Hardware & Technical What Can Cause a Random Lockup?

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
My system seems to enjoy locking up entirely. Seemingly at random.

Which makes diagnosing it virtually impossible.
The PC will just freeze up on its current screen, and the only way out is the reset button.

It will lock up at any point (sometimes once a day, sometimes once a week), during games, just idling at windows, on Netflix (chrome) on the Netflix app, when using Edge, VLC media player, and so on.
It's never locked up during boot, or a big windows update. Just when I want to use it. Lol
It doesn't seem to lock up during stress tests either.

All my driver's are up to date, hardware is in good condition (clean, and kept cool). HDD and SSD are seemingly error free.
I have plenty of power (good Corsair 600w PSU, for a 450~w system)
AV, and malwarebytes not picking anything up.

Is there a log I can find somewhere, or diagnostic program I can run?
I want to start making my own videos soon, but lockups are going to make life really difficult. Lol


CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
 

Shadowdancer

Shadowdancer
I've had static discharges too close to USB ports freeze my system in the past, so each time I moved my well-insulated butt on my chair there was a nonzero chance of the sucker locking up. Ultimately it could be anything really, those random freezes are hell to diagnose.
 

Hell Razor5543

H
How powerful is your PSU? My cousin had problems with her system locking up, resetting, and so on. It turns out her PSU (which was several years old) was being pushed close to its' limit. As I had just upgraded my PSU I let her have my old one (which, although it was a couple of years old, was 150W more powerful than her current PSU), and her system stopped playing up.
 
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CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
Specs may help... Lol

Running a stock clocked turbo off, AMD FX 8320. (I disabled the turbo due to overheating issues, which I fixed, but now I can't be bothered to turn it on again)
8Gb(2x4gb) DDR3 2133mhz RAM, but it only likes to run at 1600mhz. Lol
Gigabyte GA-970-UD3P motherboard.
nVidia GTX 770 2Gb
OCZ 120gb SSD
WD Blue 7200rpm 1Tb HDD.
Windows 10
Some form of disabled WiFi card (pc is wired).
Generic dvd/rw.
600w Corsair PSU.

Crashes happen in all games, but also on the desktop, and basically anything.
I used to have an R9 280x, but crashes with that were constant, and always during games. So I sold it (lol), and got a 770.

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
 

Hell Razor5543

H
The fact that a powerful GPU caused a lot of crashes, while a weaker one causes less crashes is pointing me at the PSU. 600W on a gaming PC today is somewhat underpowered.
 

Morbad

Morbad
I'd test your memory with Memtest86 (test #7), or stressapptest run from a Linux live image, for a protracted period of time to rule out significant memory/IMC instability.
 

Caramel Clown

Caramel Clown
Also, there's no DDR3 at 2133. It runs at 1600 because it's as fast as DDR3 will go :) Self fix - apparently there is... So, maybe faulty memory?
 
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yianniv

yianniv
If it's not high temp (because then the system would shut down to protect itself), then the psu is underpowered. Is it possible to ask to borrow one and check?
 

AkenBosch

AkenBosch
A 600w PSU is totally fine for a similar build, especially a Corsair one that is almost surely more "gaming" oriented and far more efficient than any generic or OEM one...but it could still be a slightly faulty PSU, so definitely worth a check, I can confidently say out of experience that on average that's the first cause of insta-freeze issues. I'd also have suggested to take a look at the hdd, sudden disappearing of the main drive (for whatever reason) was another big cause for complete freezing, but that has somewhat changed and with ssd a traditional BSOD is more likely. I may also add that despite the rather illustrious brand, my experience with Corsair PSU's during the years can be described as "less than stellar", so a faulty unit wouldn't surprise me that much. :rolleyes:
 
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