win 10 freezes

[mikelovesfish]

After installing FF twice the PC froze with blank screen after it goes to sleep mode. Can't get to login page, no response from KB or mouse. Only waited 1-2 min before doing a hard reboot. windows recovers ok but I can't keep risking this behaviour. I don't have 100% proof but this started exactly after running this service. My CPU shows 50% and GPU 45% so it's running for sure. anybody else have this problem and/or solutions?

[BobWilliams757]

What is FF, and if it's Folding@Home, which version are you running and what are the settings you are using?

If you have folding installed to only run at idle, chances are you have a hardware instability that is being exposed by folding. Benchmarks, stability testing, memory testing, and other methods might help you nail down what exactly is going on. Folding doesn't tolerate hardware faults that many other programs and software will, it requires a solid system in terms of both hardware and software.

[mikelovesfish]

you are correct, meant Folding@Home.
ver 7.6.21 using default settings as per installation. Running while idle.
Not sure what settngs you're asking for.
what benchmark s/w you recommend?

[BobWilliams757]

For benchmarks, just about anything you can throw at it that creates a load and can run in long term cycles. I tend to use Memtest, Prime95, 3D Mark, MSI Kombustor... really anything you can find that works things hard. I've used multiple tests running at once at times, and it can push thermals higher.

As for settings, are you both GPU and CPU folding at the same time? Only one or the other? And have you done any folding with the settings set to other options? You can do just one or the other if you prefer and this might be good to try for troubleshooting. Using slot settings in FAH Control you can add the option pause-on-start true to slots, and that doesn't let them fold until you unpause them.

You can also configure the CPU slot to less cores (threads) if desired. The default setting of -1 will reserve one thread for feeding the GPU or other use, and fold on all other threads. You can manually enter any number that is less than your number of threads available. While this does limit CPU speed, it also frees up more resources for your other needs and should keep temps or fans at lower speeds.

If you don't already have something to monitor temps you should get something and install it. HWMonitor works well, as does MSI Afterburner. If you already understand how to set fan curves and such in your BIOS settings, make sure you have settings that will spin up the fans well before you start reaching thermal limits. Folding can stress both CPU and stock cooling especially, GPUs vary by brand and case cooling.


I run 24/7 but if you want it to run only at idle you can also just do this manually to see if this is causing the issue. Unless you are doing gaming or something intensive you can probably just keep folding, then pause slots if needed for gaming. I would suggest you set the slots to pause on start, then experiment to find out what is causing the issue AFTER some basic stress tests and benchmarks.

Folding will find any flaws in your system that other software might not find.

[mikelovesfish]

Hi Bob, FYI follow up, I disabled the GPU folding and it ran for more than a day without freezing. As soon as I enabled GPU it froze within 5 minutes while using outlook. So I Thought GPU was the problem so I paused it again and started using outlook again and it froze again! so it appears it's a combination of multitasking. I'm afraid this service won't work for me as much as I'd like to facilitate it. I don't have the time to invest in learning/troubleshooting this at the moment, so if you can kindly tell me the best way to stop folding until I decide to get back to this later on, without un-installing the application?

[dieglhix]

For benchmarks, just about anything you can throw at it that creates a load and can run in long term cycles. I tend to use Memtest, Prime95, 3D Mark, MSI Kombustor... really anything you can find that works things hard. I've used multiple tests running at once at times, and it can push thermals higher.

As for settings, are you both GPU and CPU folding at the same time? Only one or the other? And have you done any folding with the settings set to other options? You can do just one or the other if you prefer and this might be good to try for troubleshooting. Using slot settings in FAH Control you can add the option pause-on-start true to slots, and that doesn't let them fold until you unpause them.

You can also configure the CPU slot to less cores (threads) if desired. The default setting of -1 will reserve one thread for feeding the GPU or other use, and fold on all other threads. You can manually enter any number that is less than your number of threads available. While this does limit CPU speed, it also frees up more resources for your other needs and should keep temps or fans at lower speeds.

If you don't already have something to monitor temps you should get something and install it. HWMonitor works well, as does MSI Afterburner. If you already understand how to set fan curves and such in your BIOS settings, make sure you have settings that will spin up the fans well before you start reaching thermal limits. Folding can stress both CPU and stock cooling especially, GPUs vary by brand and case cooling.


I run 24/7 but if you want it to run only at idle you can also just do this manually to see if this is causing the issue. Unless you are doing gaming or something intensive you can probably just keep folding, then pause slots if needed for gaming. I would suggest you set the slots to pause on start, then experiment to find out what is causing the issue AFTER some basic stress tests and benchmarks.

Folding will find any flaws in your system that other software might not find.

Constant load is not the same than dispar loads, e.g. gaming can be more "violent" for a GPU than folding because of constant changes of voltage. I've personally seen dying GPUs that won't crash in Furmark but it would in heavy games.

[mikelovesfish]

I don't do gaming and I basically do very little nowadays with my PC. I usually have two browsers open, chrome and firefox with at least 5-10 tabs open on each for references and reading etc., outlook running in background and nothing else I can consider taxing.

[toTOW]

Is it a nVidia GPU ?

One thing to try is to set Power management setting to Prefer maximum performance in nVidia Control Panel. It will prevent GPU accelerated applications (like web browsers) from messing with GPU power states.

[BobWilliams757]

I don't do gaming and I basically do very little nowadays with my PC. I usually have two browsers open, chrome and firefox with at least 5-10 tabs open on each for references and reading etc., outlook running in background and nothing else I can consider taxing.

It might be worth checking to see if Outlook is up to date. Either way, if it seems that Outlook is the only trigger, you might have found the problem. Short of another email program to use, sometimes certain things just don't play well with the computer without some tweaking of settings.


As for a way to disable F@H (hopefully it doesn't come to that) the easiest and most resource efficient way would be to remove it from the Startup Apps in Windows so it doesn't load at all. The app is actually called HideConsole, just turn it off and reboot your system. If you get things figured out where you can fold at times, you can also allow F@H to load with both slots paused, so no work is done until you unpause it.

[mikelovesfish]

thanks for all your responses, you guys are amazing. I can confidently say that after one week of pausing F@H and not one freeze, it's definetely related to the folding. I'm going away for week and my original thought was that it would be great to leave the PC folding while I don't need it, but unfortunately I haven't figured out what's causing the freezing so I'll have to troubleshoot next month. In the mean time I appreciate all your help and hopefully we can pick it up again later on since this is a worthy cause for sure.