Total lockup/freeze without a cause?!?

[Shehriazad]

Heya forums,

usually I've got little to no problems identifying issues with PCs since I usually just read out dmp files and check the event viewer...and then run test programs to verify/or switch hardware if applicable.

But today I had a freeze on one of my ITX PCs that left me with nothing but questions.

I was just minding my business, playing ESO...and suddenly the sound and picture just freeze.

Screen turns into an absolute stillframe and sound just stopped. Task manager etc did not work so I decided to force a shut down.

When booting up first it seemed fine...but got me stuck in a windows update installation for about 5-10 minutes (I hadn't rebooted in about 7 days).

After that was done I checked the event viewer..and...to my surprise...absolutely nothing.
Neither was a dmp file created...nor did the system even register a freeze. It did however register that I forced a shut down.

I am totally baffled as to what that could even be. This also never happened before...should I rate this as a random windows hiccup?


Specs of the ITX box:
PSU: Be Quiet 430W Pure Power Semi Modular
OS: Win 8.1
OS HDD : Sandisk 60GB SSD
Board: Asrock fm2a88x-itx+
GPU: 750 Ti
CPU: AMD 860K
Ram: 8 GB Hyper X Savage 2.400
Game HDD : Crucial M550 mSata



EDIT: There would be ONE thing that would be suspicious if this happens again, the PSU is only about 2 weeks old...that would probably be the most reasonable thing to assume. Before that I had some 350Watt Be Quiet non modular PSU...but switched recently for better cable management.

 

[Matt1970]

A hard lock with nothing in event viewer points to bad power supply or possibly a loose connection do to the recent swap out. Could be just one of those things that may never happen again so don't go buy a new supply just yet till you know for sure.

 

[corkyg]

Many such freezes are the result of memory collisions, i.e., a proggie or app tries to use a piece of memory already used or reserved.

 

[inachu]

Many such freezes are the result of memory collisions, i.e., a proggie or app tries to use a piece of memory already used or reserved.

I would say what memory sticks to stay away from but some love them and some hate them. Research which memory is the best for your situation on how the pc used.

Sometimes just getting an air can and removing the memory and blowing the memory slots out will stop the crashing. (in the case for dell computers)
Resitting memory usually is the cure unless they go bad.

 

[corkyg]

The conext of my comment was not directed at memory, but at software or firmware that tries to use the same
memory address at the same time. That results in a collision which in turn can result in a freeze or lockup.

 

[inachu]

The conext of my comment was not directed at memory, but at software or firmware that tries to use the same
memory address at the same time. That results in a collision which in turn can result in a freeze or lockup.

Yep that can happen.
Depends if they want performance or reliability and use ECC memory instead.

 

[RainStryke]

If you still have the old PSU or another PSU, i'd troubleshoot with that first. For now, I would definitely focus on the power supply.

 

[Ketchup]

A memory or driver problem usually, but not always, results in a blue screen. A random freeze or spontaneous repoot points to a power problem.

With the information you have from this one occurrence, it would be hard to nail down a cause. I would wait and see if it happens again before trying too hard to figure this out.