Computer Freezing

• Syliara wrote on 2013-12-26 02:52
  Alright, so I've been having this problem for a few days now and its starting to annoy me.... Basically my computer is freezing every couple of seconds for about a second. It's most noticeable with skype as it happens much more frequently. All I could see on task manager that is noticeable is my SSD keeps spiking and dropping in performance (goest to 100% then drops to 0% or close to it). Not sure if that has anything to do with it, but thats the only noticeable thing I could find. I can see the spikes in game, as well as with my browser and even when im going through my files in my computer. I did a virus scan and came up with nothing, and there wasn't anything noticeable that happened recently that I can look at to determine if it was the problem. I'm not very tech savvy and have asked other people about this problem to no avail, if anyone can figure this problem out and at least tell me if I need to replace a part or if its a simple fix that would be much appreciated. If you would like any specific info then don't be afraid to ask for it, however there are lines I wont cross in posting in a public forum (i.e. personal info and what not). Any help would be appreciated ^^
• Yoorah wrote on 2013-12-26 05:59
  [S]Can I have your social security number?[/S]
  
  By SSD, do you mean CPU? If that spikes to 100%, then something is using up the processing power on your computer during that time. If by Skype you mean video calls, you need to keep in mind that this requires encoding video, which can slow down less powerful PCs if the video is HD.
  
  You can look at which process (program) uses the bulk of the CPU resources by looking at the processes tab and sorting by CPU utilization (notice the arrow):
  

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/RuQSfyE.png]

  
  When it's all used by "Idle", it means your system is idle, which is OK. Your computer should be idle most of the time.
  
  Other than that, it's pretty hard to guess what could be causing it. You could try running Spybot Search and Destroy--I had a friend run this out of curiosity on his buggy computer and it seems to have fixed some things for him.
• Syliara wrote on 2013-12-26 18:48
  [SPOILER="What i was talking about"]

  [Image: http://puu.sh/5Zll2.png]

  
  

  [Image: http://puu.sh/5ZlmR.png]

  [/SPOILER]
  
  Not video calls, just normal skype text which is the really weird thing. I did look at the processes at first and mabinogi is the only thing that takes up an unreasonable amount of the cpu, however mabi doesnt need to be running for the freezing to happen.
  
  I can try the spybot search thing and see if it helps. I can understand it can be difficult to troubleshoot something like this, just giving it a shot I suppose.
• Yoorah wrote on 2013-12-26 19:38
  Oh... OCZ. I hate to say it but their drives are kind of crappy. They use Sandforce chips with buggy firmware, which makes the whole thing behave like it's bipolar and could be why you're seeing this. :(
  
  I'm not too familiar with OCZ drives besides that, you should read research on issues with the OCZ drives. I suspect you will find many posts, and one of those could be describing your issue.
  
  Some easy things I'd check first:
  1) Does your SSD software have an optimization function? Try running that.
  2) Does your SSD run the latest firmware? An update could fix some bugs if available.
  3) Does your motherboard SATA controller run the latest drivers/firmware? Check which device is used on your motherboard, which software version you're running, and what's available from the manufacturer right now (ex. Intel RST drivers).
  4) Does your motherboard run the latest BIOS? An update could fix some bugs.
  
  Feel free to post if you're not sure how to check any of the above.
• Syliara wrote on 2013-12-26 19:44
  Unfortunately, I do not know how to find any of that so it would b much appreciated if you could tell me.
• Cho wrote on 2013-12-26 20:01
  Out of curiosity, it's not Skype that's causing your freezing, right?
  
  Because if so, there was an update on Skype awhile back that made me computer freeze consistently when I ran Skype for some reason. Reverting Skype to a previous version helped fixed the issue for me.
• Yoorah wrote on 2013-12-26 20:10
  Ok well...
  1) After a quick search, I haven't found any info if the OCZ software has such a feature. Install the software and check for yourself, or ignore this point for now.
  2) You should be able to check if a firmware update is available by running the OCZ software, which you can get from here: http://ocz.com/consumer/download/firmware
  3) Open Device Manager (start > search > device manager) and check the driver version on the controller like so:
  

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/cjjQZmK.png]

  
  Note that I'm not running the latest driver myself (latest from Intel appears to be version 12.5, but that's fine in most cases. I'd update it if I was having issues. You need to know which controller you have (Device Manager tells you) before you can look for a driver to update, though.
  4) You need to find out your motherboard's model, assuming you have a custom built desktop. If you have a pre-built desktop or laptop, you need to get the model number from the sticker on the back and look it up on the manufacturer's site. It'll have a download page for your model with the latest BIOS available for download.
  
