Windows 7 "soft freezing" and CPU reaching 100%

[Kaltia]

I've been pulling my hair out of the weirdest issue for the past five months.

I just built a custom PC earlier this year and was using Windows 8.1 for a while and decided to switch over to Windows 7.
In doing this I've been having a really bad issue with my CPU maxing out at 100% for a second or two and my entire system freezing when this happens.
I ran virus scans to see if there might be a virus, did a memory check to see if I had a bad stick of RAM, checked to see if my OS drive was failing in some way. I went as far as to do a fresh install of Windows. Everything I've tried hasn't solved the problem and I'm losing my mind over this issue.

Specs: Windows 7 Pro 64x
Intel i7 4790K (OC'd) 4.2Ghz
MSi Z97 Gaming 5 Motherboard
16GB Kingston 1866 MHz RAM
MSi GTX 960
Corsair RM650 Power Supply

 

[MeanMachine41]

Has your W7 updated the service pack. Maybe the cause.
Try clearing CMOS back to default as your OC may be unstable.
If you can then run Windows without crashing, Check in Task Manager as to which service is hogging the system.
There are also other things that can cause this issue.

Please report back.

 

[Kaltia]

Has your W7 updated the service pack. Maybe the cause.
Try clearing CMOS back to default as your OC may be unstable.
If you can then run Windows without crashing, Check in Task Manager as to which service is hogging the system.
There are also other things that can cause this issue.

Please report back.

Alright just set my BIOS settings back to default and removed my OC like you said.
Yes, I do have the latest service pack.
From what I've tested so far as odd as it maybe I think my USB Controller Drivers might be causing an issue. Just in case I uninstalled those drivers.

Be back within three days to report if it's fixed or not.

 

[MeanMachine41]

OK Kaltia Will be waiting for your report.

 

[Kaltia]

OK Kaltia Will be waiting for your report.

So I'm back a lot sooner than I had hoped to be.
I was listening to some music while playing a game on my computer, and all of a sudden my PC started to freeze or seize up for about a second about three times all in the course of about thirty to thirty-five seconds.
I unfortunately could not see what was causing it in Task Manager because everything would be normal by the time my PC would work properly again.

Is it possible my CPU might be failing or might it be the drive I have my OS on?

 

[MeanMachine41]

OK Kaltia, lets do some stress testing to see if we can find the culprit.
Download AIDA64 trial version. Go to the tools section and run the stability test.
Check boxes for CPU and FPU and run the test for 10mins. Take screen shots at the 10min mark and stop the test if temps reach 80C. Post the results here. You can use IMIGUR as a file host then obtain the BBurl and link it here for analysis.
Run a separate test on your DIMMs and another on your GPU. I also want to see a Graph showing your voltages under load.
It can be one of several things and the stress test should determine any hardware failure to eliminate that from the equation. If the tests prove hardware is OK,then we will have to look at Windows and Driver installation.

 

[Kaltia]

OK Kaltia, lets do some stress testing to see if we can find the culprit.
Download AIDA64 trial version. Go to the tools section and run the stability test.
Check boxes for CPU and FPU and run the test for 10mins. Take screen shots at the 10min mark and stop the test if temps reach 80C. Post the results here. You can use IMIGUR as a file host then obtain the BBurl and link it here for analysis.
Run a separate test on your DIMMs and another on your GPU. I also want to see a Graph showing your voltages under load.
It can be one of several things and the stress test should determine any hardware failure to eliminate that from the equation. If the tests prove hardware is OK,then we will have to look at Windows and Driver installation.

Alright I did the stress testing. I'll go back and do it again if this isn't enough information.

http://imgur.com/a/PaMe7

http://imgur.com/a/pcFSp

Something that might be of note is that I had really bad lag, is what I'd call it, with the GPU Stress test.
Going from tab to tab in AIDA64 with that test going was delayed from three to five seconds. Also my PC did freeze up for a short moment when the GPU test began. Just a few things of note.

In the event that I do need to run the test again please do let me know what info you need for each graph.

Thank you so much for your help so far.

 

[MeanMachine41]

OK thanks for the report Kaltia. Your voltage on all rails 12v,5v,3.3v are within spec so that rules out the PSU. Your temperatures under load are Good too, so that rules out your Cooling system.

Lets test the GPU for 15mins under load, Uncheck all other boxes and just run the test on the GPU. Check voltages and temperature and again post the results. You can also test your Memory modules and local disks. Do them separately and look for any anomalies.

 

[Kaltia]

OK thanks for the report Kaltia. Your voltage on all rails 12v,5v,3.3v are within spec so that rules out the PSU. Your temperatures under load are Good too, so that rules out your Cooling system.

Lets test the GPU for 15mins under load, Uncheck all other boxes and just run the test on the GPU. Check voltages and temperature and again post the results. You can also test your Memory modules and local disks. Do them separately and look for any anomalies.

