Powerspec G317 freezing randomly after hardware upgrades

SirFroster

Hey all!

I recently added some storage - 2Tb HDD and SSD - as well as some ram - 2 16GB sticks, totaling to 48GB of ram - to my G317 and since I've done this the computer freezes for a few seconds. When this happens nothing is responsive, I am unable to move the mouse, and any audio gets distorted or slowed down. This can happen regardless of what I am doing and happens randomly, be it watching YouTube or playing a game or being on a discord call. When the freezing ends the computer makes some mechanical noise - I think it is the HDD - and everything goes back to normal.

I tried different GPU drivers to see if it was a graphics issue but that hasn't fixed the issue. I am going to start removing the upgrades one piece at a time to see if maybe one of those components caused this issue but I wanted to reach out and see if anyone had any advice before I went down that route.

No major software changes have happened to the computer.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Ian

Greetings, what you described in your post by removing the parts one at a time is probably the best way to go to isolate the issue, you could also test out the new RAM by itself and see if that causes any issues.

PowerSpec_MikeW

@SirFroster

The advice above is the way to go. You will need to remove some components to isolate the issue. I'd look at the RAM first. You're mixing a 2x16GB Dual Rank kit with 2x8GB Single Rank kit. Asymmetric dual channel mode is supported, this is called Flex Mode by Intel. Differing round trip latencies could be causing your hang. Remove the original 2x8GB kit, run the new 32GB kit only. If the problem goes away, you'll know what the issue was.

Second option, and what matches the sound you're hearing, is that something is trying to access a drive that's idle, the system hangs until the drive responds. Now, this typically isn't an issue with a primary drive, unless it's defective, and the program causing it, would have to be something that's a high level system process. I'm thinking an Anti-Virus. If you've got an AV software installed to a secondary drive, that could cause it. Move that over to the primary drive. Otherwise disconnect the drives and test.

SirFroster

I removed the HDD and I haven't had any issues since. I'll keep an eye out though. The HDD was a secondary drive and it was empty though, I hadn't put anything on it so that is kinda weird.

TSTDavey

@SirFroster just chiming in, but keep us in the loop if anything else comes up.

PowerSpec_MikeW

@SirFoster

Couple of things if you want to add the drive back in. Could be faulty, could be something else. You could check if the page file is setup on the data drive. That would explain the freeze while waiting for the drive to wake, which is what this sounds like. It's a common setup to throw the page file on the HDD. That's an option to look into. You could also set the HDD to never sleep in power options. If it doesn't sleep, you won't freeze waiting for it to wake up. It would confirm the issue is the system waiting for the drive to wake, at the very least.