PC randomly freezing

[Final Bulwark]

Hello. My PC randomly freezes. While playing a game, immediately after playing a game, some time after watching youtube for a longer time, and most times while sitting on desktop literally not doing anything except me going and eating lunch and getting back to find the PC frozen for who knows how long. When it freezes the restart button on the case is frozen too - doesn't do anything, and I have to hold down the power button for 5 seconds to force shut down my PC. Now the important thing is that it doesn't freeze for a week or two and then suddenly does for no reason. All components CPU / GPU are running within their normal temperatures in all situation. Apart from that my PSU died recently and now I got a new one and it's still freezing. I don't know what else to do. I tested with another graphics card and it still randomly freezes. Also my Kingston SSD is on 94%...

 

[The King]

First thing I would try is disabling graphics hardware acceleration in windows and in your browser.

How to Disable Hardware Acceleration on Windows 10

Learn how to disable hardware acceleration on your Windows 10 computer and quickly improve your device's performance, reliability, and stability.

softwarekeep.com

If that does not help then I would run DDU removed all traces of old GPU driver and do a clean install.

Display Driver Uninstaller Download version 18.0.5.5

Here you can Download Display Driver Uninstaller, this Display Driver Uninstaller is a driver removal utility that can help you completely uninstall AMD/NVIDIA graphics card drivers and packages from your system, with...

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Last resort you could also try doing a brand new install of windows.

Worst case the mobo could be failing. Is everything stock in the BIOS? Are you running XMP?

 

[Final Bulwark]

First thing I would try is disabling graphics hardware acceleration in windows and in your browser.

How to Disable Hardware Acceleration on Windows 10

Learn how to disable hardware acceleration on your Windows 10 computer and quickly improve your device's performance, reliability, and stability.

softwarekeep.com

If that does not help then I would run DDU removed all traces of old GPU driver and do a clean install.

Display Driver Uninstaller Download version 18.0.5.5

Here you can Download Display Driver Uninstaller, this Display Driver Uninstaller is a driver removal utility that can help you completely uninstall AMD/NVIDIA graphics card drivers and packages from your system, with...

www.guru3d.com

Last resort you could also try doing a brand new install of windows.

Worst case the mobo could be failing. Is everything stock in the BIOS? Are you running XMP?

Hi, thanks for the advice. Yes, this current running windows is a fresh install I did a few days ago. Yes, the BIOS is all on default and I believe XMP is not enabled.

 

[Hyderz]

my intuition leads to ram stick starting to fail or ram slots
you could test with 1 stick to see

 

[The King]

Hi, thanks for the advice. Yes, this current running windows is a fresh install I did a few days ago. Yes, the BIOS is all on default and I believe XMP is not enabled.

If you are not running XMP then its doubtful the RAM is causing any issues. If you were a slight bump in voltages would help with stability.

You can also try downloading HWINFO64 and take a look at your CPU and DIMM Voltages and temps in windows. Sometimes you maybe able to pickup issues that way.

Free Download HWiNFO Sofware | Installer & Portable for Windows, DOS

Start to analyze your hardware right now! HWiNFO has available as an Installer and Portable version for Windows (32/64-bit) and Portable version for DOS.

www.hwinfo.com

 

[Final Bulwark]

my intuition leads to ram stick starting to fail or ram slots
you could test with 1 stick to see

Hi. Which test should I use? Is aida64 ok?

If you are not running XMP then its doubtful the RAM is causing any issues. If you were a slight bump in voltages would help with stability.

You can also try downloading HWINFO64 and take a look at your CPU and DIMM Voltages and temps in windows. Sometimes you maybe able to pickup issues that way.

Free Download HWiNFO Sofware | Installer & Portable for Windows, DOS

Start to analyze your hardware right now! HWiNFO has available as an Installer and Portable version for Windows (32/64-bit) and Portable version for DOS.

www.hwinfo.com

I'm not comfy with tampering with bios and voltages. I only know it's on default how I got it. Yes, I'm using Hwinfo64 always. CPU hottest core 30~35C idle, 60~65C full load, GPU 30C idle, 63-78C full load (depending on fan profile). DIMM voltage is 1.5 V.

