Computer Freezing.

[Dinokilla7]

I've had my computer for around a month and a bit now, and a week after I got it, it started randomly freezing. At first I thought it was overheating, but its at a normal temp. I then thought it was my ram so I ran Memtests for hours to no avail. After that I thought it might of been my harddrive, but I ran a program that runs tests to check the hard drive and they came up clean. Finally, I resorted to a clean refresh of my OS, and it still freezes. If you have any idea what it is and how I can fix it, I will greatly appreciate it, because it is really starting to annoy me. My PC Specs are

Case: ZALMAN Z11 PLUS BLACK MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU): AMD A10-5800K Quad Core APU (3.8GHz) & Radeon™ HD 7660D Graphics
Motherboard: ASUS® F2A85-M: (M-ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM): 8GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card: Integrated AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series Graphics
Memory - 1st Hard Disk: 1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive: 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader: INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply: CORSAIR 350W VS SERIES™ VS-350 POWER SUPPLY
Operating System: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media: Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve

 

[keynes]

You could try calling technical support to help you diagnose the problem.

 

[Dinokilla7]

Sorry for the late update, but I did. I sent it in and they had a look at it for 2 weeks, after sending it back they said they couldnt find the source of the problem as it wasn't freezing while they tested it. They also added that it could be a mouse or keyboard attached, which confused me because the mouse and keyboard I have are Razer Blackwidow ultimate and Razer Naga which I used on my last computer without problem. I also have headphones connected which are Giotech Ex-05

 

[Boozad]

When is it freezing? When gaming? If so how long into a session are you when it freezes?

 

[ubuysa]

Sorry for the late update, but I did. I sent it in and they had a look at it for 2 weeks, after sending it back they said they couldnt find the source of the problem as it wasn't freezing while they tested it. They also added that it could be a mouse or keyboard attached, which confused me because the mouse and keyboard I have are Razer Blackwidow ultimate and Razer Naga which I used on my last computer without problem. I also have headphones connected which are Giotech Ex-05

Then the obvious thing to do is to try using it for a while without those devices connected and see how it goes.

 

[Dinokilla7]

Boozad- It freezes whenever, its more random. Although the day I write this message it froze several times within one hour. Around 3 when playing Hearthstone and around twice when watching Friends. It also froze on Youtube. Sometimes 20 minutes sometimes hours. The quickest though was about 5 minutes.

Ubuysa- I have, today I bought some new headphones and mouse and unplugged my original and used them, and it stole froze. But now I heard a loud buzzing through the headphones, I then used my new mouse and used that, but it still froze while playing Hearthstone. The only option left is my Keyboard, but I've noticed it mainly freezes when playing games or watching videos. But sometimes whenever.

Description of the freezes- Sometimes the program Im using (Game) will freeze and the sound will stop immeadiatly, although I can still move my mouse for about 10 seconds before that also freezes. Although sometimes when watching videos, Everything freezes at once, the sound, mouse, and video. Also, Ive noticed the HDD light will turn off.

Update- Literally seconds after posting this message, it froze again. Thus proving that It can freeze whenever.

 

[ubuysa]

Boozad- It freezes whenever, its more random. Although the day I write this message it froze several times within one hour. Around 3 when playing Hearthstone and around twice when watching Friends. It also froze on Youtube. Sometimes 20 minutes sometimes hours. The quickest though was about 5 minutes.

Ubuysa- I have, today I bought some new headphones and mouse and unplugged my original and used them, and it stole froze. But now I heard a loud buzzing through the headphones, I then used my new mouse and used that, but it still froze while playing Hearthstone. The only option left is my Keyboard, but I've noticed it mainly freezes when playing games or watching videos. But sometimes whenever.

Description of the freezes- Sometimes the program Im using (Game) will freeze and the sound will stop immeadiatly, although I can still move my mouse for about 10 seconds before that also freezes. Although sometimes when watching videos, Everything freezes at once, the sound, mouse, and video. Also, Ive noticed the HDD light will turn off.

Update- Literally seconds after posting this message, it froze again. Thus proving that It can freeze whenever.

But it didn't freeze when it was with PCS. So what is different about it at your home and when it was with PCS? It has to be something you use or attach that wasn't there when PCS tested it. It could even be a driver for something you use that PCS didn't have connected.

What you know is:

1. It didn't freeze at PCS for 2 weeks.

2. It freezes almost constantly with you.

So what's the difference?

 

[Boozad]

Can you boot into Safe Mode and run it for a while, may as well eliminate the chance of it being a driver issue. I doubt PCS would have been able to replicate your usage exactly so it's worth looking into.

 

[Dinokilla7]

The only difference between now and with PCS is that I have connected into is my Razer Blackwidow Ultimate Keyboard. My Razer Naga Mouse and my Geoteck EX-05 Headphones. I also have an etherernet cable connected and my power cord and a monitor. Thats all thats connected.

Ill boot into safe mode, but They did say they pushed it to its limits with a week long stress test, which probably used the cpu MORE than I do.

 

[Boozad]

It may not be the CPU that's causing the problem, and I doubt it's your peripherals. Try the Safe Mode and we'll see what happens then, be sure to use it for a while.

 

[Dinokilla7]

Tried it in safe mode for a couple of days, and it didn't freeze once. Then again I couldn't do the same things that I normally do as sound didn't work nor could I play games. So yeah.

 

[ubuysa]

Tried it in safe mode for a couple of days, and it didn't freeze once. Then again I couldn't do the same things that I normally do as sound didn't work nor could I play games. So yeah.

