Question Older PC freezing issue, unsure of the cause

Viccehh

Honorable
Feb 17, 2017
9
0
10,510
part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/6HgTrD

My PC freezes at seemingly random moments. Sometimes quickly after boot. Sometimes after running for a while.
The pc is around 4/5 years old, but has decent parts, with relatively new RAM & PSU, and mostly runs fine.

Problem is as follows. The screen freezes, yet the system keeps running and the fans spin.
This happens at different times: sometimes when I’m playing a game, sometimes even when I’m AFK. While the system is running it is running fine and I experience no issues playing 
relatively demanding software & games.



Some things I’ve tried/observed:

- I stress tested the CPU & GPU and they both handled them fine, with good temperatures and performance.

- scanning for viruses didn't yield any results

- The reset button doesn’t work while the computer is frozen and I can only shut It down by long pressing the power key.
 After I boot the system again everything is fine until the problem repeats.


- After booting the EZ Debug led on my mobo flashes briefly on DRAM and then a bit longer on VGA before turning off.

- Today I cleaned and reinstalled all the parts, reapplied thermal paste and got a different case and that didn’t change anything.
(Just trying to rule out any electrical interference or other issues with the old case I used and it was time for an upgrade)


- Another weird issue that funnily enough has stopped happening recently is that sometimes my PC wouldn’t boot at all. This started around 2 years ago and when this occurred, disconnecting the pc from the power for an hour or so before reconnecting usually fixed this issue. It would then happen again after I shut down the system, and try to boot it later while still connected to the power.
 At this time this problem has gone away for some reason, but it might point to being a problem with the mobo?



I’m by no means an expert but I personally suspect it being an issue with the Mobo or GPU. Unfortunately I don’t have a spare Gpu to test if this is the problem. But it would be great if there’s a way to rule out one or the other so I can replace a part if needed.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 

dfflick

Commendable
May 20, 2020
14
6
1,515
Are you running Windows? If so, have you checked the event viewer for errors?

I'm leaning toward suspecting the PSU and wouldn't be surprised if you have errors related to power.