Computer freeze with pop

[Skunk-Works]

So every once in a while while playing a game my PC will produce a pop over the speakers and freeze. I have to press and hold the power button to restart the computer. The restart button won't work. I've tested my RAM which at the moment is only 4GB. I had a virtual audio cable installed prior to my build, but when I migrated over using sysprep to the new PC, I must have uninstalled that driver. I had thought perhaps I had two audio devices and that could have been the reason to this pop and a freeze up. I have looked in event viewer and found nothing. This leads me to believe it's hardware related. My PSU is about 5 years old. It's an Antec Gamer 520. I bought it when I bought the GPU. The other thought I had was that the two games I have played where this occurred could have consumed more than 4GB of RAM and that's what did it. Though, the two games I play are BF2 single and multiplayer and FSX. I do have a dedicated weather engine for FSX called Active Sky Evolution 2010. I was thinking maybe that could be it, but that doesn't explain the freeze up in BF2 sometimes. Although, when BF2 freezes I don't get a pop from the speakers. So I might have two separate issues.

Motherboard is a GIGABYTE AORUS GA-Z270X-Gaming 9. I can't remember the BIOS version, but I know it isn't the latest. I did install the latest at the time I built this PC. Now there's a new BIOS last I looked. I plan on updating it. I do plan on buying another 4GB stick of RAM and a new PSU.

Any ideas?

 

[deustroop]

Call us when you are through upgrading.

 

[XavierMace]

BF2 is a 32bit game which means it can't use more than 4Gb of RAM. Are you using the onboard audio or do you have a sound card? Anything in the Event Logs?

 

[fastamdman]

Did you install a fresh copy of windows when you built this machine? What cpu and gpu are you using? Why only 4gb of ram? When did you last update drivers? Have you checked temps? Are you monitor temps, ram usage, gpu usage etc? When the "freeze" happens have you tried leaving it on to see if it recovers?

 

[Skunk-Works]

I have looked in event viewer and found nothing.

Using the onboard audio. When it freezes its a hard freeze. I can't even use the reset button on the computer. Temps, as far as I can tell are fine. I know the CPU is around 45c at load. It's an i5 6600k. I have yet to test GPU temps.

Another 4GB stick of RAM, power supply and a a much needed fan controller is on the way.

I used sysprep to migrate my in place OS from my old computer to the new computer. So far it's worked. But I am considering a complete reinstall. Which would be a huge PITA of reconfiguration and reinstalling everything. If these freezes (which doesn't happen all that often) still occurs after hardware change, I may in fact reinstall the OS.

Comp. was built last May. I used the drivers from Gigabytes' website. I'll check if any have been upgraded sense then. I do know there is an upgraded BIOS.

 

[Skunk-Works]

When the "freeze" happens have you tried leaving it on to see if it recovers?

No. I'm afraid that won't do anything. This is a total lockup.

 

[fastamdman]

I'm guessing it's between the power supply and software issue. Have you tried running a stability tester like intel burn test, occt, prime95 or anything else? It might help you be able to recreate this freezing which would let us know what is causing it. I would look into one of the above apps, along with cpuid hwmonitor, which will allow you to monitor all of your temps.

 

[deustroop]

One problematic item I see is the install by "sysprep". I'm not sure that the modified server installation process has any advantages for a single user over what you would obtain using a regular cloning app Quite the opposite. KISS perhaps ? I suggest cloning the older disk to the new one if the hardware is compatible. If that does not work, replace the PS.

 

[Skunk-Works]

I'm guessing it's between the power supply and software issue. Have you tried running a stability tester like intel burn test, occt, prime95 or anything else? It might help you be able to recreate this freezing which would let us know what is causing it. I would look into one of the above apps, along with cpuid hwmonitor, which will allow you to monitor all of your temps.

I'll give intel burn test a shot. PSU arrives today and hopefully the RAM. I updated the few drivers for my motherboard that needed updating and I updated the BIOS to the latest.

 

[fastamdman]

I'll give intel burn test a shot. PSU arrives today and hopefully the RAM. I updated the few drivers for my motherboard that needed updating and I updated the BIOS to the latest.

Right on, also make sure windows updates are all done and updated to the latest (Especially with the new hacks that were just released). Speaking of which, I would double check that you got the latest drivers from everyone again, as companies are releasing updated bios's still today even.

If the hardware and the updates don't solve your issue, personally I would bite the bullet and simply reformat your system. It really shouldn't be all that painful to reinstall software. Unless your connection is really slow and you have a massive amount of games. Generally it takes me 15 minutes to reformat a system and then about an hour to reinstall all of my stuff. This time around I am making a full system image of a fresh install with all of my games and apps installed, so I can revert back to it monthly. I like to keep all of my registry files extremely fresh and updated. Systems start to slow down massively when they haven't been reformatted in a long time.

 

[SmokinWaffle]

I'll give intel burn test a shot. PSU arrives today and hopefully the RAM. I updated the few drivers for my motherboard that needed updating and I updated the BIOS to the latest.

Bad move changing so many things at once, makes it harder to pinpoint. My first step would be to disable all onboard and external audio devices and see if it still happens. Sounds driver-y to me.