I honestly don't know where to turn. I feel really stuck. If someone can help me, I would be so grateful. Last week, I ordered the parts and built my second PC. It all went really well and I researched for a long time to make sure everything worked together. It booted up on my first try. But after installing Windows 8.1, it keeps freezing on me. It seems to be when I use the internet. It's at complete random but sometimes when I click on a link or open a new tab, it will say "waiting for cache" at the bottom with a blank screen. At this point if I try to open any other tab or anything it will not load. After a few seconds, everything starts to lock up, other programs, the start bar. Then about 30 seconds later the screen flickers and everything comes back into action. I looked it up and have tried numerous things, like moving a folder that chrome uses to the C drive and a bunch of other things. It is not helping at all. The other issue is that I can't tell if it's just related to the browser. It seems that sometimes it will lock up when not using the browser but I haven't confirmed that. I can seem to play games and use my Adobe programs without freezing. I just don't know what to do, because it seems like such an odd problem and if I took it in somewhere, its hard to reproduce because sometimes it doesn't lock up for a long time. I have re-installed Windows and it still doesn't help. I used Memtest to test my RAM and everything turned up fine. No errors. If anyone has any ideas of what to do or at least could direct me to somewhere I can get help, I would appreciate it so much. I just can't stand not being able to happily use my new build and I feel like I wasted $1000+ until I can get it working. I hate that I would rather use my 5-year old computer just because it's more stable.

 

To me this sounds like either an IO error in the primary HDD or a program you've installed eating up all the internal bandwidth. Could also be a RAM issue, but you've kinda ruled that out with memtest. The other idea I've got is possibly a bad Windows install (did you pirate it?) but I don't know how to detect nor fix that.

I would suggest swapping the port the HDD is plugged in, replugging the HDD cables, and running tests on your HDD to check for stability and bad sectors. You can also look through your installed program's list to find anything there that shouldn't be, but that part is harder to give specific instructions with (I use intuition and google).

 

If Windows is on the SSD, have you checked if the SSD is in the latest firmware? Also, check if TRIM is enabled (should be, but check anyway).

EDIT: also, check what temperature the CPU is running at.
EDIT2: and one more thing, remove 2 of the RAM DIMMs. Check if its stable with just 2 DIMMS in dual channel mode. If not, take out the third DIMM and see if its stable in single channel mode.

 

Update SSD firmware using the toolkit provided by the manufacturer. e.g. Samsung Magician. Too much effort to find out for PNY on my phone's internet.

It might be a good idea for you to install (any) Windows on the HDD, even if only to check if the problem persists from a fresh install on a HDD.

 

What do you mean?
The computer boots into the new Windows installation on the new drive?
The BIOS (Or UEFI) is where you can change what drive the computer uses to boot.

 

The way to stop it from breaking the install on your SSD? Remove the SSD when you install it. That way the boot sector won't be rewritten to accommodate multiboot.

EDIT: Also, don't use a key. Use the 30 day trial before activation window.
EDIT2: Also, doesn't have to be Windows 8 you use on the HDD. Could be Windows XP or 7. You're only doing this to troubleshoot, and will likely wipe it afterwards.

 

I installed Windows on my HDD. So far it seems to be working fine. But I am going to continue using it to make sure. If that SSD is the issue, what should I do, should I send it back for a replacement, or maybe a different brand altogether? Or should I try some more things like moving the cache. I previously moved the cache out of the Chrome folder and onto the root C drive in the SSD, but maybe putting it on the HDD would be a better idea?

 

Now I'm having trouble. Because I previously moved it to the root of the C drive and now I'm having trouble moving it back or anywhere else from there as it is already a link. Everything I try doesn't work.

 

Who says I'm using it for gaming?

Anyways, I kind of figured out some work-arounds. I have my cache for Chrome and Firefox on my HDD now. So far so good.

 

Haha, well honestly, I just got it because I wanted it. I mainly use my computer for video editing and Photoshop. But because I can, I'm sure I'll play the occasional game.