odd crashes

[Zargon]

my sandy bridge system has been extremely flakey since right after it was built.

PSU:XFX 650W PSU
MB: Gigabyte P67-UD4
CPU: i5-2500K
RAM:8GB GSkill Rijaw DDR3-1333
GPUs: 2x5870's
HDD: was 2x30gb vertex in raid 0 and a1tb sata III cav black, now a 96gb kinstong v100+ ssd and the WD Cav Black

all of this is in a silverstone raven 2, and I have a thermaltake frio on the CPU

I get random lockups, sometimes I get a blue screen, but usually just a hard freeze that requires me to use the powerbutton to turn it off.

Since this started I have, gone down to the one GPU, and swapped which GPU I was using.

RMA'd the board for the recall.

reinstalled win7 onto a 96gb kingston ssd

recently got 2x4gb of mushin 1.35v ram and swapped it in.

I still get random freezes. I ran prime all night last night, cpu never got above 51C on any core(in speedfan), stock clocks. I was OC'd up to 4, and never saw anything above 55C with push/pull fans.

I ran memtest more than a few times, it passed on the old memory if I did it one DIMM at a time, that ram is going back for RMA based on that, and I am running memtest in windows on the new ram right now(started it when I left for work) I did the boot to usb version to test the old stuff.


should I reinstall windows 7 again and see if that helps?

I cant find anything in system logs about why its crashing. I could really use some help here.

 

[R.Danneskjold]

A 650W PSU sounds insufficient for your setup, even with a single 5870 when overclocking. Are the lockups happening even when the system is running a single GPU and at stock clocks?

 

[Zargon]

A 650W PSU sounds insufficient for your setup, even with a single 5870 when overclocking. Are the lockups happening even when the system is running a single GPU and at stock clocks?

yes

and its when I am not doing ANYTHING.

I ran the calcs. I can verify with my killawatt if needed.(probably should have already).

its actually never done it inside a game, it will be sitting idle, Ill open IE and the who machine locks ups.

it did it yesterday trying to start Section 8 Prejudice

 

[dfuze]

You may already have, but have you made sure to use the latest drivers for all the components?

 

[Zargon]

You may already have, but have you made sure to use the latest drivers for all the components?

yup.

I pulled everything off the web when I did the recent reinstalled after my b3 board replament.

 

[Zargon]

memtest ran all day, 775% completion it said....no errors

 

[Zargon]

I'm at 218 with prime95 running the heavy stress test.


2x5870 should max out at 376w.

thats under 600W. I would think I would be safe even with everything humming.

but like I said, thats not when the crashes are happening :/

 

[KGB]

Is anything getting logged in your Event Viewer?

 

[Zargon]

nah I just see all the normal startup events, beyond the 'improper shutdown detected' warning.

nothing

its been suggested I unload the case and run it on a 'test bench' to see if its a shorting in the case somewhere

 

[john3850]

I would run 4 seperate memtests for windows while using your pc.
Because your ps is small I would measure the voltage at the your outlet.
If your house voltage dips at times it could be lowering your ps voltage.
Is the pc on a clean line without any other heavy appliances.

 

[Zargon]

I would run 4 seperate memtests for windows while using your pc.
Because your ps is small I would measure the voltage at the your outlet.
If your house voltage dips at times it could be lowering your ps voltage.
Is the pc on a clean line without any other heavy appliances.

yeah its on a clean line, I see ~122v pretty much all the time at the wall. the only other thing on the circuit with it, its a pc that uses 50w in general use, ~35 idle.

thats pretty much the norm for my area

and I never had an issues with the HTPC when it was on this circuit and UPS.

I will run multiple memtests when I sit down next time

 

[john3850]

I doubt its your single 12v ps.
Try latest mb drivers.
It almost sounds like a sata3 bug problem even through you rma your mb.
I would like to know what happens if you try using only your sata 2 ports for
a few days.

 

[Zargon]

the SSD with the OS install is on Sata II I think.

I will double check.

but yeah I can switch the WD drive over, its not really benefitting from sata III anyways

 

[birthdaymonkey]

Have you tried process of elimination? What's left from the old system... RAM, PSU, video cards, WD Black. Try removing things from the equation one at a time and just using the system normally. Run it caseless to make sure you don't have a ground/short problem. It could be the power supply malfunctioning (even though it seems like it should be adequate), or it could be one of the two video cards (have you tried running single GPU with both of them)? Have you tried removing the hard drive and just using the SSD? Have you tried just running with one stick of memory or using different memory? Assuming it's not the CPU (it rarely is) or the motherboard (replaced), it's got to be one of these things causing the problem. In any case it's going to take a while to figure out the source of the lockups.

EDIT: Rereading your post, I see that the RAM's been replaced too... so it's gotta be WD black, video cards, short, or PSU. That or some kind of software that you've installed.

 

[Zargon]

I have tried going single GPU and swapped which one I was using, annd the problem persisted.

now I will go pull the wd black I guess, so its just the most powerful web surfuring build around, and use it for a while.

i guess IC ould reinstall steam to the SSD and put like 2 games on it....

if that doest do it I'll go caseless


thanks for working through this with me, if its just me stuff will slip thorugh the cracks and I cant beleive I havent tried a few of the suggestions already

 

[john3850]

{its actually never done it inside a game, it will be sitting idle, Ill open IE and the who machine locks ups.}

I am sorry I read the posts to fast and missed ie etc.
When you first go into IE your 5870 clocks go from 2d to to full 3d settings for a split second or two on ie9 and drop back to 2d if no flash is being used.
Now when ie has a flash page my memory clocks go from 500 to 1000 and gpu goes from 157 to 500 MHz on my 5870s.

While playing Dragon 2 with ie opened if my PC isn't being used for 15 minutes or longer I will sometimes get a crash or hard lock when I return to IE.
I know most of my crashes started since I updated the ati drivers from version 11.2 to 11.4.
Adobe flash was also updated from 10.2 to 10.3 so who knows.

I would never use a small modular ps they can increases resistance at plugs
Your mb has a good 16 or 18 phase vrm.
Now you have learn if this is software or voltage problem.

 

[Zargon]

hmmm interesting thoughts.

its hard to think though that with a single 5870 even if the whole machine spikes that I could be out of volts.

unless the PSU is a dud.