PC randomly freezes / reboots - Is my hard drive dying?

[mikro236]

I've been having this problem where at random times my computer would freeze up completely suddenly and without warning: the image onscreen gets completely frozen, unable to even move the cursor, any sound playing suddenly goes silent, but the computer tower itself doesn't make any strange noises. I have to hold down the power button and restart it. This would usually happen about once every other day.

Now I've upgraded from my old computer to a custom build (specs below) and the problem's gotten worse. Now there are periods where every time I try to turn it on it will freeze before it even gets to the login screen, but usually if it has been off for a while I can manage to get it running for at least an hour. Strangely, it seems that now any sound playing will stutter when it freezes instead of going silent. Sometimes the computer will even reboot itself when it happens.

I've tried updating drivers to no avail. A friend suggested it might be a HDD issue, and told me to check the blinking red LED. I noticed it stopped blinking whenever the pc froze. He told me to run

chkdsk C: /f /r

in command prompt and restart to run a scan of the drive, but alas, it froze while doing the scan.

My HDD is the only original part left over from my old prebuilt (other than the disk drive), so it's about 3-4 years old. Is it time for a new one?

Current PC specs:

• 
  AsRock ab350m pro4 Motherboard
  AMD Ryzen 5 1600 CPU
  Team T-Force 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-pin DDR4 3000 RAM
  EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB GPU
  Rosewill Glacier 600W PSU
  1TB 7200RPM HDD (came with model)

 

[doolittle]

...I've upgraded from my old computer to a custom build (specs below) and the problem's gotten worse...

If you simply took your old HDD and put it into the new build, windows usually has problems when you do this as it is expecting the old motherboard and really cannot put all the new drivers in place properly like a fresh install would - I would grab the latest Win10 1709 ISO, put it on a USB and install proper. Could be the reason why the chkdisk can't complete due to other underlying driver problems that are kicking in while the scan is running.

What I would do, is grab a copy of Ubuntu 17.10.1 desktop ISO then put it on a USB stick and boot from it in live mode, and you should have a 100% running desktop OS without having to worry about any windows problems while your troubleshoot your HDD. If you install SmartMonTools that will allow you to see the SMART status of your drive, which may give an indication of if there is a health problem or not. On the 2nd page there is a mention of using GSmartControl as a GUI if you are not a terminal / console person (although it is linux!)

You can also use it to fix your NTFS filesystem like chkdsk would. Install "gparted" using "sudo apt-get -y install gparted ntfs-3g" to install the tools you need, and run "gparted" to analyze your HDD for the proper partitions then "sudo ntfsfix -b -d /dev/sda{x}" where {x} is your NTFS partition. Example of that here. You can also do a full read scan using badblocks, although be very careful NOT to use the write test option as it is destructive (although that is very handy on a blank HDD, and I highly recommend at least one pass on used or refurbished disks).

Good luck!

 

[mikro236]

I would grab the latest Win10 1709 ISO, put it on a USB and install proper.

Would that wipe all of the files on the drive? I've already backed up some stuff but I don't really have much more space other than two USBs, and it's difficult to keep the computer on long enough to copy anything over. If I do end up needing a new HDD anyway I would prefer to keep the files I have on this one so I can just copy them to the new one.

 

[DSzymborski]

I would grab the latest Win10 1709 ISO, put it on a USB and install proper.

Would that wipe all of the files on the drive? I've already backed up some stuff but I don't really have much more space other than two USBs, and it's difficult to keep the computer on long enough to copy anything over. If I do end up needing a new HDD anyway I would prefer to keep the files I have on this one so I can just copy them to the new one.

You may be better off buying a new hard drive and installing Windows to *that* hard drive with the old drive disconnected. That you don't have everything important backed up at all times is a serious upkeep issue; the additional task of trying to preserve data that should have already been protected as a matter of course adds another layer of difficulty to solving issues such as this.

And if the problem doesn't turn out to be the hard drive, you *really* needed a backup solution and you'll now have one. Then you can set up software that will automatically backup your important data to your other hard drive daily.

 

[doolittle]

It is possible to do a windows 10 install and preserve your files, as mentioned here (scroll down to the section "Solution 2. Clean install Windows 10 for Windows 7/8 users") and just choose keep personal files instead of "nothing".

However, IMHO you have the right idea, if you install fresh to a blank HDD or SSD that is the best solution this way none of the old cruft is left over and you can use the old HDD to recover what you want.

