• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 15:20
CEST 21:20
KST 04:20
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL21] Finals Preview: Two Legacies18Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO12 Preview2herO wins GSL Code S Season 1 (2026)5Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO4 & Finals Preview5[ASL21] Ro4 Preview: On Course12
Community News
Weekly Cups (May 11-17): Classic wins double0Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO8 Results2Weekly Cups (May 4-10): Clem, MaxPax, herO win1Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule !18Weekly Cups (April 27-May 4): Clem takes triple0
StarCraft 2
General
herO wins GSL Code S Season 1 (2026) Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO12 Preview Weekly Cups (May 11-17): Classic wins double Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO4 & Finals Preview Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - The Finalists
Tourneys
Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League GSL Code S Season 2 (2026) GSL Code S Season 1 (2026) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule !
Strategy
Custom Maps
[D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3 [A] Nemrods 1/4 players
External Content
Mutation # 527 Hell Train The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 526 Rubber and Glue Mutation # 525 Wheel of Misfortune
Brood War
General
25 Years Since Brood War Patch 1.08 (Spoiler) ASL21 Winner's Interview vespene.gg — BW replays in browser [ASL21] Finals Preview: Two Legacies UA StarCraft: Mawin (T) vs hanniGan (P) Showmatch
Tourneys
[ASL21] Grand Finals Escore Tournament StarCraft Season 2 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues Small VOD Thread 2.0
Strategy
Any training maps people recommend? Muta micro map competition [G] Hydra ZvZ: An Introduction Fighting Spirit mining rates
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Dawn of War IV ZeroSpace Megathread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
Dota 2
The Story of Wings Gaming
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread Five o'clock TL Mafia
Community
General
Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Trading/Investing Thread US Politics Mega-thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread YouTube Thread
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread McBoner: A hockey love story TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
streaming software Strange computer issues (software)
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Esports Organizations: Raisi…
TrAiDoS
Why RTS gamers make better f…
gosubay
ramps on octagon
StaticNine
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1437 users

Very specific and strange freezing problem

Forum Index > Tech Support
Post a Reply
BrTarolg
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
United Kingdom3574 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-08-01 14:35:03
August 01 2017 14:33 GMT
#1
Hi guys, if anyone can help very much appreciated!

These are my specs:
Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core i7 4790 @ 3.60GHz
Haswell 22nm Technology
RAM
16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz (11-11-11-28)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. H81M-PLUS (SOCKET 1150)
Graphics
ZOWIE XL LCD (1920x1080@144Hz)
S23B350 (1920x1080@60Hz)
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (ZOTAC International)
Storage
447GB KINGSTON SV300S37A480G SCSI Disk Device (SSD)

Fairly beasty computer, but having a very strange problem. Occasionally when im playing games, my game will "freeze" for about 1 minute. During this minute, i can alt-tab, my net (and discord+voicechat) still works.

The biggest oddity is if i have chrome open, i can alt-tab to chrome and try to open some new tabs, however when i do this the tabs will just be "loading" and wont show anything (chrome says something about cache, i've tried clearing cache before, idk if it helps)

once the "freeze" is over, everything catches up really quickly and my computer runs as normal.

I think i've had this problem since getting the computer, though it's extremely rare, until i started stressing it out with PUBG/high end games at which point it's happening every day now

A few things that seem to make this occur more often:
- pretty much only when playing games - the higher the performance, the more likely (mostly happening PUBG atm, but has happened much rarer on gwent)
- i think closing things beforehand helps (so not having extraneous stuff running, similar to above)

Additional info:

I updated all my drivers (driver boostered to try to cover all angles)
Use MSE and windows 7. Never had a virus on this PC, scans always come up clean on malwarebytes)

I have a feeling it could be to do with my graphics card, maybe some incompatability with windows 7? (i've seen issues with this specific card 980TI that it might not be using the full amount of RAM on the card, it might show anywhere between 2-6gb of the actual ram or something??) - should i try updating to windows 10?

Reason i haven't updated to wd10 is because i like using classic mode (no aero, no v-sync, means i can windowless fullscreen a lot of stuff with no problems and lag)

Haven't tried disabling MSE whilst playing (maybe it's doing some scans? idk)
Haven't tried messing around with CPU priority

I use displayfusion to manage my multiple monitors, disabled that but it didn't help

---

So yeah, any help massively appreciated. After updating all drivers, trying different amount of stuff being open/not open, checking if it's my network (it's not), the only next step would be to upgrade to windows 10?

