PC freezes only at home not at friends house

monilp01

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Jan 18, 2018
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I recently built a pc in November for Black Friday, and it’s been working great eversince this January. It randomly freezes whether it be playing games or looking at an article or watching a YouTube video. At first I thought it was windows 10 issue(that’s the os I’m running) so I reinstalled windows 10 and all my games. Even during the reinstallion process my computer froze twice. I can’t switch the leds on my keyboard on or off, and I make unable to move my mouse or click anywhere. If it freezes while a YouTube vid is in the background, the audio wouldn’t continue to play for a bit and then die off. When it does freeze nice error displays on the screen it just stays stuck on whatever was being displayed at the moment. Even weirder, I brought my PC over to much friends house, and it froze once after 3 hours of gaming. When it did freeze some audio saying” device accepted” was heard before the computer froze and the screen turned black. Thinking this was a virus we opted to reinstall windows once again, while formatting gen hard drive as well. After doing this and settings up the computer no freezing occurred. When I brought it back home on the same day it froze twice before I even got into a game. Any help on what the problem could be?
Specs:
Ryzen 3 1200
Asrock ab350m pro4 mobo
ZotAc 1050ti OC
2x4 ddr4 ballistix sport ram
A 320gb hardrive(from friend)
Evga 450w 80+ psu
 
320GB hard drive is likely "very" old, as nothing that small has been in mainstream production for a number of years, and your friend likely used it for a long time before giving it to you. That's the first thought.

You can download and run Seatools for Windows, which is free, to test the drive. You will want to run the Short drive self test (DST) and the Long generic test. The Long generic test will probably take several hours to complete, so expect to let it run a good long while during that test without doing anything else on the system until it is finished.

https://www.seagate.com/files/www-content/support-content/downloads/seatools/_shared/downloads/SeaToolsforWindowsSetup.exe


The second thing I see is that you have a pretty low quality power supply. The only EVGA power supplies that are "good" and are recommended for use with any system that employs a discreet gaming card are the B2, G2, G3, BQ, P2 and T2 units. The W1, N1, B1 and Supernova NEX units are not particularly good and have high and early failure rates when paired with the constant demands of gaming cards.


Also, if you are using a power strip at home to plug the computer PSU into, ditch that, and plug directly into the wall socket. You can use the power strip to plug the monitor and other stuff into if you HAVE to, but power strips are notorious for causing these and many other kinds of problems, and don't actually protect your system from any kind of surge or brown out anyhow. They are simply, for the most part, there to provide a false sense of security and possibly offer VERY minimal protection from extremely minor events that would likely not bother a modern power supply anyhow.

Only high end surge protectors from companies like Tripp Lite, Leviton and Eaton offer ANY real protection at all, and even those aren't going to stop a major surge, like if lightning hits a transformer near your home, from causing damage. Power strips and surge protectors from companies like Monster, Belkin and Amazon are merely power splitters and nothing more, and are generally extremely cheaply made with only the most basic, cheap MOV's used inside. Plugging directly into the wall can eliminate many problems these units create that affect power quality which would not exist when they are not in use.


Lastly, for now, make sure you have motherboard bios version 3.30 or newer installed. There are a great many fixes included in several of the bios revisions that affect hardware compatibility, and one of them may be relevant to your problems. Could be a memory or storage controller issue. Could be CPU related. Regardless, it's a good idea to be on the most recent bios version, or if you do not wish to install the very latest version that includes the Meltdown and Spectre microcode updates, then at least make sure you are updated to at least version 3.3 which is a November release. No need to do EACH update. Every update includes ALL previous updates as well.
 
Thank you so much for your response!
I read over your post, and i see the listed problems that you conveyed. The thing about this problem is that started to occur in January this year, i think after the lateset windows update not really sure. Due to this i feel like my psu cannot be the main source of the problem. I will try to install the hardrive testing tools, and see if any problem is found from there. I will also try and but my pc power cord into the wall over a 6 block adapter. My bios version is updated 3.30. I updated to the latest version of Windows 10, and the drivers that i have installed(MOBO, Realtek, GPU) are all up to date.This problem occured to me last night, while playing a game called fortnite. My screen froze on the loading screen, and i was on a discord call with my friend at the time, I was still able to talk to my friend on discord, but i was unable to use my keyboard or mouse. There are several different way my computer freezes and i dont know the connection behind it.

