• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

New Building Locking Up Randomly

G

gitaroo

Junior Member
I just built a new computer with these specs:

Corsair 650D
Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3
Intel i5 2500k
MSI GTX 570 Twin Frozr iii
G. skillz 2 x 4GB 1600 mhz
Asus Xonar DG
Crucial M4 128gb SSD (boot/programs)
Samsung Spinpoint 1TB (files)
Seasonic X series 650W
CM Hyper 212+
Windows 7 Home Premium x64bit

All new components.

Everything was running fine on build day. No freezes. Started up fine and installation of everything went well. Day after it begins locking up randomly while browsing, playing BFBC2, ect. DrDebug on the MB throws no code at all.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
 
if it hard locks up with a BSOD or mouse freezing, it's usually hardware. install some temp and voltage monitoring software like speedfan and make sure all the values are in acceptable range.

random lockups can be difficult to pin down. you really need to determine if there is any pattern to when it is locking up, because that will help you figure out what component is causing the problem. so before you start taking hardware apart, see if there is any rhyme or reason to the crashes.

really the first step always is to run memtest x86 for an hour to check the memory (make sure it has the proper voltage too), then stress test it by running prime 95 or similar for 4 hours. if memtest fails then you have to RMA the memory and that was most likely the problem.

a stress test failure could be fixxed by overvolting the CPU and NB very slightly. Although I would be a little alarmed that it does not run properly at stock voltage, a very slight overvolt will not cause any harm. but before you do that, you also will want to try to isolate components for issues. the graphics card is always a good one to isolate but you may not have a spare to use. a power supply is also something that can cause this sort of problem, if the crashes seem to happen completely randomly. it's probably unlikely that the hard disk could be causing the problem, but you could disconnect the samsung disk for good measure as well.
 
Some more info: now getting a BSOD with an error on it 0x00000000124 and something about a hardware failure.

What temps and voltages are in the acceptable range?
 
Well, I checked in the UEFI BIOS that Asrock has and it says the voltage for the RAM is set for 1.5V, which is what the RAM is supposed to run at I believe. For reference:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231314

I ran Memtest86+ and it froze 53% of the through the pass about 20 minutes in. I'm new to this so I'm not sure if this is just the same problem I was having before and happened to be during this test or if this means it is the RAM that is the issue...

*EDIT* Oh, yeah, and SpeedFan is saying my GPU is at 34C and CPU 30C
 
Last edited:
if memtest locks up, it doesn't necessarily mean it's the ram (it could still be anything). only if the screen starts scrolling with error messages in red will it be a definite memory problem.

this image is what failure looks like
MemtestFail.jpg



if you can make it through a couple of the memory tests before it crashes, then it's probably not the memory. (I believe memtest will run like 9 or 13 tests or so, and if you make it through test #5 without errors you are generally good to go).


Temps- GPU should be below 60C at idle, and below 80C on load, Cpu should be below 50C, the sensors on the board (case temps) and disks should be below 35C. Since your system is brand new, your temps should be excellent unless something is horribly wrong.
 
Last edited:
gitaroo said:
Some more info: now getting a BSOD with an error on it 0x00000000124 and something about a hardware failure.

What temps and voltages are in the acceptable range?
Click to expand...


Are you overclocking?
BSOD 124 comes up when the cpu voltage is not enough.
 
No overclock here. I'll give memtest another try, but I believe it made it somewhere around Test 7 in the first pass before it locked up (no errors were scrolling like that, yet).
 
For reference this was the error I was getting occasionally if it didn't simply lock up:

IMAG0044.jpg


Ran 2 passes of memtest86+ and got no errors.

Onto Prime95.
 
Last edited:
I ran a Small FFT using Prime95 and about 5 minutes in I get a BSOD with a new error this time:

STOP: 0x0000001E
 
Try one stick of memory with memtest then the other? Also try alternating slots, as well as checking the manual to see if you installed the modules in the slots that it recommends.
 
Definitely in the correct slots.

Wouldn't memtest throw an error if one of the sticks was bad even in dual channel mode?
 
If it locks up during memtest then it could be anything hardware-ish, including memory. Bear in mind that memtest has to use RAM in order to work, and also that memtest is still in development so it doesn't necessarily properly handle every way that a module can be dodgy.

In your place, I would try each module, and if each checks out, I would swap their positions so that I can definitely say that each slot isn't faulty. Even if memtest specifically and consistently pinpointed a section of memory that is dodgy, I don't know of a way of narrowing that down to a physical module and be certain without testing each one at a time.

It could be badly-seated memory, which the above testing procedure would take care of as well.
 
Last edited:
CPU? Prime95 points to that. If memtest locks up but passes 7 runs the RAM should be fine but something else is definately wrong....

I bought a new system with SSDs in it recently and it BSOD on me - turned out to be SSD firmware needing an update, and also switching the BIOS to AHCI. You wouldn''t expect a Prime95 failure with this problem though... unless it was a coincidence...
 
The dual and single channel RAM still gives me the problem and pass memtest86.

I can't say for sure if it was Prime95 that cause the BSOD during the run since it has locked up/BSOD during random browsing - could just be coincidence.

Exchanged the CPU and installed the new one. Same problem is still occurring.

I'll trying a firmware update for the SSD next.
 
Take the SSD out and use a Mechanical hard drive and see if the problem persists.
If that don't help, change the motherboard.
 
i got $100 says its still his ram. my htpc was running for 1.5years on faulty ram. i knew it, i couldnt play this one game EVER. it would always lock up. but otherwise the machine ran... i would get a lot of video adapter resets though. i ran memtest like 5 times, always passed. i changed video card, motherboard, power supply, changed from compatible to ahci to enhanced and back to compatible... and changed hdd's with full reformats, twice.... nothing. it still did the same shit.

one day i got ahold of another set of ddr3, i knew it was the only thing i didnt replace so i tried it. bam, my htpc popped to life and speed that ive never seen before. no freezes, every game plays perfectly. i couldnt believe it. the whole freakin time it was the ram!!!....
 
I would update drivers for the sake of getting that possibility out of the way, now that the computer *seems* to be ok outside of Windows.

Windows Vista/7 has its own memory checker too (I usually get to it by searching for it in Help & Support).
 
Last edited:
Yeah, I tried to memory check that comes with Windows 7 and it passed.

I'm going to update firmware today on the SSD and we'll see if that works. If not, I guess I'll try going piece by piece - maybe even just RMA the ram to get that possibility out of the way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top