My Windows freezes randomly

[Area51Invasion]

Hello,

 

I have a problem on my PC for some time now. When I am doing some tasks on my PC (whether being browsing or heavy-duty tasks like video editing) my Windows freezes randomly. Sometimes it lasts 5 seconds, sometimes 10, 15, 20 but sometimes it goes up to a minute of freeze and I am unable to do anything while it's frozen. I can't open task manager or any other app so I am forced to just wait for it to unfreezes. Also, I sometimes get 4-6 freezes in 1-2 minute time span but other times I can be working for hour or two and it doesn't freeze, not even once. It usually happens when I am launching two browsers or have one open and click on the other one to launch it. It also happens frequently when I game so it takes away the joy of playing games. It also makes my life pretty frustrating when trying to get some work done. Whether it's editing some music video, or actually making music it is annoying not to be able to work smoothly. But also interesting fact is that while PC is frozen I am able to move my cursor but that's the only thing I can do, and it isn't really helpful because, as I said, I am unable to launch any app while PC is frozen. I really don't know is this Windows based or hardware based problem so any help regarding my problem would be really appreciated.

 

Thank you for your help!

[nextg3n]

sounds to me like a bad hdd issue, while its trying to read some bad blocks or sth... dont know if ssd-s have similar issues.. ram probs usually go to blue screen or could also just be corrupted windows, id go for a clean install if i were sure the hardware is functioning properly

[191x7]

CrystalDiskInfo and Hard Disk Sentinel.

Also, LatencyMon.

[Area51Invasion]

7 hours ago, nextg3n said:

sounds to me like a bad hdd issue, while its trying to read some bad blocks or sth... dont know if ssd-s have similar issues.. ram probs usually go to blue screen or could also just be corrupted windows, id go for a clean install if i were sure the hardware is functioning properly

Windows is installed on SSD, it's not on hard drive. I have already did fresh installs of Windows 3 times since January and that didn't fix the problem as well. Is my SSD maybe bad, or is there any other possible answer for this problem?

[Area51Invasion]

6 hours ago, 191x7 said:

CrystalDiskInfo and Hard Disk Sentinel.

Also, LatencyMon.

1. I ran CrystalDiskInfo and it shows these results: 

• My main drive (which is SSD): It shows that health status is "Unknown"
• My secondary 1TB (HDD): It says that health status is "Caution" and on the list of thing only yellow dot is next to "Reallocated Sectors Count" and everything else is blue
• My third 500GB (HDD): It says that health status is "Good"

2. I also ran Hard Disk Sentinel and it says:

• My main SSD (whick is Kingston 480GB btw): Performance: 100%; Health: 85%;
• My secondary 1TB HDD: Performance: 100%; Health: 95%;
• My third 500GB HDD: Performance: 100%; Health: 100%;

3. LatencyMon check is in progress as of the time of writing this so I will update you once the results are in.

 

I really don't see any big problem with my drives and I'm clueless to where the actual problem is.

(I will also provide screenshots of above listed results if needed)

[191x7]

What is the message Sentinel writes about the drive, the text descrioption?

[Area51Invasion]

1 hour ago, 191x7 said:

What is the message Sentinel writes about the drive, the text descrioption?

• Main 480GB SSD:

"The status of the solid state disk is PERFECT. Problematic or weak sectors were not found. 
The TRIM feature of the SSD is supported and enabled for optimal performance.
The health is determined by SSD specific S.M.A.R.T. attribute(s):  #231 SSD Wear Indicator

No actions needed."

 

• Secondary 1TB HDD:

"There are 4 bad sectors on the disk surface. The contents of these sectors were moved to the spare area.
At this point, warranty replacement of the disk is not yet possible, only if the health drops further.
Problems occurred between the communication of the disk and the host 75 times.
In case of sudden system crash, reboot, blue-screen-of-death, inaccessible file(s)/folder(s), it is recommended to verify data and power cables, connections - and if possible try different cables to prevent further problems.
More information: https://www.hdsentinel.com/hard_disk_case_communication_error.php
It is recommended to examine the log of the disk regularly. All new problems found will be logged there."

 

• Third 500GB HDD:

"The hard disk status is PERFECT. Problematic or weak sectors were not found and there are no spin up or data transfer errors. 

No actions needed."

[191x7]

Replace the SATA data cable of the 1TB drive. That should stop the CRC Errors (S.M.A.R.T.) that Sentinel reads as "Problems occurred between the communication of the disk" from increasing which will allow you to do safely what you need to do - backup everything from the drive.

