However, I might add,, that if you are starting out as a PC tech, it is not a bad idea for anyone to do their own testing, so that maybe they can get a better understanding of the over all picture.
Is it necessary? No.
Firstly, thank you to everyone who has posted back, I have tried to go through each post suggestion individually so here goes:
Seekmeister: yes have run win 7 compatabilty test and passes on all counts
richc46: checked device manager, no conflicts and all drivers appear to up to date.
ran memory diagnostic which didnt turn up any issues.
Event viewer showed a few issues, mainly seemed to be relating to lsass.exe, its not a virus (i dont think) ran sweep with avg free, nothing turned up.
lsass seems to be a security led application but it could be falling over due to something else?
I found the wireless card i had connected didnt have the most up to date driver so corrected that.
performance monitor showed 2.584gb of Ram is available which is about right i guess for a 32 bit installation but i dont know what else i should be looking for here likewise on task manager, i mean I dont see anything untoward either.
Chev65: The PSU calculator from antec reckons I will only see 138W power consumption, Im not running any GPU yet (onboard only) although i do have one, i hadnt put it in yet as I wanted to see how it would run without one.
At the moment its just the mobo, 2 sticks of memory, bluray drive, HDD and PSU in there with usb keyboard and mouse.
The PSU that came with the case is 450W P4 with 28A on 12v rail which I think satisfies the criteria in the mobo instruction manual. see it here : http://www.scribd.com/doc/19094018/M4A785TDV-EVO
Like a lot of you i was wondering about it but i cant find a good reason to suspect it yet as it seems to satisfy all criteria from the manufacturer
NightHawk: I wasn’t so lucky, I tried “last known configuration” which didn’t change anything, it was still hanging.
Gregrocker: This one was interesting but I was getting error messages.
It was about here I decided that, I didn’t have anything to lose except another 20 mins, so decided on a fresh install.
So that’s as far as I have gotten right now, but still working on it.
I know you guys aren’t keen on this no name PSU and it was a bit of a chance on a cheapo case and PSU deal however, its showing the correct voltages in the Bios (doesn’t account for Amperage under load I know) still I’m starting to wonder if there is anything to look at with regards the HDD?
When it used to hang the HDD would stop dead in its track at the same time as the hang occurred, could be that it was made to by something else but worth checking some how?
Whats your thoughts peeps?
Also, I have to admit, I don’t have much experience with timing adjustments on RAM but the G.Skill website says its compatible with this board so I was hoping it would be a simple plug and play deal, maybe not?
Again, thank you for all your contributions
In responce to this > Chev65: The PSU calculator from antec reckons I will only see 138W power consumption, Im not running any GPU yet (onboard only) although i do have one, i hadnt put it in yet as I wanted to see how it would run without one.
At the moment its just the mobo, 2 sticks of memory, bluray drive, HDD and PSU in there with usb keyboard and mouse.
The PSU that came with the case is 450W P4 with 28A on 12v rail which I think satisfies the criteria in the mobo instruction manual. see it here : http://www.scribd.com/doc/19094018/M4A785TDV-EVO
Like a lot of you i was wondering about it but i cant find a good reason to suspect it yet as it seems to satisfy all criteria from the manufacturer.
You missed my point entirely.
It's not that your power supply doesn't have the output, I explained this earlier, although I would go with a much higher output model for your system depending on the GPU set up. It should be a crime to put that power supply in a system as nice as yours. Those power supplies that come with the case are absolute junk. That is like a 50 dollar PSU!
Sorry but I can't think of a nicer way to spell out the facts here. :)
The real problem is that your board picks up a low power signal during cold boots so it's automatically shutting itself down because it was programed to do so in such an event. I can also promise you that the second you install a decent GPU in your system it will be an Epic Fail and you could very well take out the rest of your system in the process.
