Random Computer Lockups Solution Needed

xandor123

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Feb 27, 2008
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My computer has been randomly locking up for about a week now. I think it's a hardware (and specifically a motherboard) issue, but I wanted to run it by you folks to check my work.

Every once in a while, my computer locks up completely. Only way to fix it is to do a hard reset. I haven't really been able to figure out any kind of pattern to the issues. Sometimes I'll be a few hours into a session and it'll freeze. Sometimes it'll lock up as I'm starting the computer (as in, I can't get to the login screen). Originally, I tried a few things and then reinstalled my OS (completely wiped the drive in the process). As soon as I loaded into the fresh copy of the system, boom, computer locks up. After it started happening again, I tried to do a system restore and it locked up in the middle of the process. Had to reinstall a second time while the freezing issue persists.

After my first reinstall failed, I figured I'd try disconnecting my 2 non-essential drives and plug them back in one at a time to rule out a hard drive issue. Oddly enough, doing this seemed to fix it until the computer started to freeze again yesterday.

So far, my troubleshooting has been ineffective. I've reinstalled a fresh copy of the OS, adjusted the page file sizing parameters, ran virus checks, used the Windows Hard Drive check and come up empty. System is very well ventilated and runs cool, so it's not a heat issue. The only thing I can think of is that something with the mobo is going out.

Is there something else it could be? Is there a diagnostic tool I could be using to verify?

Specs:

2x 3TB Seagate HDD
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD
ASUS ROG Maximus IX Hero Mobo
4x8GB G.Skill TridentZ RGB Series DDR4 PC4-24000
ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1080 TI 11GB
Intel Core i5-7600K
EVGA SuperNOVA 850

Edit: I'm not sure if this is related, but certain things aren't getting saved after it locks up. For example, I pinned Steam to my taskbar and then a few minutes later the computer locked up. Upon restart, I find that Steam isn't pinned to my taskbar.
 
Freezes and lockups tend to be memory related. Try re-seating your memory modules. You could also try running SeaTools on your HDDs. They are a a little more thorough than the Windows disk check utility. I notice that you have two 2TB HDDs. Are you running a RAID setup?
 

xandor123

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Feb 27, 2008
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Clarkjd: I'll try those things. I'm not running a RAID setup, though I sometimes wish I were. I've got 600 games in my Steam library and a lot of other data. Using it just for storage space.

Kasper: I'll try it, though I've already done it with an older version. Ran for a little over an hour before it soft-locked (meaning that the test was still in progress but not moving, though the blinking cursor was still blinking). I'll give that a shot as well. Couldn't hurt at this point.

Edit: Ran SeaTools, everything checked out and passed. Crashed again, so I took that moment to reseat the memory modules.

Edit again: Reseating the ram didn't work, just had another crash. I ran memtest for a few hours, but I didn't run into any issues there either. I'll run it again tonight to see if there are any issues past the first pass though. Any other ideas?
 

xandor123

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Feb 27, 2008
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Where's the best place to find that info?

Edit: Crashed again, so I took a look in the BIOS. I have my XMP profile set to have my RAM at 3000MHz and processor at 4.5 GHz. I don't think it's actually doing an overclock because according to DXDiag, my processor is hanging at its normal 3.8. I changed my RAM value down to 2133MHz, so I'll see if that works. I think I'll go see if my mobo has a software package to adjust these values. I will say that I've only gone into the BIOS once to do any overclocking, and that's when it was built almost a year ago.