Computer Stability Help, please! ** it's fixed now!

[Rallispec]

To make a long story short - I've been working on building a cheap / basic computer for a while now - and have been battling stability issues the entire time. Right now I've actually got the computer somewhat stable for normal stuff like web browsing and email - but the computer fails PRIME95 consistantly within the first 10 minutes of doing a stress test... So that makes me think that things really aren't that stable and I need to get things worked out.

Back story:

Last year when i put the computer together - literally the day after setting it up we had lightning strike next to our house and fr all of our cable boxes and TV's - the computer seemed like it was unaffected - however never ran stable, with blue screen's occuring on a daily basis. Since I never really had the chance to test the computer out before the strike - I don't know if the two are related.

Since then I've let it sit untouched for about 6 months becuase i was frustrated with it, until recently when i replaced everything except for the power supply - the CPU, Motherboard, Memory, and hard drive - and the computer is still more or less unuseable.


Current hardware:
i3 550
biostar t55b hd
2gb OCZ3P1333 Low Voltage memory (x2 4gb total)
360gb Western Digital caviar blue HD

Current symptoms -
-One memory stick fails Memory fails Memtest86+. I'm assuming It's just straight up bad. The other stick passes, so i've been running at just 2gb for now.
-Prime95 - fails after 10 or so minutes... varies slightly depending on BIOS settings.
-Copying large files / windows updates / large installations - usually hangs the computer, results in BSOD.

What I've tried and / or ruled out
Right now everything is running at either stock or motherboard default settings. The stock memory timings do not match the motherboard automatic configuration - I've tried manually setting them, letting the MB do it automatically, and manually running the memory slow (at 1066mhz instead of 1333mhz)

Thermal - CPU idles at 10 degrees C, under full load (during Prime95 for example) it peaks at 55 degrees C. This is with the stock cooler and artic silver.

CPU voltage - I've tried giving it a little more voltage and a little less voltage to see if that helps or hurts things... Hasnt really made a significant difference.

Moved memory to different slots, again, no noticeable difference.

Windows Clean install / Updated windows, updated all drivers -- Doing the clean install was a huge pain in the ass - kept crashing, had to keep restarting - but with the fresh install and having the latest drivers has seemed to cut back on the number of blue screens. I havent gotten any blue screens under normal operation in over 24 hours (which is good).


Here is the orignal hardware set - i still have it off to the side, but i have no idea what is good or bad (if any is bad)
i3 530
gigabyte h55m-2SH
2gb OCZ3P1333 Low Voltage memory (x2 4gb total)
750 gb seagate sata HD


Any advice or help is appreciated!


Edit -
In the end it was the RAM.... both the original OCZ and the replacement OCZ memory didnt play well with either of my motherboards. Not sure if it's bad or just has compatibility issues --- either way, I picked up some memory from Crucial and that seems to be working great. Computer is running like a champ at the moment.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If you had a lightning strike, the FIRST thing that I would replace would be the PSU. Not the last. That's your next step.

 

[Rallispec]

power supply is probably a logical next step --- I really don't know why I haven't swapped it out yet. I've killed or had power supplies die in the past - and the errors i'm getting now just don't seem like power issues so I've been putting it off.

 

[mfenn]

power supply is probably a logical next step --- I really don't know why I haven't swapped it out yet. I've killed or had power supplies die in the past - and the errors i'm getting now just don't seem like power issues so I've been putting it off.

If the power going to the mobo is wonky, all sorts of weird things can happen. This $40 Antec Earthwatts 380 will be more than enough to power the system. Besides, it never hurts to have a spare PSU laying around.

 

[Rallispec]

Power supply didnt make a difference....

Running Prime95 I can pretty much do small FFT testing continuously, at least over an hour (haven't let it run longer than that). Large FFT's and Blend testing both fail around 10 minutes or so.

Memtest86+ is flaky... one stick definetly was failing consistantly (hundreds or errors), no matter the memory settings. The second stick does better, with no errors showing up if I knock the speed down from 1333mhz to 1066mhz. But as soon as I move the speed up it starts getting a few failures. (it had 50 or so failures in two consecutive runs)

So either the memory is bad, or my motherboard just isnt playing well with it? At least that's where I'm at now.

Unless I'm just really missing something in the BIOS or elsewhere???

I'm going to try some different memory tomorrow --- hopefully that does the trick. At that point i'll have 2 complete systems worth of parts sitting here at my desk and I'd better damn well be able to get something working.

Does anyone know of something like memtest to test CPU's?

 

[oynaz]

Does anyone know of something like memtest to test CPU's?

There are quite a few on the Ultimate Boot CD.

 

[Zap]

This $40 Antec Earthwatts 380 will be more than enough to power the system. Besides, it never hurts to have a spare PSU laying around.

This $25 AR AC Antec NEO ECO 400C is a much better value.

Does anyone know of something like memtest to test CPU's?

Yeah, Prime95 small FFTs, which you already ran.

Intel CPUs are actually really robust these days. About the only thing that will easily kill them is too high voltage, especially on the memory (since memory controller is built-in to CPU).

If new RAM doesn't fix the problems then it may be the motherboard.

 

[mfenn]

Edit -
In the end it was the RAM.... both the original OCZ and the replacement OCZ memory didnt play well with either of my motherboards. Not sure if it's bad or just has compatibility issues --- either way, I picked up some memory from Crucial and that seems to be working great. Computer is running like a champ at the moment.

Glad you got it figured out! maybe not so much due to our help though.

The OCZ RAM should have set off warning bells for me, but it didn't for some reason.

 

[Rallispec]

Is ocz known for quality issues? I known I have had success with ocz ram in the past, bit its been over five or six years since I've used there memory, so maybe things have gone downhill...

 

[mfenn]

Is ocz known for quality issues? I known I have had success with ocz ram in the past, bit its been over five or six years since I've used there memory, so maybe things have gone downhill...

OCZ DDR1 and DDR2 was fine. DDR3 was where the wheels fell off. It got so bad that OCZ exited the DRAM market altogether.