Freezing Issues

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RoGuE1230

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 25, 2006
Messages
464
I built my computer exactly one week ago and it has worked flawlessly. I didn't get my wireless adapter until yesterday morning, so I didn't do any real gaming on it until yesterday. I played for many hours (TF2, L4D2, and Borderlands) and was fairly satisfied that my system was stable. I've used it all day today and even ran a couple stress tests with Prime95. Then just a couple hours ago I go to play a game, and it blue screens. Then I restart it, and it freezes when I got to the desktop.

So I tried a few more times and it wouldn't even POST. Everything was powering up, but it wouldn'y load even the BIOS. I get it to start finally, freezes at the BIOS screen when it says American Megatrends. Restart it then it says "Overclocking Failed" on the POST screen. So I reset defaults and it freezes on the desktop. I disconnected everything (wireless adapter, video card, DVD writer) and add it back one by one. Only boots half the time and when it does it freezes. Added my video card to the other PCI-E slot, still froze. I checked ALL power conenctions and even removed and replaced them. Now my system has been on for 10 minutes and hasn't frozen. What is going on? I'm about to go try starting a game again.
 
For about 20 bootups straight I could not get the computer to display anything at all. I gave up and then realized maybe I should try flashing the BIOS. I removed all the peripgerals from inside and with some wishing got it to start up long enough to reach the BIOS, got in there, flashed it (it was one version old, but the newer BIOS said it just fixed SLI Nvidia card). So I'm going to try to put everything back in and hopefully that fixed it.

Is it possible for the BIOS to have become corrupt?
 
Sometimes I wonder if the rom the the bios resides on goes bad kinda like those flash drives that get corrupt data on them are soemthing even though they've never been dropped etc. Was your system Overclocked from the getgo? What temps was your hardware showing? Seems to be a motherboard issue but did you ever run a memtest?
 
No overclocking at all and my temps have been great. I had only run the Windows 7 built in memory test. Strange thing is I took one stick of memory out and the problem stopped. So I switched them around and it still worked. Put them both in again and so far it seems fine, but I havent tried a game again yet. I ran Memtest86+ the last few hours and it showed no errors after 2.5 passes.
 
[Testing the RAM]
Download Memtest86+ v4.00 or whatever the latest version is, unzip it, burn the ISO file to a CD, and then boot from it, just like you would do with the XP/Vista install CD. Let Memtest+ run for at least three hours on each stick of RAM separately as well as test the RAM all together. Go for a full 24 hours if you want to be completely sure that the RAM is not a problem. If you start seeing errors, than your RAM is defective or you have incorrect settings for the RAM.

[Testing the CPU]
Use Prime 95, OCCT, Orthos or Intel Burn Tool to stress test the CPU.

[Testing the GPU]
Use Furmark or ATI Tool to stress test the GPU. If you see any artifacts, the GPU could be overheating, too overclocked, or faulty.

dont rule out the HDD so i would test that well:
http://www.hdtune.com/
http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html
 
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I happened to already run Prime95 yesterday for 45 minutes, and Furmark has been tested like crazy too. I also tested the hard drive when I first got it all assembled. I used HD Tune, as well as Seatools (both short tests).

One thing to mention is when the computer was locking up before it would even show the POST screen, the MemOK! light would light up and not go away. I'm not sure if it froze or not, but I would press the button (which selects a good speed for RAM) and one time it showed 1066 instead of 1333. Every other time I tried it selected the correct speed of 1333.

Also, if anyone can decipher these, some of the BSOD errors I got were:
Bad Pool Header
Page Fault in Nonpage Area
IRQL Not Less or Equal
System Server Exception

I did some research and the best I could come up with from other peoples experiences is that it is hardware related and when you get one of those messages, you end up getting the other ones too...


Edit: I just realized that a few days ago I also had it freeze on me shortly after bootup. It just seems really strange how it was so severe where about 20 times I tried to start it and it wouldn't go past the POST screen and now it seems to work fine. Could it be maybe I didn't have all my RAM in very well and it just needed to be reseated?
 
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im not familiar with these errors but what i did pull off google was this

"This can be caused by any hardware error, or driver install error, but it is usually a driver problem related to something like a wireless card. It is not easy to fix, but downloading and installing new drivers for wireless, modem, NIC, modem, sound card and video driver will work most of the time... but also take a long time."
Click to expand...

im sure more experienced users will come in shortly and give alittle better advice on this.
 
