[SOLVED] PC locks up - Starts as a soft lock and slowly lose total control

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Savage One

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Over the past few weeks my PC has gotten to where it will randomly (more often when idle) lock itself up. I notice because any RGB elements that are controlled are turned off. When it happens I cannot open or close programs, but I can still use any that are open. Eventually no program will respond, then later still I lose control of peripherals. Once it "begins" the only way to shut down or restart my PC is by cutting power, windows will close programs but not actually shut down.

Windows 10
RTX 3080 oc'd
i7-5820k oc'd
NZXT c850W PSU
MSI SLI Plus x-99a motherboard
Kingston 120 GB SSD
Samsun 512 GB SSD
2 Tb WD HDD

All drives are healthy, all CPU / GPU temps are fine.

I reduced my CPU overclock and it seemed to lengthen time between lock ups, but it quickly became more frequent again, I suppose it could be CPU degradation, would be a big help if anyone could confirm, or if this was a placebo.

Windows event viewer is somewhat inconclusive. Last event before the last lockup was *Failed to initialize LanternRock SDK: 0x00040201. Reason: S_NO_OPTIN (telemetry not opted-in) * but I cannot find anything on google about that.

Thanks.
 
Last edited:
Solution
cpu is troublesome part of PC, we sort of checked the other normal suspects.

i tried to play an ARPG made in 2010 on my 4k screen and it was too small. That and to account for larger screen drawing size, i could see way more of surrounding area at any time, meaning you couldn't run off screen to avoid things as you would just run into another group.

I think we done here. Unless it starts throwing BSOD and then we might have something to work with.

Savage One

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Maybe I should say Event viewer/custom view/admin events isn't overly helpful in figuring out a crash But I am sure Event viewer has its uses, I just don't use it very often myself.
It is best place to read logs.

I don't know why it didn't record anything
Well it's cool, I know you're keeping this very professional demeanor and I respect it, but I can't take anything too seriously so I've been kind of silly, I apologize lol. Still, PC hasn't locked up yet. I'll wait a few more days before I feel confident that it stopped the problem. I think the longest it's went without doing it since it's started was like 4 days.
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
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Silly works for me. I just try not to be in here as you can never tell how people will react. Some people don't like being silly, some of us find its the only way to live, if you take everything seriously the world can get really grey. I generally refuse to take anything seriously but well, people come here to fix their problems, not for entertainment. So have to be serious sometimes...

its possible thread just hadn't gone on long enough for me to be silly back :)
 

Savage One

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Silly works for me. I just try not to be in here as you can never tell how people will react. Some people don't like being silly, some of us find its the only way to live, if you take everything seriously the world can get really grey. I generally refuse to take anything seriously but well, people come here to fix their problems, not for entertainment. So have to be serious sometimes...

its possible thread just hadn't gone on long enough for me to be silly back :)
Well no offense, but I hope this thread doesn't have to be much longer :p Alls still good. If it goes a couple more days I'll say it's most likely fixed. I will be quite upset if it starts again in say.. .2 weeks. But I guess that's just the nature of the matter. It's already gone longer without locking up than any time between lockups before.

Again, I'll wait a couple more days and I think i'll be convinced and I'll give you your trophy :p
 

Pretzel12345

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Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

if that doesn't help,

does it happen in safe mode?
go to settings/update & security/recovery
under advanced startup, click restart now button
this restarts PC in a blue menu
choose troubleshoot
choose advanced
choose startup options
click the restart button
choose a safe mode (it doesn't matter which) by using number associated with it.
Pc will restart and load safe mode

if not, could be a driver.
if it still does, its likely a hardware problem.

how new is the PSU?

does it happen if you remove OC completely?

event viewer never much use figuring out problems really
Hi, So im having a similar issue with the guy who posted this thread except mine just locks up randomly and unlocks about 15- 30 seconds after. Done similar troubleshooting including bios, chipset driver updates, drive checks, windows reinstall and others. You mentioned hardware, anything specific? (all components are fine, only thing new is i got a new cpu and motherboard)
 

Savage One

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Hi, So im having a similar issue with the guy who posted this thread except mine just locks up randomly and unlocks about 15- 30 seconds after. Done similar troubleshooting including bios, chipset driver updates, drive checks, windows reinstall and others. You mentioned hardware, anything specific? (all components are fine, only thing new is i got a new cpu and motherboard)
I'm not gonna be anywhere as helpful as my man there, but I'd go ahead and list what specs you have and try to further elaborate on your problem for when he sees this.

What (I think) finally helped me realize what (I think) the problem was, I thought back to a random crash I had that was abnormal and made windows "intervene". See if you can't think of anything similar, or if it was just out of the blue.

It'd probably also help to know if these problems began immediately after you got a new MB and CPU, or if it was weeks or months later.