I've got good news kinda.
I had trouble monitoring what was happening when the PC would freeze up when I was only using Task Manager like you recommended. I decide to leave AIDA 64 open while I was using the PC to see if it could catch what was going on while the PC would seize up for a second. I did manage to catch something with it, however I'm not sure if it might help.

http://imgur.com/a/Jpzs4

I hope this can help you figure out what might be wrong. Until then I will do the GPU Stress test again like you recommend along with the other tasks.

 

[MeanMachine41]

Unfortunately your latest graphs show the system at idle and the red indicators you placed are showing CPU background activity which is normal. The blue line is your GPU and remains steady as the card is not under stress and the stress test was not started.
We need to rule out the GPU and your memory before looking at your Windows files.

If those tests prove OK.
Open an elevated command prompt and type in the command field "sfc /scannow" without the quotation marks. This will check your Windows file integrity for any corrupted files and attempt to fix them. If it can't fix them then it will report it found some or tell you all is OK. Best to rule out that possibility.

You can also check your drivers in Device Manager. Look for any yellow triangles that indicate a bad driver and check your "Universal Serial Bus controllers" category.

Next we will check your windows services to see any are coming on and hogging your system causing those sudden intermittent freezes you spoke about.

 

[Kaltia]

Unfortunately your latest graphs show the system at idle and the red indicators you placed are showing CPU background activity which is normal. The blue line is your GPU and remains steady as the card is not under stress and the stress test was not started.
We need to rule out the GPU and your memory before looking at your Windows files.

I should have mentioned that there wasn't any stress on the PC at that time, that's my bad.

I did the other stress tests earlier and unfortunately everything looked normal, so I decided to check my device manager next like you recommended. Here's what I found.

http://imgur.com/a/eDrO9

Those items that have the yellow triangle can't be found at all, also they were always like that when I've been using Windows 7.

Hope this helps us get closer to finding the issue.

 

[MeanMachine41]

Unfortunately your latest graphs show the system at idle and the red indicators you placed are showing CPU background activity which is normal. The blue line is your GPU and remains steady as the card is not under stress and the stress test was not started.
We need to rule out the GPU and your memory before looking at your Windows files.

I should have mentioned that there wasn't any stress on the PC at that time, that's my bad.

I did the other stress tests earlier and unfortunately everything looked normal, so I decided to check my device manager next like you recommended. Here's what I found.

http://imgur.com/a/eDrO9

Those items that have the yellow triangle can't be found at all, also they were always like that when I've been using Windows 7.

Hope this helps us get closer to finding the issue.

Make sure to install the chipset driver: http://download.msi.com/dvr_exe/intel_chipse_9_mb.zip
Also go to MSI support for Bios update 1.D and update your Bios.

 

[Kaltia]

Unfortunately your latest graphs show the system at idle and the red indicators you placed are showing CPU background activity which is normal. The blue line is your GPU and remains steady as the card is not under stress and the stress test was not started.
We need to rule out the GPU and your memory before looking at your Windows files.

I should have mentioned that there wasn't any stress on the PC at that time, that's my bad.

I did the other stress tests earlier and unfortunately everything looked normal, so I decided to check my device manager next like you recommended. Here's what I found.

http://imgur.com/a/eDrO9

Those items that have the yellow triangle can't be found at all, also they were always like that when I've been using Windows 7.

Hope this helps us get closer to finding the issue.

Make sure to install the chipset driver: http://download.msi.com/dvr_exe/intel_chipse_9_mb.zip
Also go to MSI support for Bios update 1.D and update your Bios.

Alright. My BIOS was already up to date so I installed the chipset driver.
I'll be sure to report back if I continue having issues.

 

[MeanMachine41]

Unfortunately your latest graphs show the system at idle and the red indicators you placed are showing CPU background activity which is normal. The blue line is your GPU and remains steady as the card is not under stress and the stress test was not started.
We need to rule out the GPU and your memory before looking at your Windows files.

I should have mentioned that there wasn't any stress on the PC at that time, that's my bad.

I did the other stress tests earlier and unfortunately everything looked normal, so I decided to check my device manager next like you recommended. Here's what I found.

http://imgur.com/a/eDrO9

Those items that have the yellow triangle can't be found at all, also they were always like that when I've been using Windows 7.

Hope this helps us get closer to finding the issue.

Make sure to install the chipset driver: http://download.msi.com/dvr_exe/intel_chipse_9_mb.zip
Also go to MSI support for Bios update 1.D and update your Bios.

Alright. My BIOS was already up to date so I installed the chipset driver.
I'll be sure to report back if I continue having issues.

Ok that's good and if again you have yellow triangles in Device Manager, I will try to locate the correct driver for you.

 

[Kaltia]

I'm back after much time testing to see if anything thing we've done has fixed the issue, and unfortunately it's still happening. (Albeit not as often)
I also decided to just switch back to Windows 8.1.
If it continues from there I will be certain there is an issue with a piece of hardware.
I'll come back and update anyone still watching this thread if the problem was just Windows 7.