1) My pc freezes and the display on the screen is gone(my monitor goes to sleep if nothing is being displayed on it)
2)my pc freezes on the screen it was displaying at the moment, but if theres audio in the background i can hear it still, sometimes the audio glitches or something like that
3)my pc freezes and is stuck on what ever it was displaying at the moment, all audio is gone from whatever was running in the background ex: youtube video.

all scenarios im unable to use my keyboard or mouse. my keyboard has an led option, and im unable to turn it off when the freezing occurs. My mouse dpi changer, however, im able to use but since i cant use my mouse theres no point.
Some times when scenario one occurs, my keyboard led also turns off, and im unable to turn it back on.
All the times the freezing occurs, my pc stays one and all fans are still spinning, Even when scenario 1 occurs. The fans dont blare on anything when this problem occurs either.
Back on when my pc froze yesterday night, i decided to let it stay at that state and monitor what would happen if i just let it stay in its frozen state. When i woke up in the morning, the fans were still running, so at first it was still frozen. When i moved my mouse and clicked my keyboard, the lock screen appeared on my monitor, I logged in and realized that the pc manually restarted itself, since Fortnite or Discord werent open(these two things were open when the freeze happened)
Sadly i went to sleep after the freeze so i was unable to monitor when the computer actually restarted. most i can get out is it restarted in a 7 hour time frame, which is really long, Another thing is that scenario 2 occured during the time. Not sure what the outcome would be if any other scenarios were to occur.

Hopefully this information will give some sort of insight on the problem i am facing, and hopefully a solution to it as well.
Thank you so much for your help once again,
Monil

So, first of all, the PSU can ALWAYS be the problem, whether you have a 200 dollar Titanium power supply or a twenty dollar pile of crap that isn't even 80plus rated at all. There is never ANY situation where the power supply could NOT be the problem. PSU issues can look like ANY other problem on a computer, because they are the only component that affects ALL other hardware. Never rule out a PSU as being the problem, especially when you have a known low quality unit, like that one.

Does that mean it IS the problem, no, however, often times it's not only necessary to replace a low quality unit in order to eliminate it as a potential problem, it's also a REALLY good idea to do so as well. It doesn't make any sense to put the rest of your system at risk of early failure or data corruption due to using a low quality power supply when a much, much better unit could be had for less than fifty bucks. PSU is where EVERYBODY tries to skimp, and is the ONE place that they should never try skimping.

I'll look at the rest of your reply and get back to you with a further reply here in a bit, soon as I have a chance. Thanks.
 

monilp01

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Jan 18, 2018
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one crash happened yesterday night at 11:58 and one today at around 4:50(didnt pay attention). Both crashes i just let the computer sit there on dead lock hopefully thinking they would resolve the problem by itself. Turns out the comp did restart on its own.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/394151327732596736/404036476435955723/10.PNG
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/394151327732596736/404036480957415424/11.PNG

the event log doesnt show the time of crash, however it does show when the computer shut down by itself during the crash. i searched up the event and task number and this microsoft article came up:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/2028504/windows-kernel-event-id-41-error-the-system-has-rebooted-without-clean
Im pretty sure scenario three happens to me as written in the article, just not sure about the stopbugcheck stuff.

What does this information say about my issue?
 
Specifically, it doesn't say much. That's a pretty broad range of problems that can be caused by a variety of errors, of the type that don't allow for recovery or in some cases even a log file. You can check to see if there is a dump as follows, but we'll likely need to pull in another member to decode it as I'm somewhat weak in the area of decoding dump files.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-update/bsod-finding-and-fixing-them/1939df35-283f-4830-a4dd-e95ee5d8669d?auth=1

Chances are still good this is a PSU problem though, but there are a bunch of other things it could be as well such as an older incompatible .dll or driver file, bad memory or failing drive as well. See if you can locate the dump file, upload it to a text file hosting service and then link to the file from here.
 

monilp01

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Jan 18, 2018
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i cant find a dump file in the location the link said to go to, should i follow the steps given below on how to find a dump file if its not there? ( will it show previous dump files?)


