Windows freezing for few seconds at a time since undervolting CPU

AMD FX-8350 CPU
Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P - AMD 970 Motherboard

I tried undervolting my overheating CPU, by only 0.025v (from 1.375 to 1.35) in the BIOS, in hopes that this bodged fix would at least help for a little while before I could afford to buy new parts, however after booting back into Windows, it started to freeze for a few seconds on the occasion - strangely enough only when I open a browser like Edge or Chrome. So I reset the volts back to normal, but the issue persists.

I did the first thing I could think of whenever I mess something up in the motherboard, which is to factory reset it. No luck. I took the CMOS battery out and left it for 5 minutes before putting it back in. No luck. I tested with a different GPU (unfortunately no onboard graphics on my mobo) and the issue still persisted.

Fearing for the worst that my CPU might be fried, I booted into Ultimate Boot CD and ran some stress tests on the CPU. Oddly enough the CPU didn't even get as remotely hot as it usually does during games etc despite the stress testers describing that they 'run the CPU at 100%'. So instead I opted for running a live edition of Linux Mint.

Bizarrely, I have not been able to replicate the freezing in Linux Mint. I had about 20 tabs in Firefox open playing YouTube videos and running sites that I deem as 'CPU hungry', and played one the smallest game I have in my Steam library that I thought would be intensive enough for the CPU and GPU - Half-Life 2.

So I went back into Windows and tried concentrating more on the freezes themselves, it seems that the mouse still moves during these freezes, and on the rare occasions I would hear a beep too, the kind of beep that suggests the IO is full and needs to finish tasks before proceeding (I'm sure you techies know what kind of beep I mean!)

Therefore I had the thought that the issue might be the OS drive or even the OS itself. I completely pulled out that drive and installed a clean Windows 10 on my secondary drive, hopefully ruling out that the issue would be related to the drive or the OS. Unfortunately even after re-installing Windows on a completely separate drive, all I had to do was open Edge and the same freezing occurred again.

I find it really bewildering because I cannot replicate the issue at all in Linux Mint, yet it happens in a clean Windows installation. Is Linux really that much less resourceful than Windows on the CPU? Did I damage the CPU by undervolting it? Is there any other way I can reset the motherboard or CPU incase it is still storing the old voltage somewhere?

Regardless, I'm really hoping someone can offer some help or advice as I really do not want to buy a new CPU and/or motherboard until I have more confidence that one of those are the culprit. Thank you so much for reading my large post and an even bigger thanks for anyone that replies with help or advice! :)

Hi Lance1, thank you so much for your response!

Lance1 said:

You can run the DELL Diagnostics "Your Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P manual" indicates its a DELL. On bootup by tapping the F12 key and select Diagnostics.

F12 is the boot menu. I also checked Google for a method to get into the diagnostics for the Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P but no relevant results.

Lance1 said:

What version of Win 10 did you install? Please post your full specs. "See Your System Specs" Run the app and copy and past into your profile.

I installed the latest Windows 10 ISO that Microsoft provides on their website (Windows 10 October 2020). The ISO name is 'Win10_20H2_v2_English_x64' if that is any help.

This isn't actually my PC and I am posting this thread to help a friend, hence I have not put the specs into my profile. Currently the PC is running a RAM test but if this passes I will do my best to paste the system specifications from the application you linked, otherwise let me know if you require information for a specific piece of hardware and I can let you know immediately.

Thanks again!

- - - Updated - - -

RAM test passed. Computer specifications according to the software pasted below:

Computer type: Desktop PC
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit 19042 Multiprocessor Free
CPU: AMD FX(tm)-8350 Eight-Core Processor
Motherboard: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. 970A-D3P
BIOS Date: 05/24/13 17:25:39 Ver: 04.06.05Memory: Corsair Vengeance DDR3 4x8GB RAM (32GB)
Graphics Card(s): MSI Radeon R9 390 | Nvidia GTS 450
Sound Card: Onboard
Hard Drives: (1) TOSHIBA 2TB DT01ACA200 | (2) ADATA 120GB SX930 (3) ADATA 120GB S510
PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower 650W
Browser: Edge & Chrome
Antivirus: Windows 10 built-in Antivirus

I omitted any irrelevant specifications such as monitors, case, etc.

Any further help is greatly appreciated from anyone that is able to! Many thanks :)

Terrum said:

Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P

That's the first motherboard I had with my FX 8350. Unfortunately, it had a bent corner and it looked like it wasn't damaged, but it seemed to still be flaky. Looked like Linpack would fail randomly and frequently when you have more than 4 GB of RAM accessed.

TMK, that's not an OEM motherboard! I suspect I got screwed by a third-party seller in 2014. (bent corner and Linpack erroring out with more than a single stick of RAM)

In summer, 2015, I changed the motherboard to an Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0. (made in 2014, IIRC, so a late production, IIRC)

Don't think that the freezes are related to cpu under voltage. As you said, works fine under Linux.
Try to run under Windows with no Internet. I think the freezes are related to a windows update search.

Megahertz said:

Don't think that the freezes are related to cpu under voltage. As you said, works fine under Linux.

Try to run under Windows with no Internet. I think the freezes are related to a windows update search.

Hi Megahertz, thank you so much for your response. Whilst I do not believe the issue is entirely related to Windows Update, this information has helped me progress!

For the record, I will confirm that the PC is currently running on a completely clean Windows 10 installation, using a different drive to the original setup to rule out being a drive issue, and I have run many different stress testers and memory testers with no fail. Also any freezing manages to recover itself usually all the time without needing to reboot, although the freezes can last anywhere from 2-30 seconds. I can move my mouse, but I cannot type, sometimes I can move windows, sometimes I cannot.

I unplugged the ethernet cable as per your suggestion, and strangely enough there has been no freezes since. I was beginning to think you were right that Windows Update was the issue. Once I plugged the ethernet cable back in, I immediately ran Windows Updates in hopes to see freezing, but in actuality, the updates progressed without a hitch, up to the point of there being no updates available. No freezes nor crashes.

After restarting my PC for the updates, the freezing still occurs. Unfortunately it's so intermittent that it's actually difficult to replicate in a way that I feel would be helpful enough to mention. I haven't been able to replicate the freezing at all with the ethernet plugged out, but this could also be because I'm unable to visit any sites (such as YouTube) which actually use the components intensely.

I apologise for this lengthy post, especially as it has not offered any useful information, but:
TL;DR: The PC did not freeze when running Windows Update. Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated!

If you have a overheating issue (over 80ºC) BIOS and the CPU itself can run on slower clock to protect the CPU.
What are the temperatures you're seeing?

Thank you both for your responses.

I installed and ran Sledgehammer to disable updates, freezing still occurs on Edge. I did run Windows Update just to check if it really was disabled, it doesn't say anything about being disabled but it is stuck on 'checking'.

I also tried using a USB wifi dongle instead of the ethernet just to try rule out more potential issues, still freezes but actually the mouse freezes too with the USB wifi, so that's different. I am beginning to think it might be a motherboard issue now.

I've been checking temps consistently, even before I made this thread, normally it's 20c but under load (during stress tests and such) it hits around 50c. The freezing happens even whilst the CPU is at 20c so I really am not convinced the issue is related to the overheating as when it is overheating the PC will lock up fully and reboot after a while (it's only when I am gaming that it reaches near 80c). I have my case completely open and a fan pointing into it just incase anyway but I am still unconvinced this issue is related to the overheating.

Thank you once again everyone for your help so far and I am really appreciating the suggestions, and look forward to any more that you anyone may have!