[SOLVED] PC hard freezing under low stress conditions

[icewatergang]

I've been having a problem over the past few months where my pc randomly freezes, and the only thing I can do is a hard reboot. It occurs very randomly; sometimes it never freezes for weeks, but other times (such as today), it froze three times. The weird thing is that this only happens under low loads. The pc has never froze while playing some heavy games (e.g. Cyberpunk 2077), and it only seems to freeze while I'm browsing the web or doing stuff which should not cause any stress to the hardware. I've ran memtest a while ago and there were no errors, and I'm also updated to the latest version of Windows. I also have McAfee and have scanned for malware. The OS also says that all drivers are up to date, so I'm not sure what I should be checking. Could a BIOS update potentially fix this? What else could I check?

Specs:
Intel i5-6600
Gigabyte Z170M-D3H-CF Motherboard
MSI Nvidia GeForce 1050ti
16GB DDR4 RAM
Some old Antec PSU

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

The PSU would be my first suspect. How old is it and what is the make and model of the unit? Also, you should've paired the Z series chipset with a K suffix processor. Which BIOS version are you working with at the moment and what is the make and model of the rams?

 

[icewatergang]

The PSU came with the case and it's at least 10 years old. I can't seem to find a good replacement for it. I've also been running an outdated BIOS (F7 from https://www.gigabyte.com/ca/Motherboard/GA-Z170M-D3H-rev-10/support#support-dl-bios), so I updated to the most recent version today... I'll let you know if that fixes the problem. I don't know the specific make of the ram but they're two 8GB G Skill sticks

 

[DisplayIssue]

OP not trying to hijack, but your issue sounds very similar to mine? (You can find it in my post history)

My PC is locking up during low stress situations (just web browsing, working in office, etc) too. Does yours go to a Black Screen? Or does the current display just kind of freeze in place?

I have McCafe on my machine too, which is something I hadn't thought of. But when you mentioned having it, it got me thinking: could it be causing the issue somehow? (Probably not! Probably just a coincidence. We're using very different builds (you are NVIDA & Intel, I am AMD/AMD.)

Hope you find a solution soon (and me too!)

 

[icewatergang]

OP not trying to hijack, but your issue sounds very similar to mine? (You can find it in my post history)

My PC is locking up during low stress situations (just web browsing, working in office, etc) too. Does yours go to a Black Screen? Or does the current display just kind of freeze in place?

I have McCafe on my machine too, which is something I hadn't thought of. But when you mentioned having it, it got me thinking: could it be causing the issue somehow? (Probably not! Probably just a coincidence. We're using very different builds (you are NVIDA & Intel, I am AMD/AMD.)

Hope you find a solution soon (and me too!)

For me the screen just freezes. The audio freezes too and it makes a weird noise. I’m not sure if McAfee plays a part but who knows

 

[DisplayIssue]

OP have you tried updating the Chipset Drivers & Bios version to the latest for your motherboard? I have tried it and while it did not fix my issue it changed the behavior of of the issue and now gives me error codes etc that may help. Just something worth it to try.

 

[icewatergang]

OP have you tried updating the Chipset Drivers & Bios version to the latest for your motherboard? I have tried it and while it did not fix my issue it changed the behavior of of the issue and now gives me error codes etc that may help. Just something worth it to try.

Yeah my Bios was pretty outdated when I started this thread. I haven't had any freezes since updating, but it's only been two days so I'll let you know

 

[icewatergang]

OP have you tried updating the Chipset Drivers & Bios version to the latest for your motherboard? I have tried it and while it did not fix my issue it changed the behavior of of the issue and now gives me error codes etc that may help. Just something worth it to try.

Okay I just had another freeze today. Where do I find the error codes?

 

[DisplayIssue]

Press the windows key/start button, and search for Event Viewer. Once in Event Viewer, on the left menu tree, expand Windows Logs, then click on System. Give it a little time to load. Once it finishes loading you will see all of the Windows System Logs in the right window. Scroll down through them looking for Yellows and Reds. If possible look around the time frame when you know the crash happened. If you can't find any red Errors or Criticals you may have to wait until the crash happens again so it's easier to find.

Please note: you won't always find some kind of error in there. When my machine was just totally freezing up and becoming 100% unresponsive, I wasn't getting hits in Event Viewer. However after updating my chipset drivers and BIOS, now I was getting reboots instead of perma-hang, and then I was seeing logs in Event Viewer Windows System.

Go ahead and take a look in there and let us know what you find.

Please note that "kernel-power" critical alert may be caused by cold booting the machine, and not the actual cause/error.