New Build: PC freezes, hard shutdown and then restart.

[Satanical Eve]

I am not sure if this is the correct place for posting the problem I have. I recently built a brand new rig earlier this year in April and I have been having issues with freezes and hard shutdowns every so often until it began to happen frequently the past two months.

Below is setup

MOBO: ASUS P8H61-M LE/CSM R2.0
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K Processor
CPU Cooler:Noctua NH-D14
RAM: Corsair XMS3 8GB PC10666 DDR3 1333MHz
PSU: Corsair Professional Series HX 850 Watt Modular
GPU: EVGA NVIDIA Superclocked 760GTX
OS: Windows 7 Professional X64 & Linux Mint 14 (Dual Boot)
Case: Cooler Master CM Storm (front fan, rear fan, and added 2 120mm fans on the top)
Hard Drives: Western Digital SATA 500 GB(OS Drive), Western Digital SATA 200 GB, Western Digital USB 2.0 External 1 TB
Audio: Onkyo HT-S3500 5.1-Channel Home Theater

When I first built this rig it had an Intel i3 CPU inside of it, my old EVGA 8800GT and a Corsair 500 watt Enthusiast PSU, and 8 GB stick of Corsair ram. Two days after setting it all up the PC froze, did a hard shutdown, and then rebooted itself. That happened a few more times between April and May. The issue with the freezes and hard shutdowns stopped late June and didn't happen again until 7/25/13. At that time I proceeded to replace my PSU with the Corsair Professional Series 850 watt. PC ran fine for a few days without issue then froze again. At that time I decided to buy a new graphics card and replaced my old one with the EVGA 760 GTX. I replaced my i3 with the i7 3770K in December. Since 7/25/13 I have had a total of 18 freezes then hard shutdowns. Now the freezes occur at any time, during heavy load or just idling.

I proceeded to use memtest86+ to test my memory yesterday and today. I left both sticks in and let it run for 14 hours while I was at work. It did a total of 12 passes without any errors or failures. I then proceeded to do a full test on my Western Digital 500 GB SATA OS drive. It passed both the SMART test and also the in depth test. Didn't find any errors. I did an hour ago remove everything and reseatted it all.
I am wondering if my motherboard may have been damaged from the beginning and is causing the intermittent freezes. What it will do is freeze, stay frozen for a good 2-3 minutes and then suddenly do a hard shutdown and reboot. I have gotten zero BSOD's. Could there be an issue with the motherboard losing connection with the hard drive thus causing the freeze and shutdown?

I don't believe my PSU, CPU. or memory is bad at all. Should I bite the bullet and just buy a new motherboard and see what happens. After all I replaced almost everything save for the motherboard and memory with new parts

 

[AddRAM]

Even though you tested it and it passed, I think it`s the hard drive. Do you have another drive you can install to rule it out ?

 

[mitchell65]

Am not going against what AddRAM says but I would suggest that you run Memtest as it looks like you might have an iffy RAM module to me. Make sure you run Memtest overnight so that you get at least 12 to 16 passes.

 

[AddRAM]

He states he ran it in the next to last paragraph.

 

[madcratebuilder]

Have you done any OS diagnostics? Check the dump files? Windows often gives you a report of a system failure. I would start there before guessing it may be bad hardware.

 

[mitchell65]

He states he ran it in the next to last paragraph.

I am sorry, I read the post three times and missed it everytime, must be getting old, thanks for putting it right!

 

[Satanical Eve]

The only BSOD"s I have gotten are ones that only relate to issues with a low level fan control program that had faulty drivers. I removed it and the BSOD stopped.

I did however notice this in event viewer.

The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk3\DR3. <--- Today at 8:40 AM
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk2\DR2. <--- Jan 16th, 5:40 PM
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk2\DR2. <--- Jan 16th, 5:40 PM

Has not happened at all before that, first time I got the controller error.

I have done diags on my OS drive which passed but I'm iffy about whether Western Digital Data Lifeguard was correct in its findings.

Test Option: EXTENDED TEST
Model Number: WDC WD5000AACS-00ZUB0
Unit Serial Number: WD-WCASU1806118
Firmware Number: 01.01B01
Capacity: 500.11 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: PASS
Test Time: 19:10:34, January 18, 2014

I checked the date of the production for the HDD and found it was produced on 4/9/11 and I do remember buying it a few months later. So I can say its about a few months shy of four years me using it. Its gotten some pretty decent wear and tear and I do notice I can hear the hard drive being accessed much more now than I used to. As in the sound is louder than when I first got it. I have another WD SATA hard drive that is a couple of years older than that. So I have two internal hard drives that are both older than 3 years. my 200 GB one is at least 6 years old and I only use for storage purposes.

Sometimes it'll run for a week or two without a single problem, other times it'll just run for a day or two and then freeze again or run for 3-5 hours like yesterday after I tested my memory.

I might buy a new motherboard soon because the one I purchased is a micro atx version and its limited, only has one of the latest PCI-E ports and can only go up to 16 GB of ram overall.

The thing is I don't want to buy something only to find out that wasn't the reason and continue pumping into this money pit of a build. My last build the only issue I had was a defective graphics card which I got a replacement from newegg and a faulty ram module that I got replaced by newegg. Happened right after I built it. That machine lasted from mid 2007 until march of this year with little hiccups. This build however has been having power issues since I first set it up and hasn't stopped even though I replaced the PSU, the Graphics Card, removed my PCI sound card, and replaced the CPU with a new one.

 

[andrew129260]

AH. Same thing happened to me a long time ago. I could not figure it out.

Drive passed okay but I was getting weird lockups. I then decided to try Replacing all my sata cables going to hard drives. The problem went away immediately and I have not had an issue since.

Replace the sata cable(s), or check to see if they are loose. Sata cables are not like trusty ide where they snap in good and snug.

The error should go away, but if it continues and the hard disk still passes it could be the sata controller on the motherboard failing.

But its way more likely its a faulty sata cable(s)

 

[Satanical Eve]

I removed both cables from the hard drives last night and the motherboard and replugged them both back in. I am going to look around here and see if I do have any extra SATA cables lying around and will use those. If not I'll just buy a bunch of them in bulk and use those.

I am thinking it is most likely an issue with the hard drive and the motherboard. I speculated that either the SATA cable like you said is defective and thus losing connection to the motherboard and hard drive at the same time causing the PC to freeze. That or SATA controller on the motherboard is going like you said and thus it causes the computer to freeze up and then stay like that for a good 2-3 minutes while I believe it tries to right itself but cannot and then does the hard shutdown and restart.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Also go to ASUS's website and check for any mobo driver updates and bios updates and read what they solved.

 

[Satanical Eve]

Also go to ASUS's website and check for any mobo driver updates and bios updates and read what they solved.

I did a BIOS update about two weeks ago to the latest one which was in December. Gave more stability and support for i7 based processors.

All drivers are up to date for all my peripherals. Will replace the SATA cables when I get a chance and see what happens

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Good man, always a process of elimination. Cables next then test and see over time.

 

[Satanical Eve]

I removed and reseated the cables and so far its been working but I'll feel safer with new SATA cables instead. Also will possibly hunker down and buy an SSD drive for my OS in the near future but I'm not certain yet. I'll keep you posted if the freezes continue to occur

 

[andrew129260]

I removed and reseated the cables and so far its been working but I'll feel safer with new SATA cables instead. Also will possibly hunker down and buy an SSD drive for my OS in the near future but I'm not certain yet. I'll keep you posted if the freezes continue to occur

Great job let us know how it goes.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Oh for sure get the SSD it's THE most transformational upgrade you can add to the a rig. 128gb is more than enough and getting deeply discounted.

 

[Satanical Eve]

Oh for sure get the SSD it's THE most transformational upgrade you can add to the a rig. 128gb is more than enough and getting deeply discounted.

Yeah I figured I'd just get most likely a 128 GB one, I can always use my external TB drive for file storage

 

[Satanical Eve]

Well the PC was able to run fine for five whole days before it suddenly locked up again, stayed frozen for a few minutes, did a hard shutdown and then rebooted itself.

I switched out the SATA cable just now and restarted the machine. I am starting to become frustrated with the whole entire thing. Really don't know what else to do. I don't feel like buying something only to find out the PC still is freezing

 

[linnemeyerhere]

I've been there and done just that and it's way frustrating.....I'll say this about W7 it's has an odd way of healing it's self if you don't happen on the simple solution before. I've had a couple of slightly pesky problems that just left along were dealt by either a Angle of PC mercy or W7 just doing it's job. Keeps us updated and don't loose you mind over things as in the total scheme it's really minor !

 

[Satanical Eve]

I've been there and done just that and it's way frustrating.....I'll say this about W7 it's has an odd way of healing it's self if you don't happen on the simple solution before. I've had a couple of slightly pesky problems that just left along were dealt by either a Angle of PC mercy or W7 just doing it's job. Keeps us updated and don't loose you mind over things as in the total scheme it's really minor !

My main monitor is used as a dual device for my cable box, Xbox 360, and my computer. I currently use DVI to my widescreen LCD monitor and VGA to my older 17 inch LCD monitor. I was using my 360 when I finished the game, I turned my second monitor on and noticed the screen was black, was able to move the mouse around and I had this suspicion it froze and restarted. I didn't even know it did it. I was right the machine itself froze and did a hard shutdown and reboot. It does it no matter what I do.

The only things I have yet to replace are my HDD, memory, and motherboard. Everything else in the computer was upgraded from older parts.

Lastly every single freeze the hard drive light stays solid until the PC shuts down and restarts. I've been reading that solid HDD light is usually an indication of a dying or damaged HDD. I am going to go with an SSD drive and use it as my OS/Program drive. If it is just the hard drive, I will be one happy man.

I just replaced the SATA cable for my OS hard drive right after it froze, hopefully the cable might have been bad. I am going to be buying a SSD hard drive soon anyways as my OS drive. Hopefully that will fix the issues I am having relating to the freezes. If that doesn't do it then I can finally rule it being the MOBO.

Going to do check disk right now and see if it finds any bad sectors or errors

 

[andrew129260]

You are doing everything I would have done. Keep it up and keep us updated. I suggest trying a ssd like you stated, or another HDD. If your still having issues, it could be the memory (ram). Have you done a full 9 passes? Extended test?

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/715-memory-diagnostics-tool.html