Question PC Freezing randomly for a few seconds

Oct 11, 2019
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So I am having problems similar to this thread https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...-a-few-seconds-at-a-time-hdd-related.3373873/ (locked I assume)


So I am in the exact same situation as this thread but it appears it was never resolved. I don't have paging on my HDD drive, I have an SSD which has my os on it as well. My PC will randomly freeze for about 3 seconds every few hours. Right when it happens you can hear the HDD drive make some noise, I don't even really use it.

Has anyone ever had this problem or know of a fix?
 
If the drive is making noise at the same time you are having the lag, then it would certainly seem to be relevant. Is this a game related problem or just in general?

What are your full hardware specifications?

How old is the drive?

How BIG is the drive?

How much free space is there on the drive?

How much free space on your SSD, AND is there a page file allocation on the SSD or do you have virtual memory completely disabled?
 
Oct 11, 2019
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he drive is making noise at the same time you are having the lag, then it would certainly seem to be relevan


What are your full hardware specifications? i7 9700k, gtx 1080, 16gb ram, 500gb SSD, 2tb hard drive

How old is the drive? : new, whole system was bought in December from a vendor - cyberpower

How BIG is the drive? 2 tb

How much free space is there on the drive? Both drives have plenty of free room. SSD has 300 gb free and the harddrive has something like 1.5 tb or more free.

How much free space on your SSD, AND is there a page file allocation on the SSD or do you have virtual memory completely disabled? - I do believe there is page file allocation on the SSD, it was manually adjusted a while ago and I've just now removed it, I haven't had a freeze since but they're infrequent.

There is defo no page file allocation on the hard drive.
 
With 16GB of RAM, it shouldn't be an issue. And I would not recommend completely disabling the page file. In fact, I'd just leave it on "let windows manage........." IF you are running Windows 10 because it does a wonderful job of doing so, unlike previous versions of Windows.

If you are running Windows 7 or 8, then I'd set the SSD to min 2048 and max 2048, which is plenty, more than enough for any system, and in that way it will not be constantly trying to rewrite the page file. It will remain static, pretty much.

Then make sure nothing is allocated for the HDD. ONLY do that if you are not running Windows 10.

What is your motherboard model and what BIOS version are you running?

What is the brand and model of the HDD in question?
 
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Oct 11, 2019
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Okay, so I've set paging to be automatically set by windows.

I left this as a trial and it is still happening. It's happened only once and I am not sure if the HDD made noise though.

I guess I am going to try setting paging to zero.

I do also have my 1080 overclocked, not sure if this would cause freezing though.

Since I only want to change 1 variable at a time I'll set paging to zero and wait for another freeze.
 
Oct 11, 2019
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HDD2:2TB (2TBx1) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+68] (Plus
16GB Intel Optane Memory HDD Acceleration 18X Faster (Secondary
Storage Drive) [+29])


The overclock reduction didn't work. Just froze.
 

akaikisaki

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Would it be possible for you to connect and check with another HDD to see whether the problem still exists.

The last time when I faced the same issue, it was my HDD which was the cause for all this. At the moment, I am using a Laptop's internal Drive (which was in my Playstation 3) and using it in my Desktop.
 
Download Seatools for Windows.

Install it. Run it.

Choose the HDD from the list of drives. Run the Short DST (Drive self test). If it passes that, then run the long generic test. The long generic will take a LONG time to run, so let it run. If it seems like it has made no progress for more than an hour, then stop the test. The test will take longer than an hour most likely but you should be able to tell if it is still progressing or not. If it passes that, it's not likely to be a drive issue. If it fails either test, then try a different SATA data cable and a different SATA power cable from the PSU, to see if that makes any diference while re-testing. If it doesn't, and it still fails either test, try a different SATA header to connect the data cable from the drive to on the motherboard and re-test. If it still fails, replace the drive.

If it never fails any of the tests, then your problem is probably not drive related.

Also, DISABLE system restore for all drives. You are much better using any of the many third party disc image backup utilities than you are using system restore which honestly never fricking works right for anybody who needs it to anyhow. If the system is borked enough to NEED system restore, you can rest assured, it won't. Plus, the reason I say to disable it is because it will tend to fire up and run itself at the least convenient times, and often, so disabling it ensures that it is not responsible for the random hits on performance.

The other thing you want to do is to disable automatic drive optimization. You can run degragmentation or TRIM manually, as needed. Disc optimization will definitely cause problems like those you are experiencing if it starts trying to run TRIM or defragment while you are doing something, and it will do that.
 
Oct 11, 2019
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I don't have windows restore on for that drive. I haven't touched the setting.

Something that I think might be relevant is the fact that it might be the drive slowing down, it seems to be the same sound the drive makes when the computer is put to sleep.
 
It doesn't have to BE on that drive. It can be on for ANY drive. Windows uses significant CPU, memory and drive resources when backing up a restore point.

I'd still disable system restore, you can always enable it again later if you really want to, and automatic drive optimization, to see if that makes any difference.

And, run the tests I outlined on the drive. If there is a problem with the drive they should show up in one of those two tests. Take a look at the SMART info for the drive as well to see if there are any issues that show up. You can use Crystaldiskmark or a similar program, or even look at the SMART info in Seatools.