Random complete freeze, hard restart needed.

[Denzof]

Hello guys. Like a month ago ( my PC is like 2-3 months old ) I started to observe that the computer starts to have random freezes just out of the nothing I'm browsing the web ( Chrome ) or watching a movie nothing too intense.
With that a freeze happened and the last thing that was on it's frozen also the sounds stop and I can't move the mouse or use keyboard ( pressed caps or num and they don't lite up ).
Thees freezes happen ~1-2 times a day if I'm lucky than not at all, I observed that when this happens the little red light that is use to bleep it stopped completely and my attached external hard drive also stops ( still running but doing nothing ). The cpu fan and GPU are also functioning. With that I need to restart it via the button on the case. I'm sure that there isn't an overheating issue I have Speccy showing me that the temperatures are alright. You guys got any idea what can cause this ?

A side note I had a problem with throttling and you guys helped me ( the CPU was overheating ) since then when I'm gaming I have the case opened till I can get a fan. Nothing overclocked/underclocked.

My PC specs:
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Hard disk Seagate Desktop HDD 1TB 7200RPM 64MB SATA-III
AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz
Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P
Cooler CPU Scythe Grand Kama Cross 2 SCKC-3000
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB DDR3 1600MHz CL9 Dual Channel Kit
Sapphire Radeon R9 280 Dual-X OC WITH BOOST 3GB DDR5 384-bit
Sirtec - High Power Element BRONZE 600W
Segotep SG-Z2
Seagate 2TB External hard drive

 

[richc46]

Run a full anti virus scan
Download and run a full scan with Malwarebytes
Go to the website of your hard drive manufacturer and test the hard drive.
Right after it happens, go to search by the start button, type event viewer and check out the possible causes
Make sure that you do not have too many programs open
Did you just install new software? That could be the problem

 

[Denzof]

Run a full anti virus scan
Download and run a full scan with Malwarebytes
Go to the website of your hard drive manufacturer and test the hard drive.
Right after it happens, go to search by the start button, type event viewer and check out the possible causes
Make sure that you do not have too many programs open
Did you just install new software? That could be the problem

Thanks for the tips but, I just freshly installed windows on it like 5 days ago I thought that might fix the problems but it didn't help, the drivers are all up do date too. I usually only have Chrome, Steam and a game that I play, occasionally utorrent. But this isn't relevant because it happens with all the variations as in Chrome open and freeze, or only Steam and sometimes just when I let my pc for some minutes and when I come back completely frozen.

 

[richc46]

Check the hard drive

 

[Denzof]

Check the hard drive

Well I got the Seatools thing but it say's everything if fine I also suspect the hard drive cuz since I installed win 7 ( previously had win 8.1 ) when I play csgo I have a wired lag my ping is good and my fps is always above 120 but feels like it is below 60 and when I browse folders it loads them slowly and when I open movies with VLC it takes him some time.

it happened just as I wrote this too and only Chrome was running and the temperatures ware very good too.

 

[Denzof]

Check the hard drive

Heey, it's been a while and had some things to do. So I downloaded two software and ran both. For Crystaldiskinfo I didn't see any test that I could do it showed the temp and health to be good. On the other hand with HD Tune I check my main hard drive and ran the benchmark and the error scan and all was good but when I switched to my external hard drive I couldn't even start the speed benchmark it can with "can't run benchmark" and for error scanning part well everything went red,
idk if this is really bad or not since the drive was always like this I mean that when I tested it with Seatools gave me an error and check around the internet what is the problem ppl sad that the scans can't be done cuz it's connecting with USB so I shouldn't worry about it but now I am.
I'm not sure if the external causes my PC to freeze cuz of some things. First would be that the PC I had before this didn't have any problems of freezing. Second one would be that if I recall correctly I had the drive unplugged and the pc still froze so yeah.

 

[richc46]

The problem that I have is that I have to diagnose, primarily based on the symptoms. To me it seems very likely to be the hard drive. When you are certain that the HD is not the problem we can move on to the next step.

 

[Denzof]

The problem that I have is that I have to diagnose, primarily based on the symptoms. To me it seems very likely to be the hard drive. When you are certain that the HD is not the problem we can move on to the next step.

Yep I unplugged the external and just messing around for 2-3 days to see if I can get a freeze if not then it sure will be that. Also I did the Memtest86 thing for the RAM and it passed so I can check the RAM of the list, besides that still have the GPU/CPU.

 

[Denzof]

The problem that I have is that I have to diagnose, primarily based on the symptoms. To me it seems very likely to be the hard drive. When you are certain that the HD is not the problem we can move on to the next step.

Well I can confirm that indeed it was the external as in since I unplugged it didn't have any freeze, also when I did plug it in for some files I wanted to access BAM after 10 mins it froze the whole PC. So now my question is if I send back for warranty and will get a new one will that work or is it a problem with my motherboard or something ? I would want to note that the harddrive gets power from the wall and not from my PC.

 

[richc46]

It would be impossible for me to give an answer for that now. If it were my computer, I would assume that a new hard drive would solve the problem. RMA the hard drive and hope. Worse case scenario, you get a new Hard Drive for free.

 

[Denzof]

It would be impossible for me to give an answer for that now. If it were my computer, I would assume that a new hard drive would solve the problem. RMA the hard drive and hope. Worse case scenario, you get a new Hard Drive for free.

Sorry for opening this old thread again but some other things came across since. Strangely the freeze happened even when the external hard drive wan't plugged in, I'll give it that it only happened 1 since it was unplugged. Secondly I want to say I use Chrome and I have like 20-26 tabs opened constantly and whenever the it's plugged in I turn the PC on and open Chrome it takes way longer then without the hard drive.

Could any of you tell that what is causing it to do this ? PS I did a format to it but it didn't help it.