New
#1
Seemingly random BSOD, majority of possibilities supposedly ruled out.
Hello and good morning. I'm new to this forum. I hope I can find answers here, as well as be of help myself.
I'm actually a computer technician with over 15 years in the field, but this is happening on the new desktop case I built for myself, to replace my main desktop and turn the old one into another workshop computer.
And as you can expect, I've done my fair share of diagnosing this new build before bothering you people with my problems.
Please bear with me. This is pretty lengthy. But I prefer being fastidious with the details, than leaving out something potentially significant.
I'll clarify the following about my hardware:
1) AMD FX-6300 Six-Core (125W)
CPU is second-hand. But as we all know, it's extremely rare that a CPU would have an actual hardware issue. Compared to the amount of issues that can arise from the rest of the components, at least.
Currently it's using an AMD cooler that is better than the one that comes with the CPU itself. Copper base and heat pipes, 3300RPM running constantly. Thermal paste is the standard kind, but it works for most situations.
I've observed temperatures over and over, and never noticed anything unusual using CPUID's HWMonitor.
EXCEPT for the TMPIN1 sensor always showing a significantly higher temp than the rest, 58-59 Celsius (138 F). While the package temperature tends to be 27-30 C (79-86 F), and TMPIN0 and 2 are around 33-37 C (91-98 F). That's while idle or working at an easy pace. When I push it with some software installation while playing a full-screen Blu-Ray rip of a movie (about 18GB), it goes higher of course, but not much more so. The actually highest temperature barely climbs a few degrees, if at all. And it's always at that level pretty much, idle or not. It's not very believable, but I know temperature readings can be tricky for software to read realistically and reliably, with all the different motherboards and CPU's out there. But I've found HWMonitor to be the best so far.
SpeedFan, another favorite which I haven't used in a while, has shown me enough incongruent readings over the years to decide against it.
When checking temperature on BIOS settings screen, after being idle it shows about 33C (91F). After doing several passes of MemTest in a row, the temperature is not much higher. 37C (98 F). And doing that MemTest thing is known to push temperatures kinda high, especially since its DOS environment isn't efficient at all in handling hardware's power-saving capabilities (like setting them to idle).
In short: Except for what I describe about TMPIN1, temperatures are perfectly healthy it seems.
I attach two HWMonitor logs: First one, I created while I was installing the vast majority of the basic software (Office, browsers, updates, Java, etc.).
The second log, I made today while being most idle.
I used it both with and without overclocking. Clock being 4.1 and 3.5GHz, respectively. It doesn't seem to change anything. Not the stability, nor the temperatures. I can supposedly overclock to 4.1GHz without actually tweaking something in any dangerous way, because of the CPU itself and because the motherboard is built for easy, pre-set levels of OC. 4.1GHz is the limit for such things. But I didn't really try reading any particular texts on how to overclock with this particular CPU+Motherboard combination. Then again, I do this for a living so I should be safe. And as I said, it crashes regardless of OC or not.
Right now it's at 4.1GHz.
2) RAM is second-hand too, but I've tested it thoroughly with Memtest86+ (Version 5.0.0 and others). Dozens of times by now, really.
It shouldn't be an issue, but it's DDR3-12800 (1600MHz), while the motherboard only supports up to DDR3-10600 (1333MHz). This should only result in the RAM working at 1333, slower than it could go.
3) Motherboard is brand new. MSI 760GM-P23(FX) Ver 3.0. No weird things done to its BIOS. I've tested this over with factory settings, and different versions of my own settings.
4) PSU is the same I had in my old build, but it's always worked flawlessly. I decided to keep it because while the brand is a bit questionable (Shark-Net), it's proven to be reliable in handling high-end hardware again and again. It claims to be 600W. But in any case, this build is basic enough that it doesn't need something even close to 600W real watts, which I doubt this PSU achieves. I think I even did the math with a "PSU requirements calculator" or two, and it always came up with plenty of power to spare.
5) GPU is a G210, 1GB GDDR3. No history of issues. And it's quite low-end in most aspects, including power consumption.
6) HDD I first installed this Windows on, was this 250GB notebook SATA Samsung drive that already had some minor issues. Second-hand. Regenerator 2011 shows some delays and bad sectors, but it works.
When the BSOD started, I cloned the partitions to a 1TB notebook SATA WD drive that works perfectly and has no errors at all. But the problems didn't stop.
This whole HDD thing is a temporary situation, because I'm waiting for a SSD RMA replacement to arrive, so I can use that one instead.
--
Windows is 7 Ultimate SP1 x64, fully updated or so it should be.
This issue first presented itself when I already had everything but 7's updates installed. That includes all drivers, in their newest versions. I tried playing the video file I mentioned and it would crash things with a BSOD every time. Wouldn't last more than a few minutes.
I was using VLC 2.1.5 (x64), with a full codec pack from Mega, so I tried Windows Media Player Classic which comes with that pack. The issue stopped it seemed. But it started happening out apparently at random then. The BSOD error codes and such would change almost every time.
Computer could be at idle and it would happen anyway. It could be a few minutes after booting, or a couple hours or more. Point of fact, I'm using it to write this and I left it on all night (idle), and nothing happened. Plus I spent a while browsing last night, with no issues at all.
In short, it's pretty much random. BUT it seems the more I push this build, the more likely it is to happen.
Updating Windows didn't fix it. It didn't even have SP1 back then, but it does now.
I upload two BSOD log packages (as per the site's instructions). The older one belongs to this Windows installation. It includes only two BSOD errors in it, because I was doing a clean reinstall on a crashing game a little while ago, and I used CCleaner to delete the leftovers, forgetting it also cleans up memory dumps. Go me.
The newer one, is from another Windows installation I just made, in another partition in this same disk. It's the same Windows 7 Ultimate x64 without SP1, that I installed first. Same DVD and all. It has NOTHING in it yet. Not a single thing changed since it finished installing. And I already got a BSOD.
--
By now, you could say I have 4 different theories left:
1) First Windows install is bonkers because I installed it in an HDD with issues. As I cloned it, the issues stuck to the files and tagged along. This wouldn't explain the BSOD in the NEW install, but you could blame that on it lacking all updates and drivers. Both things together is unlikely, but I do think it's the most likely possibility left.
2) Motherboard compatibility, or motherboard malfunction.
3) Windows issue. Something to do with updates, drivers, etc. You know Windows.
4) CPU issue of some sort.
--
So, any input on this? Thanks a lot in advance for your help.
Mario
Quote