PC randomly crashes every few days...

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Crescendo

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Sep 30, 2014
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The BSOD and freezing might be the same thing, manifesting itself in different ways pre/post flash. Reflashing to an old BIOS is something that can cause issues on some boards/equipment, depending on what the manufacturer designed for. Rolling back a firmware flash generally falls well within the 'unsupported' parameters though.

You really should seriously be looking at a motherboard replacement, either RMA or purchase. There's a few things you can test with the RAM which have already been mentioned but it's highly likely that this is an issue with the mobo.

The only other thing you could potentially try is getting an OC tool (CPU OC) and pull down the voltage by a smidge, like 0.05-0.1v or whatever. You might have gotten a slightly underperforming/unstable at stock CPU.

Once I have narrowed down this issue more I will probably rma the board first but I'm not just going to do it to do it, it's too much hastle, and then what if it isn't the motherboard and it was something else all along. I'd like to narrow this issue down more if possible.
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
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Well if you're not willing to read my original post to provide help then thats fine I refuse to repeat myself if people don't want to read what I originally wrote.

It seems you and Larry both have issues with reading the information I provided to work off of, I shouldnt have to repeat what's there if people are too lazy to read the op they shouldn't be trying to help people.

Asking for help + not responding to questions + bad attitude = Ignore list +1
 
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Crescendo

Member
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Asking for help + not responding to questions + bad attitude = Ignore list +1

I've resonded to every question, my attitude is fine forgive me for being slightly frustrated and when I give a detailed report of my issue and findings I'm hoping people read it so I don't waste, time repeating myself... I'm sorry you feel that way.
 

Crescendo

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Sep 30, 2014
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Just RMA the board, man.

Im about ready to do something like that, but google searches show similiar problems and motherboard was not the issue. If I send it back and I'm still having this issue then what? there has to be more things to troubleshoot. I feel I've barely done anything.

Also just ran prime95 for 3 passes and it didnt freeze this time.. so at a loss again.
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
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I've resonded to every question, my attitude is fine forgive me for being slightly frustrated and when I give a detailed report of my issue and findings I'm hoping people read it so I don't waste, time repeating myself... I'm sorry you feel that way.

I understand it is frustrating when electronics, especially computers have weird random issues. They are the toughest to figure out what is causing it. You just have to take a step back, take a deep BREATH, and keep a level head. Lashing out at people who are only trying to help you, for FREE, does not help anything.

If I had your computer at my house, I could simply swap in known working extra parts I keep on-hand to figure out exactly what is causing the issue. That way it could be quickly narrowed down to a hardware, or a software issue. When I built a computer for my son this past winter, it had all sort of issues. The motherboard was junk, and after I replaced it and got the computer working properly, a Windows 10 update started causing hangs and crashes like you are experiencing. After further troubleshooting, I uninstalled the update it worked great until Microsoft released some updates that fixed the issue. This was the most irritating build I had in over 20 years. I was getting angry at times, and I was not thinking with a clear head, so I would force myself to walk away from it and chill for 15 minutes to get my focus back.

Computers are complex, temperamental things at times, and they can be very challenging when it comes to odd, random issues. Each person in this thread has just asked some general questions, and offered some things to look at. There is no need to be rude to them. We are only trying to help you the best way we can when we don't have access to your PC.
 
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Crescendo

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I understand it is frustrating when electronics, especially computers have weird random issues. They are the toughest to figure out what is causing it. You just have to take a step back, take a deep BREATH, and keep a level head. Lashing out at people who are only trying to help you, for FREE, does not help anything.

If I had your computer at my house, I could simply swap in known working extra parts I keep on-hand to figure out exactly what is causing the issue. That way it could be quickly narrowed down to a hardware, or a software issue. When I built a computer for my son this past winter, it had all sort of issues. The motherboard was junk, and after I replaced it and got the computer working properly, a Windows 10 update started causing hangs and crashes like you are experiencing. After further troubleshooting, I uninstalled the update it worked great until Microsoft released some updates that fixed the issue. This was the most irritating build I had in over 20 years. I was getting angry at times, and I was not thinking with a clear head, so I would force myself to walk away from it and chill for 15 minutes to get my focus back.

Computers are complex, temperamental things at times, and they can be very challenging when it comes to odd, random issues. Each person in this thread has just asked some general questions, and offered some things to look at. There is no need to be rude to them. We are only trying to help you the best way we can when we don't have access to your PC.

I didnt mean to come off as a douche man, I appreciate any and ALL help. But I just HATE repeating myself haha. I spent a good amount of time going into detail in my OP so that we could get past all the simple questions. I would definately appreciate any help you can provide.
 
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Crescendo

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So I just reverted back to previous BIOS, everything went smooth as it did before. I'm going to continue testing and running games. If it happens again I'll swap out ram chips, if it turns out RAM isn't the issue and GPU isnt the issue I will be sending in the motherboard for replacement. But I would like to exhaust any and ALL possibilites before I start RMA;ing because Iv'e learned my lesson before from jumping to RMA as a conclusion and thats, that sometimes its a waste of time and money.
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
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So I just reverted back to previous BIOS, everything went smooth as it did before. I'm going to continue testing and running games. If it happens again I'll swap out ram chips, if it turns out RAM isn't the issue and GPU isnt the issue I will be sending in the motherboard for replacement. But I would like to exhaust any and ALL possibilites before I start RMA;ing because Iv'e learned my lesson before from jumping to RMA as a conclusion and thats, that sometimes its a waste of time and money.

If you still have issues, remove the video card, leave only RAM stick in (disable XMP on it and run it at 2133), and only the OS SSD. Then test it. If no errors, add back in the video card. Then test it. If no errors, add back in the extra stick of RAM. Then test it, if no errors add back in the other hard drive. If no errors, reenable the XMP on the RAM.

Hopefully one of those steps will reveal the issue if it is hardware related. If you experience issues with everything out, it is likely time to RMA the motherboard like VirtualLarry suggested.
 
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Crescendo

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If you still have issues, remove the video card, leave only RAM stick in (disable XMP on it and run it at 2133), and only the OS SSD. Then test it. If no errors, add back in the video card. Then test it. If no errors, add back in the extra stick of RAM. Then test it, if no errors add back in the other hard drive. If no errors, reenable the XMP on the RAM.

Hopefully one of those steps will reveal the issue if it is hardware related. If you experience issues with everything out, it is likely time to RMA the motherboard like VirtualLarry suggested.

Yeah If it freezes after reverting bios back then I will do those things. The problem is, is the issue is so intermittent, sometimes it freezes after a few hours sometimes it freezes after a few days... So I might not know if or what fixed it for days.
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
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Yeah If it freezes after reverting bios back then I will do those things. The problem is, is the issue is so intermittent, sometimes it freezes after a few hours sometimes it freezes after a few days... So I might not know if or what fixed it for days.

No need to rush, just need to find out what the issue is. I spent 7-10 days figuring out my son's computer problems, and I can normally peg them in a day. Like I said about getting angry, I don't cuss very often, but I probably sounded like a classic Andrew Dice Clay album by the 5th day. ;)
 

UsandThem

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And one last thing, I went back an re-read your first post before asking this, so don't yell at me ;)

VirtualLarry asked in his first post to take a look at the 'Reliability Monitor' in Windows to see if any processes or apps had issues. Have you done this? I know you said your PC is not generating BSODs, but that monitor will report stuff outside of BSODs.
 

Crescendo

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Sep 30, 2014
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And one last thing, I went back an re-read your first post before asking this, so don't yell at me ;)

VirtualLarry asked in his first post to take a look at the 'Reliability Monitor' in Windows to see if any processes or apps had issues. Have you done this? I know you said your PC is not generating BSODs, but that monitor will report stuff outside of BSODs.

Haha appreciate you reading my post, you will see I did answer a lot of peoples questions initially ;)

I did however find this on google: http://forums.evga.com/Newly-built-EVGA-Z97-FTW-rig-Freezing-issues-m2417590.aspx

and it has people stating that the 1.90 BIOS flash causes freezes and performance issues for a lot of people, so maybe that was culprit. Granted that's the Z97 FTW motherboard not the Z170 but hey worth a try.


As far as Reliability Monitor, I installed it and it basically just tells me the same thing as Even Viewer (says my PC unexpectedly shut down.) doesnt say why or throw any error codes unless I'm not doing something right... Is there anything in Reliability Monitor I'm missing?
 
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UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
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Haha appreciate you reading my post, you will see I did answer a lot of peoples questions initially ;)

I did however find this on google: http://forums.evga.com/Newly-built-EVGA-Z97-FTW-rig-Freezing-issues-m2417590.aspx

and it has people stating that the 1.90 BIOS flash causes freezes and performance issues for a lot of people, so maybe that was culprit. Granted that's the Z97 FTW motherboard not the Z170 but hey worth a try.


As far as Reliability Monitor, I installed it and it basically just tells me the same thing as Even Viewer (says my PC unexpectedly shut down.) doesnt say why or throw any error codes unless I'm not doing something right... Is there anything in Reliability Monitor I'm missing?

Outside of BSODs, the monitor will just show stuff like this (My Gigabyte apps crashing on me, but not crashing my computer) :

https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...ds-and-new-app-center-and-siv-issues.2483155/

But as far as the BIOS version, I'd shoot an email off to their tech support. They are known for having good support, and maybe they could tell you if they have run into that issue with other requests, or if they recommend a different BIOS version.
 

Crescendo

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I just ran Prime95 Blend Test for 3+ hours no crashes what so ever, went out to eat while it ran and came back PC was sitting here just fine, no errors temps reached a max of 65c on the CPU. But before the BIOS rollback Prime95 froze within 20 minutes and so did my games. So not sure if I've made progress or just coincidence, guess i'll give it a couple days to see.

I have a question under load HWmonitor says my CPU voltage is .5v and under CPU-Z it also says .5v but under AIDA64 it says .9-1v, .5v under prime95 load seems really low in voltage to me, is that normal?
 
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VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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CPU-Z has been known to read the CPU vcore incorrectly at times (on certain new-ish, or less-popular boards). On one of my machines, it reads the vcore as 2.1V or so. But a quick trip to the BIOS PC Health screen, shows that's not true, and my vcore is in fact nominal.

I wouldn't worry about it so much, if the BIOS PC Health screen shows the vcore is in the ballpark. (Of course, it would be nice if CPU-Z / HWMonitor were accurate.)
 

Crescendo

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Sep 30, 2014
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CPU-Z has been known to read the CPU vcore incorrectly at times (on certain new-ish, or less-popular boards). On one of my machines, it reads the vcore as 2.1V or so. But a quick trip to the BIOS PC Health screen, shows that's not true, and my vcore is in fact nominal.

I wouldn't worry about it so much, if the BIOS PC Health screen shows the vcore is in the ballpark. (Of course, it would be nice if CPU-Z / HWMonitor were accurate.)

Appreciate it, so far still no crash... Im confident that my motherboard is the problem whether it's fixed or not. I just wish I could reproduce the problem memtest and prime95 have been ran for HOURS with zero issues. and so far no games have froze up. So far it seems promising but I've gone 3 days without a crash before so who knows. God PC's are a love hate relationship.
 

VirtualLarry

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Aug 25, 2001
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I had a "random freeze / reboot" issue with one out of two Core2-era rigs that I built years ago. Both rigs had identical-model parts, but of course, every CPU is a "unique snowflake" when it comes to overclocking particulars.

I do DC (distributed computing), which puts a 100% CPU load on for days, weeks, months at a time.

Well, one of the Core2 rigs, was fine with a 400FSB, and one was not. The one that was not, would reboot, randomly, but in a timespan of like 2-4 weeks of power-on time. Just testing my changes, to see if it would glitch, took literally months, because the glitches were so rare. It would pass a 24hour stress-test of any type, with no problem. Most people would consider that to be "stable", but given my requirements, it wasn't stable enough for me. I simply had to dial back the FSB on the overclock. It just wasn't stable otherwise.
 

Crescendo

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Sep 30, 2014
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I had a "random freeze / reboot" issue with one out of two Core2-era rigs that I built years ago. Both rigs had identical-model parts, but of course, every CPU is a "unique snowflake" when it comes to overclocking particulars.

I do DC (distributed computing), which puts a 100% CPU load on for days, weeks, months at a time.

Well, one of the Core2 rigs, was fine with a 400FSB, and one was not. The one that was not, would reboot, randomly, but in a timespan of like 2-4 weeks of power-on time. Just testing my changes, to see if it would glitch, took literally months, because the glitches were so rare. It would pass a 24hour stress-test of any type, with no problem. Most people would consider that to be "stable", but given my requirements, it wasn't stable enough for me. I simply had to dial back the FSB on the overclock. It just wasn't stable otherwise.

But my PC is at stock... everything is 100% stock no overclocks. Maybe turbo could be causing it but I doubt it. I bought this PC off my friend and he said that it never froze on him so I don't get it. I've seen this PC overclocked to 4.5ghz for hours with zero issues. When I got it off him I got it home drove slow it was only a 5 minute drive set it on its side got home formatted installed windows 10 and bam freezing every 3 days. My buddy would play ARK 8 hours a day and have no crashes.
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
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A very unscientific opinion I have from seeing the many different posts over the years, are EVGA motherboards while nice, are among the most temperamental ones out there.

I am a huge fan of EVGA. They have really good customer service, and they generally make great video cards (little bit of a rough patch right now with their ACX 3.0 cooler recall/fix), and I love their SuperNova G2 and P2 Super Flower Leadex power supplies, but I'm not sure if I would ever buy one of their motherboards. I won't say I never would, and like I already mentioned, that is only my personal opinion. They look great, and are well built, but there just is always a concern in the back of my head when it comes time to build a new PC.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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But my PC is at stock... everything is 100% stock no overclocks. Maybe turbo could be causing it but I doubt it. I bought this PC off my friend and he said that it never froze on him so I don't get it. I've seen this PC overclocked to 4.5ghz for hours with zero issues. When I got it off him I got it home drove slow it was only a 5 minute drive set it on its side got home formatted installed windows 10 and bam freezing every 3 days. My buddy would play ARK 8 hours a day and have no crashes.

Hmm, that puts a slightly new spin on it. So these weren't factory-new components, they were used, but were "working" in your friend's place, and you moved them to your place, and re-formatted, and that's when you started having trouble.

I would have suggested re-seating the RAM and GPU, but I think that you mentioned in your OP that you've tried that.

I had an older Athlon II X4 rig, that I had built to sell, and it didn't sell, so when I dug it out of my storage unit, and went to re-furb it, the HDD was throwing errors. So I re-formatted, after putting in an SSD, and added a GT740 card, for a friend of mine. The deal was, he was to try it out, and see if it was an improvement over his current rig. Well, he had it over four months, and he never plugged it in, so I took it back. When I got it back to my place, I tested it out, and... it wouldn't boot. So, I figured the GPU was loose, so I re-seated it, and that seemed to take care of the issue. So I gave it to a different friend. Hopefully it still works.

But a short trip in a vehicle can cause weird glitches with a PC.

If you haven't already, then re-seat the RAM and GPU again. Maybe use a can-o-air to blow out the slots, and if you're really ambitious, use a can of "contact cleaner" to spray on the gold fingers too. Let it evaporate before plugging it back in, if you do.

Edit: Was the PC on its side, during the travel. If you had a heavy GPU installed, and the PC was sitting vertically, then it's possible that the GPU got bumped during the trip, and may have damaged the PCI-E slot mechanically.

If your mobo has multiple PCI-E x16 physical slots, you might try the other one, and see if the problems go away, if it freezes again on you.
 

Crescendo

Member
Sep 30, 2014
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Hmm, that puts a slightly new spin on it. So these weren't factory-new components, they were used, but were "working" in your friend's place, and you moved them to your place, and re-formatted, and that's when you started having trouble.

I would have suggested re-seating the RAM and GPU, but I think that you mentioned in your OP that you've tried that.

I had an older Athlon II X4 rig, that I had built to sell, and it didn't sell, so when I dug it out of my storage unit, and went to re-furb it, the HDD was throwing errors. So I re-formatted, after putting in an SSD, and added a GT740 card, for a friend of mine. The deal was, he was to try it out, and see if it was an improvement over his current rig. Well, he had it over four months, and he never plugged it in, so I took it back. When I got it back to my place, I tested it out, and... it wouldn't boot. So, I figured the GPU was loose, so I re-seated it, and that seemed to take care of the issue. So I gave it to a different friend. Hopefully it still works.

But a short trip in a vehicle can cause weird glitches with a PC.

If you haven't already, then re-seat the RAM and GPU again. Maybe use a can-o-air to blow out the slots, and if you're really ambitious, use a can of "contact cleaner" to spray on the gold fingers too. Let it evaporate before plugging it back in, if you do.

Edit: Was the PC on its side, during the travel. If you had a heavy GPU installed, and the PC was sitting vertically, then it's possible that the GPU got bumped during the trip, and may have damaged the PCI-E slot mechanically.

If your mobo has multiple PCI-E x16 physical slots, you might try the other one, and see if the problems go away, if it freezes again on you.

The thing is the PC isn't that old and I ordered and built it for him, he hasn't touched it since and he BARELY played it thats why he sold it to me. The motherboard wasn't my first choice I would have went with an ASUS-A Z170 or something different but he wanted a certain color scheme and certain features in a price range so the FTW fit the bill. When I transported it, it was about a 5 minute ride he lives right down the road, I laid it on its side in the car nothing was around it I was VERY careful when doing all of this, also my cooler is a AIO liquid cooler so theres no heavy HSF that could have damaged anything. But yes I've reseated the CPU, RAM and GPU and cleaned the contacts and blew the slots out with compressed air.

MY friend is a good guy were about in our 30's and hes not one to lie if he says the PC ran fine I believe him. I'll try another slot but it's literally 100% impossible it got bumped I drove about 10mph like 1 mile and I basically held the case the whole time and had it pinned between my front chair and rear seat. No way in hell it got damaged in travel. He barely used it so it doesnt suprise me he didnt experience many freezes, I game about 8 hours a day and my PC's almost always on.
 

Crescendo

Member
Sep 30, 2014
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A very unscientific opinion I have from seeing the many different posts over the years, are EVGA motherboards while nice, are among the most temperamental ones out there.

I am a huge fan of EVGA. They have really good customer service, and they generally make great video cards (little bit of a rough patch right now with their ACX 3.0 cooler recall/fix), and I love their SuperNova G2 and P2 Super Flower Leadex power supplies, but I'm not sure if I would ever buy one of their motherboards. I won't say I never would, and like I already mentioned, that is only my personal opinion. They look great, and are well built, but there just is always a concern in the back of my head when it comes time to build a new PC.

Had good reviews was a decent price and it fill the bill of what he was looking for, it wouldn't have been my first choice.

I guess you guys are missunderstanding, my buddy wanted me to build him a PC to play games with me, we got top of the line stuff and he wanted certain things so I built it and ordered the parts. He just met a new girl and barely touched the PC and needed money so he sold me the setup for about half what its worth, I know its in 100% condition and everyhting was done right. I've cleaned the PC, removed most the parts cleaned them put them back in reseated the CPU everything. When I drove from his house about a mile away I drove EXTREMELY slow and careful to ensure I didnt damage anything so I highly doubt thats the problem.

When he owned the PC before me he was getting WATCH_DOG_TIMOUT BSOD's but it didnt happen often so he dealt with it. when I got it off him it was still doing it, updating BIOS made it go away but then it started freezing. So I'm so confused on what caused this and what the issue is, I dont even know anymore... I feel like I've tried everything but for some reason I dont think its hardware.
 

flexy

Diamond Member
Sep 28, 2001
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Is it blackscreening when gaming? Do you overclock the card?

This sounds awfully like the dreaded blackscreening of some EVGA cards to me, which is IN ALL LIKELIHHOOD related to voltage regulators and possibly heat problems on the card. (At least in my case). Try using MSI afterburner with a fan profile and fan faster, whether it helps with it.
Try not overclocking your card respective underclocking it, see whether it helps.

Some older GTX 970 SC ACX2.0 had this problem, I had to RMA mine, but problem in general still can happen when overclocking.

What does event log say?

** For finding the problem (although this one may be a toughy), run the usual tests. NO GUESSING, it won't get us anywhere.

Run stability tests like Prime95/OCCT for the CPU, run memtest for the memory.
Run Unigine Heaven Benchmark for the card.
You can also look into Intel Xtreme Tuning Utility or ASUS ROG "Realbench".

DON'T use furmark or other nonsensical tools. Don't blindly replace components, PSU, board, memory without having tested your components. I see this all the time, it makes me cringe and most of the time people replacing boards, PSU etc. and still have the same problem. You need methodology and track down the problem.

** Edit: re-seating cards can sometimes do wonders. Can also be a cause of unexplainable lockups and blackscreens. Remove everything, blow out dust with canned air, re-seat etc.
 
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