You can also try Prime95 to test both your CPU and your RAM. https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...t-prime95.html. Run 3 separate tests, one on each of the settings (Blend, Small FFTs, Large FFTs).
MemTest 86+ turned up nothing once again.
I've been running Prime95 for the past 2 hours and 50 minutes, watching my CPU temperature stay at a steady 70C/158F and no errors. I'm not sure how long I should stay in each test, but I believe I will have spent 3 hours soon in the small FFT mode.
Any additional recommendations? They would be greatly appreciated. It's certainly a puzzle I have on my hands. :s
Is there any sort of diagnostic I can run that will scan my OS for errors and repair them? I'm not sure if there's a utility like that on my Windows 7 disc.
Also, if my processor comes back with a clean bill of health, we will have successfully ruled out the CPU, RAM, Hard Drive, and GPU as I have RMA'd the card previously, and it was returned with a clean bill of health by Diamond. I don't mind running whatever utility necessary to stress test it though. I have examined in the past with GPU-Z that up until and the moment before crashing, the GPU stays at a consistent and safe temperature level under gaming load. The story is the same for the Heaven Benchmark Utility, only the GPU did not crash even after 2-3 hours of stress testing. This brings me to my point of, What next?
The only culprits after this are my power supply, something faulty on the motherboard itself, or my blu-ray disk drive. If all is well in those parts, then we're back to a software issue? Maybe my computer is just haunted. xD Of course, this is all speculation at the current moment.
Any insights are appreciated.
Last edited by MisterDobalina; 29 Dec 2010 at 17:45. Reason: minor grammatical errors
I have run 16 hours of Prime95, 4 hours in small FFT mode, 4 hours in large FFT mode, and 8 hours in Blend mode. No errors, no warnings.
Are you overclocking any thing? If so, please return to default values. One generally runs Prime 95 until the temps level off. Try testing your video card with Furmark: Video Card - Stress Test with Furmark. Monitor your GPU temps and make sure they do not exceed the manufacturer's recommended maximum. When the temps level off, you can stop the test. Post back with the results.
I am out of ideas except for troubleshoot by stripping the system down: Hardware Troubleshooting Via System Stripdown. Perhaps some of the other BSOD squad will have an idea that I have not thought of.
All of my components are running at stock speeds. I'm sitting here watching Furmark, and I think it's safe to say that after 20 minutes the temperature of my GPU has leveled off to just below 86C. From what I read on the internet, that seems to be a safe operating level. (Tom's Hardware apparently leveled off around 89C). I'll keep running it to see if it crashes though, or if I get a freak temperature spike later on. My PC usually doesn't BSOD until a half hour/full hour into gaming.
I would most definitely like to keep the strip down method as a last resort, though it seems like that stop is coming very quickly. I appreciate your help with this situation. For now I suppose I'll wait, and enjoy my computer as much as I can between the crashes.
xD
Please keep us updated. Ir looks as though your video card is fine. Once the temps level off, you can generally stop the test.
Hey everyone, I just wanted to update that I think I may have solved the issue. It seems that my external hard drive may have been doing something funky that crashed my computer. Not sure what though, but I've left it unplugged for the past week and have suffered no crashes. This would also explain the intermittent and inconsistent nature of the crashes, as I generally only plug it in to play music through my sound system. For now, I'll just have to be mindful of when it's plugged in.
As you can all imagine, I was saddened by the thought that I might actually have solved this plaguing issue. I'm relieved now because I have a new problem causing my computer to perform slowly, and suffer random framerate drops and static speaker noise due to an inexplicable and very brief spike in CPU activity to 100% in all 4 cores. It's not an issue for this forum, but I thought I'd update you all any who. It never ends.
:)
Cheers, and a big thank you to all of you who helped, or even read my posts.
Sincerely,
Jarrod.
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