I don't know could it be the SSD? I had Kingston ssds before and 2 died after they went below 92 % life... Could it be this SSD now is showing some signs? I have a feeling it freezes sometimes after something is written into the pagefile. Since all games use pagefile, it fills up to 7GB while playing. Youtube vidoes get immediately downloaded to the SSD - written to it, and I watch a lot sometimes often in 4K ... so there's a lot of writes happening... but still I don't get the random idle desktop freezing ...

 

[AlwaysHope]

OP, is this the system in your System Specs?

 

[ShrimpBrime]

OP, is this the system in your System Specs?

Click system specs under his Avatar!!

Processor	i7 2600
Motherboard	ASUS P8H67-M EVO
Memory	16GB
Video Card(s)	GTX 970
Storage	SSD
Power Supply	CORSAIR RM750
Software	Windows 10

 

[Mussels]

System freezes and stutters come in a thousand different causes and symptoms, every single detail you provide will help here.
Your system specs are really basic, can you fill them out properly? HWinfo will provide every product name and details you could ever need.
A screenshot of the sensors page full-screened showing everything at once would be perfect.

Like this:

Spoiler

Do you have anything else attached for storage, even on USB or network shares? Or truly just the one SSD? What model is the SSD?


"I'm not comfy with tampering with bios and voltages."

We won't advise dangerous settings, but altering some voltages is absolutely neccesary at times.
You'd never get four sticks of RAM running in a modern system without XMP, which is a BIOS setting that alters voltages for the DRAM and memory controller in the CPU.
Default settings are guesses - they can be wrong, especially for hardware released AFTER the motherboard (DDR3 was available for a long, long time after that motherboard was made)


I've had stutters from causes as wild as a disconnected network share mapped to a drive letter causing steam to freeze ever 3 minutes, to a smart TV spamming my network causing geforce experience to stutter.
Heck even PC's BSOD'ing from a bad ground, opening a bar fridge caused the PC to BSOD if the front USB 2.0 ports were in use - there are some WEIRD and uncommon problems out there, and we need every last detail we can get to know if one of those is relevant.


Since its a clean install of an OS on older hardware, how about device manager? Every device has drivers, no yellow triangles?
Have you checked the thermal pad/paste under the southbridge heatsink? If its on the factory stuff it'd be long dried by now, and the H67 chipset controls your USB ports, some PCI-E lanes, and all your SATA ports; thermal throttling there could absolutely cause some stutter issues.

 

[Final Bulwark]

OP, is this the system in your System Specs?

Yes.

 

[AlwaysHope]

Yes.

Ok, don't know what your budget is, but I'd be thinking about an upgrade to the platform. I mean your mobo is about a decade old already, & you've already indicated you updated the PSU, so the freezing issue is more than likely linked to ageing components soldered to the motherboard imo. If you've got a spare working gpu available, swap them around & see if the problem persists. But I'm still betting on the mobo.

 

[Mussels]

Click system specs under his Avatar!!

Processor	i7 2600
Motherboard	ASUS P8H67-M EVO
Memory	16GB
Video Card(s)	GTX 970
Storage	SSD
Power Supply	CORSAIR RM750
Software	Windows 10

He asked if it was the same as those specs, not asked what the specs are.
I asked what the specs are, since that's too simplified to be of much use for diagnosis - Theres hundreds of GTGX 970's out there, all with different coolers, clock speeds and TDP limits
The ram could be 4x4GB sticks or 2x8GB, at anywhere from 1066 to 2133

 

[ShrimpBrime]

Also my Kingston SSD is on 94%...

94% used up? Like no space left?

