Strange problem - pc unresponsive

tronix · 25 Oct 2013 at 11:02

Hi guys, hope everyone is doing good!

I'm having a weird problem with my pc, started a few days ago, out of the blue. Basically I'm getting hangs/freezes, but mouse pointer still works, and pc is semi-active, but it won't actually do anything.
At first I thought it was NVidia driver issue for the GTX400/500, but I'm not so sure now, as I've had no problems with it for months and it's not saying the driver has crashed like it did before.

It will actively stop responding when in a game or web browsing, and it will also do it just sat on the desktop for a while. Alt tab does nothing, and cntrl+alt+del makes the screen go black, then a box appears saying "windows was unable to load security options" (or something very similar), click the close button and it just stays black, the only thing you can do when it stops is force a shutdown (hold power button). There are no errors, or events logs for it at all, except the unexpected loss of power when you startup again.

I've tried messing with the NVidia drivers, installing the newest (which made it worse) and re-rolling back. I've even done a complete re-install with windows 8 and tried both old and new NVidia drivers, still same issue.

PC has (no overclocks):
Windows 7 SP1/ Windows 8 (tried both)
i7 2600K 3.4Ghz
Corsair XMS3 8GB 1600Mhz
Gigabyte P67A-UD4-B3 Mobo
Gigabyte GTX460 SOC
Crucial M4 SSD 128Gb
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200
OCZ Stealthxtreme 2 600W supply
Benq G2420HDBL Monitor

Thanks for your help

nick.lidgett · 25 Oct 2013 at 11:22

Ram or ssd or software issue is my guess

You will have to test for all 3

honosuseri · 25 Oct 2013 at 11:33

Have you updated the firmware of that M4 SSD?

tronix · 25 Oct 2013 at 11:53

Thanks for replies guys,

@nick - Ram I can test, as I have a spare 4GB not used (didn't think this would be a cause though). Don't know how to test the SSD? Don't think I have any spare drives as the SSD is OS, and the 1TB is full of games, movies, music etc. Software wise, I have no idea what it could be, as I've tried everything I can think of.

@honosuseri - I may have updated the SSD firmware when I first got it, but I have done nothing to the system for 2 years. You think I should try that? I'm always dubious of messing with firmware, as it can cause more problems

My dad is saying he thinks the PSU might be giving out and not supplying enough even power, anyone agree with this?

Deus Ex · 25 Oct 2013 at 12:00

Test Ram sticks, otherwise it probably is SSD. Tried using a different SATA port?

honosuseri · 25 Oct 2013 at 12:04

There is a known bug with the M4 drives. They got flaky after 5200hours of use, there is a firmware update to correct it.

Danny75 · 25 Oct 2013 at 13:10

Tell us how high your CPU temp goes when playing a game (if you can manage to see it before it hangs).

wazza300 · 25 Oct 2013 at 19:59

ooo I see an m4 :eek:

is it the dreaded 5400hour use freeze bug? :confused:

download ssdlife and look to see what fw version and the hours use,if around 5400 then flash it to latest fw to cure it

tronix · 26 Oct 2013 at 09:32

Hi guys,

So I switched out the ram for some older 4gb sticks I had (just to eliminate the ram possibility while I did a firmware update), and also did the firmware update on the M4. Firmware was 0009 now updated to 070H.
SSD-Life says It's done 5784 hours, with 99% health, and 8 years life remaining.

So far no issues

I've done another reinstall back to Win 7, and had no problems for 24hrs.

I'll keep using it today, and if still no issues, I'll put the other ram back in.

Thanks everyone for the responses