  Also, check out this post about properly configuring a system for use with a SSD: http://blog.ocztechnology.com/?p=178
• Syliara wrote on 2013-12-26 20:26

  Quote from Cho;1181977:

  Out of curiosity, it's not Skype that's causing your freezing, right?
  
  Because if so, there was an update on Skype awhile back that made me computer freeze consistently when I ran Skype for some reason. Reverting Skype to a previous version helped fixed the issue for me.

  
  
  No its not skype, skype is just the most noticeable but it still freezes when skype isnt up.
  
  @Yoorah, thank you ill look into all of that after I get home from work.
• Yoorah wrote on 2013-12-26 21:09
  No problem, and as a side note: I hope you haven't been trying to speed up the SSD by defragmenting it using the Windows utility. SSDs don't like being defragmented, unlike regular HDDs.
• Osayidan wrote on 2013-12-26 21:44
  Active time on a disk is totally normal to spike up and down, especially if that drive has your OS and applications. The problem is when it's always at 100% active (or 0% idle depending on what you monitor with). What is concerning though is that the spikes seem to be too consistent, so what you'll want to do is identify what application is causing it.
  
  To do that you'll go in task manager, where you got those screenshots from, and click "open resource monitor" on the bottom of that page.
  
  In the resource monitor go to "disk" and in that view it'll show you a list of processes and their disk activity. You'll want to find the ones with high numbers and then see if it makes sense.
  
  I find what often causes this is background processes like backups, antivirus or updates.
• Syliara wrote on 2013-12-26 22:28

  Quote from Osayidan;1181998:

  Active time on a disk is totally normal to spike up and down, especially if that drive has your OS and applications. The problem is when it's always at 100% active (or 0% idle depending on what you monitor with). What is concerning though is that the spikes seem to be too consistent, so what you'll want to do is identify what application is causing it.
  
  To do that you'll go in task manager, where you got those screenshots from, and click "open resource monitor" on the bottom of that page.
  
  In the resource monitor go to "disk" and in that view it'll show you a list of processes and their disk activity. You'll want to find the ones with high numbers and then see if it makes sense.
  
  I find what often causes this is background processes like backups, antivirus or updates.

  
  
  Ill give this a shot too when I get home, however I didnt see any noticeable apps that were taking alot of cpu up last time I checked, and it would have to start up when my comp starts up because it affects it even when I log into my pc. I wish I could give more info on it, but I have nothing to reference to see what could cause it honestly. Only other thing I could do is do a whole wipe and back up my files to save them but thats a last resort.
• Osayidan wrote on 2013-12-26 22:57
  The thing I mentioned isn't for CPU, it's for disk activity. An app can look perfectly fine on disk/RAM usage but be hogging your disk I/O, the area I mentioned in resource monitor will let you see that, if it's the case.
• Syliara wrote on 2013-12-27 03:29
  Ok osay I did wat you asked, however it did not solve the problem unfortunately. I also closed alot of processes and now the only things taking up disk activity are the "System" (assuming that is my actual computer or w/e), Skype, and firefox (my browser). Still getting alot of freezes from wat ive seen. Do you have any other ideas?
  
  @yoorah I will also try your ideas, osay's were just alot easier to do in a few minutes. And no, I havent defragged, I honestly dislike defraging for some reason and I guess for good reason this time.
• Osayidan wrote on 2013-12-27 12:54
  If you didn't find any processes using up high amounts of disk I/O then go along with what yoorah said. Since this is an OCZ disk I suspect it's either bad firmware or just a bad disk. OCZ doesn't have a very good reputation.
• Syliara wrote on 2013-12-27 22:27

  Quote from Osayidan;1182165:

  If you didn't find any processes using up high amounts of disk I/O then go along with what yoorah said. Since this is an OCZ disk I suspect it's either bad firmware or just a bad disk. OCZ doesn't have a very good reputation.

  
  
  Wish I'd known this when I purchased it...