Hard lock on Windows 10

[Tilaron]

For the past 3 months my computer has been suffering from this issue and it's only yesterday that I was led to believe Chrome is the *possible* reason. I usually have a youtube video playing in the background while playing different games; GTA 5, LoL, EVE and many others. At least twice in every game I play, with Chrome on youtube, my computer will hard lock, usually while alt-tabbed but it has happened with a fullscreen game running too. Updating graphics & audio drivers hasn't fixed it, windows is kept up-to-date, I've run memtest a couple of times, my SSD has no errors and neither do my hard drives.

 

It is the last frame frozen on the screen and the audio stops, as if one big 'pause' button has been pressed for the entire computer. As far as I can tell the CPU & GPU temps don't increase or decrease while this is happening and the longest I left it before restarting was about 40 minutes, it simply doesn't want to continue normally

 

Possible fixes I've tried include a runtime broker registry edit (disabling it), uninstalling-reinstalling every driver I use, reinstalling windows, using different mem sticks, a different GPU, CPU, soundcard in or out.

I haven't tried a different drive as the windows boot (I don't have any spare that I could use currently). From the few people I've found with the same problem on the googles, the motherboard is possibly a factor in this but I don't have a way to test it properly right now.


Also it happens seemingly at random after a fresh boot. It can happen within hours of uptime or after 2-3 days, but Chrome is the only constant in the equation. Yesterday it happened while watching a fullscreen youtube video with no game running at all.

 

 

Sorry if this seems messy but I typed as I remembered details & I'm pretty tired/annoyed by this problem

Specs

• CPUi5 4690K
• MotherboardMSI Z97 Gaming 5
• RAM16GB Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Pro Red 2400
• GPUMSI GTX 980 Twin Frozr V 4GB
• Storage360GB OCZ Agility 3, Segate Barracuda 1TB, 2TB, WD Blue 4TB
• PSUThermaltake Smart Se 630W Hybrid Modular
• SoundAsus Xonar STX II
• Operating SystemWindows 10 Pro 64-bit

[PlayStation 2]

Have you tried replicating the issue with another browser?

[Tilaron]

As it happens so intermittently (there can be gaps of up to a week between it happening) I hadn't thought of that. Also i'm very lazy. Trying with firefox for a while right now, but if anyone has experienced this (or something similar) I am desperate for a fix! Will trade pictures of my cats for help!!!

[ziogref]

3 hours ago, Tilaron said:

As it happens so intermittently (there can be gaps of up to a week between it happening) I hadn't thought of that. Also i'm very lazy. Trying with firefox for a while right now, but if anyone has experienced this (or something similar) I am desperate for a fix! Will trade pictures of my cats for help!!!

Since chrome is super RAM hungry this could be your issue. What extensions do you have installed, and how many tabs do you have open when this occurs? Also what is your page file settings (default?)

[Tilaron]

9 hours ago, ziogref said:

Since chrome is super RAM hungry this could be your issue. What extensions do you have installed, and how many tabs do you have open when this occurs? Also what is your page file settings (default?)

One, sometimes two tabs, ublock origin installed and that's pretty much it. The most I ever have open is probably 5.

Page file is set to automatic and is at 16384MB.

[Tilaron]

Hello again. It's been pretty much 2 weeks without incident while using firefox, I used chrome last night and sure enough after about 3 hours, hard-lock.

So... any thoughts on why chrome would be doing this? I expect I'll navigate their shitty system to post a bug report at some point but that requires me to not be lazy, which I'm feeling right now.

[Tilaron]

Well, nevermind. With firefox this has happened now (about a month ago) but then there was a windows update and for the past 3~ weeks it's been completely stable.

YESTERDAY however, after updating to the latest win10 version, BAM, HARD LOCK ALL UP IN MY SHIT.

 

AND TODAY

 

 

I'M PULLING MY HAIR OUT THROUGH MY ASS HERE

[VBobbyV]

Did you solve it? I'm having the same issue...

 

 

[samiscool51]

from what i can tell is something is disrupting the os's memory management, it seems chrome and your chosen app are arguing what memory addresses they can have, this should to happen, windows has a built in memory manger since windows XP so when a app crashed the whole os would not go with it, i'm guessing your mother board memory controller is not working properly and when a app calls for a memory block that might be damaged, the system lock's up when the memory address was called to be used to hold something.

try these things

1. try a different os and try the same work load, if the os locks up or crashes, we will know it's a hardware problem

2. try a different mother board, mother boards have different memory controllers for the RAM, the RAM does it's own but it handles the data coming from the MB's controller

3. if all else fails, stress test it while running every workload you can, this will stress the system to it's limit's putting the system under load to see how it handles mutable tasks being sent  to it, if it crashes then your system is not a big fan of working with loads of system requests being sent to be processed, if this is the case then the mother boards memory controller is likely damaged,if you are still under warranty send it back, if not get a new mother board,

 

if you don't want to get a replacement try using a device that you don't use anymore and use that to watch youtube videos, i use a old android device to watch something while video editing.

[Tilaron]

Thank you for that post, but it appears it may actually be a hard drive. It was working fine for a long time, but recently has been giving me CRC errors in utorrent and has just today failed a short DST, despite passing SMART checks.

 

I'll report back if removing this drive stops the lock ups.

[Tilaron]

Although that 1TB drive is definitely dying, removing it hasn't stopped the hard locks. My only thought now is that whenever I access (play music from, browse folders, watch a movie stored on-) my 4TB WDB drive that is somehow causing these lockups a couple of hours or so later.

 

It has passed SMART with flying colours, short DST passed, long story short; every test apart from physical inspection has been absolutely fine. Yet the problem continues.

 

I also have a 2TB which does not seem to be causing this issue when used, I have swapped SATA ports and cables around and still get it so I don't think my motherboard has a problem. Edit: By that I mean the 2TB I have does not cause the problem when plugged in to the original 4TB port.

 

I'm buying new hard drives to replace the dying 1TB and annoying 4TB, this issue will have to remain a mystery I guess.