View Full Version : Random crashes with new PC
Yo...
I've been having trouble with my PC for a while now so I thought I would explain what's going on incase any of you can help.
In mid November 2009 the main hard drive in my PC died. The drive was completely dead and I couldn't recover any data from it. I decided to build a new PC instead of just replacing the hard drive because the hardware I had was getting a bit old. The only parts that I didn't replace were the graphics card and power supply unit because they were newer.
The new PC had the following spec when I first built it:
Windows 7 Pro 64bit
Intel Core i7 975 CPU @ 3.33GHz
Asus Rampage II Extreme motherboard
6GB Corsair DDR3 RAM (3x 2GB)
x4 Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB drives (RAID10, ~600GB usable)
XFX GeForce GTX280 XT
1200W Silverstone PSU
Installing Windows and setting up the RAID went fine and it seemed stable. But when I started playing Dragon Age Origins it kept randomly crashing to desktop and Modern Warfare 2 kept randomly freezing the PC completely (I couldn't open Task Manager, etc). These games worked fine on my old PC which had Windows XP and the same graphics card/PSU.
I did some research and found that it could be the onboard memory on the graphics card. I changed the graphics quality in Modern Warfare 2 so that it didn't use so much of the memory and it did make a difference. MW2 would still freeze, but I could open the Task Manager which would unfreeze the game.
I contacted XFX support and they asked me to try a couple of things. They were being a bit unhelpful, even though the graphics card was still under warranty. I had to do a few things to prove it was faulty but then they asked me to test it in another PC to make sure it was the card. I couldn't do this straight away because I don't have another PC so I arranged to test it in a friend's PC later on.
After a couple of days, when I unfroze MW2, the screen was filled with little white dots. Random pixels went white and they changed when I moved the mouse around... Very strange! This graphical glitch stayed on screen even after I closed MW2 but rebooting made it go away.
I told XFX support and they agreed that it was faulty. They gave me a warranty return number that I passed onto Scan.co.uk where I bought it. By this time it was early December and I was getting quite annoyed because I couldn't play any games, so I boxed it up and mailed it to Scan. I would have to wait for Scan to send it to XFX because XFX wanted to test the card before they would replace it under warranty.
Well, Scan sent it on 16th December, but XFX didn't start testing it until last week! That really pissed me off, but anyway... They confirmed that the card was faulty and Scan replaced the GTX280 with an Asus GTX285!
I installed the GTX285 last night and everything seemed ok, but today the PC has started doing exactly the same things, crashing to desktop with Dragon Age and freezing MW2. Something else must be faulty, YAY! I have run Memtest but that hasn't detected any problems with my RAM. I will take out each RAM module one at a time and see if I can find one that causes the crashes, but other than that I don't know what else to try.
Has anyone got any suggestions?
Speedstar1776
16-01-2010, 19:48
did you changed the PCI Slot of the Graphic card??? I would try this
Xaphan666
16-01-2010, 20:11
Ye, on my first time i had nearly the same issue... i "overclocked" my ram to its default 1600 mhz, but my mainboard doesn't want it.
Also with increasing the voltage, the system keeps crashing...
So i decided to downclock my DDR3 1600 Ram to 1333 Mhz and everything is fine.
Hey Roz, sorry to hear m8. Have you had any issue at all with your RAID?
Its possibly corrupt. My 1st guess was faulty RAM but you tested already. If you have overclocked anything esp on the GFX side then drop them to normal settings.
Can you run speedfan and monitor the temps on your GPU? Its possibly heat related /GPU. Also what is your power supply? wattage? and amps on the rails?
Its possible you're right on the limit of your 12v rails of your PSU. A few things to look at m8y.
Speedfan here : http://www.almico.com/installspeedfan440.exe
Thanks for the suggestions!
I use SpeedFan already and everything runs at acceptable temps. The GTX285 idles at about 50C and heats up to about 70 when gaming. I haven't overclocked anything in this PC either so everything should be working normally.
My PSU is a Silverstone 1200W modular version, built for SLI. I can't remember the exact readings from the rails, but when I checked them they were all within acceptable power outputs. If there are any specific readings you want me to look for, let me know.
I'm just about to test the PC with the first RAM module taken out. I'll continue taking one out after a good gaming session to see if one of them causes a game to crash. I'll also try putting the graphics card in another PCI-E slot after I've tested the RAM.
