System Freezing/Locking Up but Passes Stress Tests

[epicethan99]

Components:
CPU: AMD Athlon x4 880k @4.0GHz*
Graphics Card: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB*
RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) @1600 MHz
Mobo: ASUS A68HM-Plus
PSU: EVGA 750w GQ*
PCI Extension: TP-Link 300 Mbps Wireless Adapter
Storage: 1TB SATA/600 HDD @7200 RPM
OS: Windows 10

*Recently Replace (Within Past 9 Months)

Issue:
For the past 4-5 Months my system has been experiencing random system freezes with no indication to what the source of the issue may be. The first two times I had experienced the issue I decided to do a fresh OS install, which had appeared to fix the issue, or atleast postpone it a couple of months.
As of recently this issue has reappeared with no effect on a fresh OS install, which forced me to take the system to a PC repair shop after running test on the system myself to find no errors. Whilst it was at the PC Repair shop I was met with the suprise that the system had not crashed a single time for him and had passed tests such as FurMark and Prime95 with no errors. He had also run Virus Scans and tested the Hard Drive in another system to ensure the Hard Drive was not failing.
It wasn't until I had taken the system home to realise the system freezes were still occuring, with the only aspects of the testing changing was the monitor I use, my mouse, my keyboard and the network which I connected it to (wireless).
The temps of the system remain cool, with my processor (according to Core Temp) remailing at:
15 Degress Celcius - Idle
Approximately 55 - 65 Degress Celcius - Under Load
and my GPU running at:
~60 Degress Celcius - Under Load

My first blaring issue when looking at this was either the RAM or the motherboard, as I neither have been tested using other components (I don't have access to) and the RAM, although passing the built in WIndows Memory Tests, is still slow being clocked at 1600MHz.

Important Notes:
During the times when my internet has been restricted due to late bill payments (woops...) the system ran perfectly and did not crash at all. It's only since full connection has been reinstated that my system has resumed crashing.
Also CrystalDiskInfo states that the Hard Drive is in "Good" state

 

[Jwpanz]

It would have to be your wireless adapter. Open device manager and locate it. Right click on it and see if you can update the drivers. If not, I would suggest buying a new one from a different brand.

I have seen others with this same issue with TPLink adapters. You could also try to roll your drivers back for it if you want to try and keep it.

I had a similar issue with an adapter as it would cause my games to freeze. The only solution was replacing it with a different one.

 

[epicethan99]

It would have to be your wireless adapter. Open device manager and locate it. Right click on it and see if you can update the drivers. If not, I would suggest buying a new one from a different brand.

I have seen others with this same issue with TPLink adapters. You could also try to roll your drivers back for it if you want to try and keep it.

I had a similar issue with an adapter as it would cause my games to freeze. The only solution was replacing it with a different one.

It appears that I cannot update the driver of the adapter through device manager, although I am looking towards buying a new one.

Which brand would you suggest as I only have a single PCI slot available, due to the motherboard having a single PCI-e being used by the motherboard and a standard PCI slot being used by the (possibly faulty) Netword Adapter?
That and I am unaware about how reliable USB network adapters are.

 

[Jwpanz]

USB adapters are ok but they’re picky about placement. Regular network adapter have antenna to receive a strong signal but USB’s don’t if you’re not too far from the router then you should be fine. They do, however, make USB adapters with antenna which is what I would suggest you get if you go the USB router.

If you’re in the same room as the adapter then you could easily run an Ethernet cable to your PC which would be my recommendation. But, if you’re like me, your router is on a different level of the house then you would be better off with Wifi.

A good brand to choose would be Asus or D-Link.

 

[epicethan99]

USB adapters are ok but they’re picky about placement. Regular network adapter have antenna to receive a strong signal but USB’s don’t if you’re not too far from the router then you should be fine. They do, however, make USB adapters with antenna which is what I would suggest you get if you go the USB router.

If you’re in the same room as the adapter then you could easily run an Ethernet cable to your PC which would be my recommendation. But, if you’re like me, your router is on a different level of the house then you would be better off with Wifi.

A good brand to choose would be Asus or D-Link.

I was looking at a lot of Asus Network adapter's and most of them appear to be PCI-e, then again I haven't looked at any USB or D-Links. I'll be sure to check them out.

Thank You for your help, I'll get back to you if this works 😀

 

[epicethan99]

Thank You so much, I removed the network adapter a couple of days ago and have replaced it (arrived today) with an Asus USB AC68 Wireless AC1900 adapter, and has not crashed/locked up since.

Thanks
Ethan

 

[alepulver]

I just wanted to add that I'm running Windows 10 x64 10.0.17134 and thought my CPU was overheating (changed thermal paste of my 212 Evo heatsink), then my VRM and even switched components with another PC (CPU, motherboard, RAM, etc). Even ordered a new motherboard.

Also seen many errors like this in the event logs:
WLAN Extensibility Module has failed to start.
Module Path: C:\Windows\system32\Rtlihvs.dll
Error Code: 126

Then after unplugging everything I found out it was my wifi USB adapter. I tried the following models and produced similar results:
- TP-Link Archer T4U V1 (even after trying many different drivers and settings, USB 2.0 or 3.0, etc)
- TP-Link TL-WN722N V1 (which works fine on my other PC with Windows 7, so I suspect an issue with the drivers)
- TP-Link TL-WN823N V2

Bought these ones for testing, without success (might be the power settings as I haven't tried that setting at the time of testing them):
- Linksys WUSB6100M
- ASUS USB-AC53 Nano (connects but only downloads at 15Mbit instead of 150Mbit as the other one)
- D-Link AC1200 (does not even connect)

I was completely lost, even thought of throwing a 10m ethernet cable to the router or trying power ethernet adapters.

Then I found this updated driver for the T4U and appeared to work fine (did not freeze when running the stress test), but periodically disconnects: https://sites.google.com/a/vhhscougars.org/johnsearch/searchindex/tplinkdriver
Also TP-Link support redirected me to an old version of the driver for my V1 firmware, which produced the same result.

For now, the Wavlink AC600 seems to work fine, after I switched the power profile to "high performance" (it wasn't enough to disable power management for the device itself only).