Windows crashes on startup only when powering on system

MelancholyRose · 25 Jul 2011

Okay, actually what happened, was I had his system powered on and running smooth for several minutes until he began browsing certain websites. Then it crashed again. I still have his optical drive unplugged. From my own personal experience, his computer will remain totally stable when powered on after unplugging the optical drive, but this last time it crashed after about 7 or 8 minutes and using Firefox.

I still have to try using two separate power connectors for the HDDs so I'll do that in a moment.

MelancholyRose · 25 Jul 2011

Okay, something is terribly wrong, here.

I used a separate SATA power plug for the second drive, right?

It still crashed, with the optical drive unplugged.

But it was a brand new crash. It was a Fatal System Error and it said the computer has been shut down.

Is there something wrong with the power supply?

MelancholyRose · 25 Jul 2011

My PSU is available to test, so I think I may try plugging it into his machine instead to see if it works better. If it does, then I guess I need to RMA the PSU.

MelancholyRose · 25 Jul 2011

No dice. It's not the PSU. Mine still crashed the system, even with the optical drive unplugged and HDDs with two separate plugs.

Back at square one.

Guess I need to try a startup repair and if that doesn't help, I have to reinstall Windows. What other options do I really have? From what it looks like, none.

essenbe · 25 Jul 2011

Make sure the OS hard drive is listed first in bios. I really don't recall all that you have tried in 74 posts. But, Try with everything unpluged except what is absolutely necessary to run the machine. Use 1 stick of ram. If it crashes, take that stick out and try it with the other stick in. If it runs ok that way, shut down and connect 1 thing at a time and try it each time. That will help identify which component is crashing the machine. When you tried it before you said it ran good until he started using firefox. If you get it running, browse again with ie, don't use firefox.

MelancholyRose · 25 Jul 2011

I actually don't know what HDD the OS is installed on because he has RAID0. There is no partition for the OS on it, either, it's installed on them as if they were one HDD, so I really have no idea how to tell which one the OS is on.

I will try with one RAM stick, though. I tried putting my own RAM into his machine and it was still crashing, but I'll try it this way, too.

essenbe · 25 Jul 2011

Are both of your machines identical?

MelancholyRose · 25 Jul 2011

Yes, everything about our machines is 100 percent identical, except that I use RAID1 and he uses RAID0. I actually got a crash MEMORY_MANAGEMENT when I put my RAM in his machine. I don't know if that means my RAM is bad, too, or if something is wrong with the RAM itself being compatible with the motherboard or something.

So I'm trying with one single stick now. The machine has been running solid with a clean boot on powerup for over ten minutes. I'm also using IE instead of Firefox. I tried with the other stick of RAM first before this one, and the first one actually crashed the system. I took a screenshot of what Windows told me when I successfully booted up.

It may be luck, for all I know, or a fluke. I'll power it down and start it up multiple times with this single stick of RAM and see what happens. I find it odd, though, that my own RAM still crashed his machine when I put both sticks in it.

Going to try using Firefox now, just to make sure it isn't Firefox and indeed the RAM, or if the two combined causes issues somehow.

essenbe · 25 Jul 2011

That is a normal screen when you startup after a BSOD. You may want to start with this tutorial memtest86 test memory. It is a tedious process tracking down what the problems are. I am sure you have been to Asus website and updated all drivers and gone to AMD and update the drivers for the GPU card. Start with the memory, then test the hard drives with the diagnostic tool from the manufacturers website.

I do find it strange that you built 2 identical machines and they are both unstable. You do get bad parts occasionally but 2 at the same time is strange. At this point the machine is not stable enough to run prime95 (CPU test). The only thing I can suggest is to start checking components 1 at a time, and also go back through the machine and make sure all wiring is securely connected, there are no frayed wires, and all connections are properly connected. There does seem to be something about the CD/DVD player. Correct me if I am wrong, but you have at least booted with it disconnected. If that continues I would suggest another Cd/DVD player. It is the cheapest component in the machine. It at least makes me think it is a contributer to the problem. Keep us advised of your progress.

pooch · 25 Jul 2011

MelancholyRose said:

Sorry it took so long. We had an incredibly busy weekend.

That makes two of us my grandson was here to visit

MelancholyRose said:

What does this mean about it? Is the power cord to it pinched or something? I know that it can't be SATA because I have SATA set to IDE for the optical drive, and I have the motherboard SATA plug still in the optical drive. I only removed the SATA power cable.

Not quite no power means the cable would not be recognised. Does your OD have jumpers? if it does remove the jumper cap. If it doesn't try using the other SATA socket

MelancholyRose said:

And what's more is that his system started up very quickly and smoothly and I'm not having a single problem while using the computer.

This is very good news