What could cause my computer to freeze?

[Maarten Dhondt]

I bought myself a new computer last month and I am experiencing a lot of (random) freezes.

What freezes?

The screen and pc freeze completely, I can no longer use my keyboard or mouse. The only thing left to do is pushing the power button until the computer shuts down.

When do these freezes occur?

• 
  Whenever I use my computer for basic stuff (facebook, youtube, microsoft office, windows explorer, vlc, ...), there's no way to tell when a freeze will happen. They seem to be random, but always occur within 15 to 20 minutes after starting windows.
  
  Whenever I try to open one of my (java) projects with IntelliJ or Eclipse, the freeze occurs immediatly (while the IDE is loading the project).

What have I tried to pinpoint the reason for the freezes?

• 
  Checked my event logs. => nothing interesting or related to the freezes
  
  Both reinstalled and updated all drivers. => freezes keep occuring.
  
  Booted in safe mode. => freezes keep occuring. => I assume this means it is not a driver problem?
  
  Reinstalled OS multiple times (Windows 7, Windows 10, Ubuntu 15.04) => freezes keep occuring => I assume this means it's a hardware problem?
  
  I ran memtest86 to scan my memory for errors. => no errors were found.
  
  I ran a chkdsk to scan my hard-drive for errors. I ran all GSmartControl tests. => no errors were found.

Specs:

• 
  AMD FX-9590 Eight Core CPU (4.7GHz-5.0GHz/16MB CACHE/AM3+)
  
  ASUS® M5A99FX PRO R2.0 (DDR3, USB3.0, 6Gb/s,CrossFireX/SLI)
  
  32GB KINGSTON HYPER-X BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2133MHz X.M.P (4 x 8GB KIT)
  
  4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 960 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - 3D Vision Ready
  
  480GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
  
  CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES™ VS-550 POWER SUPPLY
  
  Corsair H80i GT Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
  
  2 Dell U2414h Monitors

My question:

Does anyone have any idea what could cause these freezes and how to solve it? What other steps could I take in pinpointing the origin of the freezes?

 

[lodders]

You have a power hungry PC, powered by a very low cost (low quality) PSU.
I'm guessing that the computer could be crashing due to low voltage.
Best way to check would be to temporarily underclock your PC to 4GHz and lower core voltage, which will use a lot less power. If the freezing goes away, you have found your problem

 

[Maarten Dhondt]

You have a power hungry PC, powered by a very low cost (low quality) PSU.
I'm guessing that the computer could be crashing due to low voltage.
Best way to check would be to temporarily underclock your PC to 4GHz and lower core voltage, which will use a lot less power. If the freezing goes away, you have found your problem

Lodders,

I am a total newbie on underclocking/overclocking and have no idea where to start.
In my bios I tried changing the CPU ratio. By giving it a value of 20.0, the Target CPU Speed became 4000Mhz. Changing only this does not work though (computer wouldn't boot). And there are like 20 or 30 more options to set so I have no idea which parameters to use.

Somewhere else in the bios I was able to change the "System Performance" property from 'Asus Optimal' to 'Normal' and 'Power Saving'. By choosing power saving, I was able to avoid running into freezes!! So that's good I guess?

What can you conclude from this?
What does Power Saving actualy mean (less and/or slower performance??)
Which PSU would you suggest I use?

 

[lodders]

You have a power hungry PC, powered by a very low cost (low quality) PSU.
I'm guessing that the computer could be crashing due to low voltage.
Best way to check would be to temporarily underclock your PC to 4GHz and lower core voltage, which will use a lot less power. If the freezing goes away, you have found your problem

Lodders,

I am a total newbie on underclocking/overclocking and have no idea where to start.
In my bios I tried changing the CPU ratio. By giving it a value of 20.0, the Target CPU Speed became 4000Mhz. Changing only this does not work though (computer wouldn't boot). And there are like 20 or 30 more options to set so I have no idea which parameters to use.

Somewhere else in the bios I was able to change the "System Performance" property from 'Asus Optimal' to 'Normal' and 'Power Saving'. By choosing power saving, I was able to avoid running into freezes!! So that's good I guess?

What can you conclude from this?
What does Power Saving actualy mean (less and/or slower performance??)
Which PSU would you suggest I use?

Power saving means your computer is slower.
It also means less power, less voltage and less heat. Since this has fixed your problem, it shows that your PSU or motherboard or both were unable to run your CPU at full power, but are OK at reduced performance.

Suggest you run your computer like this while you save up for Intel processor and mobo. An AMD 9590 is a very inefficient CPU, and you could spend a lot of time and money trying to get it to run at full speed, and STILL be slower than an intel CPU

 

[Maarten Dhondt]

Power saving means your computer is slower.
It also means less power, less voltage and less heat. Since this has fixed your problem, it shows that your PSU or motherboard or both were unable to run your CPU at full power, but are OK at reduced performance.

Suggest you run your computer like this while you save up for Intel processor and mobo. An AMD 9590 is a very inefficient CPU, and you could spend a lot of time and money trying to get it to run at full speed, and STILL be slower than an intel CPU

Thanks a lot for this information!

What if I want to try to keep using this processor and mobo anyway? What kind of PSU's should I be looking for? How do I know which ones are powerfull enough?

 

[lodders]

Power saving means your computer is slower.
It also means less power, less voltage and less heat. Since this has fixed your problem, it shows that your PSU or motherboard or both were unable to run your CPU at full power, but are OK at reduced performance.

Suggest you run your computer like this while you save up for Intel processor and mobo. An AMD 9590 is a very inefficient CPU, and you could spend a lot of time and money trying to get it to run at full speed, and STILL be slower than an intel CPU

Thanks a lot for this information!

What if I want to try to keep using this processor and mobo anyway? What kind of PSU's should I be looking for? How do I know which ones are powerfull enough?

There is a list of power supplies on Toms Hardware - search for PSU tier list. Lower tiers are less reliable and not recommended.
My computer is running happily on a 500W power supply, so I would recommend you need at least a tier 2 650W PSU.