Computer freezing for a few seconds

[patseguin Global Moderator]

I have a home-built PC and have just recently started having a random freezing issue. I can be doing anything like just talking on Discord, browsing the web, or gaming (extremely irritating to have freezes). It freezes for like 5-6 seconds and then just resumes normal operation. The only thing I can think of that I did recently was changed the m2 slot setting in the bios to X4. Since I have a 970 Pro, I figured I needed the faster setting. Could this be causing my freezing?

 

Another thing I had done was install the Samsung SSD driver. I read that could be causing freezing so I uninstalled it. Still get the freezing though.

[sc302 Veteran]

anything popping up in event viewer around the time of freezes?  Perhaps it is logging an application or system occurrence of some sort, it may not be an actual error.  Perhaps it is one of the many other events that occur where you have to expand the event viewer a bit.  It could be anything.  Are you monitoring anything during the freezes (temp, processor, storage, network, etc utilizations)?

[patseguin Global Moderator]

1 minute ago, sc302 said:

anything popping up in event viewer around the time of freezes?  Perhaps it is logging an application or system occurrence of some sort, it may not be an actual error.  

That's one thing I never think to check. I also wonder if it's nVidia driver related as it may only be happening when I'm playing a video in Youtube or gaming. I'll check the logs when I get home. I may just deal with it and do a clean install when the April release goes RTM.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

Check your CPU usage, too.

 

I had this exact problem. My CPU would freeze for few seconds then go on like nothing happened.

[patseguin Global Moderator]

16 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

Check your CPU usage, too.

 

I had this exact problem. My CPU would freeze for few seconds then go on like nothing happened.

Ugh, I hope it's not the CPU. How did you fix it? I have a Coffee Lake and a really good CPU cooler.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

1 minute ago, patseguin said:

Ugh, I hope it's not the CPU. How did you fix it? I have a Coffee Lake and a really good CPU cooler.

I moved over to AMD... 🤣

 

But, really... An OS reinstall helped, but down the line, it came to that issue again. No idea what tripped it...

[sc302 Veteran]

monitor, then we can figure that out.  

 

troubleshoot properly to get down to the issue, or guess and maybe you will hit it and maybe you wont, or you will replace the whole system without ever really knowing like Mindoververmaster did.  The processor doesn't spike just because, a process is running causing it.

[Circaflex]

49 minutes ago, patseguin said:

That's one thing I never think to check. I also wonder if it's nVidia driver related as it may only be happening when I'm playing a video in Youtube or gaming. I'll check the logs when I get home. I may just deal with it and do a clean install when the April release goes RTM.

What browser do you use when this happens? By any chance is it firefox?

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

40 minutes ago, Circaflex said:

What browser do you use when this happens? By any chance is it firefox?

I don't think it is Firefox alone that is causing this. BUT, alas, it could be for all we know. Until he checks, we have no idea.

[Circaflex]

40 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

I don't think it is Firefox alone that is causing this. BUT, alas, it could be for all we know. Until he checks, we have no idea.

OP specifically called out this happening during youtube viewing. The reason I ask about Firefox is because I experience this on many of my computers, and after doing research I found my spikes happen often when viewing youtube through firefox. Google has implemented crummy code and using a browser other than something built on chromium is known to cause slowdowns, high cpu usage and a less than stellar experience. I can replicate this with both my laptop and desktop at home, CPU usage and memory usage go through the roof after some time of using youtube or anything google related on Firefox (stable, beta and nightly, with no add-ons). A temporary fix was using youtube classic, but that has stopped working as well. It is well known, and documented, that google sabotages their services for non-chromium browsers. My symptoms were exactly as the OP described it.

Edited March 19, 2019 by Circaflex

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

Just now, Circaflex said:

OP specifically called out this happening during youtube viewing. The reason I ask about Firefox is because I experience this on many of my computers, and after doing research I found my spikes happen often when viewing youtube through firefox. Google has implement crummy code and using a browser other than something built on chromium is known to cause slowdowns, high cpu usage and a less than stellar experience. I can replicate this with both my laptop and desktop at home, CPU usage and memory usage go through the roof after some time of using youtube or anything google related on Firefox (stable, beta and nightly, with no add-ons). A temporary fix was using youtube classic, but that has stopped working as well. It is well known, and documented, that google sabotages their services for non-chromium browsers. My symptoms were exactly as the OP described it.

He says it happens during gaming, too...

[Circaflex]

Just now, Mindovermaster said:

He says it happens during gaming, too...

Dude, I can read that. Maybe he has firefox open while gaming. Just let him answer the question please.

[patseguin Global Moderator]

1 hour ago, Circaflex said:

Dude, I can read that. Maybe he has firefox open while gaming. Just let him answer the question please.

I'm using Chrome and yes, it's almost always open even if I'm gaming. I was playing Anthem the other day and the game froze 3-4 times while I was in critical places trying not to die.

[DevTech]

On 3/19/2019 at 2:02 PM, patseguin said:

I'm using Chrome and yes, it's almost always open even if I'm gaming. I was playing Anthem the other day and the game froze 3-4 times while I was in critical places trying not to die.

No real info has been provided.

 

Skeptical about browser but who knows. In Chrome settings turn OFF "Run in background" which Google uses to muscle its way into every aspect of your computer and can cause a huge erratic load on some computers.

 

The 970 needs the 4 lanes but it wouldn't hurt to set it back to 2 for a bit to see if that did it.

 

Other VooDoo things to try:

 

1. The mobo will have docs on PCIe lane assignment so make sure there isn't any sharing.

 

2. Try turning Hybernation OFF

 

3. Set the Page file to the old traditional amount of 1.5 times RAM. Set that amount as the maximum and minimum.

 

4. Update all drivers, particularly Intel Chipset and try installing the stupid Intel RAID manager to get the latest Intel SATA drivers. Or use the StationDriver website to get speific driver packages.

 

5. Update your LAN driver. Disable WiFi if you have it.

 

6. Install latest NVIDIA but really a delay of that length has to be a LOCK on a Disk or Network asset.

 

 

 

[patseguin Global Moderator]

7 hours ago, DevTech said:

No real info has been provided.

 

Skeptical about browser but who knows. In Chrome settings turn OFF "Run in background" which Google uses to muscle its way into every aspect of your computer and can cause a huge erratic load on some computers.

 

The 970 needs the 4 lanes but it wouldn't hurt to set it back to 2 for a bit to see if that did it.

 

Other VooDoo things to try:

 

1. The mobo will have docs on PCIe lane assignment so make sure there isn't any sharing.

 

2. Try turning Hybernation OFF

 

3. Set the Page file to the old traditional amount of 1.5 times RAM. Set that amount as the maximum and minimum.

 

4. Update all drivers, particularly Intel Chipset and try installing the stupid Intel RAID manager to get the latest Intel SATA drivers. Or use the StationDriver website to get speific driver packages.

 

5. Update your LAN driver. Disable WiFi if you have it.

 

6. Install latest NVIDIA but really a delay of that length has to be a LOCK on a Disk or Network asset.

 

 

 

I know, it's impossible to troubleshoot with the lack of information I gave. I was hoping someone would say they knew it was something with the SSD or something.

 

When I looked at #2, something occurred to me. A recent issue I've had ever since updating to one of the insider builds was that my computer doesn't properly wake up from sleep. It sounds like it wakes up and the mouse lights up, but the keyboard does not and the display doesn't wake up. I always have to hard reset. I'm wondering if I should just wait for ISO of the final April update and clean install.

[DevTech]

9 hours ago, patseguin said:

I know, it's impossible to troubleshoot with the lack of information I gave. I was hoping someone would say they knew it was something with the SSD or something.

 

When I looked at #2, something occurred to me. A recent issue I've had ever since updating to one of the insider builds was that my computer doesn't properly wake up from sleep. It sounds like it wakes up and the mouse lights up, but the keyboard does not and the display doesn't wake up. I always have to hard reset. I'm wondering if I should just wait for ISO of the final April update and clean install.

Well, a SIX SECOND FREEZE every so often sounds super annoying.

 

Only a kernel device driver (that is badly coded) can freeze Windows like that but it might just be a UI freeze in a user level device driver (such as a USB device) or system service.

 

There is something like a disk file lock or a network resource, even a DNS lookup etc that is NOT returning a response to some code and the FREEZE is a time out limit that is set way too long.

 

 You can also try running on a single core as a test since crazy timing issues are the hallmark of multi-core programming.

 

Also review for really old code and really old device drivers, specially anything in compat mode.

 

Also, latest Windows runs many drivers now in a mini-Hyper-V for security whether you have Pro or not so you could look for drivers more than 3 months old that may not have been updated to work well with that. Or turn off CPU Virtualization in the BIOS as a test.

 

Also, the Windows Refresh/Reset that keeps all your settings and programs should work as good as a fresh install, but Windows will be aggressive in refreshing drivers so go down the list afterwards...

 

 

[patseguin Global Moderator]

For anyone curious if I solved this, I'm pretty sure I did. I set that X4 BIOS setting for my m2 SSD back to X2 and haven't had a freeze since. My computer wakes from sleep properly now too.

[Marujan]

bad RAM or SSD while caching files

 

disable antivirus

[farmeunit]

Sorry if I missed this, but did you update BIOS and firmware for your SSD?  Have you benchmarked to see what it does at 2x?

[spacelordmaster]

On 3/19/2019 at 10:28 AM, patseguin said:

I have a home-built PC and have just recently started having a random freezing issue. I can be doing anything like just talking on Discord, browsing the web, or gaming (extremely irritating to have freezes). It freezes for like 5-6 seconds and then just resumes normal operation. The only thing I can think of that I did recently was changed the m2 slot setting in the bios to X4. Since I have a 970 Pro, I figured I needed the faster setting. Could this be causing my freezing?

 

Another thing I had done was install the Samsung SSD driver. I read that could be causing freezing so I uninstalled it. Still get the freezing though.

 

Welcome to the club Patseguin. Yes you are 100% right. It is the Samsung SSD drive. Let me guess: You have an AMD system? I have an FX 8350 AMD system and ever since I installed that Samsung SSD drive I have been having the same issues too. It tends to freeze on me some times and yes it is a known issues with the SSD drive and specifically the AMD motherboards and an issue Samsung has chosen to completely ignore and not fix, despite many complaints on different forums about it.

 

 

[DevTech]

7 hours ago, spacelordmaster said:

 

Welcome to the club Patseguin. Yes you are 100% right. It is the Samsung SSD drive. Let me guess: You have an AMD system? I have an FX 8350 AMD system and ever since I installed that Samsung SSD drive I have been having the same issues too. It tends to freeze on me some times and yes it is a known issues with the SSD drive and specifically the AMD motherboards and an issue Samsung has chosen to completely ignore and not fix, despite many complaints on different forums about it.

 

 

Well, the easiest way to fix the problem with AMD motherboards and Samsung 970 Pro is to buy an Intel motherboard which can be cheaper than replacing a 4 TB Samsung NVMe

 

Which is what our OP did and then listed the result in his SIG:

 

"PC - Home-built Core i7 8700K, 16GB RAM, 1TB 970 Pro M2, 512GB data SSD, 512GB secondary SSD, 4TB RAID0 hard drive, nVidia 1080, HTC Vive, LG 4K display"

 

And there, we have gone and solved that pesky AMD problem!

 

 

[ReAnimation]

May be a long shot, but Check the BIOS/UEFI settings for HPET (High precision Event Timer) and make sure its enabled.  Some motherboards call HPET by a different name.

 

I had a board a few years ago that had this option disabled and the computer used to suffer from small freezes in Windows and when gaming until the option was enabled.

[DevTech]

On 4/6/2019 at 6:40 AM, ReAnimation said:

May be a long shot, but Check the BIOS/UEFI settings for HPET (High precision Event Timer) and make sure its enabled.  Some motherboards call HPET by a different name.

 

I had a board a few years ago that had this option disabled and the computer used to suffer from small freezes in Windows and when gaming until the option was enabled.

Yeah, read the thread. Look at his rig specs. No modern mobo defaults HPET off.

 

Currently, it is sad to the max that he has backed off NVMe to just 2 lanes so if you can construct a plausible technical link between HPET and NVMe lanes, then you can achieve something greater in the scheme of the universe than throwing darts at the wall in the Local Pub...

 

There is a REAL mystery HERE!

 

But the OP is not helping much with info and tests and I get we are all busy and not all of us have OCD Sherlock Holmes DNA that demands the TRUE ANSWER!

 

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

15 minutes ago, DevTech said:

But the OP is not helping much with info and tests and I get we are all busy and not all of us have OCD Sherlock Holmes DNA that demands the TRUE ANSWER!

It's elementary, Watson.

[CptAnonymou5]

Sorry to reopen an older thread =X I have a 7700k @5.1ghz & 1070sc. GPU gets around 70cish while gaming so I don't think its heat and my CPU is around 60 while gaming. Win 10 installed on a m.2 ssd not a Samsung drive but I do have a Evo 850 500gb for open world games. I have the same exact issues as OP.. MOBO is a Maximus code IX latest bios I will try what OP thought it might be. I have tried many other VooDooy tricks including reg edits, reformatting, & ect.. Nothing seems to help thus far and its extremely annoying to have these 5-6 second freezing especially on MP games. Did setting to 2x work for you? I'am going to look into that right now. @patseguin

 

I also looked in Event Viewer to find nothing error wise around the time of freeze. Driver are up to date I use Snappy Driver Installer its an open source driver installer pretty handy.

 

If anyone else has the issue lets hope it works.