I have an (irrational?) fear that WD10 might cause more incompatibility issues with stuff on my computer which is why i've held off upgrading, but idk, all opinions appreciated
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20328 Posts
August 01 2017 15:44 GMT
#2
Sounds like it could be a storage drive issue, try clean uninstall and install of older GPU drivers as well. This kind of thing can be awkward to diagnose but i'd personally nuke everything and reinstall win7 before going to 10
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
BrTarolg
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
United Kingdom3574 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-08-01 19:20:32
August 01 2017 16:42 GMT
#3
I want to install *older* drivers? regardless i will try a complete uninstall/reinstall of my GPU drivers

When i first installled win7 on this machine it actually came with no drivers... including no network driver (>_>) so i got some driver package online and installed on that. Seemed to work fine except for this hanging issue (it used to actually have network problems where my computer would "freeze" before being able to connect to a network, though now it seems that it just freezes randomly during games)

If anyone has a suggested (ahem) link for win7 install, lmk...

edit:

tried a full uninstall --> install of graphics drivers, did a minimal install (just the driver)

didn't help
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20328 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-08-01 19:28:43
August 01 2017 19:21 GMT
#4
Yeah, newer drivers break things sometimes

In the resource monitor - Disk section you can see the queue length on your storage drives, that might spike during some issues. If that doesn't show anything then there could still be a storage drive issue


Even though i have 2 SSD's, OS on SSD, everything set to SSD i get occasional system lock ups for 5-10 seconds because programs inexplicably try to access something on another hard drive which has to spin up. I used to get weird problems like yours for a while before my other ssd died (something would try to access it and a bunch of programs would go unresponsive for a long time before it responded) so that's why i think storage maybe. It could be something else entirely unrelated, i don't have the knowledge to diagnose that
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
BrTarolg
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
United Kingdom3574 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-08-01 23:47:49
August 01 2017 22:53 GMT
#5
Alright i'll keep my resource monitor open and see what it does on the next freeze

edit:

alright, so i caught it on the resource monitor, but i still don't know what's wrong

Before it looked like chrome was doing a ton of stuff, but then i turned off chrome in the background to make it empty. The only things im running at that point is pubg and discord

any diagnosis help T__T

idk maybe if it's the way windows can't handle the amount of memory, or i might just need to update to windows 10 and try my luck there

As you can see in the disk monitor, the only thing i saw was that the blue line spiked up all the way to the top. Then after the freeze was over i took a screenshot as you can see

Is it possible i have a faulty SSD? this doesn't happen in normal browsing/work, only when i play intensive games

Or is there something wrong with my graphics card

[image loading]
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20328 Posts
August 02 2017 00:22 GMT
#6
Huh i don't even know how to read that

maybe waiting for disk until the blue line drops to 0 again (that line goes up when disk is busy, down to 0 when it's idle)

there's another tab "disk activity" near the middle which you can expand for some more information but this is still just lots of guessing
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
BrTarolg
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
United Kingdom3574 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-08-02 15:57:29
August 02 2017 03:34 GMT
#7
Alright i'll try again tomorrow, i'll make it freeze with the disk activity tab open and see what happens haha

[image loading]

well idk.. this is during the freeze, there's actually a massive lack of activity if anything

halp T___T

i don't think there's something wrong with my SSD cause this only happens when i play games, is there a way to monitor my GPU memory?

edit: gonna get GPU-Z and try and monitor my GPU memory. if no bueno then i guess i'll have to update to windoze 10 :-/
BrTarolg
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
United Kingdom3574 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-08-04 00:22:37
August 03 2017 23:32 GMT
#8
Well new update

I had GPU-Z running the whole time to see what the issue is, but then it happened... after i closed my game just browsing the internet wtf >_>

My GPU wasn't being used much at all, so i think that isn't the problem, so i guess it might be my SSD?

Any experts here can shed some light, maybe could i try plugging the SSD into a new slot or something idk?

edit:

had a check in my bios, AHCI was on already (good, but means it wasn't IDE being the problem..)

Then i saw "aggressive LPM" enabled. Since i'm using a desktop, i've turned it off now. Perhaps this might be the fix?

double edit:

So yeah, after searching online, it seems like googling "SSD freeze" exactly matches my problems. So i guess i'll try disabling this LPM, after that i need to update my sata drivers? (never done that before, didn't know it was a thing)
BrTarolg
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
United Kingdom3574 Posts
August 04 2017 14:31 GMT
#9
Ok so, disabling LPM didn't work

It looks like i need to do something with the drivers connecting to my SSD, or i need to downgrade to IDE?

