W7 Random lockups

[meowth]

Hello,

I'm running Windows 7 Professional 64bit. I have a weird problem. Windows randomly freezes/locks.. The HDD led on my case stops with blinking and my screen freezes. What i find really weird is that when this happens, my mouse (razer deathadder) and my keyboard (logitech g15) stop working AND the light's in them go off. Like they dont get power anymore.. The same what happens when you put your pc to sleepmode. I really have no idea what it could be. The HDD returned positive on all test in hdtune pro.

It really happens random. Sometimes I can play games for hours (sc2 etc.) without freezing one time, than I'm gone for like 15 minutes and it freezes...

All help is welcome!

My system specs:
Intel Core i5 2500k
8GB corsair vengeance 1600mhz
MSI P67A-GD65
Samsung F3 1tb HDD (7200rpm)
Corsair AX850

 

[DeaconFrost]

That could be a sign of a failing PSU or a faulty motherboard. It may also possibly be related to the well-known issue with the chipset on your board. I haven't seen anyone actually complain about it yet, but since the issue is apparently quite serious, maybe they will start popping up. That being said, are you using the 6 GBps SATA ports on your motherboard? If so, you shouldn't have to worry.

You could also check your memory out, but that wouldn't explain the loss of power to peripherals. Is your BIOS up to date? Are you overclocking? You left out a lot of troubleshooting steps that you may have done already, so some of what I said may be redundant.

 

[meowth]

I am using the 6GBps SATA ports yes.
I will run memtest this night

If my PSU would fail, it would also stop giving power to videocards/motherboard, but those still have power (fans rotating).

I just noticed another really weird thing. When theres a freeze, my mouse/keyboard shutdown their lights. But when I pull the usb of my mouse out, and push it back in, it lights up again.. So that would mean it is some weird settings in windows 7 right? Because there still is power in the usb ports.

Next to that, IF my PSU would fail it would especially fail when im running 3dmark/prime95 but I ran those for hours and nothing happend...

edit/

I just ran a CHKDSK /R /F and rebooted the pc so it would do that. But at step 4/5 it stops. I'm afraid this means that my harddisk is f*cked? What else could this mean..

 

[Keiichi25]

Well, it could also be you might have a flawed motherboard. Remember, Intel just recently had to recall a lot of their system boards due to the Sandybridge chipset flaw that would cause problems. It might not be your hard drive.

 

[DeaconFrost]

By using the 6 GBps ports, the recall issue wouldn't affect the OP. Only the 3 GBps ports are affected.

 

[meowth]

Thats how my HDTUNE Pro graph looks like.. I have seen much better ones.. What is wrong?

 

[decayo]

Meowth, did you ever resolve this? I have the same motherboard (the B3 stepping so it is not affected by the recall) with the 2600k and 8 GB of Corsair Vengeance memory. I'm using nearly the same power supply (mine is the TX850) and I'm using a OCZ SSD as a HDD. I'm also getting random freezing in windows. (64bit home edition). It is infuriating. Temps seem fine and I'm fully patched. I've put the most up-to-date bios on the thing. Event viewer doesn't give me too much to go on. Getting a little frustrated.

 

[meowth]

Hi decayo.

I haven't had crashes in the past months. I am not sure WHAT fixed it, but I did the following things:
- Put voltage of memory to 1.61 (in bios). Using the Overclock Genie on your motherboard should do this automatically. (So use OC genie!)
- sfc /scannow
- Used other SATA cable for harddisk.
- I disabled a windows service somewhere, but I can't remember which one it is. I'm sorry.

I personally think that putting more voltage on the memory did the trick!!! I have a friend with the same motherboard/memory, he also had freezes. Turned up the voltage and it worked fine

See if OC Genie gets the mem voltage above 1.6. If it holds it at 1.5xx put it up to 1.61.

 

[decayo]

Thank you so much for the quick reply! I agree that the voltage adjustment makes sense. I'll try it when I get home and will let you know how it goes. Thanks again! Hope I can bask in the warm glow of my new computer finally!

 

[decayo]

It worked! Thanks again meowth. It was definitely the memory voltage. Activated OC Genie which bumped by voltage to 1.66 and haven't had a crash in the last 16 hours. Now that I look at the "supported memory types" with new perspective, it does say "(OC)" next to 1600 and higher memory. I took that to mean that those were required for overclocking, but it could just as easily mean that overclocking is necessary in order to support those speeds, which seems to be the case. Thanks again, this is great.

 

[meowth]

Hah I knew it

Indeed, to run the memory on 1600mhz you have to manually overclock it, OR use the OC Genie feature. This also puts the voltage up which results in no more crashes

 

[Burro]

Hi all,

I've been getting the same thing on my new build.

I have the following build:

i5 2600k (OC @ 4.4ghz)
8GB corsair vengeance 1600mhz (was 1.5v now 1.6v)
sapphire HD6970 2gb
WD raptor 150 x2 on RAID 0
MSI P67GD65 (B3) motherboard
Corsair TX750 PSU
Win 7 HP 64bit

I've been experiencing similar full systems freezes, that do not recover. Been trying everything I can, memtest passed, defragged, updated all drivers, the lot... the last thing i tried was changing the ram voltage. I've not had a freeze yet but it's only been 20 minutes or so.

Anything similar happening to you guys?

Cheers,

Burro

 

[DatCat]

I have the same issue with 64bit Win7 Ultimate. My specs: i5 2500k, gtx570, p8p67 pro, corsair 2x2gb 1600mhz cl9. Freezes are totally random, last time i had them was today, but before that last time it happened was one week ago... It happens no matter what i do - it can happen when im playing games, browsing the net or just when PC is left alone... And other weird thing is that HDD disappears when freezing happens. It only reappears after I power off and on again. Tried memtest86+, samsung hdd test utility, which ran for 2hours and everything showed up fine, no errors... It must be windows issues, or unstable power providing in my building, because sometimes my lights go brighter or less brighter, my older laptop's screen was self dimming or brightening randomly, but not when on battery... But im not sure if it's exactly that... I think more likely windows is causing all thistr. God i hate this

 

[Burro]

hey,

I've sorted the issue now. Took ages, seriously.. but it's sorted.

I made a list of all the steps I did during the Windows 7 installation; drivers, updates, applications, games etc...

Then reinstalled windows 7 and all of the above one by one. When i hit the issue, I ticked off the installed bits I'd made. Eventually, 4 installs later I found it to be a dodgy driver for a Logitech G19 gaming keyboard. With that driver not installed and the rest from the original list installed and tested I've now had over a week of perfect performance.

My suggestion is go through your event logs with a fine toothed comb, that's what I did to find this driver issue (that and the multiple installs of windows to test the theory).

It took me 13 hours to do the above. It might take you less if you choose this method of investigation.

Good Luck!