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Okay, I've finally had it with BSOD's, lockups, and random reboots

D

DisgruntledVirus

Lifer
I built a brand new system from scratch about 2 years ago. From day 1 the system has had stability issues during certain games. I've never really wanted to spend the time to figure out what's going on, until now.

The system specs when I got it were:
Lian Li PCV600B case
2x Sony DVD burners (need to replace these PATA drives as a side note)
2 gb Corsair DDR2 800
Athalon 64 x2 5200+ Windsor core at stock speeds
DFI Lanparty NF590 SLI-M2R/G mobo
XFX 8800GTX
Corsair 620 watt PSU
I brought over my 74 gb Raptor HD from my old system (about 2 years old at the time) for the drive with Windows on it.

I had issues with lockups, reboots, and BSODs from day 1 but only while playing very intensive games (primarily FPS like HL2/Source based games, and Crysis/Farcry 2/etc, but games like Warcraft 3 TFT don't). They don't always happen at the same time either. If I startup a game from a cold boot (shut down all day), I'll get usually 30-45 min before it happens. After the first time though, it happens every ~15 min or so. Also most of the time it happens during loading, and not actual game play (although sometimes it happens during gameplay as well).

Fast forward to today, and the system now has 2 8800GT's in SLI (got them for free, and single slot+cooler cards+a tad faster performance=win), and an aftermarket Zalman copper HSF with Artic Silver 5 thermal paste. I have switched out the CPU and mem for a Phenom x3 and 2 other sticks of DDR2 (that are used in my HTPC), and had the same issue with lockups/BSOD/reboots. I have also reformatted this system many times, so it's not a botched XP install.

So that means that it has to be:
Mobo is bad
Hard drive is dying (when it locks up, the HD is being accessed heavily I've noticed)
Overheating (unlikely, because I have two Scythe S-Flex fans and the side of the case is off and per the BIOS temps it's not overheating)
PSU isn't powerful enough

If the mobo was bad, I would think that this would happen in non-games as well. If the PSU was bad/not powerful enough, I would think as soon as I booted up the game it would crash and it wouldn't lock up (it would just restart or shut down). If it were overheating then 1 the BIOS temps would be higher, and 2 it happens regardless of the CPU/GPU. So, I'm leaning towards the HD, but it doesn't exhibit the bad HD signs I've seen before. The system has gone through disk check on startup though if it happens a lot in a single day, and occasionally I'll get registry errors upon bootup.

Anybody want to offer some help?
 
First are you overclocking ? If so, reset to defaults and see if all is stable. If it is then move up in tiny steps until it is unstable again, then go back down 2 steps for stability. Next, RAM is very finicky about the voltage it operates at, wether it be a little too low or too high for the particular ram board. Also check that your cpu fan / heatsink is properly secured with only a thin layer of top quality thermal compound on the cpu surface. If all this checks out, run Memtest to rule out bad memory. I would then suspect a weak power supply as the last resort.

Just noticed you used your old hard drive with windows on it. I take it that was on a totally different motherboard. A clean install might be in order as sometimes, when you try to resuse an old OS install, some drivers just do not work 100% like they should, even if you removed them in safe mode and did a repair install to let windows redetect all the new hardware.
 
Originally posted by: bruceb
First are you overclocking ? If so, reset to defaults and see if all is stable. If it is then move up in tiny steps until it is unstable again, then go back down 2 steps for stability. Next, RAM is very finicky about the voltage it operates at, wether it be a little too low or too high for the particular ram board. Also check that your cpu fan / heatsink is properly secured with only a thin layer of top quality thermal compound on the cpu surface. If all this checks out, run Memtest to rule out bad memory. I would then suspect a weak power supply as the last resort.

Just noticed you used your old hard drive with windows on it. I take it that was on a totally different motherboard. A clean install might be in order as sometimes, when you try to resuse an old OS install, some drivers just do not work 100% like they should, even if you removed them in safe mode and did a repair install to let windows redetect all the new hardware.
Click to expand...

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough in the OP.

I am not OC'ing
I have used two totally different sets of RAM, with same issues (Corsair and OCZ)
I have removed and remounted the stock HSF and aftermarket Zalman CU fan numerous times (reapplying thermal paste each time) with same issues.
It's possible it's a weak PSU, but about the only way I could test this would be to pull out one of my 8800GT's and see if it's stable playing games that way (or buy a new PSU)

I used the old HD yes, but I reformatted when I built this system (and many times since). I have done 5+ clean installs from scratch on this system, and have had the issues every time.
 
Alright. So we can eliminate the OS install as the issue. As to RAM it could still be that the ram you have doesn't quite match the timing of the motherboard or the RAM voltage needs to be tweaked. I would run Memtest and see what it turns up (if anything) before condemming the power supply. There is also a slight possibility the cpu itself has an internal glitch.
 
Along with memtest and prime95 also consider putting the system under temp stresses. Using something like a hair dryer on low to raise local ambient temps to see what the weak part is.
 
Originally posted by: bruceb
Alright. So we can eliminate the OS install as the issue. As to RAM it could still be that the ram you have doesn't quite match the timing of the motherboard or the RAM voltage needs to be tweaked. I would run Memtest and see what it turns up (if anything) before condemming the power supply. There is also a slight possibility the cpu itself has an internal glitch.
Click to expand...

Well, I'll run memtest and prime 95 and see what happens.

Originally posted by: Modelworks
Along with memtest and prime95 also consider putting the system under temp stresses. Using something like a hair dryer on low to raise local ambient temps to see what the weak part is.
Click to expand...

I'll try that as step 2.
 
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