Solved Nick's computer problem: daily hangs or BSODs, unknown source

[TrueLancer]

I recently put this new computer together. Specs are in my profile. Everything seems to run smooth but I have one problem: about once or twice a day, my computer will just hang up. Sometimes it'll be when I've left it idle for a while and other times it'll be while I'm in a game or browsing. While I tend to leave a browser open, I can't determine if it is due to any specific program or some other problem.

These hangs tend to just be hard locks. Sometimes there's a 2 to 5 seconds where the mouse still moves but nothing happens and then everything hangs up and nothing works except resetting - less frequently, I get a BSOD (usually a STOP: 0x00000101 error with "A clock interrupt was not received on a secondary processor within the allocated time interval").

I've been reading up on solutions and potential problems. One suggestion was an overheating issue, but I have a good set of fans installed and as far as I can tell, I run at reasonable temps. I'm logging it and it seems that I don't have high temps after crashes.

I just purchased all the parts and put this computer together. Two other possibilities I've heard are 'something is bad and needs to be replaced' (which I honestly hope is not the problem) and 'maybe something is wired wrong; strip apart and press everything in tight and check for loose stuff' (which is what I'm going to do if nothing conclusive is determined here). The final option is the nuke it all from orbit option: re-install everything fresh, which is do'able but not an action I'm eager to do.

To stress, I can't determine what if anything is the common problem: sometimes it'll go good for a day or two, other times it'll have hung up after an hour or while I'm doing anything on it, be it browsing or playing a of game. I can't determine the root cause.

Any help would be appreciated.

(Attached here is the SF-Diagnostic Tool information, zipped up and ready for reading.)

 

[Arc]

Stop 0x101

I can't determine the root cause.

You are not alone. A stop 0x101 is too hard to determine the root cause. And the crash dumps are nicely silent for this particular crash dump, which makes the troubleshooting process even harder.

Let us accept the fact that we will not have the root cause clearly stated. But we have to troubleshoot it.
I will point you to an old forum post by an old member H2SO4 :

What you're looking for will be in one of the following categories:

a) BIOS bug
b) a driver whose activity is causing the target processor to lock up
c) a hardware defect (temperature, voltage, dust, RFI, outright borkedness...)

Let us try from the beginning, and proceed steadily.

There is a scope of a BIOS update for your motherboard. Version 2501. Motherboard - SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 - ASUS

Apply it and see if it changes anything or not.

If not, disable any overclocking present in the system; run it with stock hardware settings.

Let us know the results. We will take our next step based on the results.

 

[Layback Bear]

I would recommend setting your bios to default before updating. No over clock.

I'm back to watching.

 

[TrueLancer]

I didn't actually go and overclock this one. I figured 4.0 is more than fast enough for pretty much everything.

However, one thing I noticed is that despite installing it 'pure' without trying to overclock (because that would be a whole different project and I wanted to get my computer working and enjoy it for a while before I accidentally burn it up or something dumb like that ), the system menu claims the processor is actually 4.33 GHz.

Is that some AMD nonsense?

Anyway, going to update my BIOS and I'll get back to here once that's done.

Then... see if there are any more hangs.

 

[TrueLancer]

Alright. So I can't remember the exact timing when I'd get blue screens or hangs, but it's been at least three or four days since my last crash or hang. Oftentimes, I'd come home to find my idling computer just hanging up OR I'd find the computer in some sort of weird semi-sleep mode and the moment I moved my mouse, I might get 1 to 5 seconds of activity, but then it would hang.

Other times, it would hang when I had some other game going for a while and it would hang. I did get a few blue screens from time to time, but it was mostly hangings.

So... I decided not to check the updates and just see how long until my next crash because I made **one** change: I turned off my computer going into Sleep Mode.

So far, it's been ~3 days, I've put on all the programs, played all the games, but... no problems yet.

I'll give it another day or two but maybe that was it? Maybe? I don't know, but we'll see.

 

[Arc]

I made **one** change: I turned off my computer going into Sleep Mode.

Well done. Sleep is not anything very required for a desktop PC. If sleep causes hangs, what you have done is fairly OK.

 

[TrueLancer]

Alright. It seems this power setting change has fixed the problem. I've gone from 0-3 crashes, hangs, and blue screens a day to ZERO for about a week some now with my computer running continuously and with no other problems.

I think that may have been the primary and sole issue.

Thank you all for the help.

 

[Arc]