Random freezes with computer. Please help

[Ronkin]

Hi all I built my computer about a year and a half ago and for a month or two now seem to have random freezes that occur whenever, sometimes they will stop and i will be able to carry on working/gaming but another follows shortly after, so i usually resort to just performing a hard reset on it, I have been unable to reproduce the freeze at will.

Specs:
Motherboard: asus p8h61-mle
CPU: intel i5 2500k sandybridge
GPU: amd Sapphire 7850
RAM: 2x4gb DDR3
PSU: corsair CX650
HDD: Seagate 2tb

If you could guide me in the right way to fixing this or give any advice that would be great thankyou in advance.

 

[Tom Tancredi]

First it is best if you can 'reproduce' the freeze, this narrows down what roughly is the common denominator for the cause. Saying it just happens, and it isn't repeating everytime you do XYZ and not ABC, make it very hard to determine.

Basic culprits: Open the case, have you cleaned the inside of dust from all the vents / fans / etc? This should be done every three months, unless you have smokers, pets, high dust enviroments, then you may need to check as much as each month.
Have you antivirus, that is up to date (that means if you have paid for your subscription on some). If not, you need to download Avast! or AVG from www.filehippo.com and fully scan your PC. Download also Malwarebytes to scan for Malware (different then a virus) and do a full scan.
Check your temps, download and run SPECCY, what your temps like idle? When your gaming install MSI Afterburner and watch the temps displayed when your 'cranking' on the PC. What do they show?

and there is many more 'poke with a stick' answers, but if your really lost with just what I said, bring it to a IT shop instead much easier for you.

 

[Ronkin]

I do have antivirus, I have downloaded and am now scanning with the program you suggested and my (virtually idle) cpu temps seem to be 50-60 degrees C which I possibly think is the answer I will clean out the PC now and get back to you (also is it ok to use a clean paintbrush to clean the cpus heatsink?) Thankyou very much for your feedback and sorry I didn't get back earlier wasn't expecting an answer so quick. I will also install msi afterburner and get back to you about those temps.

Update: I cleaned the dust of the cpu and temps have seemed to go down to 40-50 degrees C I have also found the crashes happen when playing games or watching youtube videos any other solutions?

 

[Tom Tancredi]

Usually canned air is the best treatment, you need to blow out all vents in the case, the PSU (power supply) and the GPU fan as well since it was that 'bad'. Once everything is properly cleaned out it isn't just CPU temps but all temps we need to check. Again use SPECCY and see what other temps are listed when 'idle'. For gaming you can install (as I mentioned) MSI Afterburner and see what it shows. Once we know it is actually cool (you obviously had a clogged up PC) then we can look at other issues.

 

[Ronkin]

I actually ended up loading my bios up and changing the power to standard this seemed to solve the problems, but thankyou very much for the support