PC hang/freeze when idling

[Rhezuss]

Ok... i've been having this weird problem since last month. My PC is behaving like a champ when under load (games, AutoCAD, videos, music) but will hang/freeze when idling and doing nothing.

I formated, disabled many features in the BIOS (C3, C6, PLL overclocking...), installed latest drivers, tested memory with Memtest with at least 7 passes...

Know that i'm roaming the internet in search of a solution and tried literally EVERYTHING.

What's my next option? Replace motherboard? PSU? HDD?

What is causing this?

 

[mfenn]

Sounds like voltage to some component (likely CPU or memory) is dropping too low when idling. Try bumping the vCore and vDIMM up by 10% or so.

 

[Sporinator]

Sounds like voltage to some component (likely CPU or memory) is dropping too low when idling. Try bumping the vCore and vDIMM up by 10% or so.

You ARE "The Man"!!

I just posted up in my thread about a 3.3 volt warning.

Had no clue as to whether it was over or under voltage causing the warning.

Since I was READING something in my browser that was taking some time, I'm now leaning towards the UNDER thanks to your reply here.

I might just have to give your vCore & vDIMM bump a shot.

Thanks!!

TTFN

P.S. Thanks to you Rhezuss for starting this thread. Hopefully Mfenn's suggestion fixes your problem.

 

[Rhezuss]

Seems like the only thing I didn't try yet. Looks like I have something to F with tomorrow.

Thanks for the suggestion.

But... it only started 4 months after I built this PC...

 

[birthdaymonkey]

I had nothing but problems with the Extreme4 and overclocking while in offset mode. Try using a constant voltage instead of offset and see if that fixes it. There's something screwy about that board's handling of offset core voltage.

 

[jimbob200521]

I'd like to second the low voltage problem, I recently had a similar problem on my PC, had it OC'd to 3.6ghz and it was ROCK SOLID no matter what I was doing. Well, with summer being here and me not gaming as much as I used to, I reset the BIOS and slowed it down a bit to 3.2ghz and now when I've got XBMC going and am browsing the net reading something or whatnot, it'll hard lock. Since there's no real load and temps are great, etc, it had to be low voltage. Upped my PLL Voltage I believe after upping core by one notch and vDrop (I believe, been a bit since I looked) and now all is stable again.

Cliffs: Do what mfenn said.

 

[Rhezuss]

Sounds like voltage to some component (likely CPU or memory) is dropping too low when idling. Try bumping the vCore and vDIMM up by 10% or so.

Ok...dumbass question: How do you up by 10% the vCore in the ASRock BIOS? I can see the Ram voltage set to 1.5v (that I uped to 1.55v) but there's like 4-5 values of other voltages that I can set...like VTT, PCH, CPU PLL and VCCSA voltages...all on auto...
CPU voltage: Auto, Fixed or Offset mode?

Which one should I set up by 10%?

BTW all that happened with CPU and GPU overclocked AND stock.
Should I up my GPU voltage too? If yes, how?

I thank you all for the help and tips on this, it's driving me crazy but I think mfenn you got your finger on the problem and hope all this will eliminate the problem.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

Ok...dumbass question: How do you up by 10% the vCore in the ASRock BIOS? I can see the Ram voltage set to 1.5v (that I uped to 1.55v) but there's like 4-5 values of other voltages that I can set...like VTT, PCH, CPU PLL and VCCSA voltages...all on auto...
CPU voltage: Auto, Fixed or Offset mode?

Which one should I set up by 10%?

BTW all that happened with CPU and GPU overclocked AND stock.
Should I up my GPU voltage too? If yes, how?

I thank you all for the help and tips on this, it's driving me crazy but I think mfenn you got your finger on the problem and hope all this will eliminate the problem.

Before you up the voltage, just try changing the place where it says "Offset" to "Fixed" and see if that helps. I had exactly the same problem with that motherboard (although I was OCing), and this fixed it.

