[not solved] Please help me diagnose system freeze

[biluinaim]

Hello,

I've opened another thread a few days ago when I thought my PC's issues were being caused by the GPU, but I've now changed my mind after spending some days through various tests, so I thought I'd open a new thread.

My issue is that the PC freezes and reboots while playing games. It doesn't do it with all of them or all of the time. I should mention, however, that this PC was my very first build in 2012 and while I know what's what in a computer, I don't know very much about hardware so that's why I'm here!

There's unfortunately very little in the dump information (from one of the reboots that occurred while running XCOM 2):
Dump File : 022316-13281-01.dmp
Crash Time : 23/02/2016 02:22:25
Bug Check String :
Bug Check Code : 0x00000124
Parameter 1 : 00000000`00000000
Parameter 2 : ffffe001`b3cd7038
Parameter 3 : 00000000`00000000
Parameter 4 : 00000000`00000000
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+677a89
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 10.0.10586.103 (th2_release.160126-1819)
Processor : x64
Crash Address : ntoskrnl.exe+677a89
Stack Address 1 :
Stack Address 2 :
Stack Address 3 :
Computer Name :
Full Path : G:\Windows\Minidump\022316-13281-01.dmp
Processors Count : 6
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 10586
Dump File Size : 262,144
Dump File Time : 23/02/2016 02:22:29


System information:
Windows 10 64-bit build 10586
Motherboard: ASUS M5A78L-M/USB3
CPU: AMD FX(tm)-6100 Six-Core Processor
RAM:
- 2x 4GB Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz
- 2x 8GB Corsair CMZ8GX3M1A1600C9 Vengeance DDR3 1600 Mhz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti
PSU:
- (Usual PSU) Corsair CX750 Builder Series CX 750W ATX/EPS 80
- (Currently installed, for testing) Zalman ZM500-GS 500W ATX Power Supply

I have a 1TB HDD drive as well as a 500GB SSD that I dual-boot.

Tests I've run:
- SeaTools on the drives, no errors
- CCleaner
- FurMark || Preset 1080 result: 1798 points
- Memtest86, no errors
- Hot CPU Tester Pro, ran the Lite tests for 6 hours, no errors

Basically I can't reproduce the freeze/reboot running tests, and I can only really grasp what comes in software form! I've tried to look in the BIOS, but I really don't know what I'm looking at/for.

Can somebody please point me in the right direction? I've no idea what's wrong (if anything) and I've run out of tests to run on my own.

I should also specify that I turned off the automatic reboot in the Windows settings but that didn't seem to help.

Thank you!

 

[mbarnes86]

Hi

Have you tried running with only 2 x 4GB RAM for a few days and latter with only 2 x 8GB RAM ?

How often does the crash occur, once a hour? once a day? (can you live with once a day crash)

how long has PC been on when crash occurs?

are you overclocking anything if so go back to default settings (both motherboard & GPU)

Turning of 'automatic reboot on error' is usefull in some cases as you can read & then write down the BSOD error code

Is the other PSU making any difference to frequency of crashing?

regards
Mike Barnes

 

[BadActor]

Monitor your temps while playing games to see if it's a temperature related issue. Check your Event Viewer to see what errors may have led to the crash. You can also run WhoCrashed to get some insight on what may be causing your issues.

http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed

 

[biluinaim]

Hi

Have you tried running with only 2 x 4GB RAM for a few days and latter with only 2 x 8GB RAM ?

How often does the crash occur, once a hour? once a day? (can you live with once a day crash)

how long has PC been on when crash occurs?

are you overclocking anything if so go back to default settings (both motherboard & GPU)

Turning of 'automatic reboot on error' is usefull in some cases as you can read & then write down the BSOD error code

Is the other PSU making any difference to frequency of crashing?

regards
Mike Barnes

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your reply. The crash depends on how I use the PC. If I run games with high requirements (e.g. XCOM 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, which is why I originally thought it'd be the GPU) the crash occurs every < 5 min. When I'm using the PC at 'minimum' capacity (software development, internet browsing, etc) I have yet to have any freezing or rebooting issues at all.
On the one hand, I can live with this because the computer is 'usable'. On the other, I'd like to get the most out of this PC - it should be able to run the games above!

How long the PC has been on doesn't seem to be a factor - I switch it off every couple days tops and it doesn't seem to make a difference whether I've just switched it on or if it's been on for 24/48 hrs.

I am not overclocking anything (to my knowledge!) and the 'automatic reboot on error' is disabled.

I think the 500W PSU has made the crashing slightly less frequent but still frequent enough that I can't play.

Sorry I selected a solution by the way, I can't find how to de-select it...

 

[biluinaim]

Monitor your temps while playing games to see if it's a temperature related issue. Check your Event Viewer to see what errors may have led to the crash. You can also run WhoCrashed to get some insight on what may be causing your issues.

http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed

Thank you, I had already tried both but with no luck.

WhoCrashed:
On Sat 27/02/2016 11:13:30 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: G:\Windows\Minidump\022716-13156-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlmp.exe (nt!WheapCreateLiveTriageDump+0x81)
Bugcheck code: 0x124 (0x0, 0xFFFFE001262B9228, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR
Bug check description: This bug check indicates that a fatal hardware error has occurred. This bug check uses the error data that is provided by the Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA).
This is likely to be caused by a hardware problem problem. This problem might be caused by a thermal issue.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.
2 crash dumps have been found and analyzed. No offending third party drivers have been found.

Event Viewer:

Unfortunately I haven't been able to identify exactly what's going on in there as there are several events for each reboot/freeze and they all seem quite generic:

The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x00000124 (0x0000000000000000, 0xffffe001262b9228, 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000). A dump was saved in: G:\Windows\Minidump\022716-13156-01.dmp. Report Id: 6f479995-5711-4ef2-913b-8d84cbae83dc.

and

The previous system shutdown at 11:08:56 on ‎27/‎02/‎2016 was unexpected.

for example...


Temperatures:
I think these are ok - HWMonitor says that the highest on the motherboard is 49C, 37C for the processor and I think the GPU has gone up to 80C tops while using FurMark. Should probably specify though that if the temps spike before the PC crashes I don't know if I have any way of recording it.

 

[BadActor]

That's kind of a generic error and could be caused by hardware of driver issues. Uninstall and reinstall all the latest drivers. Then run Prime 95 with small FFT's and monitor your temps. Make sure temps on the CPU stay below 60C. If you don't have any issues, considering the other steps you've already taken, try putting the GPU in another PC and see if the problem follows it. If the card turns out to be OK, I would replace the motherboard.

 

[biluinaim]

That's kind of a generic error and could be caused by hardware of driver issues. Uninstall and reinstall all the latest drivers. Then run Prime 95 with small FFT's and monitor your temps. Make sure temps on the CPU stay below 60C. If you don't have any issues, considering the other steps you've already taken, try putting the GPU in another PC and see if the problem follows it. If the card turns out to be OK, I would replace the motherboard.

I've just finished updating the BIOS, I just noticed it was over a year old... But nope, same crash when tested. I also ran Prime 95 as you suggested, passed the small FFT without going over 55C.

I haven't tried isolating the RAM sticks as Mike suggested yet because the memtest passed with no errors, but that's my next step... BadActor, I'm guessing you're pointing towards the motherboard because all components seem to be ok from these tests? Is there anything that can be done to diagnose problems on the motherboard itself? I just want to be extra sure I don't buy parts I don't need :/

 

[BadActor]

There's no real good way other than to try and eliminate all other possibilities as you've been doing.

 

[BadActor]

You might try reinstalling the OS as a last resort, but I really don't think that will help.