Oh I forgot about my RAID. It's all fine at the moment, although these crashes are probably going to damage it soon.
When the PC crashes, it locks up my PC and I have to hard reboot it. Every time I do this, Intel Matrix Storage starts a varify and repair of the RAID, which takes about 2 hours each time. I can't wait two hours between each test! Do you know if I can use my PC normally while the RAID is varifying and repairing? I know that I shouldn;t hard reboot a PC with a RAID, but I have no choice.
Speedstar1776
19-01-2010, 11:03
Do you know if I can use my PC normally while the RAID is varifying and repairing?
if my RAID1 if varifying and reparing, i dont do anything. I have to wait till its finished.
So i would wait till its finnished but i am not sure if you can work, till your RAID10 is varifying and reparing.
Roz when you've got ur replacement gfx card, reinstall Windows etc and let us know ;)
I've already got my replacement graphics card, it's the GTX285! My old card had been at XFX's hardware testing department since mid December so I wasn't able to use my PC at all until the GTX285 arrived.
And regarding reinstalling Windows... HAH! No chance! I won't reinstall until I have made sure it's not a hardware fault. I still have to finish testing my RAM first. I took 1 module out and MW2 stopped crashing completely, although it did still randomly stutter for about a second a few times. I have only played it once so I don't know how reliable that is, but it looks as though maybe my motherboard doesn't like the RAM I use, or I have multiple faulty RAM modules from a faulty batch perhaps.
I've already got my replacement graphics card, it's the GTX285! My old card had been at XFX's hardware testing department since mid December so I wasn't able to use my PC at all until the GTX285 arrived.
And regarding reinstalling Windows... HAH! No chance! I won't reinstall until I have made sure it's not a hardware fault. I still have to finish testing my RAM first. I took 1 module out and MW2 stopped crashing completely, although it did still randomly stutter for about a second a few times. I have only played it once so I don't know how reliable that is, but it looks as though maybe my motherboard doesn't like the RAM I use, or I have multiple faulty RAM modules from a faulty batch perhaps.
speaking of faulty batches......XFX did confirm that there was an issue with your card, then you got another of the exact same card from the exact same retailer?....did you consider that possibility?
The replacement isn't the same as my old one. I used to have an XFX GTX280 XT, but Scan.co.uk replaced it with an Asus GTX285.
this sound quite familiar.
It clearly hardware (as you know) but a reinstall of windows when you are all done wouldn't hurt, the amount of hard-reboots must be making a meal of your system.
my guess is a good old hardware un-compatibility, i have had similar with cheap RAM in the past (although id be supprised if its your RAM cause its a good make)
and from experience this sort of thing is normally ram or graphics, your graphics is ok now so it must be the RAM.....................
do a couple of quick checks (which im sure you already have done)
>>>> what heat is the ram working at??
>>>> is the CPU seated correctly (the pins for the ram can be incorrectly seated and show up as a memory problem)
>>>> reinstall your motherboard/chipset drivers
you dont say what cooling/case you are using although i assume its a good one considering the rest of your system. btw with such a good system it would be worth spending £70+ on a watercooling rig.
My advice, swap your ram, it may be on the compatible list but they dont test for long and in all configurations
compatability list from corsair >> http://www.corsair.com/configurator/product_results.aspx?id=763615#other_modules
DONT trust corsair btw, they have a reputation for sending out different dimm's than the ones ordered (has this already happened to you??)
your memory support list for Rampage II Extreme >>
We've already spoke about this.
re Rampage II Extreme
Don't forget to update to latest BIOS here: http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us
Then re-check RAM (should be no errors at all, my guess)
Then new OS, go for W7 64 bit, make sure you got latest drivers on a pen or another drive before you wipe, link above.
Once all your drivers are on, install a game of choice (MW2?) then see how u get on.
If you do get problems after this, then its back to this thread m8 ;)
I´m not the biggest computer genius in the world, but your problem sounds a little like a RAID issue..
I´ve had two RAID failures this last 1½ month... First time was with Vista, vista imediatily informed me through the Intel Matrix Storage manager and on startup I would see in the Bios that my RAID had failed.. anyways I sent the computer to the workshop for warranty repairs, got Win 7 installed.
