windows 10 New PC - strange Windows freezes (probable cause: NZXT CAM)

[apexcrisis]

iCUE and CAM were both running for me when the freezes started happening after Windows forced me to 20H2. I have not ran CAM for a few days now and had no issues with windows freezing up. iCUE is still running.

[Monkas]

Seems ICUE+CAM is the issue. I have both running also. Same problem reported on corsairs forums over a year ago.

 

https://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?t=195035

 

[SeeNoWeevil]

1 hour ago, Monkas said:

Seems ICUE+CAM is the issue. I have both running also. Same problem reported on corsairs forums over a year ago.

 

https://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?t=195035

 

I don't use ICUE. I do use Armoury Crate though.

[Gringan]

I had icue, dragon center, armory crate, Synapse and cam installed. I searched for weeks then formatted the pc. I only installed Cam and had the problem again. In the FPS display options of Doom eternal, there is a GPU and CPU metric. CAM creates a loss of CPU, which causes a mini freeze every 20 seconds. even when uninstalling CAM, the problem persists. The only solution for me was to format.

[Cob]

9 hours ago, Creativem0nster1 said:

Out of curiosity, who here has iCUE installed as well?  I had to reinstall the OS due to this issue, I haven't installed iCUE yet and so far I've had no crashes (fingers crossed).  I wonder if they will start here shortly, or if it is potentially just a bad interaction with iCUE.

 

@nzxt_jeffany updates?

Same here, have CAM and iCUE installed and running. I recorded it https://imgur.com/gallery/KgHznIM

Gonna try without CAM for now. It happens to me only while watching videos, Youtube or Crunchyroll.

[Massdit]

Hi all.

 

I have been following this topic for a while now. I do have the same problem (Windows Freezing) since last September, and...well, It is really annoying...

 

I notice this issue most notably when watching Twitch, and it is happening completely randomly sometime after a few hours, sometimes 10mn after having rebooted). I am NOT using any other monitoring software.

 

@nzxt_jeff : I have tried the CAM version you posted last week and i still have the issue. Again, i am not using any other monitoring software.

 

Here are my specs :

NZXT H710i (with Smart device V2)

Asrock Taichi x570

AMD Ryzen 3600

TeamGroup White Hawk32 GB 3600 mhz

KFA2 RTX 2080

Seasonic FOCUS Plus 650 Gold

x2 NZXT X62 for CPU and GPU (with G12)

[SeeNoWeevil]

Has anyone found a way to soft-restart their machine once it's started to act weird without having to do a hard power off?

[maxgoof]

1 hour ago, SeeNoWeevil said:

Has anyone found a way to soft-restart their machine once it's started to act weird without having to do a hard power off?

I haven't been able to, it's always been a hard reset for me.

[passedpawn]

43 minutes ago, grimcitizen said:

I haven't been able to, it's always been a hard reset for me.

Same here.  

 

BTW, I stopped running CAM and haven't had a crash in at least 3 weeks.  

[tjackvt89]

Is anyone getting total freeze/crashes? That’s what happened to my PC and I hadn’t even had it a week, it was a brand new BLD. I’ve got a video that I can post showing all my peripherals not working when the freeze occurs, and the screen freezing as well. The PC will either reset automatically or I need to do a hard reset myself. 

[passedpawn]

39 minutes ago, tjackvt89 said:

Is anyone getting total freeze/crashes? That’s what happened to my PC and I hadn’t even had it a week, it was a brand new BLD. I’ve got a video that I can post showing all my peripherals not working when the freeze occurs, and the screen freezing as well. The PC will either reset automatically or I need to do a hard reset myself. 

My freezes usually only affects some of the windows (some I can close, others no).  Mouse still moves around.  Task manager doesn't work.  Must hard reset with power button.  

[Nati47]

Curious,

 

Built PC in January and started having the freezing issue shortly. Has been getting worse. I was about to sell my pc for parts 5600x and 3080. This is so annoying. Anyways has anyone opened up event viewer and seen Event log 6008 "The previous system shutdown at 11:07:09 AM on ‎4/‎4/‎2021 was unexpected" I keep seeing this after I have to manually shut off my pc and turn it back on. Only after it is on that I see that Event Log stating that about 10-15 mins prior there was an "unexpected shutdown" even though my pc was still running. Could it be NZXT CAM crashing at that precise time.. which causes the rest of my pc to slowly crash to the point that I have to hard power. 

 

Someone please check your event viewer and tell me if you get EVENT Log 6008? really appreciate it

 

Ryzen 5600x

RTX 3080

NZXT Z73

Lian Li Fans x6

Gskill Trident Z ram 32gb 3600mh

Inland SSD M.2 1tb

HDD 1tb

[kvmstr]

6 hours ago, tjackvt89 said:

Is anyone getting total freeze/crashes? That’s what happened to my PC and I hadn’t even had it a week, it was a brand new BLD. I’ve got a video that I can post showing all my peripherals not working when the freeze occurs, and the screen freezing as well. The PC will either reset automatically or I need to do a hard reset myself. 

had this problems since 09-2020, and sometimes even my mouse wont work. 

 

Actually i use my pc for crypto mining an it froze at 11:11 oclock in the morning. the pc runs the whole day when iam at work, so I checked it at evening and everything seams froze (mouse, clock, apps). After hard reset i was checking my mining earnings and was wondering ist has mined the whole day with freezing desktop until i hard reset it.

[are512]

Hi @nzxt_jeff, I'm unsure if your engineers have thought about this, but it sounds like there is a mutex issue somewhere, that your code is either not releasing resources correctly, or its causing an issue if the resource is not available yet. Like you've already said it only happens between other monitoring apps like razer, icue and armoury crate alike.

Since CAM isn't open source (As far as I'm concerned) I cant confirm or deny this. But it might be an idea to work the mutex system it uses from the ground up, as that is normally a good way to avoid race cases when designing that.

 

[johny dl]

Been scouring this forum as I've had this same system lockup issue for a few months now that started shortly after installing NZXT CAM.

 

I've had the program uninstalled but am still encountering the issue. I thought it may have also been my motherboard so I got a new motherboard, processor, and RAM (was due for an upgrade anyways) and yet these freezes still happen. I saw someone in another thread say that the latest 465.89 Nvidia drivers may have solved the issue through a TDR hotfix but still nothing. :c I can go days without crashes, and then sometimes three or four times a day. Just a nuisance! 

[Nati47]

5 hours ago, johny dl said:

Been scouring this forum as I've had this same system lockup issue for a few months now that started shortly after installing NZXT CAM.

 

I've had the program uninstalled but am still encountering the issue. I thought it may have also been my motherboard so I got a new motherboard, processor, and RAM (was due for an upgrade anyways) and yet these freezes still happen. I saw someone in another thread say that the latest 465.89 Nvidia drivers may have solved the issue through a TDR hotfix but still nothing. :c I can go days without crashes, and then sometimes three or four times a day. Just a nuisance! 

Mind sharing your pc part list?

[revowow]

On 4/5/2021 at 3:38 PM, grimcitizen said:

I haven't been able to, it's always been a hard reset for me.

I have been having this issue for months now and I'm glad I finally found this thread. For the past few months my best workaround was doing ctrl+alt+del and logging out as soon as you notice that Windows freezes. It seems like everything works fine after that.

[mtlmat]

Yeah for me I noticed the issue when I had iCue and CAM running at the same time. For now to be safe, I quit both of them after Windows has booted and no more freezes for more than a month. As others have pointed out, it's clearly a conflict between CAM and other monitoring software.

[Dark Hero VIII]

So I started out with NZXT customer service with I would like to return my Z73…sorry to hear that blah blah blah. provide me with your invoice/receipt for the purchase…purchase was made through New Egg.

Gave me things to try, which have been done already on the forum

Arturo

I see, are you able to test the Kraken with the CAM Beta software?

I said the problem has been out for approx. 9 months now.

Arturo

Unfortunately, this would specifically be a CAM software issue; due to the cooler being purchased from a 3rd party retailer, we would only be able to replace the cooler itself; however, the cooler may not be experiencing any issues due to this being a software issue

I said Z73 won’t run without the CAM software...you can’t be serious right now. Wanted me to do the usual uninstall with Revo and try the BETA..

I said yes...I tried that...also did a complete fresh install of windows, so how can you say it is a CAM problem when you need both to run the cooler?

Arturo

Typically, if the CAM software is crashing, there may be an issue with the software rather than the cooler; if you were to open the CAM application at the moment, are there any specific issues that occur?

I said no...i asked him to read through the forum I provided (this one) where you will see that all appears normal until it will suddenly freeze up.  Everything i have read shows that you need CAM running to run the AIO and if your next piece of advice will be to shut down the software...will you guarantee my hardware if it gets damaged?

Arturo

Typically, the Kraken will run under "Silent" mode if the CAM application is not running in the background, as this would ensure that the Kraken is working under it's "Silent" profile

I told him my fans were running full speed, and that typically is no guarantee.

Arturo

Unfortunately, I would only be able to recommend a refund through the retailer that was used for the purchase; I would be more than happy to provide additional troubleshooting instructions in terms of the CAM issue

I said this is unacceptable, this is a problem that you all have known about for approx 9 months

He asked about the mother board and then what RGB programs were running to which I  said iCue and Razer

Arturo

It sounds like your system is going through a soft crash issue that we are currently investigating with the NZXT CAM software.  I would suggest closing the CAM software and disabling it from startup, or completely uninstalling it from your system to see if the issue repeats over the next couple of days.  If the issue does not repeat, then it is likely related to the issue that our CAM development team is currently investigating, as outlined here:  https://blog.nzxt.com/nzxt-cam-4-22-0-beta-released/  The team is actively working on a fix for this issue, however, a future update of the software will be necessary to fully rectify the issue.

I told him I tried all that and still doesn’t perform as it should.

Arturo

I'm sorry to hear that, unfortunately, I would only be able to recommend reaching out to the retailer for a refund for the purchase of the cooler; as I would only be able to replace the cooler under the 6-year warranty

I told him it took a while to diagnose and I’m past my return date with New Egg.

Arturo

If the CAM software is closed on the PC, the cooler will run at a default "Silent" mode, which will allow the pump to run at 20% speed. Again, I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience that the CAM software may have caused, our CAM development team is currently working on a fix for the software

I told him 20 percent is not acceptable

Arturo went on to ask me to download Process Explorer and send some files, which I already did.

I explained I did that, didn’t get a response and just want to get rid of it.

Arturo

I understand, unfortunately, I would only be able to provide further instructions on troubleshooting the CAM issue; if you were interested in doing so, I would be more than happy to supply you with further instructions

I said, so...in other words...there is no date we can expect this to get fixed...and you’re claiming that you won't refund me for it.

Arturo

Unfortunately, we would be unable to refund the order due to the product not being purchased directly through the NZXT Store; it may be recommended to reach out to the retailer in terms of refunding the product. In terms of the CAM issue, our CAM development team is currently working on a fix for the crashing issue, as updates can be found on our CAM software page: https://www.nzxt.com/camapp

Unfortunately, that is all I am able to provide; you are more than welcome to issue a chargeback, however, this refund would be issued through the retailer used for the purchase of the cooler.

 

I'm done with this POS. There was more in the transcript but to shorten it up, I just threw in key points. I tried explaining that This has been going on for a while and is causing people to RMA hardware etc. It shouldn't take this long to fix an issue.

[Nati47]

I guarantee a letter from my lawyer would get me my money back

[MeguBaku]

I have gotten rid of some corsair hardware already because I thought iCue was the issue initially. Not running iCue seemed to remove the freezes.

 

So I moved to another ecosystem and behold, the freezes were still there. I was starting to think it was a hardware problem on the level of RAM or CPU. After finding this thread, I contacted NZXT which told me to choose between their products and the other products using the other software. Quite hilarious response. It's the last product I buy from them.

 

After telling the retailer their response, I'm getting my money back, and a new AIO from another brand which their software is optional to run, and all basic functions can be done on BIOS. To be honest, if big retailers would freeze selling these until they fix the issue, then they would loose their asses to fix the issue, instead of having it lingering around for months.

[Creativem0nster1]

Interestingly enough I've had some crashes due to potentially CPU voltages being too low as well.  (iCUE is still not installed, stuff is just running in hardware lighting.  So far no crashes from that to my knowledge.)

 

I disabled the C-State, PBO, and the PSU idle was set to typical in the BIOS and that has made my system 'so far' more stable.  I'm gonna keep it like this for a week and see how it goes.  If anyone is running AMD 5000 series CPU's it might be worth a shot if you are having slowdown and then a lock up or random restarts.  AMD forums have some great info about these specific issues.  The issues are primarily due to AGESA being outdated and the MOBO manufactures are working on putting out new BIOS updates with AGESA https://ground.news/article/amd-to-release-bios-update-to-finally-fix-ryzen-5000-issues.

 

Not sure if the issues are primarily having iCUE and CAM together or something with new CPU's.  It's unfortunate no clear errors or BSOD's are being tossed, makes troubleshooting and pin-pointing the culprit very difficult.

[MeguBaku]

1 hour ago, Creativem0nster1 said:

Interestingly enough I've had some crashes due to potentially CPU voltages being too low as well.  (iCUE is still not installed, stuff is just running in hardware lighting.  So far no crashes from that to my knowledge.)

 

I disabled the C-State, PBO, and the PSU idle was set to typical in the BIOS and that has made my system 'so far' more stable.  I'm gonna keep it like this for a week and see how it goes.  If anyone is running AMD 5000 series CPU's it might be worth a shot if you are having slowdown and then a lock up or random restarts.  AMD forums have some great info about these specific issues.  The issues are primarily due to AGESA being outdated and the MOBO manufactures are working on putting out new BIOS updates with AGESA https://ground.news/article/amd-to-release-bios-update-to-finally-fix-ryzen-5000-issues.

 

Not sure if the issues are primarily having iCUE and CAM together or something with new CPU's.  It's unfortunate no clear errors or BSOD's are being tossed, makes troubleshooting and pin-pointing the culprit very difficult.

From the thread seems like some people are getting the freezes with Intels even... so I think it's more a CAM problem not playing ball with other software.

[Dark-vash]

2 hours ago, Creativem0nster1 said:

Interestingly enough I've had some crashes due to potentially CPU voltages being too low as well.  (iCUE is still not installed, stuff is just running in hardware lighting.  So far no crashes from that to my knowledge.)

 

I disabled the C-State, PBO, and the PSU idle was set to typical in the BIOS and that has made my system 'so far' more stable.  I'm gonna keep it like this for a week and see how it goes.  If anyone is running AMD 5000 series CPU's it might be worth a shot if you are having slowdown and then a lock up or random restarts.  AMD forums have some great info about these specific issues.  The issues are primarily due to AGESA being outdated and the MOBO manufactures are working on putting out new BIOS updates with AGESA https://ground.news/article/amd-to-release-bios-update-to-finally-fix-ryzen-5000-issues.

 

Not sure if the issues are primarily having iCUE and CAM together or something with new CPU's.  It's unfortunate no clear errors or BSOD's are being tossed, makes troubleshooting and pin-pointing the culprit very difficult.

 

I'm finished updating my BIOS to AGESA ComboAM4PIV2 1.2.0.2, the one that's supposed to solve the issues with USB and what not. I'm going to reinstall CAM and test to see if the software issues were related to that. 

 

1 hour ago, MeguBaku said:

From the thread seems like some people are getting the freezes with Intels even... so I think it's more a CAM problem not playing ball with other software.

Yeah, it's true. It's prominent on AMD builds, but there could be more than one issue, since some people have conflicts with other softwares, like the iCUE.

 

Will provide update as I can. 

[Gringan]

1 hour ago, Dark-vash said:

 

I'm finished updating my BIOS to AGESA ComboAM4PIV2 1.2.0.2, the one that's supposed to solve the issues with USB and what not. I'm going to reinstall CAM and test to see if the software issues were related to that. 

 

Yeah, it's true. It's prominent on AMD builds, but there could be more than one issue, since some people have conflicts with other softwares, like the iCUE.

 

Will provide update as I can. 

On a new fresh install of win10.  Win stability issue + FPS drop on games. ( Asus ROG Formula XII / I9 10900 / RTX 3080 / 64GB 3600 ). Armoury crate + CAM