Anyways, I was just trying to make sure that you could get all of this out there to help speed up the process a bit, but he's the expert so I'll let him take it from here . :p
 

Savage One

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who is being serious now? :D

I will stop replying now. Unless it starts again...

runs away.
I was FINALLY thinking it was fixed but it just did it again. I did happen to reapply my overclock after the SSD repair, so since it's doing it again, I'm inclined to think my overclock is what made it take so long. Sound about right? If you have any more ideas I'd be delighted, but I think I'm gonna have to just run my CPU till it dies and see if any of the new ones are in stock by then ;)
 

Savage One

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Did you do this?
Sorta kinda, I can fairly freely change the values of my CPU in the BIOS, but it seems to be that loading profiles that I've made was the problem, more so than just lowering the voltage. However the voltage is currently up a bit, lowering the voltage seems to make the lockups more frequent.
 

Savage One

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At least we know why its doing this, its been overclocked for 4 years and won't run slow anymore. Guess its just worn out.
I will add that, my last hope for it being anything other than my CPU... You mention that it could be startup programs.. I have a controller and software for a set of fans I have that I had gotten fairly recently.... The software has been nothing but a nightmare, if my PC is under heavy load it seems to stop responding momentarily, when my PC locks up the software is the first thing to go (hence me mentioning that I can tell what's happening by my fans going to their default state)... sometimes the software doesn't even see the controller randomly.

I've tried a couple of third party programs in order to try to get by without using this one, but I can't seem to get any of them to recognize my fans either.
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
Can you download and run Driverview - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/driverview.html
All it does is looks at drivers installed; it won't install any
When you run it, go into view tab and set it to hide all Microsoft drivers, will make list shorter.

Can you take a screenshot from (and including)Driver name to (and including)Creation date.

upload it to an image sharing website and show link here

Just see if you have any weird drivers. Since clean boot doesn't stop it, its possible that fan software has a driver attached.
Who makes the fans? what was software?
 

Savage One

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Can you download and run Driverview - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/driverview.html
All it does is looks at drivers installed; it won't install any
When you run it, go into view tab and set it to hide all Microsoft drivers, will make list shorter.

Can you take a screenshot from (and including)Driver name to (and including)Creation date.

upload it to an image sharing website and show link here

Just see if you have any weird drivers. Since clean boot doesn't stop it, its possible that fan software has a driver attached.
Who makes the fans? what was software?
I'll do that give me a couple minutes. The fans are Thermaltake Riing. The software is TT RGB Plus, the "official" software for the fans by Thermaltake.
 

Savage One

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Apr 2, 2016
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Can you download and run Driverview - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/driverview.html
All it does is looks at drivers installed; it won't install any
When you run it, go into view tab and set it to hide all Microsoft drivers, will make list shorter.

Can you take a screenshot from (and including)Driver name to (and including)Creation date.

upload it to an image sharing website and show link here

Just see if you have any weird drivers. Since clean boot doesn't stop it, its possible that fan software has a driver attached.
Who makes the fans? what was software?
https://gyazo.com/c3517509c774912da41c05996627cedc
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
it probably uses ene.sys, its a common enough rgb program. its on your PC. I know Gigabyte & Asus both use it.
your motherboard doesn't have any rgb
I pretty sure Icue doesn't include it. i can't tell as I have a Gigabyte board. I have both their rgb software and Icue on here, so i have ene but I also have another that comes with it on Gigabyte boards so it could be either.

if you removed the software, you can use https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns to stop it running at start up. This doesn't stop other programs using it if needed.

scarlet crush can cause BSOD but i doubt it do this, its the software you can use for PlayStation/Xbox controllers.
Corsair AIO? or RGB controller? i see USB drivers associated with them and maybe an older version of Icue. latest version is 3.37.140
Depending on age of Logitech stuff, G Hub might replace Logitech Gaming Software
 

Savage One

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it probably uses ene.sys, its a common enough rgb program. its on your PC. I know Gigabyte & Asus both use it.
your motherboard doesn't have any rgb
I pretty sure Icue doesn't include it. i can't tell as I have a Gigabyte board. I have both their rgb software and Icue on here, so i have ene but I also have another that comes with it on Gigabyte boards so it could be either.

if you removed the software, you can use https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns to stop it running at start up. This doesn't stop other programs using it if needed.

scarlet crush can cause BSOD but i doubt it do this, its the software you can use for PlayStation/Xbox controllers.
Corsair AIO? or RGB controller? i see USB drivers associated with them and maybe an older version of Icue. latest version is 3.37.140
Depending on age of Logitech stuff, G Hub might replace Logitech Gaming Software
Hmmm I'll try to address everything.

When it comes to ene.sys, or RGB in general the only addressable RGB I have are Headset, Keyboard, mouse, AIO block, my fans, and the 3080 Founders Edition has an RGB led on it.

My motherboard does not have RGB, nor an RGB header.

I'm not sure about ICUE and any drivers they use, but I use both ICUE and Corsair LINK, but I've had those programs for years.

I guess you're meaning if I removed the software for my fans? Unless I find a viable alternative, I think I'm stuck with it, as it also controls the speed of my fans in relation to temps, or so I think.

I don't really remember installing Scarlet Crush, I remember a long time ago I did download something to try to use a PS4 controller, but I don't think it was that. But as you said, I'm not getting BSOD.

