Hard lockups / Crashing

D

distantstar

n00b
Joined
Jul 11, 2008
Messages
45
Recently upgraded from a 2500k setup to a 6700k setup and have been encountering hard freezes (requires holding down the power button to reset) that are accompanied with a full volumed buzzing sound (not a repeat of ingame sounds).

System specs:
  • i7-6700k
  • ASUS Z170-AR
  • 2x8 GB DDR4-2400 Crucial Ballistix (@ 2133MHz)
  • MSI 970 GAMING
  • Samsung 850 EVO 500GB w/ Windows 10 (other storage drives not mentioned)
  • EVGA 750W G2
  • ASUS Xonar Essence STX

I've reused the power supply (purchased this year) and the video card (purchased last year), both of which were running fine under the 2500K setup.


Summary:
The crashes appear "random", other than the fact that they've only ever occurred while playing WoW, usually after about an hours worth of actual gaming (i.e. not idling in a city). FWIW, I've played DotA2 for longer periods (3-4 hours) of time without any issue.

What I've tried:
  1. Made sure all drivers were up to date, still crashes during gaming.
  2. Updated to the latest BIOS (1302), still crashes during gaming.
  3. Ran Memtest on the pair of RAM with errors only on the fast Row Hammer section, no crashes, 4 passes. Didn't crash during benchmark, still crashes during gaming.
  4. Ran Unigine Valley Benchmark once. Didn't crash during benchmark, still crashed during gaming.

What I'm trying now:
  • Removed the ASUS Xonar sound card and completely wiped the drivers. This is currently looking OK, but due to the random nature I'm not convinced quite yet. It's survived an all night idle run of Unigine Valley and about 8 hours of AIDA64 Stress Testing (w/ GPU) and some light gaming tonight.

I wanted to ask the [H]ard community about any other things I should look at or be suspicious of, just in case my latest trials don't work out.

Update #1
It locked up during a game of DotA2 w/o the sound card... I'm really starting to suspect the motherboard/processor now...
 
Last edited:
Might just revert back to my 2500k setup for the time being. Swapping out processors / mobos to try and identify the culprit is too much of a hassle. Maybe I'll consider Haswell or just wait for this platform to mature a bit (seeing that a lot of the current motherboards have several issues).
 
I haven't even tried to overclock yet, sadly. It's as stock as it can get. In fact, the RAM is being underclocked to the JEDEC standards (it's running at 2133 instead of 2400MHz).
 
I'm guessing you've kept an eye on all your temperatures while running a few different benchmarks and all in acceptable range?
 
Furious_Styles said:
I'm guessing you've kept an eye on all your temperatures while running a few different benchmarks and all in acceptable range?
Click to expand...

Yep. CPU never crossed 65, GPU 71 max.

I've swapped motherboards and will be testing again shortly with a fresh install of W10.
 
Definitely sounds CPU related.

Note the BSOD code when it next crashes:
124 - More cpu voltage needed if you're overclocking.
101 - IMC related - Relax 'NB' speed (or increase uncore voltage if overclocking).

Any other codes likely point to bad memory.

My best guess, though, is that you've been mounting your cpu cooler wrong all these years, so double check that I'd say, no offence! - but sometimes it's the obvious things that we miss first...
 
spine said:
Definitely sounds CPU related.

Note the BSOD code when it next crashes:
124 - More cpu voltage needed if you're overclocking.
101 - IMC related - Relax 'NB' speed (or increase uncore voltage if overclocking).

Any other codes likely point to bad memory.

My best guess, though, is that you've been mounting your cpu cooler wrong all these years, so double check that I'd say, no offence! - but sometimes it's the obvious things that we miss first...
Click to expand...

There is no BSOD that accompanies the crash. It is a hard lockup that doesn't even register an Event Log entry...
 
distantstar said:
There is no BSOD that accompanies the crash. It is a hard lockup that doesn't even register an Event Log entry...
Click to expand...

If you wait long enough I've often seen a BSOD appear after a minute, so next time it happens give it 5 mins. That code can tell you everything you need to know to find the problem...
 
spine said:
If you wait long enough I've often seen a BSOD appear after a minute, so next time it happens give it 5 mins. That code can tell you everything you need to know to find the problem...
Click to expand...

I'll definitely take this advice and try to wait for a BSOD, thanks!
 
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