Permanent freezes a few minutes after booting, sometimes.

[jonathonveitch83]

My computer has been permanently freezing for a while now, when it does it's always a few minutes after boot when I haven't really done anything yet, and both the screen and audio stop, the mouse and keyboard also stop registering inputs (I get this from the fact that the Caps Lock light doesn't light up when I press the button), to unfreeze my PC I have the force shutdown.

Here's what I have tried to far:
I swapped the motherboard twice,
Reset windows 4 times,
Updated all my graphics drivers,
Ran Memtest86 on my RAM (both together and separately) with no errors.

Specs:
FX-8350
Asrock 970 Pro3
Corsair H60
Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB
GTX 1060 3GB
Corsair CX750M

If you have any ideas, I would love to here them.
I plan on switching a basic 500w PSU in to see if it does anything.

 

[terry4536]

Well, it really depends on the quality of these VRMs and it´s always better to have more of them (6+1/2), especially with CPUs more than 95Watt. These FX CPUs are very power consumpting and therefore stress the boards very much. These can work with a good quality 4+1 or 4+2 board, but it´s more likely that it doesn´t run stable. So all I´m saying is, it´s a recommendation for the CPU you have and I think this is the problem in your case.

Next thing after the PSU replacement: eventually the CPU itself is faulty

I would think if the CPU was faulty that the problem would be about booting not freezing. The CPU would need to be reasonably healthy to pass POST. Plus the freezing problem is intermittent which just complicates troubleshooting. I suppose there are degrees of being faulty.

 

[helpstar]

"faulty CPU" in the meaning of "doesn´t work correctly in some operations"

Would run prime95 (option smallFFT) for 10- 30 minutes while AMD overdrive is running too and monitor the temperature margin (near 0 and negative value means CPU overheating). Also have a look if the frequency of the CPU is dropping to 1400MHz or 800MHz.

Did your problem start at some point of changing hardware like the GPU or did it happen before too?

 

[jonathonveitch83]

Well, it really depends on the quality of these VRMs and it´s always better to have more of them (6+1/2), especially with CPUs more than 95Watt. These FX CPUs are very power consumpting and therefore stress the boards very much. These can work with a good quality 4+1 or 4+2 board, but it´s more likely that it doesn´t run stable. So all I´m saying is, it´s a recommendation for the CPU you have and I think this is the problem in your case.

Next thing after the PSU replacement: eventually the CPU itself is faulty

I got a replacement PSU and it froze again, same symptoms. Looks like I'll move onto testing the CPU.

 

[terry4536]

Which motherboards were you testing with this CPU?

I think it was the Gigabyte ga-970a-ds3p but I can't be 100% sure, but when I used this board the system would freeze 2 minutes after boot EVERY time, no matter what. So whatever the issue is it was worse with this board apparently.

I was rereading the thread, and something popped up. It appears that most of the freezes seem to happen shortly after booting especially with this motherboard. What is happening about two minutes after booting? Windows is loading all of the programs and applications.

Freezes often are software related. Open Task Manager and go to Startup. Look down the list and click on any applications that have a medium or high impact on startup and use the Disable button at the bottom of the page (This can be reversed later.). Next, go down the same list and disable any applications that you don't use on a daily or weekly basis and Disable those too. (leave any Windows system related applications)

This doesn't remove the application. It just means that they will start only when you use them( slightly slower). A side benefit it should shorten the start up time. When applications are first loaded, the option is defaulted to load at startup. This clogs the start up with many applications all loading in a small amount of time.

But back to the problem if the problem is software related, then if it is one of the start up disabled applications it will freeze when you start that application. That allows you to delete it , and reload the latest version of the application (or another one entirely).

 

[jonathonveitch83]

Which motherboards were you testing with this CPU?

I think it was the Gigabyte ga-970a-ds3p but I can't be 100% sure, but when I used this board the system would freeze 2 minutes after boot EVERY time, no matter what. So whatever the issue is it was worse with this board apparently.

I was rereading the thread, and something popped up. It appears that most of the freezes seem to happen shortly after booting especially with this motherboard. What is happening about two minutes after booting? Windows is loading all of the programs and applications.

Freezes often are software related. Open Task Manager and go to Startup. Look down the list and click on any applications that have a medium or high impact on startup and use the Disable button at the bottom of the page (This can be reversed later.). Next, go down the same list and disable any applications that you don't use on a daily or weekly basis and Disable those too. (leave any Windows system related applications)

This doesn't remove the application. It just means that they will start only when you use them( slightly slower). A side benefit it should shorten the start up time. When applications are first loaded, the option is defaulted to load at startup. This clogs the start up with many applications all loading in a small amount of time.

But back to the problem if the problem is software related, then if it is one of the start up disabled applications it will freeze when you start that application. That allows you to delete it , and reload the latest version of the application (or another one entirely).

The freeze, as it turns out, doesn't always happen after booting, its happened a few hours after booting as well it's just that didn't happen until after I made the title. However, with the gigabyte board it did happen consistently a few minutes after boot, ALTHOUGH it also froze during windows reset which I don't think has any background apps running, so I'm not sure what to make of it.