May be a good idea to do boot into ubuntu live USB like I mentioned and try to fix the filesystem and recover files, example here

 

[mikro236]

Okay well... I got an SSD over the weekend and installed it, and now it's the only drive inside the machine. And it's still freezing.

I am reusing the SATA cables from the previous drive... maybe they're the issue?

EDIT: Replaced the SATA cable with a new one that came with the motherboard, still no difference.

 

[doolittle]

bummer, a good start may be to boot up memtest and let it run for at least few passes (I usually leave it run for 8h overnight) - if you have the ubuntu usb you can boot off of it while holding down the shift key after post (example here) or just grab the dedicated iso of the latest version here.

Maybe good to double check your memory specs and make sure they are being detected properly in the BIOS (I think memtest also shows the memory timings on the status page), you can also try enabling / disabing XMP profile and see if that makes a difference.

 

[mikro236]

Well, I tried running memtest from an ubuntu live USB stick, and lo and behold, it froze... I think.

Everything is frozen, including the timer, but the red plus sign in the top left is still blinking somehow... it's the only time I've seen I've seen something on the screen manage to stay animated during a freeze like this. The red storage LED still stopped blinking, and it was unresponsive to every key press except escape. Pressing that restarted the computer.

What's going on?

 

[doolittle]

hmm I have seen it freeze up with SMP enabled, but since it's disabled it should run...

Try with just one stick instead of both (you have 2 x 8Gb right?) It did make it through to 38% so it is possible it could be an issue with the first stick of ram...

Also try to boot up Ubuntu in live mode and see if it freezes with normal desktop use? (browse firefox, open up libreoffice or openoffice etc.) that would also be somewhat of a stability test. Also reading some problems with ASRock firmware versions and Ryzen, can you check your boards firmware version?

May also be worth checking your ram timing specs and see if they jive with what the motherboard sees, maybe try enabling or disabling XMP and see if that has any effect.

 

[mikro236]

I'm pretty sure it froze once while I was on the ubuntu desktop. For firmware, do you mean UEFI? If so it's P3.00.

I'll try with one stick and see if that does anything, but keep in mind this was happening on my previous build with different RAM and motherboard, just not as frequently.

EDIT: Same deal as before with one stick of RAM.

 

[mikro236]

Well I tried running memtest with one stick at a time on both sticks, and it just freezes both times before it can even get to two passes.

May also be worth checking your ram timing specs and see if they jive with what the motherboard sees, maybe try enabling or disabling XMP and see if that has any effect.

What do you mean by enable / disable? The only options I see in my UEFI for XMP are to choose between Auto and "XMP 2.0 Profile 1". If I choose profile it lets me change the frequency I guess...

 

[doolittle]

So the XMP profile 1 is usually the base timings that are in-spec for the RAM so I would try that. There should also be a profile 2 which is the "enthusiast" set which has tighter clocks which could give better performance but trade of is stability, so best stick to the 1 setting or auto. Auto should be the most stable, so I am thinking there is some type of problem with the motherboard or the firmware version of the board.

Looking at the ASRock site, the most recent versions are 4.5, 4.3 and 3.4. If the board is stable running at the BIOS screen for a good while (no lockups) I would try to update to the latest version since it was just released in January, there is a good vid of that here and may be a good idea to log a support ticket and see what they say about the firmware version you have and the memory compatibility and they can best recommend either upgrading or downgrading the version or even submit and RMA if need be.

 

[mikro236]

So the XMP profile 1 is usually the base timings that are in-spec for the RAM so I would try that. There should also be a profile 2 which is the "enthusiast" set which has tighter clocks which could give better performance but trade of is stability

There's an Auto profile and a 2.0 profile; I can only change specific speed setting in the 2.0 profile. So I set it to that and tried some different speeds including the lowest one possible, and none of them showed any improvement. I also had someone guide me through tinkering with other settings in the bios, cpu voltages, etc, but nothing did anything.

I would try to update to the latest version since it was just released in January

I updated to 3.40 successfully, no apparent changes. I've tried a bunch of other stuff with some other people online helping me and the only thing I figure it can be at this point is either the GPU or PSU. Unfortunately, it is difficult to test those because I have no other GPU to test with and the mobo doesn't have integrated graphics, and I can't test with my old PSU because it's not modular and doesn't have a 6-pin cable for the GPU.

I'll probably just end up taking it into a shop this weekend, it's my last hope.