 

[Rhezuss]

Before you up the voltage, just try changing the place where it says "Offset" to "Fixed" and see if that helps. I had exactly the same problem with that motherboard (although I was OCing), and this fixed it.

Ok and with Fixed, do I have to set a certain voltage/value?

 

[Rhezuss]

Ok, just to clarified my OP, here's what I did to try to correct this trouble:

- Updated the BIOS to 2.80
- Tested my RAM with Memtest and it passed
- Formated last week
- Updated all drivers (GPU, chipset, etc)
- Ran PC at stock (CPU and GPU)
- Mem is "OCed" using the XMP profile in BIOS (and I ran it at default 1600MHz)
- Disable in the BIOS: Deep Sleep, PLL Overvoltage and C6
- Enabled C3 (instead of Auto)
- Everything else in the BIOS is on default settings

I'm currently running my CPU at 4.4GHz using the BIOS preset profiles (that automatically adjust voltage and what not) and I did since I upgraded it and it ran flawlessly for 4 months.

What I didn't do yet:

- I didn't uped the vCore and vDIMM yet since (like a dumb stump) I can't figure out which setting is the right one.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

Give Fixed voltage, 1.25v a try. If that's stable, you can lower it a bit more. If it's not stable, try 1.3.

 

[Rhezuss]

Give Fixed voltage, 1.25v a try. If that's stable, you can lower it a bit more. If it's not stable, try 1.3.

If I understand correctly the given Fixed voltage will be for idle AND load?

Is there any ways to set a fixed idle voltage?

But i'm going to try that tonight, thanks birthdaymonkey.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

The fixed voltage means that it's a constant voltage for idle and load. Offset voltage adapts your voltage depending on load. But offset doesn't seem to work very well on that motherboard. I ended up returning my Extreme4 for this reason (and coil whine).

 

[Rhezuss]

The fixed voltage means that it's a constant voltage for idle and load. Offset voltage adapts your voltage depending on load. But offset doesn't seem to work very well on that motherboard. I ended up returning my Extreme4 for this reason (and coil whine).

Ok cool and thank you!
I changed some settings in Windows like the power management that instead of Normal I set to Performance and I disabled Deep Sleep and C6 in the BIOS.

I'll see how it behaves and adjust on the road.

I'm also thinking about replacing my motherboard with a Gigabyte one...Z77 UD3H or UD5H model...

 

[mindless1]

More proof that nothing could go wrong with Haswell and current PSUs...

 

[J Macker]

More proof that nothing could go wrong with Haswell and current PSUs...

Yeah, I too am worried about that; but I guess there's no need for me to "upgrade" from a 2500k to haswell.

 

[mfenn]

Ok...dumbass question: How do you up by 10% the vCore in the ASRock BIOS? I can see the Ram voltage set to 1.5v (that I uped to 1.55v) but there's like 4-5 values of other voltages that I can set...like VTT, PCH, CPU PLL and VCCSA voltages...all on auto...
CPU voltage: Auto, Fixed or Offset mode?

Which one should I set up by 10%?

BTW all that happened with CPU and GPU overclocked AND stock.
Should I up my GPU voltage too? If yes, how?

I thank you all for the help and tips on this, it's driving me crazy but I think mfenn you got your finger on the problem and hope all this will eliminate the problem.

On the Voltages screen, there should be CPU Core Voltage near the top, right above Load Line Calibration. That's the one you want to edit.

 

[Rhezuss]

On the Voltages screen, there should be CPU Core Voltage near the top, right about Load Line Calibration. That's the one you want to edit.

Thanks mfenn. I'm gonna take a look in the BIOS for that.
For now and since my last minor changes my PC didn't froze once...except yesterday night when I started it and after 1 minute idling on the desktop it shut down by itself...

Dunno what happened, maybe a cable not plugged all the way through or a switch semi-pushed...but I restarted it and it idled it's way through the night.

Temps are always good: IDLE @ 31/23/28/28 and LOAD @ 55/46/51/51 (approximately)
Same for the GPU: IDLE @ 28-31 and LOAD @ 64-68