 
Yes, it could be in another location. Or, there may not be a dump file if the system is unable to create one before it loses power/restarts/freezes.

Honestly, I think most troubleshooting is a waste of time with the power supply you have because those cheap EVGA units are known for all kinds of different problems, much as any cheap PSU might cause.

It would be very much to you benefit to get a better unit and THEN if there is still a problem, it narrows things down considerably.
 

monilp01

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Jan 18, 2018
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I was considering the same. I did build this pc on a budget(mainly because i wanted to build it from my own money and not using my parents at all) which is why my choice is psu was pretty "cheap"
Any recommendations on what psu i should aim for? Id say semi modular is an option, but also money is a factor and something that fits my wattage needs.
 

monilp01

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Jan 18, 2018
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I live in canada, and i bought this current psu on sale for like 40 with tax(pretty cheap lmao) but if a good psu is what i need then im willing to go upto $70, and maybe $80 if its really good. Something cheaper is always loved :)

 
Yeah, my face frowned when you said Canada. Crap. Stuff is so expensive up there. I don't know how anybody can afford to have a decent computer in Canada OR in Australia. This is probably your best, least expensive option, that actually gives you a reliable unit.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($84.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Total: $84.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-01-20 22:06 EST-0500




But if you absolutely HAD to, you could get by with this. Not nearly the same quality, performance or longevity of the higher end Seasonic unit, but still probably twice as good or more than that low end EVGA B unit.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: SeaSonic - S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Total: $64.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-01-20 22:08 EST-0500

 

monilp01

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Jan 18, 2018
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Yeah its pretty expensive up here, especially with tax and all.
So far im leaing towards the Seasonic Focus, especially since i can pay $5 extra for 100 more watts. How does this psu work?
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139147
its in the same price range as the Focus, but it has free shipping :)

 
Not good. If you want to go with a CX or CXm unit, you want the 2017 models. They are still far and away not as good as the Seasonic, by a long shot, but still much better than what you have now. This would be the unit I'd recommend if you wanted one of those, but I'd advise against it because even though they last longer than the older CX and CXm units, they only do so because of a more aggressive fan profile, which means a louder PSU, rather than because they improved the capacitor selection, which is what they SHOULD have done, but didn't.

At least, not to any significant degree.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($73.99 @ PC-Canada)
Total: $73.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-01-20 22:40 EST-0500
 

monilp01

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Jan 18, 2018
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I dont plan on upgrading too soon, so might as well put some extra money into something good. Ill order the seasonic focus psu, and see if the problem occurs still in the future, if so ill be posting here again lol.
Thank you so much for your help really appreciate it!!
Expect an update coming soon!



 
Yes, and don't be TOO surprised if the problem is not solved, but even so you'll have done two important things.

One, protected your hardware with a much higher quality power supply and eliminated the idea that the PSU is the problem. In which case, it will make it easier to figure out what IS the problem. I suspect that it might be the problem though. I've seen those cheap EVGA units cause no end of troubles for their owners.
 

teslacoilftw

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Aug 4, 2012
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Im pretty sure scenario three happens to me as written in the article, just not sure about the stopbugcheck stuff.

What does this information say about my issue?[/quotemsg]

Looks like 50% of your Critical Events are your Wireless Lan...
another 20% are "network related"...

Are you using a Wireless Lan Card?
Even if your your not.. i'd suggest disabling this to determine if this is the problem.

2nd...
Darkbreeze is correct... PSU issues could be related to any problem you have...
Example A: PSU isn't supplying enough power to HDD... and your Hard drive experiences a Brown out and instead of completely writing a file it only writes half a file and then it's corrupted.
Example B: Your Video card expererences a brown out... this results in your Video card start to artifact cause it can't power all of the card...
The list goes on....

