Computer freezes with network traffic

[unixwizzard]

Here's the problem.. downloading any fairly large amount of data causes the computer to freeze.. no error message(s), no blue screen, no nothing.. it just locks up, needing to power off and restart.. It could be a download from the web using any browser (tried IE, FF and Iron) or it could be a file transfer over my LAN using Windows Explorer.

System info:

ASUS P8Z77-V LX LGA 1155 Mainboard
Intel Core i7 3770 CPU at stock speed
Corsair Hydro Series H60 CPU Cooler
16GB Kingston HyperX DDR3-1600 RAM
ASUS GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video
Corsair Neutron 256GB SATA III SSD
Western Digital WD10EZEX 1.0 TB HDD (Blue)
Coolmax ZU-1000 1000W ATX Power Supply
Windows 8.1 Professional 64 Bit w/Media Center

I also have a 1.5TB WD Green drive in an external USB case.

What I have done so far..

- error logs, nothing in them except to report that the system had been shutdown unexpectedly
- stress test on the cpu - no overheating and no errors
- memtest on ram overnight, no errors
- all current windows updates and drivers installed
- removed and refreshed driver for onboard gig-ethernet card (tried driver from microsoft and realtek
- disabled onboard ethernet, installed Asus PCI gig-ethernet card then switched to a TP-Link PCIe gig-ethernet card

currently using the TP-Link PCIe card with the latest driver (Realtek)

also directed downloads to each of the three drives.. internal SSD, internal platter and the external USB HDD - still locks up after about 2-3 GB received.

I went with the different ethernet controllers thinking the onboard was bad after I tried an old USB 10/100 adapter and experienced no lockup with the old adapter. Finally I found by forcing the internal ethernet to run at 100mbps then no lockup happens.

Something is causing the computer to lock up downloading with the ethernet set at 1gbps. The lockups started toward the end of November, up until then no problems at full speed.

Looking at software installed or updated from around that time period, nothing sticks out as having anything to do with file or ethernet operations, I suppose I could start uninstalling and then take a look at all the Windows updates for anything related.

Uploading is fine.. I can send as much as I want all day and all night, no problem there. It's just downloading that crashes.

*shrug*

I am at a loss, any other ideas?

 

[phasseshifter]

could be a hardware issue maybe a bad hdd..first thoughts...may well be cable fault`s..or is it a wifi setup..you have not listed your modem/router router

 

[VirtualLarry]

I suspect chipset overheating.

 

[denis280]

I also have a 1.5TB WD Green drive in an external USB case.

Do you download to your external hdd or do you download on your Western Digital WD10EZEX 1.0 TB HDD (Blue)

 

[unixwizzard]

Do you download to your external hdd or do you download on your Western Digital WD10EZEX 1.0 TB HDD (Blue)

both.. downloads to the external drive, the internal drive and the internal SSD all result in lockups.

 

[unixwizzard]

I suspect chipset overheating.

which chipset?

I just did six downloads, each file approx 2GB.. 3 were from the Internet and 3 files across my LAN.

all the files were to my "D" drive, the WD 1TB Blue

averaged about 13MB/s from the Internet and about 35MB/s over the LAN

monitoring the system using HWiNFO64 all the temps were stable

CPU cores 0-1 hovered around 38C which is my idle temps

(reported under Nuvoton heading) Motherboard: 34C CPU: 33C

Intel PCH Temp: 55C

SMART reports my C: Drive (SSD) at 33C and my D: Drive (WD HDD) at 38C

GPU Temp : 51C

All temps remained steady throughout the file transfers which I did one after the other, all the temps remained unchanged save for the CPU which fluctuated by 1C as is normally did.

Finally I enabled logging on Hwinfo and started pulling down a 6GB file from off the LAN.. at 2.9GB the system froze.. the Hwinfo log showed what I saw up until the system froze - that is no temperature changes (increases) whatsoever.

Not sure what could be overheating, or why it locks up only with three different ethernet devices set at 1000mbps.


Maybe it's time for a Windows refresh.. I did notice it's been over a year since installing..

 

[phasseshifter]

does the problem occur when you internally move data from one drive to another or is it only through the network...as somebody mentioned ..it may well be your south bridge on the mobo...do you have a sata hdd card lying around..i have seen usb ports fail then the on-board net failed...oh u do have your on-board net card disabled in the bios and the boot rom.. if your using an add-on Ethernet card...

 

[unixwizzard]

does the problem occur when you internally move data from one drive to another or is it only through the network..

aha! something I didn't try..

I do have a spare SATA drive.. an old 750GB WD Black drive.. I put that in..

and now I am sending about 13GB in files from D: to E:

ok.. that didn't take long.. averaged around 130 MB/s

no temperature increase and no lockup..

let's try it again.. this time from E: to D:..

same thing.. no temp increase and no lockup.

next is to try transfers to/from the USB HDD.

===

Oh, and the internal ethernet is disabled in BIOS.

 

[phasseshifter]

ok well if all goes ok from internal we can narrow out the chipset..one step at a time ...

 

[unixwizzard]

ok.. I pulled about 30GB off the external USB HDD to both my D and E drives, and sent about the same amount back to the external... no temp increase and no freezing.

the freezing happens only on downloads over the network.