Trim this up maybe. Delete all the downloads in the downloads folder and remove games you seldom play. Applications uninstalled that you don't use. ect ect.
Try and aim for half the drive's space if you can.

About the system hang and reviewing the specs and comments, I made a mistake and misread Hope's question.

Any how, generally when a system "hangs" this is not a BSOD which gives indication of software issues, but they can occur.

So I'm trying to think of the best approach for diag, I'm guessing the system is at defaults. I wonder if clearing the cmos and checking the battery voltage would be a good place to start with the hardware aspect.
Also in some cases, hangs happen from low volt situations sometimes even coming out of sleep mode. You could try and disable c-states in bios and see if this improves the situation.

 

[Hyderz]

Hi. Which test should I use? Is aida64 ok?

Just test as usual play your games etc, browsing youtube to see if you can replicate the issue
You can also run Windows Memory diagnostic and just type Windows Memory Diagnostic in search and it should come up.

Like mussels said freezes with pc could be caused by many things, hence testing ram because its easy to do and helps narrow one by one to find out where and what is causing your pc to freeze

 

[ratirt]

Can you check an event viewer and see if it says anything if that has not been suggested so far?

 

[pavle]

I hope that old PSU that died didn't take out something on the motherboard, even if just partly. How/why did it die? Was it just that PC didn't turn on one morning when you pressed the power up button or was it more dramatic?
Run a Memtest X86(+) at least 2 passes just for ruling out the system RAM cause. I hope you don't see any red lines there.

 

[Final Bulwark]

System freezes and stutters come in a thousand different causes and symptoms, every single detail you provide will help here.
Your system specs are really basic, can you fill them out properly? HWinfo will provide every product name and details you could ever need.
A screenshot of the sensors page full-screened showing everything at once would be perfect.

Like this:

Spoiler

View attachment 262454

Do you have anything else attached for storage, even on USB or network shares? Or truly just the one SSD? What model is the SSD?


"I'm not comfy with tampering with bios and voltages."

We won't advise dangerous settings, but altering some voltages is absolutely neccesary at times.
You'd never get four sticks of RAM running in a modern system without XMP, which is a BIOS setting that alters voltages for the DRAM and memory controller in the CPU.
Default settings are guesses - they can be wrong, especially for hardware released AFTER the motherboard (DDR3 was available for a long, long time after that motherboard was made)


I've had stutters from causes as wild as a disconnected network share mapped to a drive letter causing steam to freeze ever 3 minutes, to a smart TV spamming my network causing geforce experience to stutter.
Heck even PC's BSOD'ing from a bad ground, opening a bar fridge caused the PC to BSOD if the front USB 2.0 ports were in use - there are some WEIRD and uncommon problems out there, and we need every last detail we can get to know if one of those is relevant.


Since its a clean install of an OS on older hardware, how about device manager? Every device has drivers, no yellow triangles?
Have you checked the thermal pad/paste under the southbridge heatsink? If its on the factory stuff it'd be long dried by now, and the H67 chipset controls your USB ports, some PCI-E lanes, and all your SATA ports; thermal throttling there could absolutely cause some stutter issues.

Device Manager seems fine, only some communication device has no driver I guess? Yup, It froze with only the SSD and with several of my HDDS commected. SSD is an Kingston 250 GB (220?) Hwinfo has the full sode of it I think. It's just a budget one with V-NAND I think. Yes, I apologize for doing such a quick info in the Specs I only did it immediately for a reference. I'll update it now and put the HWINFO snap at the end of the post here.

4Ok, don't know what your budget is, but I'd be thinking about an upgrade to the platform. I mean your mobo is about a decade old already, & you've already indicated you updated the PSU, so the freezing issue is more than likely linked to ageing components soldered to the motherboard imo. If you've got a spare working gpu available, swap them around & see if the problem persists. But I'm still betting on the mobo.

If it's my mobo, then I guess I will have to buy another better one that is compatible with this CPU and RAM and leave the SSD as it is...

