"Random" Freezing

[Mnemic_Virus]

Hello G Skill Tech Forum,

I will start by posting the specs of my computer for the best possible understanding as you read this (will provide links to Newegg/Amazon, where I bought them from for more details just in case):

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Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth 990fx
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131736

Graphics: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125413

Processor: AMD FX-8150 Zambezi 3.6GHz 8-core (Black Edition)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103960

RAM: G Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2x 8GB) DDR3 - 1333
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231486

Power Supply: Corsair HX-750 (750w)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139010

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM 6GB/s 64MB Cache
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o00_s00_i02

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit System Builder Pack (OEM)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o00_s00_i01

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About two weeks ago I built my first Rig with the help of my friend. It took us a couple hours to get everything installed inside the case, but overall it went without any serious issues. However, we had a bit of an issue getting things going once it was all put together, namely the motherboard didn't like the RAM, but we got past that by actually plugging them all the way in. I know that may seem irrelevant, but I'm trying to give as much information as possible so fixing this problem is as simple as possible. And without further ado, I'll now go into what's wrong.

Ever since I first booted the computer it would randomly lock up/freeze at random times. Most of the time I would be able to get all of the drivers installed before it would happen, but sometimes, after an OS re-installation, it would lock up during driver installation. (Notably, the motherboard drivers, but not limited to them) But eventually, after a couple re-installations of the OS I managed to get them all installed without a lock up. All seemed well and good for a few hours until I started playing games on Steam (which seems to be part of the overall issue). Now, the reason that I say "Random" in quotes is because at some times it seems random and yet I notice a pattern of guaranteed lock ups. To be more specific, when I exit a game on Steam (Most of the time it happens after exiting Skyrim) the computer is pretty much guaranteed to lock up. Steam will throw a pop up at me advertising some game and then a couple seconds later it will freeze. And other times the freezing will occur randomly while browsing the internet. Now it seems simple enough to diagnose, but there have been 2 notable instances where the computer ran smoothly for 2 or more days without a single lock up and I could do anything without worrying about it freezing. But then one day it would randomly start freezing under the same circumstances again. Whether it be a few seconds after start up, trying to login to Steam, or exiting a game on Steam. However I did notice that after the second period without any freezing (which lasted about 5 days) it started happening again after I changed my resolution to my Monitor's recommended 1920x1080p resolution. I hadn't had it on the recommended because I couldn't figure out how to scale it right, but I eventually figured out how to do that. So naturally I set it to the appropriate resolution. Which brings us to the here and now. I can't so much as log in to steam anymore because it locks up during the log in process. I'm probably not hitting everything that I could cover at the moment, but that is the majority of what I've gone through in the past two weeks.

Naturally I have tried fixing the problem. And most of the solutions I've tried have been through this website however I haven't been able to find a specific post that has the exact same issue as me (maybe I'm just not looking hard enough?). For instance, I've found several posts where adding 0.1v to the cpu/nb offset voltage has been suggested along with manually setting DRAM timings and what not. But I couldn't find my specific RAM in my motherboard's QVL. So I don't know what the appropriate timings would be. So I simply tried adding the 0.1v. And it froze 2-3 times before it started running smoothly for the first time and it lasted about 2 days, them started freezing again. I even tried disabling my driver enhancements for my audio device because I read on the Steam forums that they can sometimes cause lock ups in conjunction with Steam. But that didn't seem to work either because the computer locked up when I tried logging in after disabling them. I even tried memtest and that seemed to pass with flying colors, but I will try again upon suggestion because when it restarted after memtest I didn't see anything pop up regarding whether it succeeded or not.

I know this post is thorough, possibly too thorough, and if it causes any confusion I apologize. I will answer any questions you have about what was said above or about my system in general. I will be very diligent in responding to replies because I very much want to get this computer on its feet. I didn't spend upwards of $1500 on it to have it not work. I very much want to get this sorted out, so any help you guys can give is much appreciated.

I think that's about all I got, so please respond if you can offer any assistance or at least point me in the right direction.

[Tradesman]

Could be a driver somewhere (maybe the GPU) especially if using the driver that came with the mobo, but I'd almost guess the MC (memory controller) which is weak on the AMD CPUs (compared to Intel). To that end I'd suggest raising the CPU/NB voltage + .07 or so and add + .05 to the DRAM voltage to help the MC along a bit.

