Question PC randomly freezing and fans going to maximum power

[InfiniteTurbine]

Here's the parts list. I built it over a month ago.

Over the last month, at least 11 times, I've had this issue where my display freezes for a bit, then it goes out, and then the fans go on full power. It's happened mere minutes after booting up the PC, hours into it being on while web browsing, and in the middle of intensive gaming. It's happened with variances, too.

Usually I have to hold down the power button and shut it down, but ~3 times the PC actually restarted itself. Usually there's just a simple 5-6 second long screen freeze into the screen loss into the fans powering up, but some of the times I've heard audio disruption and/or slight or even loud buzzing through my headphones while the screen is frozen. The most recent time the screen actually stayed frozen for over a minute, too, which was different.

What I've done and considered in attempt to diagnose / fix the issue:

• Checked CPU cooler, seems perfectly secure and snug.
• All PSU cables seem connected fine.
• I'd considered a faulty HDMI cable, but the issue has happened w/ two different HDMI cables and now with a DVI cable.
• I suspected some kind of CPU or GPU temperature issues, but I monitored those while doing normal things and intensive gaming and saw no abnormal temperatures..
• Googling. The best possible answer I've found so far doing that is it's possible the thermal paste inside the GPU isn't on right, but that doesn't really add up when the issue doesn't seem to be related to temperatures.
• BIOS updating. Someone suggested to me after like the fourth instance of the issue. The issue actually stopped happening for a week and 5 days following this, but then it started happening again.
• Checking Event logs. Error, Warning, Critical, Information, and Audit Success and Failure: nothing shows in the logs at the times when the issue occurs, except for the times the PC rebooted itself. I'm not sure what could be told from those logs.
• Checked MSI Afterburner Hardware Monitor logs. I had this hardware monitor running for a while for when the issue occured again, and it was on during the 9th occurrence. However, it either stopped right before it could record anything abnormal, or nothing abnormal could be detected b/w CPU and GPU temp, usage, and power usage...
• I've had someone suggest my GPU was likely instantly overheating, due to poorly applied thermal paste and/or a dead spot in the fan(s). I have yet to look into this.
• I've had someone suggest purchasing an electric meter and figuring out what I can from that, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

I'm tired of dealing with this, it's preventing me from playing competitive multiplayer games like I want to. Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[Ralston18]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS.

Include PSU: make, model, wattage, age, condition?

Look in Reliability History and Event Viewer for error codes and warnings that correspond with the time of the PC freeze ups.

Post accordingly.

 

[InfiniteTurbine]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS.

Include PSU: make, model, wattage, age, condition?

Look in Reliability History and Event Viewer for error codes and warnings that correspond with the time of the PC freeze ups.

Post accordingly.

Hi, thanks for replying. I linked to a list of all of the PC parts, it's the very first thing in my post. The OS is Windows.

The PSU is as new as the rest of parts, bought a little over a month ago. Seasonic 520 W 80+ Bronze Fully Modular ATX PSU.

Thanks for mentioning reliability history, I had no idea that existed. As mentioned above, the event viewer has told me seemingly little about the issue. This reliability history seems to have some stuff, though.

Here's what it looks for the most recent occurrence, the 11th one, on Sept. 27th. The 6th occurrence has a similar set of messages in that same imgur link.

This is all that shows up for the corresponding time and date for the 10th occurrence. A similar message is there for the remaining occurrences. In general, there's a lot more "Windows was not properly shut down" critical errors than I expected to see. Nearly 30 total since the PC was built, just spread out. Not sure if this is relevant or not.