System Hangs Randomly

[stompysan]

Sorry that the title is a little vague, but this is a pretty complicated issue, and I couldn't explain it entirely in the title.  I am having a very interesting issue with my gaming rig, and I cannot seem to figure out what is happening.  I have tried bouncing ideas with co-workers and friends, and no one has any ideas besides what I have already tried.  Every now and then, at random, my system will stutter and hang for about a full second.  If I am watching a video, the video continues, but the audio stops.  After about a second, the video will hang and the audio catches up.  When I am watching YouTube, it shows the "buffering" icon for a brief moment.  It cannot be replicated consistently, but it happens a lot.  It is really present while working in FL Studio.  Scrubbing through a song will cause it to completely hang.  The visualizer hangs, and FL reports the CPU dropping to 0% usage, but other monitoring software shows that it is still active.  First, here are my specs:

 

CPU: AMD FX-8320, running 4.3GHz at 1.29V

CPU Cooling: NZXT Kraken X60
MOBO: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7

RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance, running at 1333MHz (will not run 1600 with 4 sticks)
GPU: Zotac GTX 970, running 1468MHz at 1.212V

GPU Cooling: NZXT Kraken X41, with active VRM cooling
Storage: 120GB OCZ SSD, 3TB WD Black
Case: NZXT Phantom 630
PSU: Cooler Master 100W Silent Pro

I have attempted the following:
1) It started showing as stuttering in video, so I cleared all web junk, updated all web software, and also tried a different browser.  Did not help.
2) It started showing in other tasks, so I ran anti-malware and anti-virus.  Clean, aside from a couple of possible cookies.
3) Ran AIDA64 for about an hour, monitoring CPU and GPU percentage and cooling.  All tests passed, and never dropped frequencies or cores.
4) Ran drive diagnostics on the HDD and SSD.  Drives all clean.
5) Reset CPU and GPU to stock, and flashed stock BIOS on GPU, to rule out overclocking.  Issue was still present.
6) Ran memory tests.  All passed.

7) Reflashed latest BIOS.  Issue still present.  I also tried flashing a beta BIOS that Gigabyte had available, but it didn't help.

All of my co-workers were stumped, and I am completely out of ideas, aside from reformatting and hoping it is a software issue.  I am worried that there might be some sort of hardware failure that is beginning, but all of my testing passed fine, and there are no other issues.  Any ideas would be great.  If you need any other information, let me know and I will get it.  I am going to try and get a video of the problem.

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Hey stompysan,

 

Did you mean a 1000W PSU (I doubt you will be able to run that system with 100W )?

Since you've pretty much tried all basic troubleshooting and nothing came up, maybe the best bet would be to test every single hardware part separately on another system if you can. 

I would also try running the computer on its bare minimums and in safe mode to see if the problem persist. 

Did you monitor your temperatures (everywhere in the case)?

Do you hapen to have another GPU that you can try on that computer just to make sure the problem is not coming from yours?

You can try restoring the computer (after backing up everything important) to a point where there were no crashes.

 

Captain_WD. 

[stompysan]

 

Hey stompysan,

 

Did you mean a 1000W PSU (I doubt you will be able to run that system with 100W )?

Since you've pretty much tried all basic troubleshooting and nothing came up, maybe the best bet would be to test every single hardware part separately on another system if you can. 

I would also try running the computer on its bare minimums and in safe mode to see if the problem persist. 

Did you monitor your temperatures (everywhere in the case)?

Do you hapen to have another GPU that you can try on that computer just to make sure the problem is not coming from yours?

You can try restoring the computer (after backing up everything important) to a point where there were no crashes.

 

Captain_WD. 

 

Yup, totally meant 1000W.  I was extremely tired when typing that post.  Now if I could run everything on a 100W PSU, I would be in a good place.  My electric company wouldn't hate me as much.  lol

Last night I began testing individual hardware. I have tested the GPU, memory, and storage on a different machine, and everything was fine.  Only thing hardware-wise I haven't checked are the motherboard and CPU, as I do not have an extra AM3+ board or processor around. If I get to that point, I will probably try and find one of my friends to let me test it.  However, I really want to hold off on that until I know there isn't anything left.

Checked temps again under AIDA64 load.  The hottest area in my case are the GPU VRMs, which topped out at 60C.  Everything else was really low.  I don't believe that it is a temperature issue

 

Thanks for the advice.  I will keep this updated.  Hopefully it isn't a hardware issue, but at the same time, it would give me a good excuse to upgrade my CPU.  lol

[Captain_WD]

Yup, totally meant 1000W.  I was extremely tired when typing that post.  Now if I could run everything on a 100W PSU, I would be in a good place.  My electric company wouldn't hate me as much.  lol

Last night I began testing individual hardware. I have tested the GPU, memory, and storage on a different machine, and everything was fine.  Only thing hardware-wise I haven't checked are the motherboard and CPU, as I do not have an extra AM3+ board or processor around. If I get to that point, I will probably try and find one of my friends to let me test it.  However, I really want to hold off on that until I know there isn't anything left.

Checked temps again under AIDA64 load.  The hottest area in my case are the GPU VRMs, which topped out at 60C.  Everything else was really low.  I don't believe that it is a temperature issue

 

Thanks for the advice.  I will keep this updated.  Hopefully it isn't a hardware issue, but at the same time, it would give me a good excuse to upgrade my CPU.  lol

 

I would take the motherboard to a technician for a proper checkup. A stress test should give you good results about the CPU. 

Make sure you keep all your system updates and drivers as current as possible.

Reinstalling the OS might fix the issue, but you'd need to reinstall all the applications and games.

 

Captain_WD.