Question Random few second freezes

[Defiantt]

Hi,

Recently I've been having an issue where my computer just starts hanging/freezing for a few seconds every 20-30 seconds or so, on and off.

The annoying thing is, the issue happens very randomly. For example, it can go away for a few days and then come back at any point. Doesn't matter what i'm doing, I could be gaming, browsing, watching movies, etc. and it'll come back. It straight just keeps hanging/freezing on and off with no indication of what's causing it; no mouse movement, no keyboard input, the sound stutters, etc. every time it hangs.

Even worse, the issue does not leave any errors in Event Viewer, nor does it cause any blue screens, making it difficult to isolate the issue. It goes away when I power cycle my computer, but if i restart my computer without fully powering down (the windows 10 restart option), it persists even from the windows 10 loading screen.

Furthermore, I've had this same issue a few weeks ago at which I thought it was because of my RAM, since after the first few times it happened I scanned my RAM using Memtest86 and it had 3-4 errors, so I swapped it out with an older set from a previous build which I then scanned and it had 0 errors (I even rescanned it last night to make sure). It went away for 2-3 weeks, but the issue came back a couple days ago.

I'm not even sure if it's hardware or software related at this point. I feel like if it was hardware it would bluescreen or give me some type of indication in event viewer? but i'm not really sure. It's also hard to say if the issue is software related because it happens so randomly, even if i boot into safe mode to test it, how could I tell since it just might not happen at that time.

Side notes:

• Checked RAM (ran memory test twice now on this set - 0 errors)
• Checked Overheating (CPU stays around 30-40c casual use, up to 60c when gaming | GPU at 53c idle - fans don't spin when idle, up to 70-75c if gaming)
• Checked CrystalDiskInfo for my storage health, nothing unusual
• I haven't installed anything suspicious on my PC
• Scanned with Malwarebytes nothing came up
• I don't mind reinstalling Windows 10, but i'd rather not have to if avoidable.
• BIOS is on latest version for this board (4.30)

Specifications:

• CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K Stock speeds
• GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 Gaming SC 8GB Stock speeds
• MOBO: AsRock Z390 Taichi
• STORAGE: Samsung 860 EVO 500GB (OS), Intel 660P m.2 NVME (Games), WD 500GB 7200RPM HDD (files)
• PSU: EVGA B3 650W
• OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

Any suggestions and/or help is appreciated, thanks.
Also, sorry if this is the wrong section, since i'm not sure what's causing it, i just put it under windows 10.

 

[Defiantt]

Bumping as I'm still encountering the issue and could use some help.

I've been noticing that the freezes also seem to happen whenever I do heavy writes to my 660P NVME SSD, such as large game updates. I don't really install anything big to my 860 EVO or HDD so it's a bit difficult to test if it's consistent amongst all my drives or specific to that one.

When I updated Modern Warfare via Battle.net (~50GB update) it was fine up until the end when the launchers installation bar said "reclaiming disk space", the 660P disk usage spiked to 100% and the 5 second freezes started.

 

[Defiantt]

Bump, still encountering this issue. Since my last post to today I was able to use my PC casually to browse, watch videos, etc. without any issues, but still encountered the issue whenever I put a heavy load on my drives.

Today, I reinstalled Windows 10 (fully formatted my 860 EVO and 660P), installed all the windows updates and then the latest drivers from my manufacturers websites. Other than that, all I downloaded was Google Chrome, HWInfo, and Battle.net.

Afterwards, I tested it and installed Modern Warfare (biggest game I know to stress the drive) to my 660P, the issue still remains... It actually got even worse after the reinstall, since it happened starting from about 30% through the installation rather than at the end.

The freezing remained even after the installation, and actually became even more frequent for some reason as well to where I had to restart. When the freezes did happen I noticed a 100% usage spike in different components each time (either my 660P, 860 EVO, CPU, or even GPU).

The issue didn't even go away after a hard restart, the intermittent freezing started even from the Windows 10 loading screen... I had to power down and reset the PSU to get rid of it. Even now I still get the occasional freeze under casual usage.

To list again what I've done:

• Disk checked all my drives, no errors.
• CrystalDiskMark, shows normal benchmarks.
• CrystalDiskInfo, shows everything is in good condition.
• CPU temps are fine.
• Disk temps are fine.
• I ran Memtest86, no errors.
• Reinstalled Windows 10 completely.
• Checked for loose cables.
• Ran UserBenchmark (freezing happened once during a GPU test, and a few times during the sustained write portion)

Would really like some insight on what could be causing this issue. I'm assuming it's not software related since it's happening even after a full reinstall of Windows 10. I'm thinking maybe a PSU or MOBO issue?