PC Lock ups whilst downloading

[Varska]

I'm not sure if this is the right subsection of the forums but here goes.

I've been having a major issue with my PC for going on 2 months now (PC is about 6 months old) which occurs when I'm downloading -anything-, although it happens most frequently on steam.

It has happened when I've used Firefox to download, steam to download, a games client window to update a patch. After a random amount of time, anywhere from 5mb to 5gb into the download, my computer locks up. Now it doesn't lock up in the normal sense that the screen is frozen, but all my devices connected to the PC just shut off, but the PC is still running in the background. I can press the power button on the PC case to being a shutdown but it usually completely locks up on the 'Shutting Down' screen.

I hope somebody can help, I have been struggling for this crippling issue now and I've asked in a few places and people have just shrugged their shoulders

Not sure if it's a hardware or a software fault, but I'm almost at the point of formatting.

PC Specs-
Motherboard - Z77X-D3H
Gigabyte
RAM - 8GB Corsair Ram
CPU - 3570k Ivybridge
Graphics Card - GeForce GTX295

 

[PP Mguire]

What is your PSU?

If you have another NIC or wireless card try that while disabling the other.
Dumb question, but do you have enough space on your HDD?

 

[Varska]

My PSU is a corsair TX850

I don't have another wireless adapter (Use TC Link) but I actually just ordered one off amazon to give it a try, see if it's that, you suggesting it might be gives me some hope for it.

Yeah I have like 700gb free

 

[PP Mguire]

Well my initial thought was there might be something wrong with the NIC itself. Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the device AND drivers?

 

[Varska]

I haven't. When I get the new one ill completely uninstall the drivers and install the new one, see if it helps. I'll let you know

 

[PP Mguire]

Well might as well try before you buy a new one. If that is all that needs to be done then no need wasting money.

 

[Varska]

Reinstalled the device now, trying to download 2-3 things at once to force a crash, will let you know.

 

[Varska]

Just downloaded 18gb whilst playing games / having a stream open.

No crashes, here's hoping you've fixed it. If it has been fixed, I can't thank you enough <3

 

[PP Mguire]

Sometimes that's all it takes.

 

[Varska]

I've reformatted recently because of some serious issues I was having.

The problem has returned in full force, i've tried reinstalling the wireless drivers and even using the new wireless adapter I got, and it just crashes immediately