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My computer has been randomly freezing for about a month. There seems to be no obvious patterns, it can run days or just hours. The problem seems to only occur in my Windows OS, when booted to Linux I have not observed this problem. No USBs are plugged in (usually) when the computer crashes. The computer is <1 year old and the battery is even newer (~6 months old). I know for certain the computer has frozen when using the battery, I believe it has also occurred while plugged in to an outlet (although I cannot remember).

Symptoms

  • All lights that were on when the computer froze remain on (including CAPS and the HDD light)
  • The screen will turn off when shutting the computer, but it will NOT go to sleep
  • If any sound was playing, the sound repeats causing a horrible noice
  • The computer has froze while running on battery power, probably when plugged in too, although I cannot remember for certain

Diagnostics

  • I have run sfc /scannow and DISM.exe, the results can be seen on this post. No system files appear to be corrupt.
  • I ran the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool using the extended option (memtester64+ is not available for UEFI systems). No problems were detected.
  • I used Prime95 to test the CPU using Small FFT's. It ran for ~25 hours when I manually stopped it without detecting any issues. Since running ~12 hours is a sign of a stable CPU, I figure the CPU is fine.
  • I ran Window's chkdsk, no problems were detected.
  • I checked the HDD's S.M.A.R.T. and no problems were reported.
  • I verified the HDD using Linux, no problems were reported.
  • I used a 3DMark to benchmark/test my GPU. The results were slightly below the average, but this was probably due to my system (power) settings. I am assuming the problem does not exist with the GPU (I believe it would have froze if the problem did exist here).
  • Device manager is not reporting any problems.
  • The problem does not appear to be overheating, the CPU rarely gets hot and there are 2 fans.

Related Specs

  • Windows 8.1 dual booted with Ubuntu Linux (no problems appear to occur in Ubuntu)
  • 12 GBs of RAM
  • Intel Core i7-4700HQ (Quad-core)
  • GeForce GTX 770M GPU
  • 2 HDDs

When Does this Occur?

  • Completely randomly. I neither play games nor videos on the computer. It has occurred regardless of whether I am streaming music or not.

I am not sure what/how to test anything else. If you need any additional information, please let me know. Any help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Edit:

The Linux and Windows OSes are on separate HDDs.

Update

I ran memtest86 with 3 passes and all memory modules in the computer. The tests did not find anything.

I cannot seem to get Hiren's Boot CD to run on my system, even after disabling secure boot and setting SATA->IDE. I cannot find the legacy boot option in my BIOS, it may not be available.

Community
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c1moore
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    The fact that it boots to Linux and you do "not observed [a] problem" is a clear, diagnostic indicator that the problem is a Windows Software or OS issue, **not** hardware related. Testing computer symptoms in Linux is a surefire, go to way to make the distinction between HW/SW. Kudos for being so diligent in your diagnostic process. You've covered enough ground to have me relatively stumped however I am also very aware that windows progs like `chkdsk`, `dism`, and `sfc` can be useful yes, however I would never use them as a sole source of determining an issue. –  Jul 01 '15 at 19:32
  • That was my original thought, however I have checked system files and the fact that the lights remain on point to a hardware problem, as stated in [this post](http://superuser.com/questions/933086/windows-8-1-corrupt-system-files-causes-computer-to-freeze-and-reappear-after-f/933169?noredirect=1#comment-1265967) I made a few days ago. I would be willing to investigate a software/OS problem further though if you have any suggestions. – c1moore Jul 01 '15 at 19:36
  • In your original post everyone reaffirms what has been said here, **it's a software issue**. Lights remaining on doesn't tell you or I anything, much less that it has to be hardware related. That diagnostic process simply doesn't make sense to me, at all. Furthermore, in the other post it was mentioned that `sfc` **did** find system file corruption, this goes into what I mentioned earlier. `sfc` nor `dism` are completely reliable and in my experience (200+ attempts) it's almost not worth bothering to try. This all goes without saying since `sfc` never actually repaired anything. –  Jul 01 '15 at 19:45
  • I made an edit that may affect your stance. I will give the tools you suggested a try, it cannot hurt anything. I do not believe that the problem not occurring in Linux necessarily rules out hardware as the problem is random and cannot be induced (sometimes days pass before the problem occurs in Windows). Also, Windows and Linux use different device drivers, so a feature of the device causing that is causing problem may not be utilized by Linux. – c1moore Jul 01 '15 at 20:05
  • Valid point but all that means is that **if** the issue was hardware (namely drivers) you would probably be getting a BSOD in Windows and that some piece of hardware wouldn't work at all in linux. ie: keyboard, mouse, wifi, or yes it could be something that isn't readily noticeable but I stick to my guns on this one. Linux/Windows being on different drives just makes me more curious as to the **actual** state/health of the Win drive. If Linux was on that drive would it be experiencing similar issues? Please try the HDD diagnostics suggested and get back to me. I'm as curious as you are now :P –  Jul 01 '15 at 20:09

3 Answers3

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The fact that the freezing issue doesn't occur in Linux proves to me that this is a Software issue, not hardware. This fact is reaffirmed by your previous post and comments regarding sfc finding bad system files and not being able to repair them.

To be honest you've tried everything (I can think of) regarding WinOS tools/commands. ie: dism, sfc, chkdsk. The only thing you can do from here is running a 3rd party, bootable iso, that scans your HDD's for "soft bad sectors" that might be contributing to bad system files.

Here's a link to HDD scanning tools that I've used personally. Remember you want to try a bootable tool. https://gist.github.com/BiTinerary/d3f75f50a3517dae5fd5

However most people never actually do that and would rather argue contrary to my suggestion, if that's the case then the only option you have is a backup/Reinstall. Which may actually be quicker than running a HDD scan since it will take several hours depending on the size of your drive/s and isn't actually guaranteed to solve anything.

Quick reference to bootable HDD scanners:

~ MHDD http://hddguru.com/software/2005.10.02-MHDD/
~ Hiren's BootCD http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/
~ Try looking for a bootable HDD scanner offered by your drives manufacturer. Most manufacturer's offer one, it can just be a little tricky finding it.

  • The system files were not actually corrupt. DISM and sfc report them as corrupt incorrectly, as described on the Windows support site [here](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3068708). I will do these scans once I am able to create the bootable CDs, though. Until I find the problem, I cannot rule out anything. I will report back with any results. – c1moore Jul 01 '15 at 21:59
  • They weren't actually corrupt... they produced a false negative that there was corruption? Honestly, I don't care. No matter which way you cut it I reiterate my initial point regarding `dism`, `sfc`, that is... they are unreliable and any reports or output from them should be taken with a grain of salt. –  Jul 01 '15 at 23:33
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I still believe its a hardware/ram issue, or maybe some nasty windows driver(GPU? Intel RST?).

The Windows Memory tools does not put enough stress on RAM, at least on Windows 7, I've seen machines passing windows memory test but failed on memtest86. You can get a UEFI ready memtest86 here. and rerun the test. And since you have 12GB RAM(8GB+4GB), you can remove one stick at a time to see if the problem is gone, and if possible disable the NVidia card and use the Intel GPU exclusively.

lex
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  • I can agree with your statement. Over the years if there's one thing that has some weird, confusing side a/effects, its RAM. I think this issue, on the off chance that it's **strictly** hardware related then the issue lies in the abundant, over excessive even, amount of RAM. Additionally, the original information is incorrect since Memtest **can** be run on a system with UEFI, it just needs the proper BIOS settings in place, which you appropriately link to. In any case, a (legit) Computer Repair Tech would have diagnosed these two things, first and foremost. The OP would be wise to do the same –  Jul 01 '15 at 23:34
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    P.S both Memtest and HDD Diagnostic scans are made available with Hiren's Boot Cd. –  Jul 01 '15 at 23:42
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As your hardware test, sfc check and stable running Linux shows, this is not a hardware or Windows problem. This is a problem is a incompatible or problematic software. Please de-install all "resident utilities" or "so-called tools" until the problem dis-appears (include also add-ons or add-ins loaded from websites into your browser). Test your system after the de-installation of tools you really like, or de-install everything, then install one by one and test extensively to ensure the system stays stable. There are many good & great tools, but there are some tools even from well recognized companies resulting in issues. In the most severe case, do a clean install and then be very careful what to install afterwards. I learned this lesson the hard way - unfortunately multiple times.

Thomas Stich
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