At this point i'm getting into areas where i don't want to screw up my computer, so any advice from someone who knows better (like how to update my sata drivers) appreciated
Device manager thinks it's up to date so idk...
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20328 Posts
August 05 2017 02:56 GMT
#10
IDE isn't worth using
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
BrTarolg
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
United Kingdom3574 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-08-05 11:44:37
August 05 2017 10:27 GMT
#11
Well what should i do then? I don't see any other options right now and having random freezes throughout the day seems kind of unacceptable

What kind of downsides am i taking on that justify the freezes

edit:

so more research learned some fruit

it seems the asus official drivers actually are no good (according to one anecdote who got the same problems)

tried updating to a new driver using some drivepack software, no idea where it came from but cross fingers
xM(Z
Profile Joined November 2006
Romania5299 Posts
August 05 2017 21:08 GMT
#12
go in power settings/power plan; see the one you're running under and set the HDD's/SDD's to never turn off.
(could also be something hardware related)
And my fury stands ready. I bring all your plans to nought. My bleak heart beats steady. 'Tis you whom I have sought.
BrTarolg
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
United Kingdom3574 Posts
August 05 2017 22:03 GMT
#13
Tried that already

Good news though! Haven't had any issues since installing this new driver!

who would have known that the manufacturers drivers would have bugs like this huh...
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20328 Posts
August 09 2017 04:25 GMT
#14
still going good? ;0
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
BSL
19:00
RO8 - Day 4
DragOn vs Dewalt
TerrOr vs OyAji
ZZZero.O222
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
JuggernautJason157
ProTech105
BRAT_OK 99
EmSc Tv 28
MindelVK 24
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 38755
Mini 442
ZZZero.O 222
ggaemo 176
firebathero 139
Zeus 58
Nal_rA 30
910 26
Rock 24
NaDa 16
[ Show more ]
IntoTheRainbow 13
Dota 2
Gorgc8892
Heroes of the Storm
Liquid`Hasu294
Other Games
FrodaN4398
Grubby2996
Liquid`RaSZi2100
singsing1902
fl0m1781
B2W.Neo644
mouzStarbuck302
KnowMe240
Hui .186
RotterdaM115
UpATreeSC109
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick877
StarCraft 2
EmSc Tv 28
EmSc2Tv 28
angryscii 27
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 18 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Hupsaiya 8
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Migwel
• intothetv
• LaughNgamezSOOP
StarCraft: Brood War
• 80smullet 15
• Michael_bg 9
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 1277
• lizZardDota254
Other Games
• imaqtpie1436
• WagamamaTV329
• Shiphtur296
Upcoming Events
Patches Events
10m
OSC
4h 40m
Universe Titan Cup
15h 40m
Rogue vs Percival
Wardi Open
16h 40m
Monday Night Weeklies
20h 40m
Replay Cast
1d 4h
Kung Fu Cup
1d 15h
GSL
2 days
herO vs Classic
Cure vs Clem
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
[ Show More ]
GSL
3 days
Maru vs SHIN
Zoun vs Rogue
WardiTV Spring Champion…
3 days
SKillous vs Strange
Lambo vs Strange
Ryung vs Strange
Lambo vs Ryung
Ryung vs SKillous
Lambo vs SKillous
Replay Cast
4 days
Maestros of the Game
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
RSL Revival
5 days
TBD vs SHIN
TBD vs Rogue
IPSL
5 days
ZZZero vs WorsT
Julia vs eOnzErG
Replay Cast
6 days
RSL Revival
6 days
IPSL
6 days
Dragon vs Artosis
dxtr13 vs Hawk
BSL
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Escore Tournament S2: W8
2026 GSL S1
Heroes Pulsing #1

Ongoing

2026 KK StarCraft Pro League
BSL Season 22
IPSL Spring 2026
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 2
KK 2v2 League Season 1
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
YSL S3
Acropolis #4
SCTL 2026 Spring
WardiTV Spring 2026
2026 GSL S2
RSL Revival: Season 5
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals

Upcoming

CSCL: Masked Kings S4
Escore Tournament S2: King of Kings
CSLAN 4
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Maestros of the Game 2
Bounty Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.