Is this a software problem? Or hardware problem?

[ensign_lee]

Hey guys,

I was hoping you could help me diagnose a recent problem I've been having. Lately, whenever I log into Windows, my computer will freeze / lock up and all USB outputs will die. I can tell because my razer blackwidow's LED lights turn off, like they've lost their power source.

The rest of my PC still looks like it's working hardware-wise: all the lights are still on and the fans on my GPUs still run (even though the GPUs themselves stop working).

I went back to all stock settings on my CPU (was previousyl overclocked to 4.2 Ghz) and my RAM, using hte "laod optimized defaults" option in teh BIOS.

System specs:
i5-2500k
ASUS P8P67 PRO
G SKill Ripjaws X DDR3-1600 CL8
Crucial C300 SSD 120GB
Samsung 2TB HDD
Rosewill 100W power supply
ATI Radeon 5850 x2 (not crossfired, running independently)
Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit

This only started happening after I switched out my motherboard recently (had to RMA the old one because the onboard sound bit the dust). I want to say that's correlated, but I don't technically see why that would be.

Does this sound more like a software problem? (like one a full reformat might fix?) or more like a hardware problem? (since this only started happening after I switched out the mobo).

Weird thing is, my system was fine with the new mobo for about 36 hours before this started happening. :/ Any ideas?

 

[ensign_lee]

My two GPUs are at 100% load 100% of the time, as an added piece of information (Folding@home), though I don't think that should make a difference...

 

[ensign_lee]

Update: I had an idea last night, thinking that maybe it was windows being upset that it hadn't shut down properly in the last 11-20 attempts or so (kept locking up on me instead, and the one time I did try to shut down properly, it hung on the log off screen forever).

So I let it fully shut down once. And...problem seems solved? *cross fingers*. So I'm going to blame this on windows for the time being lol.

 

[Idontcare]

Nothing like trying to track down those insidious bugs that crop up when systems don't behave like they are suppose to.

Hope the shutdown cycle worked for you! It beats having to resort to doing a clean install all over again. (I'm at that point myself...dragging my feet)

 

[podspi]

Try resetting the BIOS with the safeguard or conservative settings, instead of optimized. Also, if you changed your motherboard, Windows might just be angry at you. Although if it is, it should hit you with a warning the it isn't genuine, not just crash...

 

[ensign_lee]

Try resetting the BIOS with the safeguard or conservative settings, instead of optimized. Also, if you changed your motherboard, Windows might just be angry at you. Although if it is, it should hit you with a warning the it isn't genuine, not just crash...

Yeah, I was thinking about this. Windows didn't yell at me for having to activate it until this morning, AFTER I'd left the computer on all night (and tried the solution above).

Maybe it kept locking up because it was failing to bring up the activation screen or something? ¯\_(&#12484_/¯

Well, I'm glad I haven't had to reformat...yet lol.