PC freezes when downloading or watching videos in the browser

Hello there!

So as it is said in the title - my PC is freezing when i am trying to download large files(Torrent, Steam or simply a direct download) and this also happens when i am watching videos on youtube for example, everything simply freezes and sound goes on the loop, so only thing i can do is a hard reset.

My main suspects of this are my motherboard(Asus P8B 75-m LX) or windows(Windows 7 Ultimate x64).

This issue began to happen when i moved back to my country from UK, i sent my PC home by delivery service and when it arrived, first my video card started malfunctioning and then this issue with downloads started to happen. Since then i changed the video card, got a new SSHD(even if i download to this new disc drive PC is still freezing) and new RAM. Also reinstalled windows several times. Nothing of that helped.

There is an interesting thing about the freezes, they seem to happen when pc is idling(when i am not actively doing something with it, playing a video game for example).

So, thats my issue. I would appreciate any suggestions or ideas before I buy a new mobo. Thank You!

Event viewer was showing only reports about improper shut downs when i had to force restart my PC.

Anyways, i upgraded to windows 10 and it seems like the issue is gone. Thank You for the reply. Problem is solved.

I take it your using an Intel CPU? I've tested, fixed many loads of systems over the years & to this very day, the problems your experiencing only ever seem to happen on Intel machines. I have 2 machines as we speak that suffer from a familiar issue. One is a Core2duo & the other is an i5. Both systems stutter, hang & appear extremely laggy shortly after system boots up or at random points, usually when left idle or watching/streaming movies or downloading.

Just like you, a hard reset usually remove's this issue until the next time those systems are booted up from cold.

I'm an experienced user, hardware/software engineer by trade so this is also one I am yet to figure out.

I even ran a test. 2 machines with almost identical setups & the only differences were intel cpu & motherboard where as the others were AMD cpu & motherboards but the board I tried to get the closest match I could find aside from the sockets & only the intels developed these issue's.

1 thing however that has just come to my attention while writing this & it's never occurred to me, the PSU. Intel Like AMD cpu's, Intel don't use full power unless they are required & draw more power when required. But depending on the power requirements of the CPU, it may be your PSU's inability to provide enough power causing the CPU to stutter. So have you checked the PSU? a sign of it failing is the ability to distribute power correctly when required!

Hi VSuk,
I got round that by using the high performance power option>


Roy