PC Freezing

[l3ubba 16]

So I have spent about 6 months researching this topic to try and find what might be wrong, but I am starting to run out of ideas and solutions. I custom built a desktop PC back in July and it is awesome, it was the dream computer I had been saving up for. However, after setting everything up and getting my flight sim fully operational again I ran into an issue of overheating and my computer completely freezing. My computer would freeze on whatever I was doing last and the sound would be looping so fast that it would just sound like a loud buzzing noise coming from my speakers. This would happen mostly when I was gaming and occasionally when I was just doing something like browsing the internet, but it was most frequent when flying on FSX. I downloaded software that would monitor the temp of my CPU cores and found that my CPU was running a little hot.

 

I tried several solutions. I first took the heatsink fan off the CPU and saw the thermal paste didn't look too good, so I cleaned off the old thermal paste and applied a fresh coat making sure that my heatsink was seated properly on the CPU. While my PC ran cool for about a day it quickly went back to freezing up again. Next solution, I tried buying a new heatsink fan. I went out and bought this big Coolmaster heatsink that was easily twice the size of the stock heatsink and had good reviews. Again, it provided positive results for about a day or two.

 

I had to move to Germany about a week and a half after building my PC so for about 4 months it was sitting boxed up while the military shipped it to me. When I set my PC back up here in Germany it seemed to be doing better. The temperatures hadn't gotten worse and I could, for the most part, do flights without issues. My idle temps are usually around 40C and when I am gaming my temps are usually in the high 50s to low 60s. However, I recently picked up Orbx PNW and NCA while it is on sale and when I try to fly in that area my PC is usually running mid 60s to low 70s and it ends up freezing every time. Sometimes I can get halfway through the flight, sometimes it is on climbout, this last time it was when I was only a 1000 ft off the ground after takeoff.

 

Now I cannot 100% nail the issue down to overheating but that is really the only thing I can find that could be wrong. The only other solution I have found through all the reading I have done is that I might have a faulty motherboard or CPU which I really hope is not the case. I am considering buying a water cooling system and seeing if that helps or not, but I want to see if anyone else has ideas about what it could be.

[Charlatan 68]

What specs is your machine?  Overclocked?  What CPU Cooler?

[l3ubba 16]

Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Extreme

CPU: Intel i7 4790k at 4.4 Ghz

Graphics: GTX780Ti Classified Edition

RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2x8GB)

Power Supply: EVGA Supernova 1000W

OS: Window 7 Home Premium 64 bit

 

My CPU is on "turbo mode" which boosts it from 4.0 Ghz to 4.4 Ghz. One of the first things I tried was turning the turbo mode off in the BIOS and also checked fan settings in the BIOS.

 

Can't remember the exact model of my heatsink fan off the top of my head. I'm pretty sure it is the Cool Master Hyper 212 or something very similar to it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

[Charlatan 68]

Sounds like the cooler isn't upto the job to me, and it's overheating (especially as its not overclocked).  The 4790k runs hot.  Would be tempted to get yourself a H80 or similar if u can.  I know people have had problems with the stock cooler with the 4790k with overheating.

 

I had a CM Hyper 212 a good few years ago, with a sandybridge i5 2500k, which runs a hell of a lot cooler than a 4790k, and struggled to overclock to over 4ghz with it.

[l3ubba 16]

Sounds like the cooler isn't upto the job to me, and it's overheating (especially as its not overclocked).  The 4790k runs hot.  Would be tempted to get yourself a H80 or similar if u can.  I know people have had problems with the stock cooler with the 4790k with overheating.

 

I had a CM Hyper 212 a good few years ago, with a sandybridge i5 2500k, which runs a hell of a lot cooler than a 4790k, and struggled to overclock to over 4ghz with it.

 

Thanks for the advice. Guess I'm going to order a water cooler and hope it solves the problem.

[WR269 367]

I have the same cpu and am running a Noctua tower cooler. My temps are comparable to yours. The only times I have had freezes and lock ups similar to yours were due to my Nvidia drivers. I have had to roll back to drivers that are stable with my system and now have no issues.

[l3ubba 16]

I have the same cpu and am running a Noctua tower cooler. My temps are comparable to yours. The only times I have had freezes and lock ups similar to yours were due to my Nvidia drivers. I have had to roll back to drivers that are stable with my system and now have no issues.

 

That was another solution I was looking into. The only problem is I don't know how to roll back to an earlier driver and even if I did my system hasn't been stable since I built it so I wouldn't even know what driver to roll back to.

[WR269 367]

Hi Samuel,

 

I am not on my home pc at the moment. What you need to do (from memory) is go to the Nvidia site and download one of the previous driver files. The one back in July this year was quite good, I cannot remember what number it was.

 

When you have downloaded the file, run the executable, and there is an Options button towards the bottom of the GUI....select it, and in it, you need to select "Clean Install"....in other words, it will completely remove any current drivers rather than just install over the top of it.

 

Then click Next and watch it go. after it finishes, reboot your machine. Fingers crossed, but it did work for me....I was getting the stutter and my whole system would lock up.

[l3ubba 16]

So quick update. I was reading some documentation for my motherboard and noticed it had a recommended setup for the graphic card. When I initially put my computer together I thought I had read something that said it didn't matter which PCI-E slot I installed the graphics card into, but apparently it does speed wise anyway. I opened up my case moved the graphics card from slot 2 to slot 1 and was able to do 3 flights in a row (before I would be lucky if I could complete 1) in various aircraft and in various parts of the world. Thinking I had fixed the issue I attempted (for the fourth time) to re-do my flight from LEMD-EDDM and I made it almost all the way through the flight but the same issue popped up on me while on 5 mile final for EDDM. I had to step away from my computer and take a walk because I was about to break something. I am getting really frustrated with this issue and I am running out of ideas for solutions. My two thoughts right now are either a bad graphics card (which I hope is not the case because my card is not cheap) or a bad motherboard.

[l3ubba 16]

So this should be my final update (hopefully) for anyone who is following this or might need this for future reference. After my last solution failed I tested each stick of RAM individually and in each slot on my motherboard as well as testing a separate stick of RAM from a different computer to make sure that it wasn't a bad stick of RAM. I conducted stress tests on my CPU and GPU and they both passed with flying colors (and I was actually quite impressed with how cold my CPU stays under 100% load); it was only during the stress test that focused more on RAM that my computer crashed and since I was fairly certain it wasn't the sticks of RAM themselves I focused on the motherboard.

 

One of the final ideas I had (I had actually thought of this earlier on, just hadn't actually tried it) was updating the BIOS. I spent a couple days reading how to update the BIOS and updated from 1402 to 1603 which is the latest version as of today. After updating the BIOS my computer managed to run a full 10 mins in the RAM stress test whereas before I would be lucky if it lasted more than 30 seconds. Unfortunately at that point I wasn't able to do any flights to test it out completely as I had to go to work but I will test out some flights in the near future and if all goes well I will mark this as the correct answer for anyone who might come across a similar issue.