Desktop PC - cpu pegs and pc locks up

Hello - here is what I know:

It's been a couple of months now that my pc would just randomly lock up. No error on screen, just a hard lock and no ability to ctrl-alt-del or anything - just power off and on again. The time is random - it might be 20 minutes, it might be several hours. The pc for the most part is getting used to surf the web - primarily YouTube, some word processing (very little but some, using LibreOffice).

I leave my pc on - I don't physically turn it off. Its settings will put it to sleep though. Sometimes it would lock up while I was using it, other times it would lock up before it went to sleep, others times it would lock up while in sleep mode.

I turned off everything that would allow it to sleep, or have a screen saver. I would leave the task manager running on the CPU tab so I could see if there was anything noticeable. Every time except one that it locked up like this, the CPU pegs and the system locks (I'll attach screen shots)

What I've tried:
-Updated Windows 11 Pro - latest update from their site using an ISO to install over top. It took it to the latest version, which I was a version behind on releases.
-Ran dxdiag - found nothing, no errors on any of the tabs.
-Used the Alienware diags to watch the heat readings and as near as I can tell, it's not overheating and all the fans are functioning properly - 3 system fans, video card fan and CPU fan.
-Ran the drive scan diagnostics you find under the properties tab/tools on the hard drive - no errors
-Opened the case - checked all the connections from the power supply to ensure they were seated properly - they were.
-Pulled the video card and reseated it to ensure it was tight in its slot - it was.
-Checked the CPU to make sure it was still seated. I did not take it out as I didn't have any paste to redo the fan/heatsink, but it looks like it is well seated.
-Upgraded the RAM from 8gig to 32 gig. No change, still locks up.
-I saw something about how YouTube could cause your CPU to "sweat" if you were running an ad-blocker, which I was - so I turned that off, no change, still locks up.

I'm not sure what else to try. I'm going to uninstall the ad-blockers from Chrome, completely, reboot and let the system run to see if it locks up still, jus in case there is some weird residual hanging around from them.

Other than that, I'm not sure what else to try? Power supply maybe? I can test the voltages coming out of it, I haven't done that yet, but that doesn't seem right to me for some reason where the CPU pegs and then the system locks up. I can't make the lock up happen, it's totally random. I might be able to sit there and use it for 5 hours one time, and nothing, the next it might be 20 minutes then bam! Locked up.

Thanks for looking - I appreciate any help or direction you might be able to give.

Sorry for the photo quality - not sure how else to get that info here as the system is locked up, so cell phone pic was all I could do.

Hello @sdkidaho and welcome to ElevenForum.

It looks like your Ethernet is spiking too, when the CPU spikes.
I would think that would be caused by an infection maybe.

Try running an AV scan, followed by a Malwarebytes scan.
A good online scanner to run would be ESET Online Scanner...

Just run it's "One Time Scan...




Please use screen shots, rather than camera pics.

I do have Malwarebytes installed - about a week ago. It doesn't show anything. I keep the Kaspersky up to date as well, and it is very rare that I download anything. I'll scan with the ESET to be sure though - thank you.

sdkidaho said:

I do have Malwarebytes installed - about a week ago. It doesn't show anything. I keep the Kaspersky up to date as well, and it is very rare that I download anything. I'll scan with the ESET to be sure though - thank you.

Click to expand...

It could also be something like a hidden bitcoin miner or the like.
Might want to grab a few screen shots when not doing anything on the computer or online.

Try just disconnecting the internet and seeing what happens?

I also ran the utility from the Dell website. It tested a few things:



It shows all my drivers are up to date.

Running a full scan from the ESET online showed everything to be clean.

sdkidaho said:

Running a full scan from the ESET online showed everything to be clean.

Click to expand...

The only other thing I can think of is the CPU temperature.
What kind of CPU temps are you seeing?

I saw where you said the Alienware Diag showed the temps as OK, but what were the temps?

This free program will show you the min., max., and current temps..

It is very possible Kaspersky is interfering with some scheduled task Windows is trying to do. Sometimes 3rd-party AVs do this...and it is not uncommon that even Windows Defender itself causes issues, blocking some task from completing. Another thing that you could try is to disable Windows Fast Startup. Sometimes the "memory" stored in between bootups gets corrupted. Also a couple of reboots, keeping the computer on for a while in between, may fix this issue.

If none of this helps, then maybe do a full log collection using the tool (set of scripts) meant to be used in BSOD issues. And then post the whole set of logs here.

Ghot said:

The only other thing I can think of is the CPU temperature.
What kind of CPU temps are you seeing?

Click to expand...

I ran those tests last night after I got home - started about 9pm and finished around midnight. I rebooted the pc and left it running with just task manager to see if anything weird showed up on the ethernet. Unfortunately Windows tried to run an update, which is now stuck in my task bar and will not update despite telling it to "update and restart" multiple times. 2024-01 Cumulative Update Preview for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8.1 for Windows 11, version 23H2 for x64 (KB5034467) is the one not wanting to install for some reason.

So I rebooted this morning while I was gone for a couple of hours and left it with just the task manager running again and came back to the system being locked up (was really hoping it had something to do with Chrome and not running it, I was hoping to find the pc not locked up). I don't see anything that stands out in the ethernet activities while it locked (pics below).

I ran the program you said to, the pc has essentially been on nonstop since yesterday, and here are the average temps:

Here are the max temps:

The program does show some errors happening - I'm not sure what that is, but included a screen shot of that as well.

@zbook

Check the 3rd pic on the far right. WHEA errors?

Here's a bigger shot of that, and those errors are growing. @Ghot @zbook

SlicEnDicE said:

If none of this helps, then maybe do a full log collection using the tool (set of scripts) meant to be used in BSOD issues. And then post the whole set of logs here.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure what tool it is you are referencing to do the logs?

sdkidaho said:

I'm not sure what tool it is you are referencing to do the logs?

Click to expand...

sdkidaho said:

I'm not sure what tool it is you are referencing to do the logs?

Click to expand...

look at the post above this one (#12). There are all the instructions...

@Ghot @zbook here is what is under the PCI that might relate to those errors:

...Anyways, it seems you have some issues with your PCIe BUSes...the log collector may be able to shed a light on the problem

BSOD Log:

sdkidaho said:

BSOD Log:

Click to expand...

Good.

Now just wait for @zbook to get a chance to analyze that.

Please post a share link for event viewer:

zbook said:

Please post a share link for event viewer:

How to share event logs in case of a computer issue - Your Windows Guide

This article explains how to share Event Logs from the event viewer in case if you have a Windows problem as investigation would help.

www.yourwindowsguide.com

Click to expand...

OneDrive That's for the System. Do you need Application as well?

Yes please post both.