PC randomly freezing and crashing

[naseef]

My PC crashes like every 10 minutes, mostly when using a web browser or watching a video.

 

On Windows 10:

The screen suddenly freezes and OS becomes unresponsive (I still can hear audio), and then in a few seconds screen turns black and then starts working again. Or sometimes it causes a BSoD and restarts.

 

On Elementary OS (Ubuntu 18.04):

System becomes unresponsive and some parts of the screen (like the viewing are of the browser, not tabs or window borders) glitches, showing diagonal pixelated lines, with half of the part gray or black. After few minutes it starts responding again or logs out and shows login screen.

 

On Xubuntu 17.10:

Systems becomes unresponsive, Screen turns black, and logs out.

 

I checked 2 PCs, both have the same problem, I used the same RAM, Hard Disk, Monitor, VGA Cable, Keyboard and Mouse on both PCs.

 

PC1:

CPU - Pentium E5700

RAM - 2 x 1 GB DDR3

Graphics - Intel G41 GMA x4500

 

PC2:

CPU - Pentium G3240

RAM - 3 GB (2 GB + a 1 GB from PC1)

Graphics - 4th Gen Intel Integrated Graphics (G3240 CPU Graphics)

 

The VGA cable is damaged, but it works perfectly fine, It can't cause this problem right?

 

EDIT: Oh and it never happens while playing video games, I've played games for hours (fullscreen, I should try playing games in windowed mode to see it if still happens) and it never froze during that.

[AbsoluteFool]

3 minutes ago, naseef said:

My PC crashes like every 10 minutes, mostly when using a web browser or watching a video.

 

On Windows 10:

The screen suddenly freezes and OS becomes unresponsive (I still can hear audio), and then in a few seconds screen turns black and then starts working again. Or sometimes it causes a BSoD and restarts.

 

On Elementary OS (Ubuntu 18.04):

System becomes unresponsive and some parts of the screen (like the viewing are of the browser, not tabs or window borders) glitches, showing diagonal pixelated lines, with half of the part gray or black. After few minutes it starts responding again or logs out and shows login screen.

 

On Xubuntu 17.10:

Systems becomes unresponsive, Screen turns black, and logs out.

 

I checked 2 PCs, both have the same problem, I used the same RAM, Hard Disk, Monitor, VGA Cable, Keyboard and Mouse on both PCs.

 

 PC1:

CPU - Pentium E5700

 RAM - 2 x 1 GB DDR3

Graphics - Intel G41 GMA x4500

 

PC2:

CPU - Pentium G3240

RAM - 3 GB (2 GB + a 1 GB from PC1)

Graphics - 4th Gen Intel Integrated Graphics (G3240 CPU Graphics)

 

The VGA cable is damaged, but it works perfectly fine, It can't cause this problem right?

Let's take a quick evalutation. Windows crashes. No surprise. Linux crashes. that's a little wierd as Linux is more leight weight than Windows. The PC freeze and monitor turns black. This sounds like a motherboard based problem. Or are you using a SSD or HDD that is very old with lots of bad sectors?

[naseef]

Just now, AbsoluteFool said:

Let's take a quick evalutation. Windows crashes. No surprise. Linux crashes. that's a little wierd as Linux is more leight weight than Windows. The PC freeze and monitor turns black. This sounds like a motherboard based problem. Or are you using a SSD or HDD that is very old with lots of bad sectors? 

It's an HDD, and yes it's a very old HDD so it could have many bad sectors, Let me test it.

[AbsoluteFool]

1 minute ago, naseef said:

It's an HDD, and yes it's a very old HDD so it could have many bad sectors, Let me test it.

That could be a simple explaination of why you have problems

[voiha]

Most of the times hanging Windows is occurring because of HDD or RAM issue, try loading and using (It's going to be hell with 1GB of RAM) the PC and see if it's going to has the same problem and with another HDD/SSD.