It's safe to say though that if your friend has a PSU that's running on their system.. and you borrowed it could you figure out if the PSU is the issue..
 

monilp01

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Jan 18, 2018
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Looks like 50% of your Critical Events are your Wireless Lan...
another 20% are "network related"...

Are you using a Wireless Lan Card?
Even if your your not.. i'd suggest disabling this to determine if this is the problem.

2nd...
Darkbreeze is correct... PSU issues could be related to any problem you have...
Example A: PSU isn't supplying enough power to HDD... and your Hard drive experiences a Brown out and instead of completely writing a file it only writes half a file and then it's corrupted.
Example B: Your Video card expererences a brown out... this results in your Video card start to artifact cause it can't power all of the card...
The list goes on....

It's safe to say though that if your friend has a PSU that's running on their system.. and you borrowed it could you figure out if the PSU is the issue..
[/quotemsg]


I am using a usb wifi adapter, so ill try to remove it from the pc and use it.
I also posted a new update on darkbreeze's post that may be of interest
 

monilp01

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Jan 18, 2018
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So i installed the new seasonic focus power supply into my computer, and it runs well. However the problem still occurs to me. I even tried moving my computer and monitor to a separate outlet on the wall, but that didnt seem to help either.
One thing i did was i changing my gpu from PCI2 slot into PCI 3 slot. This didnt seem to help either since the problem still occurs. There were two things different know. It felt like i was able to use my computer for a bit longer than before until it actually froze on me. Second thing was that the freezing changed to no video output at all, along with audio.
I was watching a video, when the screen went black (when theres no video being displayed my monitor goes to sleep which is what im guessing happened becasue the light turned orange. When i tried to "wake" it up there was the floating box saying no display). Once the screen went black, the audio from the video played for 2 seconds after until it died off as well. From the 2 encounters in experienced like this today, i was able to turn on/off my keyboard leds and capslock key.
Before when i crashed the only way i could use my computer after was to either wait for it reboot by itself or i had to manully turn off pressing the power button. Now i can press the restart button during the crash and the computer would reboot, or wait for the computer to reboot itself as well.

When it does crash all my fans and leds in my case are still on such as my gpu and cpu fans(wanted to throw that in there)
I also get the same error of Event 41 task 63

hopefully this info might help out in the investigation. Im reluctant to go pay money and get it checked at a computer unless its my last resort(im a kid thats not trying to spend too much)
Thank you for following up!


 
Well, I'd almost have to say it's either the motherboard or the graphics card, and my money would be on the graphics card since the sound keeps playing momentarily after the video crashes.

Do you have, or can you borrow, another graphics card to test the theory? If you don't have the same problem with another graphics card installed, then RMA the graphics card. If you do, RMA the motherboard OR some further testing might be necessary. It might also be helpful to take a screenshot of the HWinfo GPU card sensors and post that image here. In fact, all of the sensors wouldn't hurt. Might be able to pick something out that's out of place.


In order to help you, it's often necessary to SEE what's going on, in the event one of us can pick something out that seems out of place, or other indicators that just can't be communicated via a text only post. In these cases, posting an image of the HWinfo sensors or something else can be extremely helpful. Here's how:

*How to post images in Tom's hardware forums



Run HWinfo and look at system voltages and other sensor readings.

Monitoring temperatures, core speeds, voltages, clock ratios and other reported sensor data can often help to pick out an issue right off the bat. HWinfo is a good way to get that data and in my experience tends to be more accurate than some of the other utilities available. CPU-Z, GPU-Z and Core Temp all have their uses but HWinfo tends to have it all laid out in a more convenient fashion so you can usually see what one sensor is reporting while looking at another instead of having to flip through various tabs that have specific groupings.

After installation, run the utility and when asked, choose "sensors only". The other window options have some use but in most cases everything you need will be located in the sensors window. If you're taking screenshots to post for troubleshooting, it will most likely require taking three screenshots and scrolling down the sensors window between screenshots in order to capture them all.

