Severe slowdown that requires a hard reset
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Thread: Severe slowdown that requires a hard reset

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
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    37

    Severe slowdown that requires a hard reset

    Windows 10 Pro
    AMD R7 1700x in an ASrock Taichi x370
    G. SKill Ripjaws V, 2 sticks of 8gb 3200, 14-14-14-34
    GTX 960 (4gb)
    Seasonic G 550w Gold PS

    500gb Samsung 960 EVO sata3 SSD (new system drive)
    240gb Silicon Power sata3 ssd
    120gb Inland Professional sata3 ssd
    WD Red 8TB HDD (media storage)
    WD Black 750gb HDD


    New build. This is my first AMD computer, and first new computer in 7 years. - It's only about 6 days old now

    The install is progressing nicely, but occasionally, once or twice a day, the computer is 'slowing down' *dramatically*, so much so that I can't get Task Manager to open, can't close windows and programs, or even shut down by normal means. I have to hold down the power button to shut it down.

    That's a little disappointing to say the least. I upgraded because my last machine had become very unreliable after 7 years, now this one is as well. This issue has been there ALMOST since I first booted my new computer into Windows. I had troubles with installing the GFX driver at first - it failed out - but a day later, I tried again and it installed OK.

    I didn't see the temps or CPU/RAM/GPU usage at the time of the crash, but generally, I haven't seen any issues with weird or unexpected spikes in those areas.

    Some programs I might have been using at the time:
    Chrome
    Potplayer (multimedia, like VLC)
    Logitech Gaming Software
    Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware Pro (real-time monitoring)

    This started early in the install, so there weren't a lot more programs I could have been running for all of the occurrences.

    Anyone have any ideas where to start with this? I have nothing at this point. No idea where to start - it's a new install, less than a week old, and I can't see a commonality in the slowdowns. ***Usually it happens at random times 1-2 times a day, but once I booted into Windows and it was slow from the get-go, and I had to hold the rest button down again.***

    Something in BIOS? I hope not - I'm not great with BIOS, or with flashing new BIOS, etc.

    THANKS in advance for any suggestions! Trying to fix the last computer, and buying the parts/building this one has been a pain, and I'd really like to straighten out the weird slowdowns before I lose work when it happens at a bad time. . .and for the love of Pete, I'd just get this done and get on with my life.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
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    37
    It's a tough one guys. I know. If BS'ing with my couple of tech buddies, my moderate 30+ years of computer knowledge, and the googles would have helped, I wouldn't be bugging you. Failing an answer, I'll be happy with guesses, or ideas as to how I can further debug and search out the cause. Memory stress tests? Run a gaming benchmark a few hours? What, if any, program should I use to monitor and record what workload/temps, etc? I'm not the hardware tweaker/overclocker guy many others are.

    I'm wondering if it's something I'm uncomfortable/unfamiliar with, like something in the BIOS: the RAM timings going flaky, the CPU throttling down (I SHOULD be well-ventilated FWIW). Could those things go flaky occasionally, at random? I don't have an overclock going- the RAM is just running at the speed it's rated for, though I had to set the XMP profile to get it to do so - just that preset thing, nothing I tweaked myself.

    Any bench tests I should be running? I could look into updating the BIOS, though I always hesitate to do that unless there's a clear need.

    Any thoughts on what I should poke around with, test, monitor, etc, would be helpful. Not really good with debugging hardware, and even if I were comfortable in BIOS, my previous board was 7 years old. It's a big change in that amount of time.

    If you've got anything, I'd appreciate it. If not, thanks anyway, and thanks for reading this far.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2000
    Location
    Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA
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    18,063
    Some simple ideas to start with:

    1. Check Event Viewer to see if there are any items of interest there.

    2. Boot into Safe Mode, with no other programs running, and see if it stays running or locks up on you. If everything is OK there, then it is something that is running in Normal mode. If it fails in Safe Mode with nothing running, then there is something basic that is going wrong.

    3. Try Normal Mode, again with no other programs running. See if it stays running or locks up. If it is OK with no other programs running, then try simply playing a video file on a repeat loop to see if that runs OK.

    When it locks up or slows to a crawl, is the hard drive activity light on solid when this happens?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
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    Dang. The slowdown requiring a hard reset only happens like every 8-24 hours. Gonna be a long waiting game sitting in Safe Mode. I'll give it a try as best I can. This is my only computer for now.

    I don't think this case HAS a hdd light. The only light on it is a ring around the power button. Is there a cool little piece of monitoring software that will do the same thing, do you know? I apologize, but I never messed with fan speeds, overclocking, etc, so monitoring-type stuff is kind of alien to me. I'll go hit the googles and see if I can come up with something.

    <time passes>

    Ha, found something!

    OK, I'll run it and see what happens. Thanks for taking a stab at this. I've had so many damn computer problems over the past few months, then I drop several hundred on a new system and I STILL have problems. That ain't right.

    Double dang: It only monitors one HDD/SDD at a time. I'll go with the boot drive for now, seems a likely suspect. If nothing results from a crash, I'll try my WD Red 8TB media drive. It's only 6 months old, but it's a holdover from my last, tragically flaky build.
    Last edited by Docjon; March 19th, 2018 at 03:50 AM.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2000
    Location
    Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA
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    18,063
    Unfortunately, HD monitoring software probably isn't going to do you much good, since you won't be able to see anything once the system slows to a crawl. That is one reason why a hard drive LED is really good to have. However, you could open the case and switch the power indicator LED (the lighted ring around the power button) to the header for the HD LED on the motherboard.

    You could also use Safe Mode with Networking.

    You could also try running the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic software.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
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    Quote Originally Posted by jdc2000 View Post
    Unfortunately, HD monitoring software probably isn't going to do you much good, since you won't be able to see anything once the system slows to a crawl. That is one reason why a hard drive LED is really good to have. However, you could open the case and switch the power indicator LED (the lighted ring around the power button) to the header for the HD LED on the motherboard.

    You could also use Safe Mode with Networking.

    You could also try running the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic software.
    I'll switch the light sometime today. It'll be like a disco in here, as bright as that is and as often as it will flash

    I'll look into the software situation as well, thanks.

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