[naseef]

3 hours ago, voiha said:

Most of the times hanging Windows is occurring because of HDD or RAM issue, try loading and using (It's going to be hell with 1GB of RAM) the PC and see if it's going to has the same problem and with another HDD/SSD. 

What about glitches like these?

 

EDIT: My RAM was shared with Internal Graphics, So I think it's just the RAM that caused this.

[naseef]

I replace a RAM and I think it's fine now... It didn't happen again for the past 30 minutes.

 

UPDATE: It happened again.

[naseef]

19 hours ago, voiha said:

Most of the times hanging Windows is occurring because of HDD or RAM issue, try loading and using (It's going to be hell with 1GB of RAM) the PC and see if it's going to has the same problem and with another HDD/SSD.

 

20 hours ago, AbsoluteFool said:

That could be a simple explaination of why you have problems

So I unplugged sata and power from my hdd and booted from an Ubuntu live USB, It happened again.

It's weird, could this be a problem with my monitor or power supply? Those are the only two parts I haven't tried replacing.

 

or could this be the VGA Cable? (gonna borrow one from a friend to test)

[AbsoluteFool]

14 minutes ago, naseef said:

 

So I unplugged sata and power from my hdd and booted from an Ubuntu live USB, It happened again.

It's weird, could this be a problem with my monitor or power supply? Those are the only two parts I haven't tried replacing.

 

or could this be the VGA Cable? (gonna borrow one from a friend to test)

A cable normally don't have these issues. Power supply is one or another. Neither it works or it does not. 

The last time i had a similar issue my client said that the last person who looked at it switched PSU. When i got the PC i told him he needed a new motherboard. But that's because i could actually see what's going on. What's wierd here is that it hapens to two systems. Did the systems work before you tried this hard drive in it?

 

This can also come from installation problems. So re-installation could solve the problem, unless you have two dead motherboards. Which is wierd if you have had them working before this.

[voiha]

20 minutes ago, naseef said:

 

So I unplugged sata and power from my hdd and booted from an Ubuntu live USB, It happened again.

It's weird, could this be a problem with my monitor or power supply? Those are the only two parts I haven't tried replacing.

 

or could this be the VGA Cable? (gonna borrow one from a friend to test)

Interface cable can interfere but not brick the whole Windows, same story for the monitor. I suspect it could be a PSU related issue if it's not stable system all around.

[naseef]

12 hours ago, AbsoluteFool said:

A cable normally don't have these issues. Power supply is one or another. Neither it works or it does not. 

The last time i had a similar issue my client said that the last person who looked at it switched PSU. When i got the PC i told him he needed a new motherboard. But that's because i could actually see what's going on. What's wierd here is that it hapens to two systems. Did the systems work before you tried this hard drive in it?

 

This can also come from installation problems. So re-installation could solve the problem, unless you have two dead motherboards. Which is wierd if you have had them working before this.

I've reinstalled Linux about 2-3 times already, And it still happens. What's weird is it doesn't happen while playing games.

[naseef]

On 10/30/2018 at 5:32 PM, voiha said:

Interface cable can interfere but not brick the whole Windows, same story for the monitor. I suspect it could be a PSU related issue if it's not stable system all around. 

Yup, I guess it's the PSU. I'll get a new one soon.

[naseef]

Haven't got a new PSU yet but I have some more information. Maybe someone can check it and make sure it's a problem with the PSU or not.

 

Windows Reliability Monitor : 

Windows

Summary
Hardware error

Date
‎11/‎22/‎2018 9:47 AM

Status
Not reported

Description
A problem with your hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly.

Problem signature
Problem Event Name:    LiveKernelEvent
Code:    141
Parameter 1:    cf8a14e0
Parameter 2:    8f24f690
Parameter 3:    0
Parameter 4:    404
OS version:    10_0_16299
Service Pack:    0_0
Product:    256_1
OS Version:    10.0.16299.2.0.0.256.121
Locale ID:    1033

 

As you can see here, The GPU load goes 100% right before freezing and then screen goes black for a second (driver restarting?), and everything is fine again.