[Britton30]

Hi, your timings are: Timings 9-9-9-24 which should be auto with your AMD set up.

[Mnemic_Virus]

Thanks for the timings, and you're right they are the same as the auto set timings . And I will try adjusting those voltages to see if it has any impact on the performance. Drivers are easy enough to get a hold of as well. Thanks again, both of you. Will try to post again in this thread if any further issues/complications occur.

[Tradesman]

Keep us updated

[Mnemic_Virus]

Just a quick update to let you know how things are going. Ironically enough the computer was behaving when I wrote the original post. I managed to write all of that out without it freezing once. Then I went to the bios to change the voltages. Once I restarted the computer after correcting them it froze once on start up, a few seconds after logging in. So I restarted again and it froze once more after the initial log in. So I restarted yet again and it has been working fine ever since. Not sure if it was just a conflict of some sort with the new voltages or what. But the important thing is that it's working now, thus far. Hopefully it's not just another period of time issue, where it works fine for a few days then goes back to freezing afterwards. But if that does come to pass I'll post here letting you guys know about it. Thanks again for the help. I really do appreciate it.

[Tradesman]

We'll be here, hopefully you won't have anything more than an "All is good!"

[Mnemic_Virus]

Ok so I am still kind of having issues with the computer. Nothing too extreme, just something that hinders me using it from time to time.

It still locks up after exiting one of my games, that game being Skyrim. But that's not what I'm going to ask for advice about because something like that would probably be best answered on the Steam forum. But what I have noticed is that after it locks up upon closing the game, it freezes multiple times after the initial log in to Windows. What I mean exactly is that after it locks up, I restart the computer. Then, after I log in to Windows it will freeze after a certain amount of time (usually a minute or two) so I'll restart again. Then after logging in it will again freeze a minute or so afterwards. This process usually goes on for about 3-4 restarts/log-ins (sometimes more) before it begins to function again. Now, my question I guess is, is this a software issue with the game or Steam (conflicting programs, corrupt programs, etc) or is this a hardware issue (missing drivers, DRAM Timings, Voltages, etc)? If it's the game or Steam then I will look for solutions on the Steam forum, but it would seem to me that the computer would be the most likely source of the issue because I can't see how the game would possibly interfere with the start up of the computer without actually launching the game. I guess it's possible that Steam could be the culprit too, but that doesn't make much sense, in my head, either because I can exit other games on Steam just fine. It's only Skyrim that causes the lock ups.

Like I said, this isn't an emergency situation, the computer will go on just fine as long as I stay away from Skyrim. It more or less just prevents me from using the computer for 10 minutes or so. But I would still like to fix the issue nonetheless, if possible. Maybe I will post something to the Steam forum because a lot of evidence does point to the game, but I still have a strong feeling that it's the computer not doing something right.

[Tradesman]

Sounds like there may be something with the game itself that conflicts with the system possible a .dll or config setting it loads. Might check the video drivers in particular and see if a new or beta is available... might also run a System File Check ( go to Command Prompt as administrator and run SFC /SCANNOW )

[Britton30]

Just as a test uninstall Steam, I've seen many people have issues caused by it, along with any iThing.

[SteveyMcFly]

I'd rather go for iThings. For one, I have Steam and it doesn't cause any problems, and for two, iThings are known for how they burden the OS. If you don't have such software on your PC, then obviously the problem is Skyrim itself. For example, some graphic cards will behave strangely if not compatible with the game and there is hardly anything you can do about it.

[Britton30]

Try these steps to install only the graphics driver.



1.Download the preferred driver and save it to the desktop.

2.Double click the installer and you will see a screen where it will be extracted to, change that to your desktop.

3.Open Device Manager through Control Panel.

4.Expand Display adapters and right click the name for yours and choose Update Driver\Browse my Computer. Select the driver folder you just saved on the desktop. Click Next.

5. Your system should say "Windows has successfully updated your driver software".
If you get a window saying you already have the most current driver, go back to step 4 and choose Uninstall Driver software instead. Then restart from step 3.