After you backup everything from it, do a full format of the drive (or, even better, a secure erase) and don't use anything important on it. And monitor if the bad sectors are spreading.

 

Check your Windows using this:

 

[nextg3n]

id remove the secondary hdd since ive seen windows crash with less... even when theyre installed on an ssd it can still crash when its trying to access or read a bad block, or you could try it with i believe it was defraggler? or some software that you can tell windows to ingore those specific blocks and see if that helps, but at this point im about as glueless where problem lies as you are... ram speeds not matching with between each other?  MOBO not support those ram speeds... i mean they can still run but there can be some hiccups...  i got nothing besides that...

[Area51Invasion]

2 hours ago, 191x7 said:

Replace the SATA data cable of the 1TB drive. That should stop the CRC Errors (S.M.A.R.T.) that Sentinel reads as "Problems occurred between the communication of the disk" from increasing which will allow you to do safely what you need to do - backup everything from the drive.

After you backup everything from it, do a full format of the drive (or, even better, a secure erase) and don't use anything important on it. And monitor if the bad sectors are spreading.

 

Check your Windows using this:

 

Seeing as my 1TB drive is pretty old ("Power on time: 1878 days" as stated by Hard Disk Sentinel) do you suggest just buying new 1TB drive and new SATA cable because I really don't have time to backup everything from drive and do secure erase. I mean HDD isn't that expensive in the first place, but only question is would this solve my freezing problem I am experiencing?

[Area51Invasion]

2 hours ago, nextg3n said:

id remove the secondary hdd since ive seen windows crash with less... even when theyre installed on an ssd it can still crash when its trying to access or read a bad block, or you could try it with i believe it was defraggler? or some software that you can tell windows to ingore those specific blocks and see if that helps, but at this point im about as glueless where problem lies as you are... ram speeds not matching with between each other?  MOBO not support those ram speeds... i mean they can still run but there can be some hiccups...  i got nothing besides that...

I am going to probably buy new secondary drive and see if that solves problem because my current one is over 1870 days old. I have only one stick of ram, 8GB 2666MHz and my motherboard is Asus prime a320m-k so I don't see it being any compatibility issue with ram speeds and motherboard. To my knowledge my motherboard supports my ram speeds.

[191x7]

18 minutes ago, Area51Invasion said:

Seeing as my 1TB drive is pretty old ("Power on time: 1878 days" as stated by Hard Disk Sentinel) do you suggest just buying new 1TB drive and new SATA cable because I really don't have time to backup everything from drive and do secure erase. I mean HDD isn't that expensive in the first place, but only question is would this solve my freezing problem I am experiencing?

Since it's not the drive that Windows is on, it might not be the cause of the issues (unless some boot files and/or programs are there), but there is a small chance it is.

I'd recommend trying without the drive first.

 

If you decide you want a second drive, get a 500GB-1TB SSD or a 2TB HDD. 1TB HDD-s aren't noticably cheaper than 2TB.

 

Anyways, I'd secure erase the drive to see how many bad sectors it will (actually) find. If only those four are preasent (and isolated) and the numbers aren't increasing the drive would be safe to use.

 

Edit: I have an old Samsung 1TB drive. Some time ago it started reporting issues and bad sectors, I replaced the cable and now it's 100% healthy.

So, not only the CRC errors might stop with the cable replacement, the bad sectors might be erroneus readings. 

[Area51Invasion]

14 hours ago, 191x7 said:

Since it's not the drive that Windows is on, it might not be the cause of the issues (unless some boot files and/or programs are there), but there is a small chance it is.

I'd recommend trying without the drive first.

 

If you decide you want a second drive, get a 500GB-1TB SSD or a 2TB HDD. 1TB HDD-s aren't noticably cheaper than 2TB.

 

Anyways, I'd secure erase the drive to see how many bad sectors it will (actually) find. If only those four are preasent (and isolated) and the numbers aren't increasing the drive would be safe to use.

 

Edit: I have an old Samsung 1TB drive. Some time ago it started reporting issues and bad sectors, I replaced the cable and now it's 100% healthy.

So, not only the CRC errors might stop with the cable replacement, the bad sectors might be erroneus readings. 

Yea, I will try just replacing SATA cable, but still if that and/or new drive doesn't fix the issue I really don't know what to do. Experienced freezes multiple times while writing this post and replying. I am clueless to what the problem actually is.

[191x7]

Did you run the script!

[Area51Invasion]

18 hours ago, 191x7 said:

Did you run the script!