It's a very common problem and well documented but only seems to occur with certian power supplies regardless of total output. I've seen this happen with 1000watt Thermal Take PSU's also with i7 sytems. It's a low power shut off that occurs during cold boots which the board is programmed to do on purpose in order to save itself from damage. And yes it's very likely that running with your power supply could easily damage your system.
If you can find another power supply to try that would be very helpful. I can just about guarantee that is the problem in this case.
By the way, no amount of power calculators can make up for common sense. In this case you should have used better judgment in your power supply selection because the one you are using is grossly inadaquate for such a nice system such as the one you built. :)
How many passes? 1 to 3 is not good enough,, mem diags should run a minimum of 4 to 6 hours.ran memory diagnostic which didnt turn up any issues.
AVG is Garbage,,, run several different On-Line scanners,, such as ESET, Live Safety Scanner, Panda Online Scanner.avg free
Then install Microsoft Security Essentials,, it is a ba-billion times better than AVG could ever hope to be.
Yes, run HDD Diags. It's not going to hurt and you will eliminate it as a problem.
Chev65: Well, that told me.
I'll start looking around for a higher rated PSU, forgive me for being naieve on this subject but I thought it would probably do the job and this is my first self build rig.
Any suggestions on PSU make/models?
Ran memory Diag 4 times in all but can give it a go a few more times to makes sure and will be checking the HDD later tonight.
Also installed Micrsoft essentials which shows a clean bill of health
Ran event viewer after the fresh install and was getting Atikmdag errors which turned out to be ATI drivers for the onboard graphics, so thats sorted only other item showing is a warning relating to "WLAN AutoConfig service has successfully stopped."
But no actual errors are showing now.
As this fault seems to only show up on cold start its tough to get it to show up without waiting an hour or two for it to cool down but I reckon we must be getting closer to a fix, either way I'll let you guys know if I trip over anything else
This info right here....
I agree with Chev65. I would try a new PSU also...As this fault seems to only show up on cold start
Corsair, In-Win, Antec are proven names
Thermaltake can have issues, but is a proven name.
I would personally go with Corsair... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006
Oh, yeah,, I did go with Corsair.
I've seen times when memtest would report scores of error in only a few passes on memory that otherwise was flawless. Memtest like any other program is still software. When running the same memory on another build with a different board entirely memtest found 0% errors there. The previous board had a board problem as it turned even reporting a good cpu was cooked!
With AVG 9.0 on and the IE security toolbar active bugs were flagged by the toolbar before they could be placed on the system. With AVG disabled as well as the toolbar the latest trojan was found only once on the system! MSE finally prompted for a cleanup.
On a brand new build seeing problems right off either hardwares or some settings or even more then one item have to be considered. 28A on the rails means nothing if the supply has poor regulation resulting in problems being pulled down with a load. As for better brand supplies and expansion later once you have a good card in your typical 500-600w supply is like the Seasonic model seen at Newegg.com - SeaSonic SS-550HT 80plus 550W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Power Supplies
OCZ has one in that wattage range as well.
Newegg.com - OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply compatible with core i7 - Power Supplies
For a 550w by Corsair depending on on your price range and actual needs another model is seen at Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Power Supplies
On the last build here a 550w Antec sufficed until this case was built due to the original 480w model taking a nose dive with only pair of HDs. For expansion on this build being planned out I went with the 700w to handle s little more then needed. Soon I'll be looking for the same again for the new build waiting to see USB 3.0 capability there.
I like the ThermalTake power supplies because I have had nothing but good luck with them on many builds. They did put out a 1200watt model that had the low voltage problem at start up problem but they quickly figured it out and fixed it in the new models.
This is one area of investment where you don't want to cut corners or try to save a buck on a build. It's just too important of a piece of hardware to skimp on.
If you ever plan on installing a modern GPU on that nice machine of yours consider a 750 watt unit. You can probably get by with a 600 watt unit with no GPU but that is really cutting short the ultimate potential of your system.
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