Very mysterious, pc freezing, seemingly random… HELP!

[HMBDDD]

Hi all,

Hopefully someone can shed some light on my mystery…

I built a new pc back in November. I harvested a few components from my last build, but it was mostly new. I have included a list of my hardware components and particulars below. The build worked flawlessly for about a month, and then started randomly freezing. When it freezes, everything o nthe screen just freezes in place and if there is any music or sound playing, I immediately start getting a horrible screeching sound through my speakers. Sometimes it freezes during bios post, sometimes elsewhere during startup, sometimes in windows. Sometimes it freezes very soon after turning the pc on; sometimes it will stay on for hours, or even days before freezing. I get no error message at any point to indicate what might be the cause. When it does freeze, I will reset the pc, almost always it will freeze at least once during the reboot. I typically get a message stating that windows was not shut down properly, and giving me the option to start in safe mode. If the freeze occurred during the loading of windows, I get a message offering to run a startup repair utility. The utility has yet to find anything wrong and thus has not attempted any repairs. Another reboot or two and I get into windows and use the pc a while (short or long) before another freeze. I typically can go no longer than a few days without it freezing.

I have tried shutting down the pc after every time I use it, thinking maybe I was leaving it on too long. And still, sometimes it freezes after only being on a few minutes. I thought perhaps my cpu was overheating as I was using the stock heatsink and fan and it was quite loud. So I purchased an aftermarket heatsink and installed it. After install, it worked fine for another month or so. I thought I had solved my problem! Then, just like before, the freezing started. (I don’t know if that month after being inside the case is significant. There doesn’t seem to be a dust buildup or anything else that would accumulate over time)

I replaced the video card with another video card I had, and still had freeze problems. I swapped back afterwards.

I have run memtest86, thinking perhaps I had a bad stick of memory. I let it run overnight, the next morning it had completed 7 iterations of the test and was working on the 8th. It had found no problems whatsoever.

I have searched online for “pc freezes,” but as you can imagine, there are so many potential causes for this behavior that without an error message, or a sound, or something to go on, I have had little luck.

I now write to the experts and humbly thank you for reading my novel, in the hopes that one of you will notice something I have missed.

Is there some piece of software I can install that might help me monitor for a problem? Is there a procedure I can do to work though and diagnose this problem?

PLEASE HELP ME!!! I am at a complete loss here. My pc has frozen twice as I try to write this, forcing me to rewrite parts so I hope I have not left anything important out.

I appreciate any and all help. Thank you in advance.

--Jeff

PC Components:
ASUS Crosshair III Formula AM3 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131392

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 140W Quad-Core Processor Model HDZ965FBGIBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103692

XFX HD-585A-ZNDC Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) XXX Edition 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150455

Primary Drive - Corsair CMFSSD-64GBG2D 2.5" 64GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820233092

2x (8BG total) Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820146871

Rosewill 18" Serial ATA II cable with metal latch, Model RC-18"-SA2-90-BK
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812119231

ZALMAN 9500A 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118223

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835100007

SILVERSTONE Black Aluminum front panel, 0.8 mm SECC body GD01B-MXR ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811163076

Pulled from previous pc:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Edition 64bit

2nd Drive - Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144701

3rd Drive - Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB 10000 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136033

Koutech PCI to USB2.0 Card Model IO-PU520
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815104216

Rosewill Xtreme Series RX850-D-B 850W Continuous @40°C ,80 PLUS Certified, ATX12V v2.2 & EPS12V v2.91
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817182070

LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray DVD ROM SATA Model DH-4O1S-08
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106225

SAMSUNG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S183L
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151141

[oryx]

What are the specs for the power supply? List also the manufacturer and model.

[flanzig1]

You have several components that are suspect. The Rosewell PSU; Rosewell PSUs are spotty in quality,depending on model. We generally recommend to stay away from the whole line.
Video card: XFX has had quailty issues.
CPU heatsink installed incorrectly: not tight/too much thermal compound.

[HMBDDD]

The power supply is the Rosewill Xtreme Series RX850-D-B 850W listed above.

I pulled that power supply from a working build. It has been in service for 1 1/2 years with no problems. Do you think that it may be going? Or that it is not strong enough for the new build?

In regards to the cpu/heatsink being installed incorrectly, I originally has the stock cpu/heatsink installed. This came with a predetermined amount of thermal grease already applied. I had problems with the stock, which was why I swapped it out.

