PC keeps freezing

Hey everyone!

So, here I am, facing a bit of a headache. 😁

Basically, I picked up these parts over at Best Buy:

asrock 970 pro3 2.0
fx 8300
cpu cooler (freezer pro 7 )
g.skill ripjaws 8gb 1866mhz
gtx 1060 3gb
ssd adata su800
antec vp600 (I think, just going by memory)

I put the rig together myself—didn't really know what I was doing, just followed some YouTube tutorials. I'm hoping I didn't mess anything up too badly, since everything seemed to be running normally at first glance.
Windows is fully up-to-date, my GPU drivers are current, and I used Driver Booster to make sure every single available driver is installed.

The issue is, the computer just freezes up on its own.

It happened a few times while I was just browsing randomly, but it was pretty rare, so maybe it felt fine because I wasn't pushing it hard. I've been using software that relies heavily on the GPU, but I'm ruling that out because it seems to perform perfectly fine under heavy load. Now, I've started using a program that's clearly more CPU-intensive, and I wanted to see how games would hold up—specifically Hitman—but every single time, the system freezes. It crashes before I can even get into the game, sometimes accompanied by that annoying "bzzzz" looping sound, and then I have to force a restart. I'm honestly stumped... why is this happening? Especially since all these components are relatively new...
From my amateur perspective, I'm leaning toward the processor, but I don't really get why. Could it be the RAM? Or the power supply? I'm just not sure... Thanks.

Take a look at your temperatures using HWMonitor, then run a RAM test with MemTest86—that’s a good starting point. Just let MemTest86 run for about an hour; if it throws any errors, it means your RAM is likely failing.

I had the exact same thing happen back in the day with my 8600 GTS; the driver kept crashing... then the card died about a month later.

So, I'm looking at my CPU temps while idling. In Intel Overdrive, under the thermal margin section, it's showing 41°C. When I check the BIOS under H/W Monitor, it also says 41°C, though the motherboard itself reports 31°C. I obviously can't see the temps under load right now. The weird part is that when I open Task Manager, the CPU usage is sitting at 56%, which makes zero sense because I've closed every single program. Everything looks completely idle... or so it seems. When I dig into the processes to figure out what's eating up the resources, everything shows 0% usage, yet Windows Explorer is reporting 55% usage. Why on earth would that be? As for memory, usage is at 1.4GB with 6.4GB free. While the processor is hitting that 56% mark, it's boosting to 3.56GHz at a voltage of 1.3375v.

I forgot to mention that I have this ancient secondary hard drive just for file storage, and it isn't showing any activity. The same goes for my SSD (just a small one) where Windows, my software, and everything else is installed—but the whole system keeps freezing regardless.

Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

I'll run that MemTest and let you guys know what the results look like.

It’s highly unlikely the CPU is the culprit here.

First, run some diagnostics on your RAM.
Check your drive health using HD Tune or similar utility software.
Try performing a clean install of different graphics drivers.
You might also want to try disabling "Cool and Quiet" in your BIOS settings.

At this point, it could be anything from a faulty power supply to various software conflicts—even a full Windows reinstallation might be necessary.

So, I let MemTest86 run overnight, and it finished all four passes—100% complete... without a single error popping up. Does that mean we can officially rule out the RAM? As for the GPU, I’ve been updating the drivers through GeForce Experience, which pushes out a new one almost every month; it’s downloaded and installed perfectly every single time, and there hasn't been any sign that the driver could be the culprit, though maybe I'm mistaken? I'll check the hard drives once I get home. I also played around with some overclocking settings, disabling Turbo and Cool & Quiet, but the freezing happened a few times regardless... perhaps I didn't set the voltage correctly, so I just reverted everything back to the defaults.

One realization: there's a stability test built into the Intel software. When I kick that off, I can clearly see via Task Manager that the CPU hits a full load and runs at 100% capacity at 3.3 GHz... but in that state, it barely lasts two minutes before the whole system freezes. Doesn't that point toward it being a processor issue? Like, maybe the power supply is feeding it too much voltage, or something similar to what you mentioned once regarding that "X Boost" feature on my motherboard...

Maybe try resetting your BIOS to defaults before running that stability test again. If things freeze up while the CPU is pinned at full load, it’s usually just an overheating issue. I guess you should keep an eye on the thermal margin while that test is running.

You could also just pop the side panel off and get a feel for it—you know, the old hand-and-finger method—to see how hot it's getting around the CPU and the heatsink.

Everything was set to the factory defaults—I’m talking BIOS settings here. Before this whole mess started, I tried messing around with some overclocking, but the system kept freezing on me. I figured that was the culprit, so I went back to the basics. I actually hit that "load default values" option in the BIOS menu, but now I'm second-guessing myself. Is doing that enough to clear everything out, or do I really need to go through the hassle of popping the CMOS battery out of the motherboard to get a true reset?

My idle temps are hovering around 40 degrees Celsius, so there is absolutely no way this thing is going to overheat during a two-minute stability test. Even if I hit my max operating temperature—which is roughly 70+ C or whatever the limit is—I’ve got a really solid cooler installed. Honestly, even with a basic stock cooler at default settings, this shouldn't be hitting any thermal limits...
I reached out and felt the radiator and the surrounding area by hand, and honestly, it feels like it’s sitting right around that 40-degree mark I was estimating...

Guys, please help! If anyone has any suggestions on what I should do or if there are any other options left to try, I would be eternally grateful because I am looood more than stressed out right

I have projects to finish, deadlines are looming, and I'm constantly on edge wondering if my PC is going to freeze up on me again. It’s driving me insane having to manually save every two minutes just to stay safe. Sometimes it freezes four or five times within a fifteen-minute window, and then other times it goes hours without a single hiccup.

To summarize the situation: temperatures are definitely not "optimal," I've already reset the BIOS to defaults (pulled the CMOS battery on the motherboard), and I performed a clean install of Windows 10 using the official site (and even immediately after installation, as soon as I hopped online to grab the GPU driver, the whole thing froze). I’ve swapped through three different graphics drivers, ran a RAM test which came back error-free, replaced the old hard drive and ran HDTune tests on both the SSD and the HDD—everything shows as healthy with no bad sectors. I even swapped out the power strip. When I run a stability test in Intel Overdrive, the voltage stays constant, so I'm assuming the PSU is fine. It's obvious there's an issue here, but honestly, it feels impossible to test every single component individually via the process of elimination because I simply don't have the time, the space, or the gear to pull that off.

After reading a mountain of articles about potential causes, I’m starting to believe this processor and this motherboard just plain don't get along. They refuse to cooperate. A ton of people seem to be dealing with the exact same issue, while others don't have any problems at all, which is a total mindf***.

At the end of the day, I can't wrap my head around why it crashes instantly sometimes, yet runs perfectly for hours at other times... Are there any additional chipset drivers I might have missed? I've already installed the latest ones from the manufacturer's website, but nothing works. Maybe I should try a BIOS downgrade since I'm already on the latest version? I don't know anymore, but I swear I'm going to smash this thing soon and bury it in a hole somewhere.

Updating your whole rig with the latest drivers isn't always the move. You end up grabbing a bunch of beta versions that just cause headaches... I always stick to the last stable release—the one before the current one—especially if everything is running smooth in my games.

Why did you have to swap out three different GPU drivers?

Maybe try installing Windows 7 and seeing how it goes... something about Windows 10 might be tripping it up.

I went ahead and swapped out the drivers just to rule out any potential issues with the GPU software, like someone suggested, but honestly... it’s still doing the exact same thing...

Maybe try running it on generic drivers for a bit and see if that helps.

What's the Windows logs saying right before it freezes?