all!

(I'll report back one way or another!)
 
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SyDiko

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I believe that I've made some serious progress with this issue!

1 - Upgraded my EdgeRouter X (ERX) firmware from v1.10.x to v2.0.6

Now this is super critical, because there was a beta for v2.x.x and in the above forum post one of the posters said that they were going to open support threads with Intel and Ubiquiti. It took some time, but I was able to find their Intel thread, https://forums.intel.com/s/question...219v-with-edgex-unstable-win10?language=en_US

The Intel engineer has him try a bunch of diagnostic stuff, but apparently Ubiquiti support had him try upgrading to v2.x.x firmware (beta at the time) and he reported that the issue went away - and this was confirmed by all users suffering from the problem!

The problem: I219-V with EdgeRouter X becomes unstable randomly during any external network traffic.
What happens: Network traffic spikes very high (broadcast storm), see my earlier screenshots.
Short Fix: When the issue happens, unplug your network cable, and the system comes back immediately. If you don't unplug the network cable, the system will eventually come back after 2-3 minutes.

Apparently, this whole issue is sort of like a broadcast storm and it only affects the I219-V NICs. This make sense because I changed my motherboard earlier this year and both boards utilize the same adapter. My girlfriend's rig (where I interchanged some parts for troubleshooting) is the same chipset family, but uses the Realtek Gbe and that NIC doesn't have the issue.

After upgrading my ERX's firmware I was up until 3AM EST trying to get the lock ups, but it seems the issue has been solved! I went to troublesome sites that were prone to cause the lockups and none of the tell-tale signs presented themselves, network bandwidth didn't spike, nor did the system freeze..

Seems like the resolution to the problem is upgrade your ERX firmware from v1.x.x.x to v2.x.x if you're experiencing this issue.

(I'm going to link this thread to the one on intel's site so it helps folks resolve their issue.)

and, if you don't hear from me again, please assume that the issue has been resolved for me! :)
 

SyDiko

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Jun 14, 2017
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Final Post - Its been over a month and still lockup free. :)

Problem: I219-V NIC connected to an EdgeRouter X on router firmware less than v2.0.6 may cause a broadcast storm.

Symptoms,
  1. Any type of network traffic can cause the system to become unresponsive/lock up.
  2. Sometimes immediately before or during the lock up, the system's network usage will spike extremely high and sustain the high bandwidth. I'm not sure how high it actually reaches, but I've seen usage between 400 and 3,000Mbps. (See earlier troubleshooting screenshots as an example.)
  3. If you unplug the network cable from the system during the broadcast storm, the system will return to normal.
My Troubleshooting steps, (over the course of several months)
  1. Reinstalled Windows countless times
  2. Reinstalled drivers countless times
  3. Changing Page File Settings
  4. Swapped HHDs (2.5 SSD to M.2 SATA)
  5. Swapped Motherboards (Gigabyte to ASUS), but they had the same NIC (Note: A different NIC would have likely solved the issue.)
  6. RMA i5-8600K for refund, and went to i5-9600K
  7. Upgraded Replaced CPU cooler
  8. Switched cases
  9. Tested different RAM modules
  10. Tested different Video Cards
  11. Upgraded Router's firmware to stable version v1.10.x (Apparently at the time, Ubquiti's expermintal v2.0 still had issues.)
  12. Tried different switches too (D-Link > Netgear > TrendNet dumb switches)
Solution,
  1. Upgrade your EdgeRouter X to firmware version v2.0.6 or higher. (Any lower firmware versions, even v2.0.5 can cause the broadcast storm!)

(Case closed!)
 
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pcuser12

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Hey, thanks for posting this. I was trying to track down this issue since I put this build together in December 2018. I went as far as to install a second PCI-E NIC that didn't lock up the PC, thinking it was simply a faulty NIC. I would still get a few random loading issues including Twitch error 4000 / 2000, or images failing to load intermittently. Finally, upgrading the ER-X firmware has resolved the problems.
 
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