Random freezing with AsRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0

[ManuteSwol]

Re: Random freezing with AsRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0

I'm afraid this the case here..

I was thinking it might be an inferior capacitors (advertised as high quality though), but yeah...

Probably a dead end.

Ironically, this issue has recently gotten much worse for me.

I was averaging about one freeze per month... in the past week or so, I've seen it happen several times.

This last time, I wasn't even at the desktop.. it was idling with a not very demanding game open.

I'm probably going to go ahead and just replace the motherboard at this point.

I guess I should look into the warranty at this point... but can't definitively prove it's the board, don't want to pay to send this turd in.. and quite frankly, don't know if I'd want it back... and I'd be without for who knows how long..

[ManuteSwol]

Re: Random freezing with AsRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0

So I've down several things lately and haven't froze.

I'm not close to declaring victory, but thought I'd share what I found.

First, I lowered my CPU voltage as far as it would go w/o freezing on Prime95

I increased RAM voltage by 0.025

I disabled C1E

I increased Minimum Processor State to 100% in Windows Power Options

[bahram_alinezhad]

Re: Random freezing with AsRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0

Again, I only have a little bit of knowledge from a components standpoint but..

I researched this issue quite a bit. I thought it was related to the video card, but I now suspect the motherboard. Modern CPUs (and GPUs for that matter) are all about efficiency and can jump clock speeds instantly due to increased load. Some of these menial tasks I suspect, can cause multiple fluctuations in clock speed within a very short amount of time. When this clock speed jump occurs, additional power is required. If something is lacking on the motherboard -- something underpowered, underclocked or there's a component of lesser quality (say, a capacitor).. the CPU isn't going to get the juice it needs when it needs it. Result? A hard freeze.

If I wanted to invest more time in this, I'd try increasing various voltages, but the problem is so sporadic.. you'd go 3-4 weeks thinking you're in the clear, then the same issue occurs once more.

There's a small piece of me that thinks it is NIC- or USB-related, but how often is it we are using the NIC or USB? It is constantly being worked...

I fear we've just been saddled with inferior motherboards which will haunt us with occasional freezes.

Power phases/VRM is very important factor in motherboard quality, as well as its capacitors. However, the above issue seems not to be related to capacitors; Asrock capacitors are of good quality ceramic types which never inflate. On the other hand, I believe Asrock has motherboards without good voltage regulators. As a proof, I have two external hard drives (portable size), connect them to various desktop/laptop computers. Each computer these drives can work on with a single USB cable, is a stable, reliable computer. Inversely, each computer these drives can't work without using another auxiliary cable, has sporadic stability problems. I relate this USB power to board's Power phases and voltage regulators.
Even though, changing memories or at least its settings is best practice to improve the stability.
I have an Asrock motherboard with unsupported corsair memories which has stability problems. When the room is warm, 8,8,8,24 works good, while when room is cold, working timings is 7,7,7,24.