System hangs after 2-4 hours, maybe narrowed it down to CPU but can't be sure

burning-ape

burning-ape

burning-ape

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Hi!

This is my first post, sorry if I'm breaking any rules.

I recently got an i7 6700k off of a friend and 2 8GB DDR4 RAM sticks, and a new motherboard to upgrade from my old i5 and DDR3 ram. I spent the day cleaning out my PC after I got it, and replaced the mobo/cpu/ram. This is my third build so I know roughly what I'm doing, but not willing to discount user error quite yet.

It worked fine for a day or so, then the next day it would run fine for a few hours and then it would hang until I did a hard shutdown. This happened a few times, and it doesn't matter what I was doing - if the PC was idling, if I was playing a game, watching youtube/netflix, browsing the internet, editing a word document etc. It would still happen and kept happening until I put my old mobo/cpu/ram back in. It's currently running on the old hardware, and it hasn't stopped since I put them back in.

Nothing interesting really came up on the event viewer, at least nothing that pointed towards any issue.

I had HWMonitor running after the first couple of crashes, and the CPU would sometimes get up to 85/90 while gaming but would sit at 30-45 while idling and doing some basic tasks (occasionally would get as high at 70 for a second or two). This has lead me to believe that the CPU is the issue, but I don't understand why it would crash when idling or doing something that barely taxes it at all. The CPU is currently my main suspect.

I had no other processors to use or other DDR4 ram to try to test if any of them were faulty, so I took them to a PC repair shop locally that had great reviews. They've said that nothing looks like it's faulty apart from the CPU, which is running hot. So I think I can discount the RAM/Mobo from being the issue. They suggested delidding the CPU but they don't want to do it, because it's risky.

Specs:
GPU: Zotac GTX 980Ti
CPU: Intel i7 6700k (not overclocked)
CPU Cooler: Coolermaster Evo 212
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A
RAM: 16GB Corsair DDR4 Vengeance LPX [2x8GB]
PSU: XFX 850w XTS Gold

Things I've tried (in no particular order):
  • Reseating the RAM
  • Running it with just one RAM stick at a time, and both, in the both pairs of slots
  • Running it without the graphics card in it
  • Reapplying thermal paste to the graphics card (taking it apart etc)
  • Updating drivers
  • Checking through the event manager and googling some error codes with the help of a friend in IT
  • Checked the health of the HDDs/SSD
None of them helped. I'm lost, and thinking that my only option is to try delidding the CPU and reapplying the termal paste on that. That can solve some issues, as pointed out by the guy at the PC repair shop, But that's difficult and risky, and it wasn't having the overheating issue before this in my friend's PC.

What do you guys think? Any suggestions? Maybe upgrading the bios on the new motherboard? It's currently sitting in its box after I got it back from the shop. Is delidding my only option?

Thanks in advance, I've been trying to solve the issue for a month, and it's incredibly frustrating.
 
Welcome to the forums. :)

Vcore may be to high if set on auto, if it's to high the temps will also be high.

Reseat the CPU cooler

Was you using the old Windows SSD/HDD? If so try a fresh install as it may be chipset drivers etc.
 
That does seem pretty hot. I've never had a 6700K, but a spike of 70 degrees while doing nothing suggests that the mounting is not right. What result do you get when you bench it? That would prove if it's throttling or not.

Did your friend try delidding it? Did it all work for them?

What speed and voltage were you running the RAM at?
 
85-90C is pretty extreme temperature for Intel CPU.
So it's possible that it could be thermal shutdown.
Though for why it would be doing it at idle?
Definitely check cooler mounting.
Chewed up bubblegum/toothpaste Intel put under the heatspreader could have also gone bad allowing such temperature spikes.

And check Reliabiltiy history and Event viewer.
There could be errors you can correlate with hangs to get some possible clues.
 
freddie64 said:
Welcome to the forums. :)

Vcore may be to high if set on auto, if it's to high the temps will also be high.

Reseat the CPU cooler

Was you using the old Windows SSD/HDD? If so try a fresh install as it may be chipset drivers etc.
Click to expand...

It was a totally fresh install, and the CPU cooler has been reseated 3 or 4 times, sorry, I should have mentioned that. Tried pointing the fan in different directions too but none of them really made any difference. I'll look in to setting the vcore, I have no idea what that is but I'll look in to it.

Tetras said:
That does seem pretty hot. I've never had a 6700K, but a spike of 70 degrees while doing nothing suggests that the mounting is not right. What result do you get when you bench it? That would prove if it's throttling or not.

Did your friend try delidding it? Did it all work for them?

What speed and voltage were you running the RAM at?
Click to expand...

I haven't tried benching it, but that's a good idea! I did do a stress test but the temps got up to ~100 so I quickly shut that down. The RAM is at default values, haven't played around with anything yet - if it could vary depending on which system it's in, how would someone go about checking? And no, he'd never heard of delidding before. Neither had I tbh, but I don't work in IT :D

EsaT said:
85-90C is pretty extreme temperature for Intel CPU.
So it's possible that it could be thermal shutdown.
Though for why it would be doing it at idle?
Definitely check cooler mounting.
Chewed up bubblegum/toothpaste Intel put under the heatspreader could have also gone bad allowing such temperature spikes.

And check Reliabiltiy history and Event viewer.
There could be errors you can correlate with hangs to get some possible clues.
Click to expand...

Would a thermal shutdown cuase the computer to hang? I would have thought it would just shut it down. Why it would hang from idle is something that's confusing me too. I'll look in to some of the other things mentioned here then I'll do the delidding lark, it's quite risky so it'll be a last-ditch effort.
 
U got to a 100 in stress test?
Its possible cpu have thermal issues underneath its housing.
As soon as cpu gets to hot pc freezes.
U should consider taking off cpu housing. And see if u can repair it.
Sorry personally I never done it myself.
Do some research if and how it can be done.
 
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