 

[terry4536]

Here is an article on PC Freezes. I've been reading a few of these to see if I'm missing anything. This article is a good explanation of the problem.

https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000690.htm

 

[helpstar]

you can try this
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929833/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system

also you can try Ubuntu live, if it freezes there too

 

[terry4536]

you can try this
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929833/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system

also you can try Ubuntu live, if it freezes there too

The OP has reset Windows 10. And a reinstall after replacing the motherboard (I think). But it can't hurt.

 

[jonathonveitch83]

you can try this
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929833/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system

also you can try Ubuntu live, if it freezes there too

The OP has reset Windows 10. And a reinstall after replacing the motherboard (I think). But it can't hurt.

Yeah, I reset windows after changing motherboards. I think I have an Ubuntu installing somewhere, if I come across it I'll try it, I don't want to run it off USB in case it's not totally stable.

 

[jonathonveitch83]

Update: I swapped out my GTX 1060 for my old GTX 750ti and it didn't help, the system froze again the next day.

 

[helpstar]

In Ubuntu too? Ubuntu live wouldn´t harm anything, installation is not necessary for testing

Did you check the CPU with prime95 yet?

 

[jonathonveitch83]

In Ubuntu too? Ubuntu live wouldn´t harm anything, installation is not necessary for testing

Did you check the CPU with prime95 yet?

I haven't checked Ubuntu yet, but I did run Prime95. Keep in mind I've never used Prime95 before so I'm not sure what I'm doing, I ran whatever the default test was and it ran 3 or 4 "tests" in 30 minutes with 0 errors or warnings. As for temps, my CPU reached a max of 69 degrees Celsius and the CPUTIN reached 85. My CPU throttled just at the end of the test dropping from 4 to 3.3 GHz on some of the cores. However my system didn't freeze or stutter during this test.

Any thoughts?

 

[helpstar]

run prime95 with the option smallFFT

 

[jonathonveitch83]

run prime95 with the option smallFFT

I've run that now too but it still didn't change anything, similar temps and my system remained stable.

 

[helpstar]

run windows system integrity check:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929833/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system

AMD drivers are up to date for the motherboard?

Does the event viewer show any more problems?

run memtest86 from an USB flash drive, use the USB autoinstaller. Run the test at least for two complete cycles:
http://www.memtest.org/download/5.01/memtest86+-5.01.usb.installer.zip

run prime for about 2hours, read the thermal margin with amd overdrive while running prime

unplug the USB header of your case, which had the smoking issue (too much voltage)
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-3660485/motherboards-usb-voltage-high-fried-usb-drive.html

please don´t open so many threads for the same problem 😉

 

[jonathonveitch83]

run windows system integrity check:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929833/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system

AMD drivers are up to date for the motherboard?

Does the event viewer show any more problems?

run memtest86 from an USB flash drive, use the USB autoinstaller. Run the test at least for two complete cycles:
http://www.memtest.org/download/5.01/memtest86+-5.01.usb.installer.zip

run prime for about 2hours, read the thermal margin with amd overdrive while running prime

unplug the USB header of your case, which had the smoking issue (too much voltage)
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-3660485/motherboards-usb-voltage-high-fried-usb-drive.html

please don´t open so many threads for the same problem 😉

Yeah, sorry about the other threads, when they stopped gathering responses I made a new one with updated info but then they both became active again.

Anyway, in response to some of your suggestions: I have up to date drivers. I check the even viewer for problems after each freeze but it only shows that I force restarted my system, nothing before/during the freeze. I have run 4 cycles with Memtest86, both single sticks and all together, on a USB with no errors found (but you never know). And I replaced the MOBO with high USB voltage (even though the other plugs were fine), and I'm still not sure why the voltage was so high since physical damage to traces would normally result in 12v or unstable 5v.

I just ran Windows System File Checker and it found no issues.

 

[jonathonveitch83]

Alright, so I have a new SSD so i can test whether it was the boot drive or Windows installation, but I have a few questions.

How can I make a bootable Windows drive from this SSD when I've already got Windows installed on a different SSD? I ask this because I don't want to change the initial SSD because it still has some files on it.

Can I still use my original drive for file storage, even if Windows is still installed on it, if I don't boot from it?

My Windows 10 installation is linked to my Microsoft account, if I boot the same system from the new SSD can I just sign into my account and Windows will activate?

Thanks for any responses.

 

[helpstar]

You can just unplug your current SSD and install windows onto the new SSD and check if all is fine. Even without logging into the Microsoft account windows should activate this windows without problems. You can login as you like.

"Can I still use my original drive for file storage, even if Windows is still installed on it, if I don't boot from it?"
Yes

 

[jonathonveitch83]

UPDATE!!!!

I never reinstalled windows, I tried but it just seemed to be stuck on the windows logo when booting the installer.

Anyway, after a whopping 13 days without a freeze (I don't remember changing anything, there was a windows update though) my computer gave in and blue screened. When this happened my audio went nuts, also, on the blue screen it said IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, and when it finished gather information about the crash it just seemed to hang for ages at 100% and I had to force restart my computer.

Any new ideas about what's happening? I remember getting this blue screen error in the past but I can't remember when.