He asked if it was the same as those specs, not asked what the specs are.
I asked what the specs are, since that's too simplified to be of much use for diagnosis - Theres hundreds of GTGX 970's out there, all with different coolers, clock speeds and TDP limits
The ram could be 4x4GB sticks or 2x8GB, at anywhere from 1066 to 2133

Will update my specs in the info.

94% used up? Like no space left?

Trim this up maybe. Delete all the downloads in the downloads folder and remove games you seldom play. Applications uninstalled that you don't use. ect ect.
Try and aim for half the drive's space if you can.

About the system hang and reviewing the specs and comments, I made a mistake and misread Hope's question.

Any how, generally when a system "hangs" this is not a BSOD which gives indication of software issues, but they can occur.

So I'm trying to think of the best approach for diag, I'm guessing the system is at defaults. I wonder if clearing the cmos and checking the battery voltage would be a good place to start with the hardware aspect.
Also in some cases, hangs happen from low volt situations sometimes even coming out of sleep mode. You could try and disable c-states in bios and see if this improves the situation.

94% life left. Yup, I trim it weekly. It's actuylly on by default and I checked it to be sure with that cmd option.

Just test as usual play your games etc, browsing youtube to see if you can replicate the issue
You can also run Windows Memory diagnostic and just type Windows Memory Diagnostic in search and it should come up.

Like mussels said freezes with pc could be caused by many things, hence testing ram because its easy to do and helps narrow one by one to find out where and what is causing your pc to freeze

Ok, I'll do that. Thanks.

Can you check an event viewer and see if it says anything if that has not been suggested so far?

Sure. Which pages of the Event Viewer should I look at and snapshot?

I hope that old PSU that died didn't take out something on the motherboard, even if just partly. How/why did it die? Was it just that PC didn't turn on one morning when you pressed the power up button or was it more dramatic?
Run a Memtest X86(+) at least 2 passes just for ruling out the system RAM cause. I hope you don't see any red lines there.

I was playing Skyrim so CPU and GPU were almost barely above 50 C and half load... And suddenly the screen went black and I heard the GPU fan start to spin more wild and I jumped and immediately used the power switch on the PSU. When I switched the PSU back on, the led on the GPU turned on white, and then turned off indicating no power from the PSU. But the mobo power led was on. I then googled it and found the (almost) identical scenario happened to someone else with the same brand of PSU. I'll link the reddit post here.

Anyway, here's the HVINFO and Device manager screenshots.

Spoiler: Spoiler

Here is the same thing that happened to my old PSU - REDDIT LINK The difference with my old psu is that it wasn't clicking and I smelt a burnt smell a lot of days before but thought it was coming form the outside since I had my windows open...

 

[AlwaysHope]

If it's my mobo, then I guess I will have to buy another better one that is compatible with this CPU and RAM and leave the SSD as it is...

Your running a Sandy lake processor, good luck on the 2nd hand market then... you could find new socket 1155 board but they will cost you the same as a new generation board & you will be stuck on the old tech from a decade ago....
My comment was more in line with what's NEW on the market today & that of course includes more than just the motherboard.

 

[Mussels]

So.... This seems kinda obvious
You're running out of RAM

Time to fire up task manager and sort by memory usage, either you're trying to do too much here, or you've got a lot of bloat to remove
What starts up with windows?


You can double click the PCI simple... in device manager, go to details tab and change to hardware ID, you can then copy paste that ID and google it to find what device it is, and usually the relevant driver
Using my GPU as an example, the second entry usually does the trick

Googled, that got me this: (removing each line after the _ gets more and more generic, changing from asus to just a 3090, etc)

From memory that's the IME, Intel management engine

You may need to get the windows 7 x64 driver from your motherboards driver page and manually install the .inf file
P8H67-M EVO - Support (asus.com)
Newer versions may exist around the internet, but it's hard to find without the device ID

And seriously, any single mech drive can cause stutter at any time. While testing, keep them disconnected.