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Pending OP Response Have a possible hardware issue with my computer

C

Conroyale

PCHF Member
Sep 7, 2019
88
2
29
#1
I'm having my computer freeze on me constantly and switching hard drives hasn't worked.
I've gotten some help with this problem on this thread here -- https://pchelpforum.net/t/computer-i-built-keeps-freezing-on-me.41302/ -- but the problem persisted even after taking it in to a computer shop to where they had to do a hard reset and reinstall a brand new thing of Windows 10.
I took it back when the freezing problem was persisting and they said I'd need a new hard drive, but I got one and it's still freezing on me. They said it might be that my computer eats hard drives and I may need to replace my motherboard.
On the previous thread there could have been problems with my PSU being faulty but the shop didn't mention anything about that. I've gotten a lot of different possible solutions to this but none have worked and I'm ripping my hair out trying to figure out what to do.
 
#3
Windows reloaded and new drive, so let’s rule out software and corrupted Windows.
Motherboard eating hard drives - never heard is such a thing.

what have you tried so far?
Tested your memory? Replaced your memory?

what are your pc specs?
If it has an add-on graphics card, remove that and run with just the inbuilt graphics.

when does it freeze, only certain programs or games?
Can you make it freeze or completely ramdom?
 
#4
It freezes in random spots, but most recently when I watch videos on YouTube. This problem was witnessed by the tech at the shop which made him think it was the GPU but he couldn't find anything.

I have an EVGA Geforce 1070 and the CPU came with AMD Radeon graphics. In the previous thread I removed my add-on GPU and the same problem persisted.

The shop said they tested everything hardware related and the only problems that came up was the hard drive, that I've since replaced. I don't know how to test for bad memory anyhow.
 
#7
Hmmm, running out of ideas here.
Hardware wise, only the motherboard and power supply are left.
Software wise, you may be loading the program yourself that is causing this. After Windows was reloaded, any chance you left it like that (no other software installed) and ran it for a while to see if it froze then?
There may be a conflict or bug in something you are running or a driver.
 
#8
I didn't wait to see if it froze on me after Windows was reloaded...I don't think I loaded any programs that would have messed with anything.
I downloaded Discord and Steam and then Microsoft Office soon after I got everything set up.
 
#9
I would reload another fresh version of Windows (yeah I know, it sucks) and just run it like that for a few days if you can.
that will determine the hardware is fine and Windows.
then add one thing at a time, like Office first, and see if it behaves itself for a few hours.

how often does it freezes, hourly?, repeatedly?

also run it with the least amount of additional hardware os you can manage - so no add-on graphics for now.

you are at a point trying to isloate as many possibilities as possible, and then, only introduce one change at a time.
 
#12
So currently, my computer has been going good for about 15-16 hours. I left it on overnight to test if it'll freeze, which is what it has done in the past, and I was on it and watching YouTube videos, which has been the most recent cause for freezing, and it hasn't frozen on me. I will wait for another day or so to see if it ends up freezing and then I'll try the computer reset that Bruce suggested.
 
#14
So I've been consistently using it for about 36 hours now and it has only frozen on me once. So the problem is still persisting but I have no idea why it's lasting longer in between freezes. I'll still do the reset but I have to wait until Friday to get paid so I can buy a flash drive to backup my drive. The one I used for memtest86 lost all of it's space and I don't have another one...
 
#15
how much space do you need?
right click each folder (Docs, Pics etc), select Properties and tally up the sizes for a rough guide.
any reason why you can't reclaim the lost space on the drive used for memtest?

but having an external drive purely for backups is always a good thing.
 
#16
I don't know why my flash drive is so much smaller, but it got that way after I used it for memtest. It's a 7.41 GB drive but it only has 353 or so MB of total space when I plug it into my computer. At least that's what it's telling me.
I'm gonna need some 30 GB for a backup, but I'm sure there's some stuff I can cull right before I actually back it up.
 
#19
So after the reset and in the windows setup, when it asked me which network I'd like to connect to, it froze on me. I reset my PC and now I'm through that section. This is after I did the complete file wipe reset so I haven't had the chance to introduce new software like steam or discord. Initially it seems like the problem is still happening, but I can keep it running without adding anything to see if it freezes again.
 
#20
so it's looking like it may indeed be hardware.
main culprits would be hard drive, motherboard or memory.
the hard drive you replaced, that was a new one?
and the memtest didn't show any errors.
you still have the add-on graphics card removed?

so as much as we can trust the result on the memory and a new drive and the graphics card out of the loop - that only leaves the motherboard.
 
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