Complete system freeze up when streaming online movies

[xXMagicPandaXx]

For the last couple of weeks my entire system has frozen up half way through movies and series on Amazon Video at completely random times. I'll be 40 minutes into a movie and then suddenly the sound will start getting distorted and robotic followed shortly after by a black or dark brown screen and a complete system freeze up, with the fans starting to speed up a little bit, and the only thing I can do is hold the power button and restart it to be able to use my PC again.

I've tried keeping Task Manager's resource manager and MSI Afterburner monitor on either side of the screen to look for anything abnormal, but everything stays perfectly normal, temps stay in the low end, very litte RAM, Drive and CPU usage, graphics cards and CPU temps and usage are both low.

A similar thing happened when I used to use my Playstation 4 to watch movies with Netflix and Amazon video, screen will suddenly freeze up, and the only thing I can do to be able to use my system again is to cut the power to it and turn it back on, however in the case of my PS4 it completely killed it and it won't turn back on any more, and that's when I started using my PC to watch movies.

For a while I used my PC monitor, as the resolution was very low when I connected my HDMI cable from my PC to the TV, and never experienced a single issue, when I managed to increase the resolution and properly adjust the screen borders for my TV I started using that instead of my monitor, it worked fine for the first 2 weeks but then the black screens and freeze up started just like with my PS4, and it's been doing it ever since.

I've tried:

• Changing the HDMI cable.
• Updating graphics driver.
• Changing the keyboard and mouse USB ports in case either is shorting my system.
• Monitoring usage and temperatures as mentioned above.
• Defragging hard drive.

So far nothing has helped, I just updated to the latest Nvidia driver 40 minutes ago and I'll update if that solves anything, although I have my doubts.

I can play the latest games absolutely maxed out graphics for hours and never experience and performance drops or freeze ups or any propblems whatsoever, but as soon as I watch any series or movies online using my TV I'll get full system freezeup 9/10 times.

Specs:

• CPU: Intel i7-4790K @ 4.00 GHz (No overclock)
• CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 Hydro
  
• GPU: Nvidia GTX980 4 GB w/ Stock Case (No overclock)
• MOBO: Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming
  
• RAM: Corsair 8 GB Vengeance 2400mhz
  
• PSU: Corsair RM850

If there's any more details I can add please let me know and I'll do my best to answer ASAP.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Weird.
Common denominator for PS4/PC - ISP / Modem / router - talk to ISP tech.
Common denominator for PS4/PC - electrical outlet? - cable? - anything else?

Wonder if there is a cache which is not clearing, making this a 'player' software issue and saying there is no common issue.

Any error reported in Event Viewer?

"latest games absolutely maxed out graphics for hours" - all with little involvement of router/modem?

This seems real hard to figure out. Any error report would help.

 

[xXMagicPandaXx]

Never had any kind of error report or indication of what could've caused it, I've also spent days combing the internet for answers but never found anything that worked. Also while running memtest to see if it was a fault in the RAM while connected to my monitor, I came back to my PC frozen up. This time there was no player running, and I closed every program I possibly could as requested by the memtest program. This has happened on a few other rare occasions in the past few weeks, some days I can leave my PC idle for hours and come back to it working as normal, others I'll come back being unable to get the screen to come back on most likely because it froze up just like when watching movies online. I've checked the power cables they're all connected correctly and handle the right voltage, I'm going to switch the plug to another socket and see if that solves anything, I'll report back with any new developments ASAP.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Try 'power options' - all set to 'never'. Disable 'sleep' and 'hibernate'.

Double check Event Viewer.

 

[xXMagicPandaXx]

My system froze some time during the memtest which was between 21:21 and when I came back at 22:41, and the latest events before and after the freeze up were at 19:50 and 22:44 (after having forced shutdown by holding the power button and turning it back on again), so there was no event during the time of the crash.

I've also checked every other category and event and all of them have no events in the time window in which the PC froze up.

I've also disabled Sleep and Hibernate as suggested, and set my power option to High Performance from Balanced, I'll report back if that fixed anything.

 

[bazz2004]

Have you tried changing your browser and media player?

 

[xXMagicPandaXx]

I don't think it's the browser or player but more a case of the PC trying to save energy to the point where the PSU might be causing a freeze up, considering the system freezes only happen when the PC is doing very minimal tasks like watching movies or sitting idle, but no problems when running demanding programs/games. However that wouldn't explain the PS4 freezing up too, and in a similar fashion. It's also worth mentioning that I used the Amazon Video App for the PS4, and watch directly in browser from the Amazon website on PC. Nonetheless I might give trying a new browser and streaming service a try if the freeze ups still occur after having changed the power settings as mentioned previously.