Win 10 system freezes -- my graphics card??

[nemophoto]

I've been dealing with an exceptionally frustrating issue for the past 6-8 months -- chronic system freezes. At first, I thought it was solely a Lightroom issue. It always happened during heavy editing sessions with Lightroom. Very, very rarely with Photoshop. Then, today, I was using Capture 9 to edit an image for a client -- and it happened. I'll be working along, and then the screen freezes and therefore the computer. My ONLY resort is to hit the power button and do a hard reset/turn off. About 3 or 4 times out of 10, Windows won't boot up, and I have to repeat the process of using the power button, occasionally a couple of times. Once in a while, I'll get the message that Windows did not restart properly and use that option to then boot into safe mode, then power down and reboot normally. By the way, I also uncheck "Use GPU" in Lightroom because I've had more issues and more freezes related to that.

My graphics card is an Asus/AMD Radeon R9 280X-DC2, clocked normally.I used nVidia for years, but it seemed they were always releasing buggy drivers, only to be corrected a week later.

My system is home built (several years ago) and is a relatively powerful system. (I upgraded my power supply to a 1050 watt unit since I draw so much power via peripherals.):

CPU: AMD FX-9590 MOTHERBOARD: Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z
Memory: 32GB, G. Skill Overclocked per manufacturer/Asus (system crashes if you DON'T overclock!)
C drive: Samsung SSD
D,E,F: 1TB drive
Lots of external drives

Finally, my question. Are my issues the graphics card? I can't figure out where to look at this point.

[mlewis]

It could be a graphics card issue but it may be a RAM issue.  It could be other hardware errors as well.  It could be a power supply issue.  One thing to try is a good long memory test - use Memtest.  You mention that your memory is overclocked and crashes the system when not overclocked.  When fault finding the first thing to try is to remove any overclocks as they can potentially cause instability.  That could indicate an issue.

Open the case and make sure all fans are working and clear out any dust.  Maybe there are overheating issues?

Have a look at the computer logs to see if there are any errors recorded that happen when you have issues.  That could point you in the right direction.  Also when fault finding unplug the external drives.  Maybe they are overloading the power supply?

Non obvious crashes are often a pain to diagnose, especially when the cause could be several items.

[Pictus]

I use a XFX R9 280x, but no problems...
I would also unplug/plug everything, GPU, RAM, cables...

The latest BIOS is version 2201 from 2015/05/07
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/CROSSHAIR_V_FORMULAZ/HelpDesk_Download/
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/SocketAM3+/Crosshair_V_Formula_Z/CROSSHAIR-V-FORMULA-Z-ASUS-2201.zip


Guide: How to doing OC at FX Vishera CPUs in practice
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?51098-Guide-How-to-doing-OC-at-FX-Vishera-CPUs-in-practice

ROG Overclocking Education Center
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?38259-ROG-Overclocking-Education-Center

Guide: Overclocking FX-8350 To 4.8GHz On Crosshair V Formula-Z
http://rog.asus.com/216552013/crosshair-motherboards/guide-overclocking-fx-8350-to-4-8ghz-on-crosshair-v-formula-z/

Crosshair V Formula-Z + FX-9590 5Ghz Finally Stable
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?74151-Crosshair-V-Formula-Z-FX-9590-5Ghz-Finally-Stable-%28Perfomance%29



Crosshair V Formula-Z 9590 fx 32gbs random freezing
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?52088-Crosshair-V-Formula-Z-9590-fx-32gbs-random-freezing
From http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?52088-Crosshair-V-Formula-Z-9590-fx-32gbs-random-freezing/page5
"Turning off ECC and disabling core turbo solved my random freezing issues. YAY1"

[JaapD]

You’re mentioning “Memory: 32GB, G. Skill Overclocked per manufacturer/Asus (system crashes if you DON'T overclock!)”. This is by no means a healthy situation and a default memory timing arrangement should always result in the most stable situation. Since your experience is different I suspect one or more memory modules being faulty, contributing to the by you mentioned system crash.

Do you encounter more crashes when having more files open, so using more RAM? Any dependability here?

[Pictus]

It can be, overclock memory usually also means more voltage for the modules...
I would try to not overclock the RAM, but keep the RAM voltage higher...

[nemophoto]

It could be a graphics card issue but it may be a RAM issue.  It could be other hardware errors as well.  It could be a power supply issue.  One thing to try is a good long memory test - use Memtest.  You mention that your memory is overclocked and crashes the system when not overclocked.  When fault finding the first thing to try is to remove any overclocks as they can potentially cause instability.  That could indicate an issue.