 

[phasseshifter]

ok so mobo is ok..it may very well be a better point to start looking else where.. is it cabled or wifi..have you configured the settins like ..tcp/ip and alike for your card ..r u just running one machine and one router/modem more details if you can pls help me to help you..pls

 

[phasseshifter]

ok a few programs you may want to dwnload if you dont have them allready superanti- spyware...ccleaner..malware anti bites..and use them to scan your drives..also open a command prompt as admin then type this ..sfc /scannow .....let that run aside from that you can run this ...chkdsk c: ...

 

[Ketchup]

Coolmax is one of the cheapest, lowest-quality power supplies you can buy, however I don't see it causing this, and only this, issue. Have you looked in the event viewer? How long do you let it stay frozen before you reboot?

 

[phasseshifter]

r u using cables or wifi..als i am a little lost as to what exactly is your setup..could you elaborate 1 computer 2 computer router modem...??? i am wondering if your router is setup correctly...???

 

[unixwizzard]

ok a few programs you may want to dwnload if you dont have them allready superanti- spyware...ccleaner..malware anti bites..and use them to scan your drives..also open a command prompt as admin then type this ..sfc /scannow .....let that run aside from that you can run this ...chkdsk c: ...

already done, done, done, and done (I forgot to add those steps to my initial post).. spybot, ccleaner, malwarebytes and NAV all reported no anomalies, trojans, malware, rootkits, or spyware found. sfc and chkdsk came up clean also.

Have you looked in the event viewer? How long do you let it stay frozen before you reboot?

event viewer tells nothing, just the warning generated during boot that says "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first."

the longest I have let it sit frozen is about 5 or 6 hours.

r u using cables or wifi..

connected via CAT6 cable.. the network can't be the cause. I just did this.. have a spare wireless router, so I set that up standalone, connected a USB drive and setup the file server - even used a different ethernet cable.. totally eliminated the main network... started a large file transfer from the "network" drive to the computer and guess what?

locked up hard at 2.9GB just like before.

It _has_ to be something software related.

I think the next step is to do a wipe and reinstall.

 

[phasseshifter]

already done, done, done, and done (I forgot to add those steps to my initial post).. spybot, ccleaner, malwarebytes and NAV all reported no anomalies, trojans, malware, rootkits, or spyware found. sfc and chkdsk came up clean also.



event viewer tells nothing, just the warning generated during boot that says "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first."



connected via CAT6 cable.. the network can't be the cause. I just did this.. have a spare wireless router, so I set that up standalone, connected a USB drive and setup the file server - even used a different ethernet cable.. totally eliminated the main network... started a large file transfer from the "network" drive to the computer and guess what?

locked up hard at 2.9GB just like before.

It _has_ to be something software related.

I think the next step is to do a wipe and reinstall.

try and bacup everything you can/kneed to but yes it maybe time for a fresh install.. do you know the program .. clonezilla...i sugest you /when u can download a copy..it creates a system image..it`s freeware....others will differ...but i sugest you start making a image ripp in the future..it may save you a great deal of greif when you cannot recover a windows install..i still am yet to give up on it being just a software issue..but a fresh install will take that out of the question...

 

[unixwizzard]

everything important is not on my C: drive so it's a matter of installing and linking directories like documents and pictures to their counterpart on the other drive - easy peasy, but I think I can overcome my OCD and wait until after the 1st to do it

it's just bugging the shit out of me why it's happening.

 

[Ketchup]

Have you tried taking out the PCI-E card and using the network card built into the motherboard?

 

[phasseshifter]

can you put your finger on the top of your northbridge heat sink and can you hold it on it ..check your hyper ht speeds and northbridge voltages in your bios...

 

[phasseshifter]

your pcie clock should be set to 100

 

[unixwizzard]

How you tried taking out the PCI-E card and using the network card built into the motherboard?

that's what started this whole thing... lockups while using the onboard network interface..

 

[unixwizzard]

I THINK I FOUND IT..

some more poking around..

noticed in the Device Manager there was an "extra" Network Device listed..

WAN Miniport (SSTP)

I didn't pay it no mind until now, the more I thought about it the more I thought that device was not normally listed.. So I looked at it harder in Details.. shows a First install date of 11/23/2014 - close to right around the time the lockups started.

Looked at windows updates - only update was for the onboard graphics adapter I had enabled it that day but subsequently disabled it again.. doubt that would be the cause..

Looked at installed programs in Programs and Features.. only entry for that time period was for the Nvidia Graphics Driver and the Nvidia HD Audio Driver, also installed 11/23.. Something in my brain clicked, remembered something about Nvidia audio drivers and the WAN Miniport - so I uninstalled the HD Audio Driver which eliminated the hardware listing for the Miniport.

set the NIC back to 1000mbps, started pulling some data and guess what?

NO LOCKUP !

so far I pulled about 40GB over the network off the LAN drive, even threw in a couple of Internet downloads for good measure and the system is still running.

fingers crossed I might have solved the problem.

 

[Ketchup]

Edit: just saw your post, good find. It is a good rule not to install things thatyou don't use (HD audio on the graphics card). In the nvidia case, it is a little silly that there is so much that needs to be unchecked, when all one wants is a video card driver.

 

[phasseshifter]

well great news..hope it keeps up..i would not have thought of that...good exp though...still pondering this though...time will tell...