I did install my new wireless card on Monday morning. But it seems odd that it would take nearly 2 days for any problems to arise, and its still working fine now.
 
Reseat the RAM and make sure that it's the proper voltage.

What's the specs of your PC again? The last few times I've gotten a "Overclocking Failed" on the POST screen, it was related to the PSU or motherboard.
 
Phenom II X6 1055T
M4A89GTD Pro/USB3
2x4 GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1333
XFX 650w Power Supply (Gray fan)
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
MSI N470GTX

I saw that Overclocking Failed only once or twice. Most time it would right on the first Post screen where it said American Megatrends at the top.

Both have been reseated since last night and it hasn't acted up since. This ASUS board does have a weird DIMM slot where only one side has a locking clip and the other side is a unmovable clip. It makes sort of awkward to seat them, but I just don't get why a seating problem would show up out of the blue now, and not a week ago.

Also, as far as the voltage goes, I believe it is on Auto. Should I override it and put it at 1.5v (rate voltage for the RAM)?
 
Done.

Anything else I should set manually?

biosa.jpg
 
Okay then. I'll report back if it happens again. Hopefully it isn't PSU or video card related. Have to send those rebates out. :p
 
Well remove it and see if the issue still occurs. Also remove one stick of RAM and try again.
 
Already did. Only problem is I don't really know how to trigger it for sure since it worked fine all day. If my computer doesn't crash within the next hour or so I'll request an RMA. Those symptoms listed in the reviews are way too similar.
 
lol i guess i was semi right then with what I posted above about the wireless card. The problem is this. Rosewill makes really trashy products so you basically get what you pay for with that

"This can be caused by any hardware error, or driver install error, but it is usually a driver problem related to something like a wireless card. It is not easy to fix, but downloading and installing new drivers for wireless, modem, NIC, modem, sound card and video driver will work most of the time... but also take a long time."
Click to expand...
 
Went to start it up, it went into an endless loop of booting. I just kept hearing my DVD drive test itself every few seconds.

Said Overclocking Failed again, after freezing a couple times and also booting up normally.

Finally got around to testing each stick of RAM individually (didn't want to leave it running while away from home) and this one has 1961728 errors on it so far....Safe to say this RAM is bad?

Is it possible something else in the computer could have damaged the RAM? Or can the only way it would be damaged is for it to come like that?

Strange thing is I tested it the other day and it was over 3 passes with no errors, but that was with both sticks installed.

EDIT: Put the other stick of RAM in, failed at the exact same spot as the other one, at 45%. Is it possible both of these could be bad?
 
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RoGuE1230 said:
Finally got around to testing each stick of RAM individually (didn't want to leave it running while away from home) and this one has 1961728 errors on it so far....Safe to say this RAM is bad?

Is it possible something else in the computer could have damaged the RAM? Or can the only way it would be damaged is for it to come like that?

Strange thing is I tested it the other day and it was over 3 passes with no errors, but that was with both sticks installed.
Click to expand...

You answered your own question right there: It only came up passing because you tested both sticks together. You get inaccurate results that way. Hence why the Memtest quote that 4LC4PON3 posted specifically stated testing each stick of RAM individually.

But yeah that RAM is bad. RMA time.

Incorrect RAM voltage or defective PSU can damage a RAM. Though there are some cases where RAM does become defective over time due to use.
 
Don't know if you saw my edit in time, but is it unusual for both of them to go bad (started errors at same pass percentage on Memtest)? And are the problems I've been having typical of bad RAM?

Anyway, RMA has been approved already. No cost RMA for refund and will get UPS 2 day shipping free. You have to love Newegg customer service.
 
Also, is it unusual for RAM to have errors intermittently? I ran a Memtest again on both and it passed. Also, I've been using the computer for 5+ hours now with no crashes.
 
RoGuE1230 said:
Also, is it unusual for RAM to have errors intermittently? I ran a Memtest again on both and it passed. Also, I've been using the computer for 5+ hours now with no crashes.
Click to expand...

Not unusual but not not that common either.

Hmmm..
 
I thought I should also mention the wireless card is still installed.

I also did a google search with each of the error messages and adding "bad RAM" next to it, and a lot of results came up with bad RAM reports accompanied with these errors:
BAD_POOL_HEADER
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION
 
Someone I was talking to suggested a bad IMC on the processor. Is that a possibility?
 
Hmmm, considering that AMD has been doing this for years, I don't think it's an issue of a bad IMC. With that said, if you have a spare AMD CPU, plop it into your PC and see what happens.
 
