Windows 8.1 freezing under low to medium workloads

[droggelbecher]

Hey guys, 

 

last week i finally built my new gaming Rig, but after installing windows 8.1 ( standard version not pro, clean install from USB) I´m experiencing non reproducible OS freezes after 5-10 mins. I removed my PCI Wifi Card to sort out at least one point of failure, which actually helped somewhat, but the system is still freezing. (A more detailed description of the freeze below.)

 

Freeze Descripton:

 

Software state of the system: BIOS latest version, fresh Win 8.1 install, only driver installed is for USB wifi stick, windows updates are (partially) installed. 

 

Hardware currently in the system: Asus Maximus VII Gene, Intel i7 4790k, Corsair H100i, Nvidia GTX 980, Gskill TridentX 2400 mhz 16GB RAM (tested with memtest86+ with no errors for 2+ Hours, set to 1333mhz to avoid freq problems with windows), Plextor M6e M.2 SSD (maybe the point of failure, M.2 mode activated in bios, didn´t touch any other settings)

 

Freeze: 5-10 minutes after booting up while having low to medium workloads ( windows update, downloading drivers via Firefox) the active Window is "not reacting" anymore. Can´t click or type anything but the mouse is still movable. HDD Activity LED on Motherboard and case are lit up (normally blinking) and the system fans are turning up their rpm. System has to be shut down by holding the power button because even after waiting 1 hour the system is not reacting again. PICTURES

 

My theory is that the SSD is not working correctly (with windows), but that would be a topic for the Storage section i think.

 

Help would be much appreciated  (and please ignore my bad english  )

 

Thanks in advance

[_dh_]

Hey droggelbecher,

 

I've got a nearly identical setup (Win 8.1, Asus Maximus VII Gene, Intel i7 4790k, Nvidia GTX 980, 2133Mhz 8GB RAM, Plextor M6e M.2 SSD) and I also encounter the occasional freeze, but only under heavy load. I also think the SSD is too blame. It sits directly under the GPU which, although it runs relatively cool, puts out quite some heat. The SSD ususally ships on a PCIe board with its own heat sink, and we are running it underneath a ~165W TDP GPU without a heatsink, so I guess if the SSD runs too hot it just shuts down, thereby causing the system to freeze. I guess it depends on the airflow of your system how soon this happens, but the Asus Maximus VII Gene also gets quite warm in combination with the Intel i7 4790k and an overclock on the GPU and CPU will not make the system run any cooler, so that is maybe the reason why your system froze up even under low to medium load.

 

Cheers!