Two weeks after I got my computer back.. The RAID failed again.. But with Win7, the Intel matrix storage... did not detect the failure in the RAID, Win7 never mentioned anythign about the RAID. I only noticed it because my computer had a horrifying crash to blue screen, with a lot of noises ( for a moment I thought my computer was burning).
When the computer started up again, I saw again in the Bios that the RAID had failed.
I got the computer back 2 hours ago.. Told them to change my RAID to RAID(1) from RAID(0) (I have no idea why they in the first place sold me the computer with RAID(O) )
But the symptoms you mention of the in game gfx glitches.. the random crashes... They all resemble those I had after I tried running with a failed RAID.
So that was FYI :) Hope it will help you a little with your problem.
Goodluck :)
My BIOS was running the previous version so I flashed the latest one, but it hasn't improved anything.
I took out one of the RAM modules and MW2 doesn't crash any more, but Fallout 3 still does. I need to do more RAM swapping I suppose... Maybe Fallout 3 uses more RAM than MW2 and is reaching a faulty section of it that MW2 doesn't use. I'm sure I'll get round to reinstalling the OS some time soon, but I really can't be arsed on a week night. Backing up all my user data/save games/downloads/drivers/etc just to put it all back after the OS has reinstalled is way too much effort right now.
What is the results of memtest on each stick of RAM?
I've only run Memtest when all 6GB was in my PC, but it didn't detect any problems.
Earlier tonight I backed up all my data/game saves and reinstalled Windows 7.
So far everything is going ok. I've played some MW2 with all graphics options set to Yes and Extra, and it seems to be stable. I haven't played a long session, but it got a lot further than it did before and it hasn't crashed yet. I'll have to install more games and test them too.
Everything was going ok until I turned my PC on this afternoon. One of the drives in the RAID had degraded so I've recreated the RAID from scratch.
I'm currently reinstalling Win7, so lets see what goes wrong this time!
Ok, I'm back where I started yesterday! I'm installing a few games that used to crash to see if they still do. If this PC still crashes, I'm gunna cry!
RAAAAGE!!
The hard drive that degraded in the RAID looks as though it's failed completely now. The PC was doing a couple of odd things today but they seemed to be bugs in Win7. I'm going to have to get this drive replaced under warranty and then test everything AGAIN to make sure that my problems aren't just Win7 bugs. YAY!
I am going to throw this PC out the window if I still have problems with a replacement drive.
If a new drive doesn't fix my problems, I'm going to kick the PC so hard that it'll go back in time and hit Jesus in the face! He'll be breaking the bread at the last meal and BAM!
I talked to the support team at Scan.co.uk who asked me to test the hard drive with Western Digital's diagnostic tool and then stress test it with Barts Stuff Test 5. The WD diagnostic tool found no errors, and the stress test did read/write sequences for over 20 hours and found no problems either. WHAT THE HELL?
Edit: Scan support think that if it's not the hard drive, my motherboard could be faulty! I've swapped the drives round in my PC so that if one degrades again, I'll be able to see whether it's a specific SATA port on the mobo or if it's this hard drive.
Anyhoo, Scan support mentioned that Intel have released a new set of drivers and software for RAIDs that replaces the Intel Matrix Storage Manager. It's called Intel Rapid Storage Technology and it's hard to find on their site. If I searched for my chipset, it gave the older IMS drivers/software I was already using. The dude at Scan guided me through choosing an Intel motherboard that uses the same chipset as my Asus Rampage II Extreme and bingo, the new stuff was listed. I have rebuilt my RAID using these drivers and Installed the new IRST software and console, which acts like the old IMS Manager.
So, now I'm back at square 1 again! I'll reinstall some games tonight and see if they crash.
I installed Mass Effect 2 last night and played it for a good session without any problems. I think my game crashing problem might have been fixed after my first OS reinstall, but I still don't know why my RAID degraded twice over 24 hours. I'll keep saving my games every 2 minutes and expect it to go wrong soon, but it seems to be a lot more stable now.
Have u checked the BIOS updates for ur mobo? There might be a RAID issue. CHeck ur version against the new released ones m8.
I already updated the BIOS to the latest version about a week ago. Asus's download section doesn't list any info for each driver so if there is a RAID issue, I won't find info on it there.
XxXButcher
31-01-2010, 16:38
Turn of you h4x and stopd downloading porn. :yes1: