Frequent Gradual Computer Freezes

[Corin_Wright]

Hey guys, I have posted this issue before, but I thought to post an update as the issue in unresolved.

 

Sometimes, the system basically becomes unresponsive...not completely unresponsive, but to the point where the only way to fix it is to do a force restart.

 

So for example, one program may freeze completely, while other sort of "half stop working", for example, being able to move windows but unable to type or unable to save work etc etc. Basically the computer becomes unusable until I do the force restart. (Can´t even sign out/ choose the restart option from the menu).

 

I thought this could be a RAM problem, but I've tried switching out my RAM sticks and also putting them into different slots and the freezes still occur. All my drivers are up to date. I'm starting to think it might be a Harddrive problem, basically because I'm running out of other possibilities to consider. I'm also considering just doing a clean reinstall of windows, but removing the mechanical (and oldest) harddrive from my system, as this is the harddrive where the boot partition is installed. 

 

If anyone can give me any advice at all, I'd appreciate it, as I'm kind of at a loss for why this is happening. 

[adm0n]

1 hour ago, Corin_Wright said:

I'm starting to think it might be a Harddrive problem, basically because I'm running out of other possibilities to consider

I had this exact issue before. My SSD just stopped responding and would only start to come alive again after I power cycled it. So it had to be replaced :c

[Corin_Wright]

1 hour ago, adm0n said:

I had this exact issue before. My SSD just stopped responding and would only start to come alive again after I power cycled it. So it had to be replaced :c

Ah, interesting. And how did you arrive at the conclusion that was the problem?

[adm0n]

Just now, Corin_Wright said:

And how did you arrive at the conclusion that was the problem?

Well, it was pretty much the only thing that could cause these effects consistently. If your RAM was at fault, you'd get other crashes as well.
But the part of your CPU that communicates with your SSD could also be faulty, which is highly unlikely though.

 

I put my SSD into an external USB enclosure and checked, if it would do the same thing. Sure enough, it did. And also my PC ran fine after I swapped a new SSD in.

[Corin_Wright]

1 hour ago, adm0n said:

Well, it was pretty much the only thing that could cause these effects consistently. If your RAM was at fault, you'd get other crashes as well.
But the part of your CPU that communicates with your SSD could also be faulty, which is highly unlikely though.

 

I put my SSD into an external USB enclosure and checked, if it would do the same thing. Sure enough, it did. And also my PC ran fine after I swapped a new SSD in.

Could an empty Hard drive also cause this problem? Even if there's no information on the drive, might it still cause crashes if it's faulty?

[adm0n]

8 minutes ago, Corin_Wright said:

Could an empty Hard drive also cause this problem? Even if there's no information on the drive, might it still cause crashes if it's faulty?

The problem should only happen if like windows is installed on that drive. An unrelated drive being unresponsive would maybe make your CPU request data over and over, but shouldn't cause your system to lock up.

 

(unless there are system files on there, like a pagefile or something else)

[am117]

Hey guys, I'm having this exact same issue. I wrote the whole history of it on reddit before finding this thread so apologies for not rewriting it, I think the link should suffice.

 

 

As an update:

 

I've used procmon to see if something gets caught when it freezes again. I also updated to latest nvidia studio driver (which was launched today or yesterday I think). I went to sleep but when I woke up turns out the only thing that crashed was procmon but the system itself is still running as I am using it now. So again, not sure.

 

This thread is making me think about the SSD again. My SSD shows no bad sectors, no issues at all, but it is nearly 6 years old now and it is "80%" health. I've ordered a new SSD since this is SATA and I was planning on upgrading to NVME anyway. However, I need to really know better what's the issue.

 

@Corin_Wright any luck with your issue?

@adm0n thoughts?

 

Thanks!

 

[adm0n]

On 7/1/2023 at 5:41 PM, am117 said:

Hey guys, I'm having this exact same issue. I wrote the whole history of it on reddit before finding this thread so apologies for not rewriting it, I think the link should suffice.