Open the case and make sure all fans are working and clear out any dust.  Maybe there are overheating issues?

Have a look at the computer logs to see if there are any errors recorded that happen when you have issues.  That could point you in the right direction.  Also when fault finding unplug the external drives.  Maybe they are overloading the power supply?

Non obvious crashes are often a pain to diagnose, especially when the cause could be several items.

Thanks. All great suggestions.

I've tested the RAM in the past, including swapping sticks around in case on is bad and I've also used other memory (16GB worth) to test. All eventually the same outcome. RAM was, in fact, one of the first things i suspected. I called ASUS tech support. They were the ones who told me that certain RAM needs to be overclocked to be stable. (I had experienced other kinds of crashes, lockups even quicker using other settings than the ones they told me to use. That said, maybe I'll play with them more. However, at the lowest default setting of speed, my system crawls. Lightroom needs clock speed.)

ASUS tech support also said to get a more power PSU. The AMD chip draws a lot, plus with everything else I was powering, it taxed my 750 watt PSU to the max.

The problem is, there are no logs because the system literally freezes -- no BSOD kind of thing.

[nemophoto]

I use a XFX R9 280x, but no problems...
I would also unplug/plug everything, GPU, RAM, cables...

The latest BIOS is version 2201 from 2015/05/07
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/CROSSHAIR_V_FORMULAZ/HelpDesk_Download/
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/SocketAM3+/Crosshair_V_Formula_Z/CROSSHAIR-V-FORMULA-Z-ASUS-2201.zip


Guide: How to doing OC at FX Vishera CPUs in practice
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?51098-Guide-How-to-doing-OC-at-FX-Vishera-CPUs-in-practice

ROG Overclocking Education Center
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?38259-ROG-Overclocking-Education-Center

Guide: Overclocking FX-8350 To 4.8GHz On Crosshair V Formula-Z
http://rog.asus.com/216552013/crosshair-motherboards/guide-overclocking-fx-8350-to-4-8ghz-on-crosshair-v-formula-z/

Crosshair V Formula-Z + FX-9590 5Ghz Finally Stable
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?74151-Crosshair-V-Formula-Z-FX-9590-5Ghz-Finally-Stable-%28Perfomance%29



Crosshair V Formula-Z 9590 fx 32gbs random freezing
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?52088-Crosshair-V-Formula-Z-9590-fx-32gbs-random-freezing
From http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?52088-Crosshair-V-Formula-Z-9590-fx-32gbs-random-freezing/page5
"Turning off ECC and disabling core turbo solved my random freezing issues. YAY1"

These are all great, Pictus. I'll look at the various links. Because the FX 9590 is already, essentially, factory overclocked, I'm running it at "normal" speeds, though I'd love to push it. I run mine with the stock water cooler/dual fan, and have all the settings for the fans set to try to keep max temp to 60 degrees C and below. The CPU definitely doesn't like it hot. It was one fo teh things I looked at when I had these random freezes.

[armand]

Most frustrating, I had some issues with my self built system suddenly restarting within 5-10 min of the initial start without warning and no crash logs either.
I eventually located the problem to be within the Asus software, I suspect it had some weird safety measures. Uninstalled and no issues since.
So, did you try first to reset the MB to defaults and go from there? and second to uninstall the Asus software?

[Joe Towner]

What happens if you take out the D/E/F drives (and any external laptop drives that pull power from the motherboard)?  That should help identify if your PSU isn't up to snuff.  Based on the weekly hang up thing, I'd take the system down to bare minimums and give it a run.

[nemophoto]

Here we are, weeks later. Same issue. To lay it to rest, my PSU is up to snuff. It's actually a 1200 watt unit. More than enough power. I really do feel it's the card and related to graphics calls that are made. I was working with On1 Photo 10.5, which is totally dependent on the GPU, and it crashed several times. In fact, three times in a row when working with just Resize (alias Genuine Fractals, Perfect Resize, etc.). Each time, the file was fairly large, 16-bit with layers. Absolutely choked. So, I've decided to plunk down some change and buy a Radeon R9 390X board with 8GB of VRAM. That should do the trick! I've thought of going back to nVidia, but it seems they are always having to fix their driver every week. Plus it's a pain, as I learned, to switch from one GPU to another (unloading driver, programs, blah, blah blah).

[Pictus]

To remove the current GPU driver I like to use DDU and allow it to boot from Safe Mode.
http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

AMD changed the compiler for the latest GPU driver to better work with AMD CPUs.
http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows+10+-+64