Freezing Issues

Can O'Sham

Can O'Sham

Refugee
Hello,

Having some issues with 18.4 - my PC (brand new) freezes (unresponsive to ctrl-alt-del, etc) accompanied by a buzzing sound from speakers. Usually happens every 10-120 mins and requires a hard restart. (This problem has persisted since i got the PC in Feb)

Specs:

Windows 10

i5-9600k

GTX 1660S

16GB RAM 

When i got my PC, it used to cash like this for lots of programs (ms word, email, etc), but after a fresh install of windows, it only does it now for 7 days.

Memtest 86 came back with no errors

sfcscannow no integrity violations (multiple times)

To my knowledge all drivers are up to date

Output Log: https://pastebin.com/Y0Ui4NWh

Any help/advice appreciated - I'm out of ideas.

 
Log doesn't show much, but your freezes likely aren't going to show in the log.  A link to a published Speccy report can tell me a lot more.

 
OK, here is the analysis based on your Speccy report.

1. Your RAM is single-channel. You want double-channel.  Speccy wasn't able to identify more than the clock data on the RAM, and it's pretty bad. I'm assuming you have 1 16GB off-brand chip. Either way, it's stupid slow. If you had 2 8GB RAM modules at the same speed as your current module, it would be twice as fast. This is going to be a huge bottleneck. I don't recommend less than 1600Mhz Dual-channel, but 1333Mhz dual-channel would be ok. Yours is 1203MHz single.

2. You have Defender. Be certain you exclude the full client folder and EAC from it. Instructions are in the Sticky FAQ Thread. 

3. You have ASUS Armoury crate. Use it to make sure your chipset drivers and BIOS are up to date. There was a recent Windows update that kills Intel chipsets. Not only does it cause them to underclock to 800Mhz, but it will also increase core voltage causing the chip to possibly overheat. After fully updating these drivers, completely power-drain the PC to reset this. (Just updating won't fix it. Must do the reset also.) I don't recall which Windows update it was, but I literally just had this issue on our Predator laptop about 2-3 weeks ago when I noticed it was suddenly running like @%$*#!.

4. Enable the hidden Ultimate Performance power mode.

https://youtu.be/ma6JOYwe5n0

5. Update your GPU driver. Your current model appears to be a Windows version and is incorrectly reporting VRAM. Latest driver is HERE. Choose Advanced/Custom install. Un-tick HD audio unless you use your monitor speakers, and tick the box for "Perform a clean installation".
6. After you've done all of this, use the Asus AI Suite 3 to first configure Fan Xpert, then run the optimization wizard. It will find a safe overclock that won't heat up your system.

Looks like you don't have any real bloat going on there, so this should fix you back up.

 
SylenThunder said:
OK, here is the analysis based on your Speccy report.

1. Your RAM is single-channel. You want double-channel.  Speccy wasn't able to identify more than the clock data on the RAM, and it's pretty bad. I'm assuming you have 1 16GB off-brand chip. Either way, it's stupid slow. If you had 2 8GB RAM modules at the same speed as your current module, it would be twice as fast. This is going to be a huge bottleneck. I don't recommend less than 1600Mhz Dual-channel, but 1333Mhz dual-channel would be ok. Yours is 1203MHz single.

2. You have Defender. Be certain you exclude the full client folder and EAC from it. Instructions are in the Sticky FAQ Thread. 

3. You have ASUS Armoury crate. Use it to make sure your chipset drivers and BIOS are up to date. There was a recent Windows update that kills Intel chipsets. Not only does it cause them to underclock to 800Mhz, but it will also increase core voltage causing the chip to possibly overheat. After fully updating these drivers, completely power-drain the PC to reset this. (Just updating won't fix it. Must do the reset also.) I don't recall which Windows update it was, but I literally just had this issue on our Predator laptop about 2-3 weeks ago when I noticed it was suddenly running like @%$*#!.

4. Enable the hidden Ultimate Performance power mode.

https://youtu.be/ma6JOYwe5n0

5. Update your GPU driver. Your current model appears to be a Windows version and is incorrectly reporting VRAM. Latest driver is HERE. Choose Advanced/Custom install. Un-tick HD audio unless you use your monitor speakers, and tick the box for "Perform a clean installation".
6. After you've done all of this, use the Asus AI Suite 3 to first configure Fan Xpert, then run the optimization wizard. It will find a safe overclock that won't heat up your system.

Looks like you don't have any real bloat going on there, so this should fix you back up.
Click to expand...
Thanks vm for taking the time to have a look at this -

1) I've suspected for a while that RAM might be to blame -

  • My RAM is a single 16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 @ 2400MHz.
  • Apparently for DDR4 the frequency is often given as half its actual value (https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/2400-mhz-ram-only-running-at-1200-mhz.2206626/) - I don't know enough to say whether this is true, but there are lots of similar posts based on a google search.
  • In the reliability monitor a few days ago i got an error saying 'Patriot Viper DRAM unsuccessful application reconfiguration' but I don't have any Patriot RAM
  • However, 4 passes of memtest86 found no errors.
2) Done.

3) Updated chipset driver via device manager. I don't really want to mess around with the BIOS, though it should be recent enough (26 Nov 2019)?

4) Done.

5) Clean installed via link (inc. Geforce Experience)

6) I'm don't want to overclock just yet, that's something I'll look at after it stops freezing.

I'll have a look tomorrow to see if it works.

 
Can O'Sham said:
Apparently for DDR4 the frequency is often given as half its actual value
Click to expand...
Yes, this is normal. That's why the standard is to install RAM so that it's Dual-channel. 

3: That will get you the Windows driver, which is the one causing the issue. If you use Armoury Crate it will get the correct one from Asus.

6: Entirely optional, but OC'ing is not nearly as sketchy as it used to be, and the software Asus provides is the top in the industry. Even with a stock cooler, you can get a mild overclock. In the world of 7 Days, that can amount to a 10-15% improvement in FPS with very little effort.

 
Can O'Sham said:
Froze again after about 35 minutes - i think it has to be some sort of hardware issue.
Click to expand...
Starting to sound like maybe a bad PSU, bad RAM module or something off with the motherboard. It's not like your hardware isn't up to snuff with the exception of the oddity with the RAM. Corsair shouldn't show up as "Unknown" like that.

 
SylenThunder said:
Starting to sound like maybe a bad PSU, bad RAM module or something off with the motherboard. It's not like your hardware isn't up to snuff with the exception of the oddity with the RAM. Corsair shouldn't show up as "Unknown" like that.
Click to expand...
Cheers for taking a look anyway - it's still well in warranty so going to send it back.

 
If your system is freezing and needing a hard reboot, windows should write a crash file in the C:/Windows/minidump folder.

You can view this file, and possibly get a hint as to why the crash happened, with an app like BlueScreenView or WhoCrashed.

I've used BlueScreenView successfully, but can't vouch for WhoCrashed.

If you're not getting the dump file (crash file), then check that your settings in Startup and Recovery are set to "Small Memory Dump"

This dude shows you how.



 
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