I do have a Corsair AIO, but the fans for my radiator are non RGB, I use a ICUE for that, and the case fans are the Thermaltake fans. I've intentionally left ICUE on the version it's on because they meshed ICUE and Corsair LINK together, and I didn't really like it. If you think it would cause problems doing this I may reconsider, but again, it's been years.

The Thermaltake fans use a physical controller that communicates with the software, I'm unsure about your question regarding the AIO and RGB controller.

I use a G910 Keyboard and G502 mouse. I didn't even know Logitech had a new software, but again, I've been using it for years.

I do appreciate you letting me know what's out of date though.
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
Scarlet crush is used by a lot of software as the drivers, its not the name of the software you use.

if you install G Hub you have to uninstall LGS or it will keep running. I had a G910 until about 2 months ago :)
G hub may expect you to make a new colour scheme on the G910. I know I had to. Your choice if you change really, don't have to.
Main reason I did was I had a 4k monitor on last PC and although windows ran at 150% scale most of the time, LGS ran at native and I needed a microscope to read its interface. G Hub ran at right text size.

Most of time I fix BSOD posts so identifying drivers is what I do.
the drivers i thought were rgb controller are part of link. Up to you with corsair software. If it works, don't fix it.
 

Savage One

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Scarlet crush is used by a lot of software as the drivers, its not the name of the software you use.

if you install G Hub you have to uninstall LGS or it will keep running. I had a G910 until about 2 months ago :)
G hub may expect you to make a new colour scheme on the G910. I know I had to. Your choice if you change really, don't have to.
Main reason I did was I had a 4k monitor on last PC and although windows ran at 150% scale most of the time, LGS ran at native and I needed a microscope to read its interface. G Hub ran at right text size.

Most of time I fix BSOD posts so identifying drivers is what I do.
the drivers i thought were rgb controller are part of link. Up to you with corsair software. If it works, don't fix it.
Ight I got you, thanks. So I guess the verdict is just.. old CPU? lol I feel you with the scaling though, I have a 1440p monitor and I've been playing a lot of older Paradox games recently that have no GUI scaling, can be painful.
 

Colif

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cpu is troublesome part of PC, we sort of checked the other normal suspects.

i tried to play an ARPG made in 2010 on my 4k screen and it was too small. That and to account for larger screen drawing size, i could see way more of surrounding area at any time, meaning you couldn't run off screen to avoid things as you would just run into another group.

I think we done here. Unless it starts throwing BSOD and then we might have something to work with.
 
Solution

Savage One

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cpu is troublesome part of PC, we sort of checked the other normal suspects.

i tried to play an ARPG made in 2010 on my 4k screen and it was too small. That and to account for larger screen drawing size, i could see way more of surrounding area at any time, meaning you couldn't run off screen to avoid things as you would just run into another group.

I think we done here. Unless it starts throwing BSOD and then we might have something to work with.
Alright then, I'll award ya, but if I start getting BSOD I'll make another thread then, maybe you'll make another appearance :p
 

Savage One

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Apr 2, 2016
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cpu is troublesome part of PC, we sort of checked the other normal suspects.

i tried to play an ARPG made in 2010 on my 4k screen and it was too small. That and to account for larger screen drawing size, i could see way more of surrounding area at any time, meaning you couldn't run off screen to avoid things as you would just run into another group.

I think we done here. Unless it starts throwing BSOD and then we might have something to work with.
WELL AS IT WERE, I just had a BSOD, but it went away so fast I couldn't see any error codes, is there a way to retrieve this?
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
Well, event viewer might show you a report saying what code was (yes, I know). Can you look? It might give me a clue.

In case there is a next time,

Can you follow option one on the following link - here - and then do this step below: Small memory dumps - Have Windows Create a Small Memory Dump (Minidump) on BSOD - that creates a file in c windows/minidump after the next BSOD

  • copy that file to documents
  • upload the copy from documents to a file sharing web site,
  • and share the link in your thread so we can help fix the problem
that will show much more than just the code.
 

Savage One

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Well, event viewer might show you a report saying what code was (yes, I know). Can you look? It might give me a clue.

In case there is a next time,

Can you follow option one on the following link - here - and then do this step below: Small memory dumps - Have Windows Create a Small Memory Dump (Minidump) on BSOD - that creates a file in c windows/minidump after the next BSOD

  • copy that file to documents
  • upload the copy from documents to a file sharing web site,
  • and share the link in your thread so we can help fix the problem
that will show much more than just the code.
What should I look for in event viewer? ;)
 

Savage One

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Apr 2, 2016
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Well, event viewer might show you a report saying what code was (yes, I know). Can you look? It might give me a clue.

In case there is a next time,

Can you follow option one on the following link - here - and then do this step below: Small memory dumps - Have Windows Create a Small Memory Dump (Minidump) on BSOD - that creates a file in c windows/minidump after the next BSOD

  • copy that file to documents
  • upload the copy from documents to a file sharing web site,
  • and share the link in your thread so we can help fix the problem
that will show much more than just the code.
Actually, it has "cortical error" but, I'm not sure how to get more information from the event.