The video card was swapped out with an eVGA 640-P2-N829-AR GeForce 8800GTS. This was pulled from a working build with no problems. I have had the same freezing problem with either graphics card installed.

flanzig1, I don't mean to argue with your suggestions, I only wanted to provide a little more info. Do you stlil think that these may be issues?

oryx, here are the specs for the power supply:

Model
Brand Rosewill
Model RX850-D-B
Spec
Type ATX12V v2.2 & EPS12V v2.91
Maximum Power Continuous 850W@40°C
Fans 2 x Silent 80mm Ball-bearing Blue LED Fan
PFC Active
Main Connector 20+4Pin
+12V Rails Four +12V Rails
PCI-Express Connector 4 x 6-Pin
SATA Power Connector 6
SLI Ready
CrossFire Ready
Modular No
Power Good Signal 100-500ms
Hold-up Time > 16ms
Efficiency > 80, Up to 85%
Energy-Efficient 80 PLUS Certified
Over Voltage Protection +3.3V, +5V, +12V1, +12V2, +12V3, +12V4
Input Voltage 100 - 240 V
Input Frequency Range 47 - 63 Hz
Input Current 15A/ 7.5A
Output +3.3V@24A,+5V@30A,+12V1@20A,+12V2@20A,
+12V3@20A, +12V4@20A,-12V@0.5A,+5VSB@3A
MTBF 100k hours at 25°C, max. load, nominal input
Approvals TUV, FCC, UL, CE, ROHS
Dimensions 5.91" x 3.39" x 7.48"
Weight 6.6 lbs.

[HMBDDD]

One more piece of info that might be relevant:

I have my pc hooked into my hdtv which I use as the monitor. On only two or three occasions, when the pc has frozen, and I have turned off the pc entirely, the image has remained on the tv screen.

This tv has been giving me some problems lately. With the backlight shutting off intermittently. I believe that a dvi cable is capable of transmitting information both ways, correct? Could the problems I am having with the tv, be causing the pc to freeze up?

[Spools]

I've been dealing with a PC that has almost the exact same issues. The only difference I have is that it doesn't freeze up during startup, only after it's been on for minutes to hours (see other post on this here).

I'm also using the onboard video rather than a discreet card. My current approach has been to install XP on a spare drive I had (so as not to disturb the current drive if this doesn't solve the problem) and reloading all the programs that are on the original.

So far I haven't been able to get the second drive to freeze. I don't think this means the original drive is bad (it passed WD's diagnostic tools and is only 4 months old) but I do think either a Windows update, hardware driver, and/or registry corruption is causing the problem.
If I don't get a freeze by the end of the day, I'll be reloading the original drive and crossing my fingers (and toes).

[glc]

Why are you using an addon USB card? That motherboard should have plenty of USB ports. Is that Mushkin ram on the Asus QVL for that board? The Rosewill PSU may have worked fine in the old machine, but you are now using a 140w processor and it may be going unstable. Have you tried monitoring the temperatures and voltages with Asus PC Probe?

[HMBDDD]

I am using the addon usb card because I have lots of usb gizmos plugged in. I will try removing it and see if that solves anything.

The RAM I am using IS listed on the QVL for the board.

I have not tried monitoring using asus pc probe. I will install and give it a shot.

If none of that works I will try replacing the power supply and see if that helps. It seems to me that I saw a preferred manufacturer list for power supplies someplace on this board once before. Can anyone point me to it?

Thanks for all that help and suggestions. I will report after I have had a chance to try some of them.

[glc]

I'll keep it REAL simple - Antec, Corsair, or Seasonic. There are other good brands but those 3 are solid.

Get rid of the USB card. You have 6 rear ports and headers on the motherboard for 6 more. You can connect the front ports on the case to those, along with slot brackets and front addon bays. If you have more than 12 USB devices, you have a real problem.........

[HMBDDD]

Alright. Update time.

I removed the USB card, still problems.

I have installed Asus PC Probe and used it to monitor temps. The problem I have is it runs in the background and when the pc freezes, I can't get to it to see what the temps and voltages are. When I reboot, I can't seem to find a record of the last recorded temps? Is there an option to do this? Or is there another program I can use that will keep a log of the state of my pc at it's last moments before crash?

I have not yet tried replacing the PSU. So expensive! I'd like to find some software that would show me for certain whether my voltages are going unstable.

--Jeff

[glc]

How do the voltages and temps look when it's running? You can bring it up front and stick it in a corner of the screen.

[HMBDDD]

It seems to be running ok. I really don't know too much about this sort of thing. The voltages fluctuate what seems to me to be slightly. I would imagine that slight fluctuation would be normal, right?

Anyways, I did a video screen capture of asus pc probe and uploaded it to youtube. You can view it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8MGk4PmzvQ

And thanks for all the help!!

[glc]

Your ram is running at too low a voltage. Your ram's spec is for 1.9 volts and you are running it at 1.6.

I'm a bit concerned about your +12v and +5v readings - they are right at the +/- 5% tolerance.

[HMBDDD]

Well, I adjusted the Ram voltage in bios. I haven't had a freeze yet, but it sometimes goes for a week or more without one so I'm holding my breath and waiting. Thanks for your help!

[HMBDDD]

SWEET!! I am at two weeks and still no problems! I think it is solved! THANKS GLC!!!