New PC freeze (randomly?)

[Bird]

Hey everyone

So a friend of mine just built a new PC. Every once in a while (5 minute to to 1 hour intervals) the PC will freeze. It doesn't blue screen or anything, just straight up freeze. The only way to unfreeze is force shut down and restart.

The strange part is it doesn't seem to freeze during gaming. It will freeze while web browsing, or any other light task, but doesn't freeze in games.

I took a trip to his house yesterday to see what was going on. When I got there he was playing a game of hearthstone. As soon as he hit the quit button, the PC froze. We then spent 2 hours trying to recreate another freeze. We finally managed to get another while playing a flash game.

The PC then froze a few more times, but we still couldn't find anything that seemed to cause it.

My friend though that his windows install might have messed up, so we did a fresh install. This didn't help.

I don't know if anyone had had a problem like this, or might now how to fix it. I'm heading back over there today.

PC specs:
i5 6600K
MSI Krait gaming A mobo
8 (2x4gb) 2133 G.Skill ripjaw 4
MSI R9 390
Samsung 850 evo 500gb SSD
EVGA 650w PSU (not sure exact model)

Any suggestion are appreciated, thanks   

[iamdarkyoshi]

Mine is doing this, run an overnight memtest

[ManIkWeet]

Sounds like the CPU is choking for volts during idle time.

 

Try increasing the voltage a tiny little bit in the BIOS?

[Bird]

Wow, thanks for the fast replys!

 

Update, found how to induce freezes. Having a twitch stream running, then opening afterburner and moving the window will cause a freeze.

[EliasNM]

I would think that it is a RAM issue or motherboard issue, I had a similar problem while fixing a client's PC around 2 years ago and it was finally resolved after replacing the motherboard but the RAM always seemed the culprit but that same RAM worked in another PC. Do test the RAM and check it on another build and see it produces the same result.

[Bird]

Quick update. Tried both RAM stick individually and still froze. Will try to up the CPU voltage. Any other ideas?

 

Edit: Upping CPU voltage had no effect.

[haselhoff]

i have the same kind of problem i think that its something with my psu because ren memtest for the whole night no errors and my psu has a coil whine and its not that good cx 750.

[Bird]

Update: Had another windows re-install. Froze before even getting to install drivers. Ram memtest and got nothing. Any other ideas what this might be?

[iamdarkyoshi]

Update: Had another windows re-install. Froze before even getting to install drivers. Ram memtest and got nothing. Any other ideas what this might be?

Do you own any voltmeters? Can you check the PSU voltage rails?

[Bird]

Big update: Even after the windows reinstall, having a twitch stream open, then opening afterburner and moving the window would cause a freeze. We decided to remove the GPU and test it. With the GPU removed, the PC didn't freeze. Upon reinstalling the GPU, the freeze returned.

 

Any idea why this is happening? Is the GPU dead?

[Bird]

Well, looks like it was the GPU. I brought my 970 over today to test it out. The PC runs fine with the 970, and without any card at all. It only freezes with the 390, even in different PCI slots.

 

Thanks to everyone who gave suggestions!

[Bird]

So another update. My friend checked his event viewer, and noticed this error on freeze: Collaborative processor power controls on processor 3 in group 0 are disabled due to a firmware problem. Check with the computer manufacturer for updated firmware.

This error only appears with the R9 390 installed. Any idea why this could be happening?

[Lord Gaben]

Try this

• Update your motherboard's firmware
• Clear the CMOS

 

If that doesn't help I would try this

• Install Windows 8.1, a few people are having issues with Windows 10

 

I would do this before declaring the GPU faulty

[Benji_w]

I ran into issues with the new 3xx range when I built my friends PC, eventually I had to use the cd that came with said GPU to make it run correctly. The 3xx had just launched however so surely the drivers online are good and working when you installed them?

[Bird]

Thanks for more replys.

 

The Bios has been updated, will try the Cmos.

 

The PC is also running widows 8.1.

 

We installed the latest AMD drivers for the GPU. Are you suggesting trying to install the drivers from the disk instead?

[Benji_w]

Thanks for more replys.

 

The Bios has been updated, will try the Cmos.

 

The PC is also running widows 8.1.

 

We installed the latest AMD drivers for the GPU. Are you suggesting trying to install the drivers from the disk instead?

 

Worth a shot, costs you nothing but about 30 mins of time so might as well try.