Desktop Random Freezes Troubleshooting Help

Just putting this out there in case anyone has any suggestions.  I've started getting random freezes on my desktop.  The only big change was I started using a UPS. Not sure if it's related, but since then I've had a few times where the computer just freezes and I have to do a hard reset.  Whatever image was on the screen stays there frozen and I have to turn the PC on and off.  Tried to find something in event log or something, but I don't get a BSOD or error message or anything.  

Before this, I was having issues with my SSD with it not booting to windows and giving me blue screens, but I had that replaced under warranty and those issues went away.  Trying to figure out what the issue could be now.  Concerned there may be an underlying problem causing all the issues, maybe the PSU?  PSU is less than a year old and rated way past what my PC requires.  

Not to ask the obvious, but have you tried plugging the computer in directly without the UPS and seeing if it solves the issue?

Yeah, as mentioned above, try to trouble shoot with the UPS first and see if that's the problem.

But if not, could be a driver issue with your gfx card.

I remember I had this issue awhile back with a specific game, and the screen would just freeze out, but I can still hear sound going on in the background, but when I manually closed the game, I no longer hear the sound, but the screen would still be stuck on the game.

It turned out there had been a new version of the driver out that I hadn't uploaded, and it probably didn't mesh well with a recent Windows update.

So my question would probably be, when was the last time you updated your gfx card driver, and does this sound like a similar issue?

Syntax Error said:

Not to ask the obvious, but have you tried plugging the computer in directly without the UPS and seeing if it solves the issue?

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You know, I haven't, but just being lazy since it was such a hassle to get under there and unplug/plug everything back in. Will do that though.

Squarehard said:

Yeah, as mentioned above, try to trouble shoot with the UPS first and see if that's the problem.

But if not, could be a driver issue with your gfx card.

I remember I had this issue awhile back with a specific game, and the screen would just freeze out, but I can still hear sound going on in the background, but when I manually closed the game, I no longer hear the sound, but the screen would still be stuck on the game.

It turned out there had been a new version of the driver out that I hadn't uploaded, and it probably didn't mesh well with a recent Windows update.

So my question would probably be, when was the last time you updated your gfx card driver, and does this sound like a similar issue?

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Yeah, I've updated them the last two times because both times have been playing a game so maybe it could be related to that.

Syntax Error said:

Not to ask the obvious, but have you tried plugging the computer in directly without the UPS and seeing if it solves the issue?

Click to expand...

Well, mixed news. It's not the UPS because I plugged everything into a separate surge protector and it did the same thing just now. Not playing any games, but watching Netflix and using Word.

Windows Event Logger just shows the obvious, that the system was hard reset, but no other hints at what it could be.

I guess I'll have to start going through the usual tests and stuff. Will try to do a memtest to see if it's the RAM. Maybe reseat all the connections to make sure nothing is loose when I installed the new SSD or when I moved it around recently.

Try pulling a stick of ram and see if that's it.

What about testing it in safe mode?

Check the drive utilization.  Sounds like the drive might be pegged at 100%

Well, doing the heavy duty testing today to see what it might be.  I have a suspicion it's either the RAM or the MOBO.  It had gone a few days without any issues (and I even left it on for 3 days at once), but last night it did it again.  The day before I noticed it  momentarily froze a few time during KF2, but then snapped out of it.  Last night I finished playing Carmageddon and then was going to browse something and it just froze again.

Everything remained powered on, including everything connected USB to the computer.  When it restarted I noticed the MOBO splashscreen showing it was updating (I assume BIOS?  or maybe it was Windows?)

I've tested my HDDs with the Window's error test tool and now I am running EaseUS to check for bad sectors.  After that I'll run Memtest to check the RAM.  I'll probably reseat everything after that and see where that leaves me.  

Might end up upgrading sooner than I anticipated if I can't pin down the issue.  Even if I can pin down the issue, at the point I'm paying $75 for 8GB of RAM I might as well just upgrade everything and go DDR4.  

Update:

Decided to upgrade since I was saving up for it anyway, but still troubleshooting the old build since I want to pass it on or at least the parts to family if they need it.

Tried memtest and it kept freezing on the memtest load screen.  Looked online and couldn't find a solution.  Opened up my PC and reseated everything (except the CPU) and reset the MOBO (took that battery out and put it back in).  Memtest ran fine after that and it passed a few hours of tests with no errors, so I don't think it's the RAM.

Running Prime95 now to see if it's the CPU.

After that I guess it could be the MOBO or GPU.

Brings me to one question, does that battery on the MOBO need to be replaced?  Could it be dead or dying and that's causing the freezes?  Honestly, no clue what it does, but just wondering. 

FoxAssGamer said:

Brings me to one question, does that battery on the MOBO need to be replaced? Could it be dead or dying and that's causing the freezes? Honestly, no clue what it does, but just wondering.

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You can replace it, but I dont think its integral. Im pretty sure its only there to keep a system bios time and provide enough power to save your settings in case of a power outage. So the only thing that should happen if its dead is that the pc will bootup in a default state

sasquatc4 said:

You can replace it, but I dont think its integral. Im pretty sure its only there to keep a system bios time and provide enough power to save your settings in case of a power outage. So the only thing that should happen if its dead is that the pc will bootup in a default state

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Yeah, I read up on it and it's not likely to be the battery. Would have a been a nice, easy solution. It froze up at some point running Prime95 so there's something wrong. My temps are all low, but my CPU temp seems too low. It shows going as low as 14-15 degrees, which I don't recall it ever doing before so not sure if that's a sign that maybe the CPU temp gauge is off? I'll have to check the CPU fan one of these days to see if maybe it stopped working.

Well, of all things, turned out to be a USB soundcard causing all the problems.  Creative Sound Blaster Omni.  So not sure if I need to RMA it or what.  Thing was pretty expensive, but since I unplugged it the PC hasn't frozen and has passed multiple stress tests and stayed on for a few days with no issue.