 

 

As an update:

 

I've used procmon to see if something gets caught when it freezes again. I also updated to latest nvidia studio driver (which was launched today or yesterday I think). I went to sleep but when I woke up turns out the only thing that crashed was procmon but the system itself is still running as I am using it now. So again, not sure.

 

This thread is making me think about the SSD again. My SSD shows no bad sectors, no issues at all, but it is nearly 6 years old now and it is "80%" health. I've ordered a new SSD since this is SATA and I was planning on upgrading to NVME anyway. However, I need to really know better what's the issue.

 

@Corin_Wright any luck with your issue?

@adm0n thoughts?

 

Thanks!

 

Well you can assume that those aren't software problems and if your system can't log any errors, the error tracking service also crashed.

 

The only events, I've encountered, that are similar are faulty RAM or fault system SSD. The last one would also prohibit anything being saved, as it prohibits any writes to the drive.

[am117]

1 hour ago, adm0n said:

Well you can assume that those aren't software problems and if your system can't log any errors, the error tracking service also crashed.

 

The only events, I've encountered, that are similar are faulty RAM or fault system SSD. The last one would also prohibit anything being saved, as it prohibits any writes to the drive.

 

It's really bizarre because as mentioned in my original thread, drive has no bad sectors, chkdsk and all everything passes. And weirdly, I haven't had a freeze in at least 3 days now. I also have no issues writing to the drive. One thing I did do was do a clean install of the latest nvidia driver but I've never had such freezes with GPU drivers before. It would be a pretty different kind of crash and usually you get an nvidia error. I've bought a new drive so let's see how that goes but I hope someone can shed more light on this as normally at least the error logging service leaves something behind. This is such a no man's land lol. At least with an error you get some direction.

[adm0n]

22 minutes ago, am117 said:

 

It's really bizarre because as mentioned in my original thread, drive has no bad sectors, chkdsk and all everything passes. And weirdly, I haven't had a freeze in at least 3 days now. I also have no issues writing to the drive. One thing I did do was do a clean install of the latest nvidia driver but I've never had such freezes with GPU drivers before. It would be a pretty different kind of crash and usually you get an nvidia error. I've bought a new drive so let's see how that goes but I hope someone can shed more light on this as normally at least the error logging service leaves something behind. This is such a no man's land lol. At least with an error you get some direction.

I think you are missunderstanding me. Your ssd is basically a mini pc on its own with its own ram, cpu and so on. And if that has, for example a faulty ram chip, it will just randomly crash. Nothing will.warn you of that and nothing will.l show up in your SMART report.

[am117]

55 minutes ago, adm0n said:

I think you are missunderstanding me. Your ssd is basically a mini pc on its own with its own ram, cpu and so on. And if that has, for example a faulty ram chip, it will just randomly crash. Nothing will.warn you of that and nothing will.l show up in your SMART report.

 

Ah I see, thanks, makes sense now! I completely forgot that SSDs have their own stuff, controller and all. Now hopefully the new drive will resolve this. Thanks again!

[am117]

Another freeze.

 

These 3-4 days ago I had run Procmon to run to try and see if I could catch any application causing the problem. I noticed eventually at the end that even after closing Procmon its driver remains in memory. So the whole time procmon was "running" despite closing it. Today I restarted to set fan curves in BIOS and then get into safe mode to delete the driver (can't do it from normal windows since it's 'in use' in memory). Got back into normal windows, slept for 4 hours and wake up to see the same freeze.

 

Now what? Is it the case that the driver in memory was keeping the SSD alive enough to not lose it? And that after it got removed, now fully idle we're back to the SSD saying ciao and leaving the OS in memory hanging, frozen?

 

If only there were logs but I can't find anything. Not even PowerToys' Keep Awake has managed to avoid the freezing for more than a day.

 

I've attempted now to global C6 states thingy, wondering maybe that's causing it because even if it's definitely the SSD, I just can't be sure without the logs and need to eliminate other things that caused me issues in the past.

 

I find this video interesting in that he removes the SSD while the OS is running and gets the exact same kind of freeze but he also gets a BSOD, whereas I don't see any BSODs in my case.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrTnJZktCX8