PC randomly freezes (lock up)

[idata]

Hi,

I have build this pc almost one year ago and its driving me crazy. While under a light load the PC will completely lock up (sometimes with a loud noise from headphones). Light load is typically in games such as Counter Strike or Rocket league as i like to play on low to medium settings so PC is not stressed.

This is happening sometimes once a week, sometimes twice a day. I have done numerous stress tests and benchmarks and the PC always passes all which is driving me crazy (including INTEL processor test).

Recently I have found about the Skylake bug which I believe to be the case for these lockups but I am unable to find a way to test it. (BIOS is updated and C-state is off but freezes still occur). All drivers are updated. Temperatures never go above 70 degrees Celcius. RAM has been extensively tested and is 100% not the issue. No overclocking.

PC specs:

Intel i7-6700K CPU

16gb RAM

NVIDIA GTX 980 Ti

OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

MOBO: ASUSTeK Z170-A

Please advise if any ran into similar issues and what is the way forward.

Thanks.

-B

[idata]

Hi, Brince10, Thank you very much for joining the Intel® Processors communities.

Even though you mentioned the memory RAM was tested and it shows no problems, could you please provide the part number of it so we can verify the specifications? Remember that the Intel® i7-6700K processor works with DDR4-1866/2133, DDR3L-1333/1600 @ 1.35V:

http://ark.intel.com/products/88195/Intel-Core-i7-6700K-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4_20-GHz Intel® Core™ i7-6700K Processor (8M Cache, up to 4.20 GHz) Product Specifications

For this scenario we recommend to test the PC with minimal configuration, basically to use just one memory stick at the time in all the memory slots on the board, just to rule out a possible problem with any of the sticks or the DIMMs on the board.

If you have the option to test the PC without the video card, please try that, sometimes the freezing problem could be related to the video card itself.

If the problem persists, the next thing to do will be to test the PC with a different hard driver/SSD, in order to confirm if there is a possible problem with it.

You mentioned the BIOS and the drivers are up to date, just in case on the link below you will find the BIOS versions for your board, we recommend to set the BIOS at default values:

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z170-A/HelpDesk_Download/ https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z170-A/HelpDesk_Download/

And also, since you are using an Nvidia video card, did you try to re-install the graphics driver of it?

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/117263/en-us http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/117263/en-us

To clear CMOS on the board will be a good thing to try as well.

And finally, if the issue remains, at this point you can try to re-install Windows from scratch or to swap parts, meaning to test your processor on a different board, or to test your board with a different processor to try to find out if there is a problem with any of those parts. Normally the problem is related to the board specially if the processor passed the test of the Intel® processor diagnostics tool, but to swap parts will be the best way to make sure.

Please let me know the results of trying the steps above.

Any further questions, please let me know.

Regards,

Alberto

[idata]

Dear Alberto,

Im using 2 of CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 8GB 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) Memory Kit Model CMK8GX4M1A2400C14.

Edit: im replacing GPU soon and will update result.

[idata]

Hi, Brince10, Thank you very much for letting us know that information, and yes, the memory seems to be fully compatible, as long as it is running at 2133MHz and with 1.2v.

Perfect, once you get the chance, please let us know the results of testing the PC with a different video card. Any questions, please let me know. Regards,Alberto

[idata]

Brince10, I just wanted to check if you were able to test the PC with a different video card?

Any questions, please let me know.Regards,Alberto