Random short freezes windows 7

[DisTrict_X]

Hi!

So I've been experiencing these random freezes, the screen freezes and the sound is glitched (sounds like it's going to BSOD, but doesnt). After a second it returns to normal.

I've been getting these freezes for a long time but 2 days ago I upgraded my PC a ton, and since I'm still getting these I'm now sick of it.

They occur most when:

- Downloading large files
- At the beginning of installing a program
- Watching youtube videos (but not with some other streaming services like southparkstudios)
- and most annoyingly: During gaming

I used to think it was an HDD problem because about a year ago it started getting really bad and a bit later my HDD died. But after I replaced the HDD with a new one (same model, one thats in there now) it started again. And now that I work on an SSD it's starting again so I want to do something about it right now before it ruins anymore hardware.

Today they've been getting extremely frequent ( every 15-30 seconds during gaming) so my gaming rig is basically useless untill I fix this.

This is my current system:

http://puu.sh/kLC0l.png

I'm using a clean windows install on my new SSD, using the HDD for mass storage.

Does anyone have any experience with these short freezes? I've been stuck with this problem for a long time and it's now ruining my new GPU feel!

Thanks,
BitBug

 

[LTC8K6]

IIRC, those Seagate drives are notoriously unreliable.

 

[VirtualLarry]

It does sound kind of like HDD or SSD problems.

 

[DisTrict_X]

It does sound kind of like HDD or SSD problems.

IIRC, those Seagate drives are notoriously unreliable.

But I was running my game from my SSD, not my HDD, I'm going to try to disconnect my HDD and run solely on SSD, see if the problem persists.

 

[Smoove910]

If that doesn't resolve your issue, I'd look at the Power Supply.... Seems you are having the issue when you put a load on your PC? Could be a voltage ripple, which could very easily take out a HD.

 

[DisTrict_X]

If that doesn't resolve your issue, I'd look at the Power Supply.... Seems you are having the issue when you put a load on your PC? Could be a voltage ripple, which could very easily take out a HD.

I took out the hdd and did a fresh install on the SSD and I'm still getting it. Is there a way to monitor my PSU? It would seriously suck if the PSU is the problem because I've just upgraded and rebuilt my system and I don't have the cash for a new PSU...

 

[cubby1223]

Usually a hard drive issue, could be an issue with an optical drive or external drive/thumb drive. Sometimes pauses are caused by a directory somewhere that has been loaded up with tens of thousands of files. I know Firefox & Chrome are getting worse about allowing their cache directories to grow large enough to cause slowdowns, I've seen some systems recently with 20+k files in the cache directory.

Sometimes it's a weird compatibility issue with anti-virus software, couple months ago ran into this on several machines where, don't know who was at fault but malwarebytes premium & Kaspersky together caused very long pauses when one scanned the executable of the other - had to put each other into the exclusions list for each, then the systems ran normal afterwards.

 

[cubby1223]

But I was running my game from my SSD, not my HDD, I'm going to try to disconnect my HDD and run solely on SSD, see if the problem persists.

There are always background processes running and access whatever they choose to.

 

[DisTrict_X]

Usually a hard drive issue, could be an issue with an optical drive or external drive/thumb drive. Sometimes pauses are caused by a directory somewhere that has been loaded up with tens of thousands of files. I know Firefox & Chrome are getting worse about allowing their cache directories to grow large enough to cause slowdowns, I've seen some systems recently with 20+k files in the cache directory.

Sometimes it's a weird compatibility issue with anti-virus software, couple months ago ran into this on several machines where, don't know who was at fault but malwarebytes premium & Kaspersky together caused very long pauses when one scanned the executable of the other - had to put each other into the exclusions list for each, then the systems ran normal afterwards.

Thanks for your reply! Anti virus isn't the culprit here since I only have MSE installed. How could I check if my SSD is the cause?

FIY: I disconnected the HDD and am now solely using my SSD.

 

[Ketchup]

What parts does upgraded "a ton" include? All the parts in the attached image?

A power supply issue would cause your system to do a complete crash, at least once.

Make sure your CPU isn't overheating.

 

[DisTrict_X]

What parts does upgraded "a ton" include? All the parts in the attached image?

A power supply issue would cause your system to do a complete crash, at least once.

Make sure your CPU isn't overheating.

