Random Freeze Once in a while

[nawit]

Hey guys first post here so be gentle ,

I recently built my first computer and almost everything is running smoothly. Once in a while (once or twice a week) my computer freezes. Sound cuts out, video stops, but monitors and computer fans stay on. I can seem to find the source of the problem.

I will post any necessary details to find out why this is happening as people ask for it, seeing as I am not sure what sort of details you guys may look for.

Thanks for your help.

 

[eshepard]

Does it happen during specific activities?? Playing a game?? Copying a files??

 

[nawit]

Does it happen during specific activities?? Playing a game?? Copying a files??

It happens randomly. Mostly when I'm playing League of Legends, but 80% of the time I am on my computer I am playing the game anyways.

 

[suteck]

What is your video card and psu brands and models? Have you tried taking the side off the case to see if it continues to happen then? It might be a heat build up issue. Have you monitored the internal temps with a side gadget or core temp? What case do you have? Good air flow?

 

[nawit]

EVGA GTX 550 TI- Video Card

Rosewill CHALLENGER-U3 Black Gaming ATX Mid - Case

Antec BP550 Plus 550W- PSU

I have CPUID HWMonitor and the temps seem to be ok. Currently while running Darksiders 2:

CPU is at 42 C
Video Card at 65 C
Hard Disk 29 C

These did not seem high to me but I may be wrong. Air flow for the most part seems okay. I am running a stock cooler due to the fact that I am unsure whether a CM 212 EVO will fit my case (or any large CPU cooler for that matter). Have a 120 mm in the back as exhaust, 120 mm in front for intake and a large 180mm fan ontop for exhaust as well. No addition side case fans yet. I did not think this was a heat issue though because some days I play games all day long and it crashes. Other days I leave it on for 2 hours and it crashes.

Again, thanks for your help with this issue. I appreciate it.

 

[Thomaski]

Hi Nawit,

Your pc is well above the League of Legends recommendations, so I guess there should be no overstressing of your components. And as your temp reports show, you have no issues in temp department anyway.

So to be sure, did you play any other newish games anyway? As a lot of them are more demanding then LoL, so you'll probably get freezes with them as well if the issue is cpu/gpu related. If not, it sounds like a software based or memory based issue.

My first guess is software based. Your symptoms seem to point to a memory leak, and if you google it, it happens quite often with LoL. There are numerous solutions to it, so just google.

But as you just built youre pc;
If it is memory based, you can test your mem with memtest for example, if it shows errors, you might want to respec your bios settings, or reseat your RAM.


Grtz Thomaski


Edit:
Ok, missed you play darksiders 2 as well, but this is actually not a very demanding game.

 

[nawit]

One thing that may cause an issue is that I am using two different types of RAM. I have the Corsair Vengeance and Patroits, however the specs on both are identical and both are OK for ASUS motherboards according to their recommended list.

I don't play any real demanding games. Most I play is probably WoW or Darksiders.

Not sure if this is the place to ask but what exactly is a memory leak and why would it be causing it? How do I find go about fixing it? How would I respec my bios settings to fix it? Sorry if these are basic questions but I am fairly new to building computers seeing as this is my first build.

Appreciate your help and patience with me.

 

[suteck]

You're probably correct on the heat thing, that's usually the first thing I look for in random freezes so with out the specs I guessed.

Next guess, Your power supply has 3 rails for 12v - {, +12V1@22A, +12V2@22A, +12V3@25A, -} make sure you are using the rail with 25 amps since your card requires 24A to run.

 

[Thomaski]

@ Suteck,
You're right at that, heat is the first thing to check, and the first thing to be scared of

In this case the psu thought is a good one. Although I doubt it will be insufficient itself, but as Suteck said, it is a good idea to check whether you have your rails right. Use your PSU manual to check if it is set up right!

@ Nawit
Nevertheless, I guess you're not really into pc building and customizing (yet), so a little explanation:

A memory leak is something a program induces. Very simply stated; a game uses RAM memory to run itself. You only have say 4 GB or 8 GB of the stuff (or 64 if you're rich ), nevertheless, if the game keeps using it, it runs out. So if a game (or actually whatever program) does not lose the already used memory properly, you're RAM fills up. This process of filling up memory is memory leak.

This is not a system problem, but as I saw on the internet (other tom's members; correct me if i'm wrong) LoL has issues here.

About setting your bios;
If you just have "built" a pc, some stuff in the bios might be set wrong. You can access it with DEL, F10 (at the black and white startup screen) or something similar, depending on your MoBo manufacturer (check the manual). In here you can change your memory settings. I once had issues with my memory as well, and the solution was very simple. I eventually set my memory voltage to what it was supposed to be, sadly my mobo didn't initially.

Good luck

 

[nawit]

So my BIOS settings are as supposed to be. I still need to check my PSU as suggested but I will do that once I get my CPU Cooler in a week or so; that way I can take care of it all at once.

Regarding memory leak, I have seen a lot of people experiencing memory leak issues with LoL but I am not sure how to fix it. Any suggestions?

Thanks again.

 

[nawit]

So I reinstalled my OS and league of legends onto an SSD. So far so good but never know if it will come back. Will post with updates in a couple days.

 

[suteck]

Good. we'd like to know how it's going.

 

[nawit]

I just froze and crashed again. Still unsure as to what the cause is. Continues to seem like it is only in League of Legends. As stated before I do not think it is overheating, still unsure about the memory leak seeing as I do not know how to fix it.

I'm thinking I might need to update my BIOS or something. Any thoughts?

Any ideas are appreciated. I'm actually beginning to lose patience with this problem :/ .

 

[nawit]

Still looking for any suggestions if possible. I need to figure out what's wrong

 

[eshepard]

did you ever test your memory?? having different dimms is not reccomended, you should run memtest86, available at memtest86.com

I had bad ram in a server at work recently, and it would only crash after we used enough memory to get to the bad location, its possible the only time you use the computer enough to hit the bad memory is when playing LOL

 

[nawit]

I have not used memtest. I have no experience with it and I really not sure how to use it. Does anyone have a guide or something that I could follow to test my sticks of RAM? I would really appreciate it.

 

[eshepard]

go to the website for starters, then google, its easy, burn it to a cd, and run it, its all laid out in the info.

If you have a ram problem this will almost always find it.