Yes I did. This was the last thing that was written after all 4 processes finished.

 

"Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at
windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline
repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If SFC found some errors and could not repair, re-run the script after a reboot.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------"

[191x7]

6 hours ago, Area51Invasion said:

Yes I did. This was the last thing that was written after all 4 processes finished.

 

"Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them..."
 

This means your Windows installation had corrupt files that system file check (sfc) was able to repair.

I'd recommend re-running the script (after a reboot). A re-run will finish a lot faster and SFC shouldn't find any more problems.

[Area51Invasion]

17 hours ago, 191x7 said:

This means your Windows installation had corrupt files that system file check (sfc) was able to repair.

I'd recommend re-running the script (after a reboot). A re-run will finish a lot faster and SFC shouldn't find any more problems.

I will do that, but still, my PC freezes like mad every 15-20 minutes

[191x7]

26 minutes ago, Area51Invasion said:

I will do that, but still, my PC freezes like mad every 15-20 minutes

Now, let's check the RAM. For that, youd need to run PassMark Memtest86 from a bootable thumb drive.

Also, I'd recommend testing one memory stick at a time (so you have to take others out), and running at least a single full pass on each module/stick.

 

Also, what are your system specs and the CPU temperatures?

[Area51Invasion]

3 hours ago, 191x7 said:

Now, let's check the RAM. For that, youd need to run PassMark Memtest86 from a bootable thumb drive.

Also, I'd recommend testing one memory stick at a time (so you have to take others out), and running at least a single full pass on each module/stick.

 

Also, what are your system specs and the CPU temperatures?

I ran that script again, it didn't show any errors as you said but my PC still freezes.

 

I have heard for that and on one forum I saw being written that you need to run Memtest86 from CD but I don't have optical drive in my PC. Can this be modified to run from USB Stick?

 

My configuration only has one RAM stick, it's BallistiX 8GB 2666MHz.

 

My PC specs are:

• AMD Ryzen 5 1600 (not overclocked)
• Asus Prime A320K-M motherboard
• BallistiX 8GB 2666MHz (one RAM stick)
• Asus Cerberus 1050 Ti
• 3 storage drives (from above)
• 500W PSU

My CPU temperature currently (while having Chrome, Opera, Task Manager, and HWinfo open) is 50°C with maximum of 61.8°C and average of 51.3°C

 

Edit: I ran Aida64 for 10 minutes and CPU temps were averaging between 80°C and 85°C with peak temperature hitting 93.9°C.

Edited September 29, 2019 by Area51Invasion
Providing additional information

[191x7]

Memtest86 can run from USB, you get a way to make a USB memtest drive on their download page.

 

And that load temperature, that's way hotter than I'd like, but it's not what's causing your issues.

Consider upgrading your cooling, look at the Snowman cooler from AliExpress.

[Area51Invasion]

14 hours ago, 191x7 said:

Memtest86 can run from USB, you get a way to make a USB memtest drive on their download page.

 

And that load temperature, that's way hotter than I'd like, but it's not what's causing your issues.

Consider upgrading your cooling, look at the Snowman cooler from AliExpress.

I will do the Memtest86 until the end of the week and I will look into buying new cooler for CPU.

 

But one thing I noticed is that when the freeze happens my disk usage in task manager shows that my primary drive (Kingston 480GB SSD) goes all the way up to 100% and when PC unfreezes it goes back to normal usage. Is this maybe the reason for freezes? Faulty SSD?

[nextg3n]

21 minutes ago, Area51Invasion said:

I will do the Memtest86 until the end of the week and I will look into buying new cooler for CPU.

 

But one thing I noticed is that when the freeze happens my disk usage in task manager shows that my primary drive (Kingston 480GB SSD) goes all the way up to 100% and when PC unfreezes it goes back to normal usage. Is this maybe the reason for freezes? Faulty SSD?

or just a bad copy of windows? or some bs malware... kingston usually doesnt make garbage

[Area51Invasion]

2 hours ago, nextg3n said:

or just a bad copy of windows? or some bs malware... kingston usually doesnt make garbage

Windows is from microsoft official site and product key is bought there so I don't think there should be any issue with that.

I ran Kaspersky total scan and Malwarebytes several times and no malware was found...

 

Also this problem, freezes, came when I upgraded my PC with this SSD in January. Before, when I was running windows of 4+ years old HDD, there were no problems...

[nextg3n]

in that case sounds like you´re right and it is an ssd issue

[191x7]

Is there maybe a firmware update for the SSD?