Powerspec PC freezing issue

Dean

have purchased 3 diff powerspec pcs in the past 6 months.  on two of them the freeze thing happen for about 5 seconds where the computer seems stuck.  if its playing any sound at the time it just distorts and holds the note, mouse wont move, nothing responds and then it catches back up about 5-10seconds later.  on the third the freezing does not come back and a forced reboot has to be done to make the computer come back. I am returning the 3rd pc as its within the past 15 days that I bot it.   sounds to me like there is a faulty part they are using building these.  if someone can figure it out it would be AWESOME because I have 2 others that aside from the bug are great.

Dean

PowerSpec_MichaelB

Welcome to the forum Dean, I am sorry to hear you are having issues with your PowerSpec PC's. I want to make sure I fully understand the situation before we proceed with troubleshooting. From what I gathered, you have 3 different models of PowerSpec systems, and all 3 are exhibiting this freezing issue? Looking at your purchase history, I see a G355, a G226 and a G705. Among these three models, only two share a common component, which would be the G226 and G705 both using the same DDR4 2666mhz memory kits. How long has this issue been occurring? Does it only happen when performing a specific task? Or does it occur randomly? Do you recall any recent updates, overclocking or hardware installation that coincide with these freezes on any of the systems? Any recent software downloads/installations? Once we can narrow down a timeframe and a potential trigger for the freezing, we can work together to determine how to resolve it, whether that be through software updates/removal or bringing the system in for hardware diagnostics.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Dean

Type your commentthe 705 was the one that was freezing and not coming back.  so we no longer have that pc. was returned.  the 226 and the g355 both freeze for like 5 seconds or so then come back so we've been living with it.  doesn't seem to matter what progras are up and running (ie I can be in excel, or on google chrome or internet explorer) just randomly stops responding for about 5-10 seconds.  its "tolerable" but frustrating at times.   on both PC's its been since we got them, almost from day one (or maybe week one) 

PowerSpec_MichaelB

That is definitely not normal behavior, and shouldn't be happening on one of them, let alone both. Do you happen to have any external drives or any network attached storage that both access by any chance? Often times, a failing external drive or peripheral can cause the system to hang due to an "IO device error". It can cause the system to hang periodically as it tries to identify itself or process any data transfers to/from the system. If you can run the system with the bare minimum devices connected (monitor, keyboard, mouse, network cable) and see if it hangs, that would help rule out any external devices.

The good news is that both systems are still well within their warranty, so if it's a hardware issue that's causing the random freezing, they will be covered. There are also a few  troubleshooting options we can try prior to you bringing the systems in, such as memory diagnostics (Memtest86, HCI Memtest, Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool, etc), driver reinstallation (chipset, graphics, network, etc) and performing a clean boot to rule out any third party software causing issues: https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/2308/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-on-windows-10.

While these issues may seem "tolerable", it's not something you should have to deal with. I am confident that if we cannot resolve the issues remotely, our in-store technicians will be able to do so. At the end of the day, I want to make sure you are getting the best out of your PowerSpec system, and that means no crashing/hanging whatsoever.

Dean

can you give me precise instructions one how to do the memort diagnostics?   I know my son did a clean reinstall on windows on the more recent of the two pcs as we had issues because it had been left in "demo" mode so he just reinstalled windows and got us out of that.  but I would like to try to do the memorty diagnostics and perhaps the driver reinstalls.  
I wish there was some way to access a record of when it happens.  ie is there anyyghing that I can run that will give that info?

PowerSpec_MichaelB

We have a step by step guide here which will help you access the Windows 10 Memory Diagnostic Tool: https://www.microcenter.com/tech_center/article/3067/how-to-run-windows-memory-diagnostic-tool-in-windows-10. There are other options available such as Memtest86 and HCI Memtest, but those may require booting to an external flash drive, and the Windows tool does not.

As for drivers, you can visit your respective product pages on our PowerSpec website: 
http://powerspec.com/support/support_archive.phtml?selection=G226
http://powerspec.com/support/support_archive.phtml?selection=G355

I would recommend downloading and installing each one. As for accessing a record to determine the issue, you can check the Event Viewer, however it can be cumbersome to look through as it logs everything about your system, and many of the "critical events" are simply false positives. If the drivers and memory diagnostic tool is unable to resolve the issue, we may be dealing with a hardware issue. Just to confirm, you checked to make sure no external devices or network attached storage was connected to either system?

Dean

yeh.  I do have a qnap on my network but even when not connected the issue prevails

Dean

Type your commentok so mem test found no errors, and I downloaded all the drivers and have up to date on all. (don't think it changed any, they were already most recent)

anyway, whats next idea?

PowerSpec_MichaelB

At this point Dean, we can only recommend a reinstallation of Windows once again to rule out software completely. If you have no additional external devices connected to the systems and they are still freezing, then we need to check for potential hardware faults. While it's extremely rare for two different systems with entirely different components to experience similar issues, it's not entirely impossible. I was hoping there would be a common denominator between the two that we could pinpoint but we've ruled out most of what we can.

If you do want to proceed with reinstalling Windows, I would recommend backing up your important data first, then using the Media Creation Tool to download and install the latest version of Windows 10: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10. A guide on how to do so can be found here: https://www.microcenter.com/tech_center/article/11085/how-to-perform-a-clean-installation-of-windows-10. NOTE: You do not need a Windows 10 product key to do this as your PowerSpec has a valid Windows activation key embedded in the motherboard. When prompted, simply skip that step.