Random PC Freezes

Specs:
AMD 8350 W/Coolermaster Hyper TX3
Sabertooth 990FX Rev 1
Gskill RipjawsX 2xGB (F3-14900CL10D)
Zotac Nvidia Geforce GTX 760
Antec HCG 850w PSU

Crucial M500 SSD (system)
WD Caviar Green 1TB HDD
Hitachi 500gb
Seagate Momentus 500gb

DVDRW Drive + SATA card reader.

Hello,

I've been getting random crashes (freezing, have to reboot) for a while now, sometimes multiple times a day. It usually happens when playing some type of media or rendering; but it can lock up while running simulations etc. I have noticed that it will lock up without fail when rendering a heavy After effects composition with dual monitors whilst having a video on the second monitor (doesn't matter if the video is playing or not). Sometimes it will just crash if I am doing some 3D modeling or other work (with little CPU impact) whilst playing music or have a video playing on my other monitor.

I have tried replacing the PSU, GPU and swapped the HDD for an SSD. It has also had a new CPU. I have tried memtest. I have tried setting the correct RAM timings/voltage. The chipset and mobo drivers are the most up to date on the ASUS website, same with the Nvidia ones. This problem also happened with another install of windows I had on the system. I have tried display driver uninstaller too.

The idle temp of the CPU hovers around 40 odd degrees and 50 odd under load. But IIRC I was also getting freezing with my old Phenom II X6 cpu that used to be in the system.

I dont get a BSOD, any crash dumps or logs other than unexpected reboot. I tried driver verifier but It still freezes without creating a dump, although it seemed to be harder to purposely crash the system whilst it was enabled.

Sorry for the wall of text. Any help would me much appreciated, I have been living with this for the best part of a year now and it's getting super annoying.

Thanks.

Heat related. Not enough cooling power.

Thanks for the reply. Do you think this would have affected the old CPU too? What cooler would you recommend?

What case?
How many fans?

Antect 900 Two, 4 fans. Two intake at the front 120mm, one exhaust at the back 120mm, and a 200mm exhaust on top.

Can you post a picture of the inside of your case with the side panel off?

ATMINSIDE said:

Can you post a picture of the inside of your case with the side panel off?

Click to expand...

Do some proper cable management and some dusting, that'll help your temps drop.

Run the cables back behind your motherboard tray and air will be able to flow more easily.

Holy rat's nest Batman!

Nebulous said:

Holy rat's nest Batman!

Click to expand...

OK It's all tidy and dedusted now...as much as I could do anyway. The cables all run through the back side of the case. I've lost 6 degrees off my idle temp.

New picture? Always nice to see a tidy case

That's a significant drop of idle temps, any readings on load temps?

mynameisollie said:

Thanks for the reply. Do you think this would have affected the old CPU too? What cooler would you recommend?

Click to expand...

Yes. While your old six core doesn't get as warm as your eight core, your present cooling solution isn't good for either of them.

ATMINSIDE said:

New picture? Always nice to see a tidy case

That's a significant drop of idle temps, any readings on load temps?

Click to expand...

It doesn't look like much but it's much better than it was.

Definitely a noticeable difference

Thanks. Anyway, under load it got to 51 degrees and then locked up.

Test the PSU with a multimeter to make sure the 12V, 5V, and 3.3V rails are putting out the voltage they're supposed to.

I originally thought it was the PSU causing issues so I have replaced it, the one in there now is brand new.

I would still check the PSU.

Also, grab HWMonitor and post a screenshot of your load temps.

OK. These are the readings whilst rendering.

Yep, temps are good.

Grab the multimeter, that's the next thing I'd check.