Actually that's good news because it gives you a benchmark to work from. Now you know it's a software issue. I'd now be tempted to use Msconfig to prevent as many things from starting with Windows as you can, so anything in that list that you don't think is essential, uncheck. Then boot Windows normally and see whether it freezes. You almost certainly won't be able to do some things but it will give you another benchmark to work up from. It will just be a process of elimination then to work out what causes the freeze. Whatever it is I still reckon it will be something that wasn't in use when your PC was at PCS.

 

[Dinokilla7]

Ok, I used Msconfig and under start up it says
AMD USB 3.0 Device detector
Realtek HD Audio Manager
AppEx Accelerator
Microsoft Windows Operating system
Catalyst Control Centre
Razer Synapse.
How do I know which one to un check?

 

[ubuysa]

Ok, I used Msconfig and under start up it says
AMD USB 3.0 Device detector
Realtek HD Audio Manager
AppEx Accelerator
Microsoft Windows Operating system
Catalyst Control Centre
Razer Synapse.
How do I know which one to un check?

Uncheck all except the Microsoft Windows Operating System. See what happens.

Your Razer mouse won't work, nor will you have sound (probably) and whatever the Catalyst control centre does (graphics card?) won't work, nor will whatever the AppEx Accelerator manages. You should be able to use the thing enough to see whether it freezes.

 

[Dinokilla7]

I unchecked them all, and I could still do mostly everything I could normally do, so I watched an episode of friends and it froze midway through. So, I assume we can say that none of them are the cause?

 

[ubuysa]

I unchecked them all, and I could still do mostly everything I could normally do, so I watched an episode of friends and it froze midway through. So, I assume we can say that none of them are the cause?

That would seem to be so. It didn't freeze at PCS and it doesn't freeze in safe mode, so it's not likely to be hardware.

Rather than scratch about trying to disable more stuff at startup I'm thinking that a clean reinstall of Windows and the PCS supplied drivers might be a better way to approach this? I know you've done that once, but you need to be systematic about this so that you don't inadvertently reinstall the problem.

If you reinstall Windows, then all the PCS supplied drivers, and then run Windows update installing only the High Priority updates you'll have as clean a software setup as you can get. Don't install anything else - especially don't install any new hardware or software, don't update any drivers, and don't make any configuration changes. See whether it freezes then?

If it doesn't, and based on what we know I'm thinking that it won't, you should then install the hardware devices you use, do this one at a time with a reboot between each driver install. Check after each change to see whether it freezes. Then you can do the same thing with your applications, install one at a time with a reboot between each one. Test after each one to see whether it freezes.

If it freezes with vanilla Windows and no other hardware or software then you'll need to talk to PCS again.

Edit: When you do the reinstall of Windows, choose the Custom option and delete all partitions on your boot disk so that all the space shows as unallocated. Then create a single partition the size of the whole disk (or whatever partition structure you want). Windows will probably also create an additional and small System Reserved partition, this is normal and you should not touch that partition at all. Install Windows into the first (large) partition you just created.

 

[Dinokilla7]

Is there anyway I can reinstall windows whilst keeping all my games on it without having to reinstall them. Because last time I did a clean reinstall I only installed the absolute necessities which was what the computer came with on a CD and I had to reinstall all my games again which took days and most of them were wiped clean of all my saves.

Also, PCS Had the exact same software I did, there isnt really any difference between what I sent to PCS and what Im using now except for the perephrials and if it didn't freeze for them (considering it sometimes freezes while'st on desktop) Then I really dont think it could be software

 

[ubuysa]

Is there anyway I can reinstall windows whilst keeping all my games on it without having to reinstall them. Because last time I did a clean reinstall I only installed the absolute necessities which was what the computer came with on a CD and I had to reinstall all my games again which took days and most of them were wiped clean of all my saves.

Sadly no. You'll have to reinstall Windows and then (after you've thoroughly tested it) install all your games and other applications.

Also, PCS Had the exact same software I did, there isnt really any difference between what I sent to PCS and what Im using now except for the perephrials and if it didn't freeze for them (considering it sometimes freezes while'st on desktop) Then I really dont think it could be software

This is precisely why I think it must be software. It didn't freeze at PCS and it didn't freeze in safe mode for you, so whilst it could still be hardware I think a software problem is more likely. I suspect that it's likely to be a faulty driver more than anything else, and I'm guessing that whilst it was at PCS they didn't use that hardware (perhaps it's the driver for one of your peripherals causing the problem?) and in safe mode that driver wasn't loaded. That is all guesswork on my part but I think it fits what we know better than it being a hardware problem (though I could be wrong ).

In any case, in order to be completely sure it's a hardware problem you have no choice but to do a completely clean reinstall of Windows and the PCS drivers. Only if it freezes than can you be fairly sure it's a hardware issue.

 

[Dinokilla7]

Did it. Did a clean reinstall only installed the basic drivers and everything that I needed to install. E.g the windows disc and the Motherboard disc basic drivers. Thought I had it fixed and was working, but then it froze while playing a game. So yeah, I'm going to assume its my keyboard and ill try and replace it asap.

 

[ubuysa]

Did it. Did a clean reinstall only installed the basic drivers and everything that I needed to install. E.g the windows disc and the Motherboard disc basic drivers. Thought I had it fixed and was working, but then it froze while playing a game. So yeah, I'm going to assume its my keyboard and ill try and replace it asap.

Not the ideal result from a reinstall but I think you've shown it's most likely a hardware issue. It would be interesting to know what the eventual problem turns out to be, and why it didn't fail at PCS of course...