*Download HWinfo


For temperature monitoring only, I feel Core Temp is the most accurate and also offers a quick visual reference for core speed, load and CPU voltage:

*Download Core Temp

When it comes to temperature issues, taking care of the basics first might save everybody involved a lot of time and frustration. Check the CPU and GPU card sensor readings for wildly fluctuating (Some CPU fluctuation is to be expected on most all configurations) or more importantly, high or red highlighted thermals. It's a good idea to check sensor values at both idle settings when it's been just sitting for at least about five minutes and again with something intensive running if you can manage to run something intensive AND grab screenshots of all the sensors. It usually takes scrolling down and three separate screenshots to catch all the sensor data in HWinfo.
 

monilp01

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Jan 18, 2018
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Ill get the readings tomorrow, just dont have the time at the moment. As for the graphics card im getting my friends old gtx 260 or something tomorrow to use and test, He did say he had issues with this card (his whole screen went purple while gaming and would have to restart) dont think that will be an issue cuz ill just be watching youtube or somehting to test it out.
I havent run a memory test on my computer, will it be necessary? and if so which one should i use
I also tried doing a cpu stress test but my comp froze midst of that so i dont think my comp has the time span to last for a benchmark or stress test.

 
I doubt memory is your problem, BUT is IS possible. Always good to test memory stability and errors anyhow, however, be prepared for it to take a long time to do a thorough test and if you can't do a thorough test it's not worth testing at all. It can take MANY hours to test memory. I recommend five to seven passes of Memtest86+, and seven passes is better. I have seen memory fail after five passes ALTHOUGH failures after two or three passes are less likely to cause repeatable and quickly occuring problems like those you are experiencing so for you maybe four or five passes is enough.

http://www.techfleece.com/2013/07/01/how-to-test-your-ram-sticks-using-memtest86/


If your system is freezing during a stress test there is definitely something wrong, especially since I don't see any indication from you that you are overclocking. What stress test did you run? Are you overclocking your CPU at all, manually OR with an automatic setting of some kind? Not talking about the stock turbo features though. That is normal and not overclocked behavior.

I also don't think I'd advise using a graphics card with known problems. It doesn't matter if you "only" plan to watch Youtube or "something". If the card has problems it is unlikely to be helpful in determining if YOUR card has problems, so it's basically a waste of time. It could also CREATE problems that were not there before if there is a serious problem with the card. You want to use a card that you KNOW does not have any problems when used on another system, so that if it has problems when used on YOUR system you will know that it is something other than the card.
 

monilp01

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Jan 18, 2018
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So im currently rolling with my friends gpu which is a gtx 280 He luckily gave me two graphics card, so i might test both.
He only got the crashing problem while playing this one game and i wont be playing it so im too worried about it crashing. I took pictures of both monitoring systems with the gtx 280. Im just going to surf around and see if i do freeze with this card. I put it in the PCI2 slot not sure of which PCIE slot i put it in matters but might as well add it. One more thing, my 1050ti doesnt require gpu cables from the psu whereas this card does(an 8 pin and 6 pin), also wanted to trow that in there

Update: its been over an hour of using the gtx 280 ive had a video open the whole time, and i havent experienced any sort of crashing so far. By this time on my 1050ti id have crashed like 3 times

 

monilp01

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Jan 18, 2018
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Huge Huge update on the situation. It turned out to be the motherboard. The gtx 280 I was using didnt experience problems at first, but later on it also began to experience crashing issues. I was starting to wonder if it could really be the motherboard. I went on newegg and started checking reviews of my motherboard, and the latest/ most recent reviews i read all talked about how the motherboard had issues and a lot of the problems that people put was about crashing/freezing/hanging. I was lucky that i didnt send the card in for RMA at this point, i had it packed up and all and was about to deliver it the next day. I already RMA's the motherboard. Currently im waiting for the RMA to be approved so i can buy a new motherboard from a different brand. Thank you so much for the help guys!!