I'll begin with stating that I'm troubleshooting a friend's PC and not my own, so updates in response to actions to take may take a bit. For reasons that I have not been able to explain his system will completely freeze at random and loop static until the system is hard restarted. I'll detail what we've tried so far and other information that may help. As it stands now I'm pretty stumped. System specs:
CPU: FX-6300 (not overclocked)
Heatsink: CoolerMaster Hyper 212+
Moterhboard: Gigabyte GA-990FX-UD3
RAM: Patriot Viper 8 GB DDR3-1600
HDD: Seagate 7200.11 1 TB
GPU: eVGA GTX 770OC 2GB (have also tried a GTX 560 Ti)
PSU: Corsair CX-600M
Wireless NIC: Unknown make (not currently being used, used when in a wifi enviroment)
Case: InWin GR One (switched from a previous case)
OS: Windows 7 Pro x64
System Temps
CPU (idle): 45 degrees Celsius
CPU (load): 60 - 74 degrees Celsius
GPU (idle): 56 degrees Celsius
GPU (load): 72-76 degrees Celsius
What's been tried
1) At first we thought it may be the PSU was being overtaxed. Previous one was an OCZ 500 watt PSU so it was replaced. Did not fix the issue.
2) Thought it may be due to the system overheating. Temperatures for this system have typically been on the high side due to the enviroment but always within tolerance. This prompted moving to a better case than the previous one, should have also eliminated any issues from motherboard mounting causing shorts as the system had to be transferred. Issue persisted.
3) As part of moving the system from one case to the other the heatsink was removed, paste was cleaned off and a new thin layer was applied and the heatsink re-seated.
3) All drivers (motherboard chipset, GPU, sound, etc) have been updated on this system. The BIOS has also been flashed to the most recent version of the BIOS. No change.
4) The system ran HCI memtest overnight (approximately 8 hours, if not more) and did not display any error messages at all.
5) Various CPU stress tests have been used. System has been pegged to a full load on the CPU and run for an hour with the CPU maxing at approximately 90 degrees Celsius without crashing
6) It was posited that the system was not getting clean power as well. As such an APC UPS was installed and is being used. It should be noted that the wiring fault light has lit on the unit but the person I'm troubleshooting this for lives in an apartment complex where the units do not have individual breaker boxes so fixing any wiring issues would not be easy. It should be noted that during these crashes the UPS has not given an audible beep and switched to battery power.
Additional notes
1) I'm beginning to think that this may potentially be a motherboard issue however I'm not sure. After one of the crashes the motherboard gave a BIOS beep for a failed RAM stick. After multiple power ons & offs an offending stick was removed and the beeps did not resurface. I thought it might be the slot itself but my friend tried a known good stick in the slot and it did not trigger the error.
2) On occasion there have been graphical artifacts on the windows wallpaper that are displayed but go away after the wallpaper changes. This does not always cause a crash.
At this point I'm really not sure what's causing the error. Nothing shows up in the windows event logs to further point in one direction or another which would really help but we'll just have to deal with it. So if you folks have any ideas as to what else should be tried it'd be appreciated.
CPU: FX-6300 (not overclocked)
Heatsink: CoolerMaster Hyper 212+
Moterhboard: Gigabyte GA-990FX-UD3
RAM: Patriot Viper 8 GB DDR3-1600
HDD: Seagate 7200.11 1 TB
GPU: eVGA GTX 770OC 2GB (have also tried a GTX 560 Ti)
PSU: Corsair CX-600M
Wireless NIC: Unknown make (not currently being used, used when in a wifi enviroment)
Case: InWin GR One (switched from a previous case)
OS: Windows 7 Pro x64
System Temps
CPU (idle): 45 degrees Celsius
CPU (load): 60 - 74 degrees Celsius
GPU (idle): 56 degrees Celsius
GPU (load): 72-76 degrees Celsius
What's been tried
1) At first we thought it may be the PSU was being overtaxed. Previous one was an OCZ 500 watt PSU so it was replaced. Did not fix the issue.
2) Thought it may be due to the system overheating. Temperatures for this system have typically been on the high side due to the enviroment but always within tolerance. This prompted moving to a better case than the previous one, should have also eliminated any issues from motherboard mounting causing shorts as the system had to be transferred. Issue persisted.
3) As part of moving the system from one case to the other the heatsink was removed, paste was cleaned off and a new thin layer was applied and the heatsink re-seated.
3) All drivers (motherboard chipset, GPU, sound, etc) have been updated on this system. The BIOS has also been flashed to the most recent version of the BIOS. No change.
4) The system ran HCI memtest overnight (approximately 8 hours, if not more) and did not display any error messages at all.
5) Various CPU stress tests have been used. System has been pegged to a full load on the CPU and run for an hour with the CPU maxing at approximately 90 degrees Celsius without crashing
6) It was posited that the system was not getting clean power as well. As such an APC UPS was installed and is being used. It should be noted that the wiring fault light has lit on the unit but the person I'm troubleshooting this for lives in an apartment complex where the units do not have individual breaker boxes so fixing any wiring issues would not be easy. It should be noted that during these crashes the UPS has not given an audible beep and switched to battery power.
Additional notes
1) I'm beginning to think that this may potentially be a motherboard issue however I'm not sure. After one of the crashes the motherboard gave a BIOS beep for a failed RAM stick. After multiple power ons & offs an offending stick was removed and the beeps did not resurface. I thought it might be the slot itself but my friend tried a known good stick in the slot and it did not trigger the error.
2) On occasion there have been graphical artifacts on the windows wallpaper that are displayed but go away after the wallpaper changes. This does not always cause a crash.
At this point I'm really not sure what's causing the error. Nothing shows up in the windows event logs to further point in one direction or another which would really help but we'll just have to deal with it. So if you folks have any ideas as to what else should be tried it'd be appreciated.