• Happy holidays, folks! Thanks to each and every one of you for being part of the Tom's Hardware community!

Windows Freezes All The Time!

Big-Paul

Commendable
May 24, 2016
1
0
1,510
Dear community,

I've been having a problem with my computer for a very long time now and recently it is becoming worse. Deadlocks. Lots of them. At least, that is how I think it’s called. The following happens:
The system becomes completely static. No responses to any input. Even the sound becomes static (if playing music or some kind). This can occur during any usage of the system. It could happen half an hour after start-up when just browsing the internet or after a couple of ours when playing games. Even when I don’t use the computer, deadlocks…
I’ve had this problem for almost 2 years now I guess. It started in Windows 8.1 (upgraded from windows 7). Now that I recently upgraded to Windows 10, the problem became worse. Much worse. The frequency of the deadlocks went from once a week/month to one/four(!) times a day.
To me this sounded like software problems, but hardware could not have been excluded off course. So this is a list of things I’ve found and tried:

Crash solving attempts:
Update from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 > Worse
Driver verifier (dumps included) > Win32kfull seems to be causing problems?
Clean boot > Problem still persists
Safe Mode > Problem gone
New gpu > Problem still persists
Uninstalled AMD drivers + driver sweep > Problem still persists
Switched ram + removed 2 sticks > Problem still persists
Reset bios to default > Problem still persists
ESET (paid license) Scan > Nothing
Malwarebytes scan > Problem still persists
Disabled fast startup > Problem still persists
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth > (restore) operation completed
Sfc.exe /scannow > found corrupt files and succesfully repaired
All troubleshooters supported by windows > Problem still persists
Intel Processor Diagnostics Tool > Pass
Memtest86+ V5.01 (8+ hours) > No errors
Disabled all auto-startups > Problem still persists
Increased min and max paging size for all drives > Problem still persists
Chkdsk > No errors
Disabled ScheduledDefrag > Problem still persists
Cleaned system of dust > Problem still persists
Checked temperatures continuously > Perfectly fine
And then may have forgotten about a few attempts.

So, what kind of system am I running? A 5 year old self build system with the following specs:
Motherboard: ASRock Z68 Pro3
PSU: Corsair GS700
CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K @ 3.40GHz
CPU cooling: Scythe Mugen 3
GPU: AMD Radeon HD 7970
Memory: 4 x 4096 MB DDR3-1333 – G.Skill F3-10666CL7-4GBXH
Storage: SSD: MKNSSDCR240GB-DX (OS) Hard drive: WDC WD1002FAEX-00Y9A0 (Documents and games)
Tower: Aerocool middle tower Sixth Element
A little bit of history of the system if that may help: since it was build I stressed it pretty hard. Rendering videos and high quality 3d models, simulations and graphically heavy gaming. CPU was overclocked @ 4.40GHz, where it ran stable for a long time with decent temperatures. Memory was never touched.

If there is any information left for me to share with anyone who thinks that he/she can help me this problem, let me know! I already appreciate everyone for taking the time to have a look at this! :)

Driver verifier .dmp files (all the same stuff):
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/p3ijcdqnucuvjtp/AACxkPC2Ku9EnvPZMdhLhTz4a?dl=0
 
Solution
I would suggest a fresh install of win 10, as it may resolve many of your issues.
update drivers and bios (if there is one)
change power settings to high performance, make sure monitor/pc never turn off, and in advanced power settings, make sure hdd is always on.
I would suggest a fresh install of win 10, as it may resolve many of your issues.
update drivers and bios (if there is one)
change power settings to high performance, make sure monitor/pc never turn off, and in advanced power settings, make sure hdd is always on.
 
Solution