Freeze After Idle, Not a Sleeping Issue

[DonMegel]

My apologies for the delay, I have not been able to work on this in a while. My copy of Windows is certainly legal, so that isn't it.

I found an issue, when I use msconfig and check Diagnostic Startup then Apply the computer thinks for a bit and then unchecks Diagnostic Startup and checks Selective Startup. Is this normal?

You have a point about a fresh install being broken indicating hardware. I know the RAM is good, perhaps its the HD. That would make a little sense since when the system is Idle it starts doing Indexing. Here is my ChkDsk results




Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
183808 file records processed. File verification completed.
266 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed. 0 EA records processed. 60 reparse records processed. CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
239118 index entries processed. Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered. CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
183808 file SDs/SIDs processed. Cleaning up 93 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 93 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 93 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
27656 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
36282456 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
183792 files processed. File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
67713152 free clusters processed. Free space verification is complete.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

390709247 KB total disk space.
119457300 KB in 155602 files.
101224 KB in 27657 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
298111 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
270852612 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
97677311 total allocation units on disk.
67713153 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 ce 02 00 e7 cb 02 00 75 4c 05 00 00 00 00 00 ........uL......
22 37 00 00 3c 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 "7..<...........
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

 

[Vir Gnarus]

Nothing in the chkdsk report looks critical, even though there were corrections that were made. I am curious about the free space thing and how it occurred, but it doesn't look typical of hard drive malfunctioning.

 

[DonMegel]

Ok, passed all 3 Prime95 tests without a single error.

I have the thing behind my flat screen TV, could that be causing a freeze?

 

[Vir Gnarus]

The computer sits behind the TV? It won't pose any issue. It's not like a CRT monitor that has magnets and all involved, and even if it were it wouldn't be of concern (most people have desktops where their monitors sit on their PC).

Again, it's best to go through the recommended approaches I've given in that big post of mine a while back.

If you do happen to find the culprit to this, or if you can provide any information (like from the procmon log or whatever), then don't hesitate to update us. Thanks.

 

[DonMegel]

Well I tired switching the entire hard drive with a new installation of windows. Still freezes. Video card passed all tests I ran as did the CPU. Tried changing out RAM sticks to no avail. I am running out of parts.

However, I have noticed a couple of flags under Other Devices in the Device Manager. PCI Simple Communication Controller and a SM Bus Controller. Don't know what that is about...

 

[DonMegel]

Ok, the PCI Simple Communication server went away but I can find any drivers for the SM Bus Controller

 

[Vir Gnarus]

SM Bus controller relates to power management, sensor reading and other misc. motherboard-related stuff. It's part of your motherboard's driver suite so you should update your drivers to make sure it's installed correctly. If it still showing an error icon next to it, dbl click it and provide us what the error message is.

I'm afraid we may be dealing with an ugly PSU or motherboard here, with mobo being most likely. If all tests and hardware swapping is proving ineffective then most often I've seen it the result of motherboard failure.

 

[DonMegel]

I doubt its the power supply, ofcourse all the parts are new so it could be. How can I test the MB or the PSU to determine if it is the cause?

I looked on gigabyte's website but did not see a SM Bus driver, might it be under a diffrent name?

I tried updated the MB BIOS but it still froze.

 

[Vir Gnarus]

I'm not sure what motherboard you have unless we receive a JCGriff Report from ya (or you can just tell us the model name of it). I'm personally unaware of any other name it would use, but it might just be packaged within a general driver suite that is for your motherboard (like chipset drivers).

 

[DonMegel]

I have a Gigabyte Z68P-DS3

 

[Vir Gnarus]

It's most likely in the Chipset drivers, I see no mention of it anywhere else. Note that it's not recommended you install the IMEI (Intel Management Engine Interface) drivers unless for some reason you wish to have remote access capabilities into your PC, otherwise it'll just take up resources, be a potential point of failure, and also will be an open way for malware to pour through.

 

[GianniDPC]

Maybe a stupid thing but did you tried this in the Power Plan settings:

(Sorry it's in dutch) but the option is under 'Your scheme' then click advanced option and expand HDD and look at the picture for disabling it (set it to never)

 

[DonMegel]

If the HDD never sleeps won't it wear out really fast? Not to mention use lots of electricity?

 

[Vir Gnarus]

Not really. HDs don't use nearly as much power as a CPU or video card, and unless you are using heavy I/O on them 24/7 having them not sleep will not degrade their lifespan.

 

[DonMegel]

Revive Thread!

Ok, when last we spoke we had narrowed it down to the Motherboard or the PSU. I sent the MB back to Gigabyte and they sent it back after a 24hr burn in, saying all was ok. So, I put a different power supply in the machine. Freeze after 20 hrs or so. So I changed video cards, same thing. So I disabled the on-board video, same thing.

What to do now? Gigabyte says the motherboard is fine, I've tried multiple PSU and multiple video cards, I've tried changing out the RAM and ran over 24 hrs of CPU tests.

I have no idea whats going on.

 

[Vir Gnarus]

Did you set the drive to never sleep as recommended by Gianni? Also, I don't believe we ever asked you to describe your freezing. Is it a solid freeze where everything included mouse cursor is unresponsive? Can we also get a JCGriff Report since I don't recall that we ever did receive such from ya. Lastly, show us any warnings or issues pointed out in CrystalDiskInfo.

 

[DonMegel]

My apologies for the delay, I have indeed tried to set the drive to never sleep.

The freeze is hard, nothing will move or respond. The fans and lights are still on as is the display but nothing will move. CTL-ALT-DEL will not work either. Only solution is to reset it.

Its not a BSOD, can I still do a JCliff report?

 

[Vir Gnarus]

Yes, please. It still provides us a lot of data that we can use.

 

[DonMegel]

Ok, here you go

 

[DonMegel]

So did that help at all?