The newest processor I have in the house is what I upgraded from--a socket A Athlon XP 3000+. lol. Seeing as the PSU could possibly be an issue, is there an easy way to check that with my multimeter?

Also, it just occurred to me I remember reading somewhere once (on this forum) that G.Skill once told someone with memory problems (can't remember what was wrong with it) to increase the voltage to fix it. Could the problem be the RAM is just not operating in spec at 1.5 volts?

Also, I cannot get it to freeze up or blue screen since early yesterday even after heavy use. I even tried opeing IE, Firefox, and Chrome. Then I loaded literally 200 tabs each and got the RAM usage up to nearly 7 GB and it was still completely stable.
 
Meh, try 1.6V and see what happens. The thing is that if that RAM is rated at 1.5V and if it can't be stable at that voltage, then it might be defective.
 
oh yeah, I completely agree. If it is just unstable at 1.5 then that might be the intermittent reason. IDK, just grasping at straws. lol

On another note, I just found a way to trigger it and possibly confirm it is a problem related to memory. I just downloaded and tried Memtest, the one that runs in Windows, within seconds it all started moving extremely slowly and then got a blue screen with SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION. I think that pretty much confirms it is a problem with the RAM in some way, right?
 
Tonight is the worst it has ever been. Even at 1.6v it has made no difference. I've had luck recently using that MemOK! button, but it has made almost no difference now. Of the couple times it worked tonight, it picked a slower speed for the RAM than it's rated at (whatever the step below 1333 is). I'm really worried that new RAM won't fix this. i won't know for sure until Monday (or Tuesday according to the UPS delivery date. 4 days to deliver when I selected 2 Day Air?)
 
This is what comes with PC man. its frustrating as hell. Its also hard for us to diagnose problems when we cant truly be there to see for ourselves. Its A or B here.

A: Memory is bad or B: Motherboard is bad

either way keep us posted. also the problem is this. memory & motherboard DOA's or issues are the most common out of all PC components.
 
or Tuesday according to the UPS delivery date. 4 days to deliver when I selected 2 Day Air?)
Click to expand...

It means 2 normal working days.

Those weekends screw with delivery times. :)
 
I discovered earlier that I can run all 8GB stable as of right now, but only if I put the two sticks in single channel mode. I don't know why, or why I never tried this, but it works for now. Hopefully when the replacements come, those can ran dual channel.
 
The new RAM arrived. It made no difference. I posted G. Skill's forum and they had me try a few things with some advanced memory settings (Ganged mode, changing command rate to 2T, etc.) but it just made dual channel mode run a little longer. I ran the Memtest version in Windows and within minutes it would crash it, but those advanced setting at least let it get INTO Windows. Put the memory in single channel again, ran that Memtest, and fell asleep for 2 hours. Woke up and it was still running. Asus tech support is a joke:

In this situation, please take the motherboard out of case and keep the necessary components(a CPU, a video card) onboard for a test.
If it is not helpful, please clean the goldfingers of the memory by a rubber and plug again.
Please make sure the memory is really plugged into and try more times.
If it doesn’t work, please reseat the cpu and test again.
If it still exists, please erase the cmos to load default settings and try again.
If no effort, please adjust the timing and voltage of the memory moduels according to the spec and manual of them.
Click to expand...

So it seems like keeping it in single channel mode for now is the answer.
 
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Well that's a bitch.

In any case single channel mode will be fine since there's only a difference of 5% between that and dual channel.

Though you might want to consider either RMAing the motherboard.
 
Hmm, kind of puts me in a tough spot. If its only a 5% performance difference, that doesn't even seem worth the hassle of an RMA.
 
yeah but if the board is defective already that might cause the board to malfunction more later on. I would honestly RMA it.
 
Thats definitely one of the last things I'd want to RMA. Does Newegg usually charge return shipping for bigger items like that? Or would I want to do it through ASUS?
 
RoGuE1230 said:
Thats definitely one of the last things I'd want to RMA. Does Newegg usually charge return shipping for bigger items like that? Or would I want to do it through ASUS?
Click to expand...

If it's still within the 30 day period, do it through Newegg since they'll be faster than Asus in shipping out a new item. You may have to pay for shipping.
 
Newegg authorized it, at no cost to me. They are doing a refund on it, and I can just order another one so I have no downtime. Do you think this is the most likely part to be causing all of this?
 
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