I upgraded the CPU, GPU and the SSD. My system has never crashed completely, it always recovers within 1-3 seconds.

CPU upgraded from an i3-2100, GPU upgraded from an XFX HD6870 and the SSD is new.

CPU temp is stable around 35 °C

When the freeze happens, the CPU dips to 0 on all cores, then jumps up shortly, then continues regular usage.
I did a restart, the first time i got it I got a bunch of hard faults on my RAM, the times it happened after that there were no hard faults, but it started happening more frequently.

As far as I can tell, all of my drivers are up to date. In Device manager there are no yellow triangles, everything is detected and windows update has nothing to say.

Please help This is rendering my 1000 euro gaming rig completely useless.

 

[Ketchup]

What BIOS are you running? Your 3470 requires version 3.10 or later.

 

[DisTrict_X]

What BIOS are you running? Your 3470 requires version 3.10 or later.

Well about that, the 3.10 installer I got from the ASRock website didn't work so they sent me a version that was Instant Flash. In the BIOS it says P3.30, so thats not the problem.

Thanks for the reply though

I'm just going to keep dumping data here in hope of someone figuring it out.

When I watch youtube it happens more when I watch higher quality videos. But then again, it doesn't happen on some other streaming services like southparkstudios, even though that streams in 1080p as well.

When I dare to watch a video while I'm downloading something (like a game on steam or something) it freezes basically every 10 seconds.

Before the upgrades it only happened during downloads/high quality streaming, but after the upgrades it also happens during gaming.

When I'm watching a video and it doesn't happen for some reason, if I then download a file, even if it's a tiny file (like the few MB installer for Steam) it starts happening every 5 seconds or so until I pause the video. So maybe it's more network related then I thought. I should try hooking it up via the on board LAN instead of the pcie network card I'm using. But thats a thing for tomorrow, since its 12 PM here. But I will try that for sure.

When I have the video paused on my screen my CPU usage drops to 2-3% and it's running at 50% frequency. When I start the video again it jumps to turbo boost frequency(105%) and 50% CPU usage and the freezing continues. (video is a 1080p60fps youtube video, for a decent load benchmark)
As far as I know this isn't usual CPU usage for a thing as simple as a youtube video, right?

When I watch a locally stored video(tried with a FULL HD bluray copy of interstellar) it doesn't event break a sweat, smoothly panning trough the entire movie without going over 5-6% usage, remaining on that 50% core frequency.

So my mind is going more and more towards that network card I have installed.It's a TP-LINK TL-WN951N. I have the latest drivers for this card installed. My wireless download speed is around 10Mb/s, but thats to be expected since I'm far away from that crappy router my ISP delivers with a subscription, and I'm getting the same speeds on my laptop which is sitting right next to it.

Using firefox instead of chrome drops the CPU usage down from 50 to 35-40% (with the HD yt video) and seems to make the freezing occur less often, but it's every few minutes and still way too much. It seems to occur more when adding short bursts of bandwith use, like opening up a new tab with a web page or downloading a small file, which is the same as what happened in chrome.

To test my bandwidth theory I have a torrent running at 1-1.5 MB/s, at the same time I first watch the 1080p60fps video, CPU usage goes up to 50% again like before and the freezing starts again. But when I watch a southpark episode instead of the youtube video, the CPU stays at 15-20 % and no freezes. Weird!

Right now I don't have any games to test but I'm going to overnight Dragon age on steam to try it out tomorrow.

CPU load isn't the culprit, when i stresstest using Prime 95, I run all cores on 100%, temps are stable around 60 °C and no freezes.

Well, this is about as much as I'm going to be able to add for now, it's 1 AM here now and I'm going to sleep. I hope all the data that I've provided helps someone to give me a diagnosis wile I'm sleeping.

Thanks in advance,
District

 

[LTC8K6]

Yeah, can you change to a wired internet connection?

 

[DisTrict_X]

Yeah, can you change to a wired internet connection?

Confirmed my suspicions, the issue is the network card. What I disabled the PCI WLAN card and ran my internet off the on-board LAN all stuttering completely stopped. I ran 4 1080p60fps youtube videos at the same time, it maxed out all the cores but caused no stuttering.

For now I'm going to keep it on LAN until I find a network card that actually works. Does anyone know of which brands I need to be on the lookout for?

Thanks