Computer freezes for ~20 seconds

Terpe · August 18, 2016

I don't know if this is the right category but anyways:

The problem is that my computer simply freezes for around 20 seconds. The screen does not move, but i still have sound that changes. I can see because of the HDD LED that my Hard drive or SSD are fully running. Seems simple right? I thought well maybe my SSD is faulty. But yesterday i realised it does not only happen ingame in games that are on the SSD but also on the HDD. It has also happened twice on desktop while simply watching videos.

The GPU load goes from somewhere around 50% down to 0 (yes zero according to MSI afterburner), while the cpu load stays roughly the same. If it just happened once in 2 days it wouldn't bother me, but since i also play some competitive games it really bothers me if you just can't move straight for 20 seconds. It also seems that the game does not recognize my controls during this time btw. After these 20 Seconds everything is normal again, and i have no problems.It normally happens 3-4 times a day, mostly ingame. I also noticed some "lags" that would probably be the drive before that. I noticed that i would only have around 2 fps, at some points (when many players are on the screen) and assumed that it would be because the drive is too slow, instead it straigth freezes now, but at least i dont have 2fps anymore, right?

Hardware:

Gigabyte Z170 HD3P

i7 6700k

MSI GTX 960 Armor Edition

be Quiet! Straight power 10 400W

Seagate 1 TB HDD

Transcend 120GB SSD370

Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit

Edit: I maybe have another clue: The Freezes occur since around the Time i updatet Windows to The Anniversary Update

Nord · August 18, 2016

When the system drive is faulty, all other drives are "faulty" too, kind of. As basically the actions of your other SSD/HDD's still need to be "validated" by the OS, which is on the system drive and well, if its faulty that wont work so well sometimes.

Anyhow I'd rather search the issue with your GPU or PSU than the SSD.

To check weather a drive is faulty or not, get HDDTune, it offers a free-trial and run a full scan (not quick scan). If something is wrong with the drive(s) a red square will appear somewhere in the application. If everything stays green, all is well.

Also I'd re-install the GPU Driver and tone back any OC's you might have done.

Use DDU to de-install all GPU drivers, get the newest ones from nivida.com, re-install them and see if that fixes it.

And now to what I actually think is causing your p roblems: the PSU.

According to be quiet its Gold rated, so 360W~ output should be expected at the least. But when I calculate your system watt usage I also get to around 360W~ . Which as you can probably tell is pretty much exactly in the area the PSU is able to supply, so I would assume this is your problem.

To temporarely fix and/or test this, you could remove all OC's you've done on the CPU & GPU and also unplug some hardware that you dont need, (F/e: additional case-fans, peripherial devices, remove the second stick of RAM) as all of this will result in your system needing less power while running. Once done just go play and see if the issue still shows up. If it does, its probably not the PSU, though unlikely, if it does not, there you go.

Terpe · August 18, 2016

56 minutes ago, Nord said:

When the system drive is faulty, all other drives are "faulty" too, kind of. As basically the actions of your other SSD/HDD's still need to be "validated" by the OS, which is on the system drive and well, if its faulty that wont work so well sometimes.

Anyhow I'd rather search the issue with your GPU or PSU than the SSD.

To check weather a drive is faulty or not, get HDDTune, it offers a free-trial and run a full scan (not quick scan). If something is wrong with the drive(s) a red square will appear somewhere in the application. If everything stays green, all is well.

Also I'd re-install the GPU Driver and tone back any OC's you might have done.

Use DDU to de-install all GPU drivers, get the newest ones from nivida.com, re-install them and see if that fixes it.

And now to what I actually think is causing your p roblems: the PSU.

According to be quiet its Gold rated, so 360W~ output should be expected at the least. But when I calculate your system watt usage I also get to around 360W~ . Which as you can probably tell is pretty much exactly in the area the PSU is able to supply, so I would assume this is your problem.

To temporarely fix and/or test this, you could remove all OC's you've done on the CPU & GPU and also unplug some hardware that you dont need, (F/e: additional case-fans, peripherial devices, remove the second stick of RAM) as all of this will result in your system needing less power while running. Once done just go play and see if the issue still shows up. If it does, its probably not the PSU, though unlikely, if it does not, there you go.

Ok so I currently run the HDTune, And will uninstall Drivers, but i don't think it's the PSU, since i had a device between the PC and the Wall that measured how much i draw from the wall. Which came to 240W while running Prime 95 and MSI Kombustor. So everything except for HDD and SSD were fully under load, and i can't imagine they draw 120W. Currently nothing is Overclocked, (as far as i know ^^)

Edit: while submitting this comment it occured btw.