Self-built gaming PC having BSODs and freezes; can't pinpoint cause.

Nope, I haven't tested the memory one module at a time yet (I did run memtest+ for over 18 hours with both sticks still in place quite a few weeks ago). I still plan to test one stick of memory at a time, as well as swap this video card with an old GT220 from my old desktop so I can rule out the graphics card and memory as much as possible once and for all.

You said that an overheating graphics card would impact the performance of the computer, but what about a hardware issue with the CPU or RAM (or a non-heat related video card issue), would that noticeably impact performance as well (at least in most cases)? If so, as I said before there are no discernible performance issues, aside from the machine up and crashing at seemingly random times performing random tasks.

I know you can't possibly know anything for certain about the origins of the issues I'm having, but I'm just hoping you can speak from experience as you have already. That's all one can really hope for with these cryptic computation boxes, just for the best and most informed guess .

Dem0nGam3r said:

Nope, I haven't tested the memory one module at a time yet (I did run memtest+ for over 18 hours with both sticks still in place quite a few weeks ago). I still plan to test one stick of memory at a time, as well as swap this video card with an old GT220 from my old desktop so I can rule out the graphics card and memory as much as possible once and for all.

Oh hey, good idea. I was only thinking about the memory. You're on top of it. :)

Dem0nGam3r said:

You said that an overheating graphics card would impact the performance of the computer, but what about a hardware issue with the CPU or RAM (or a non-heat related video card issue), would that noticeably impact performance as well (at least in most cases)? If so, as I said before there are no discernible performance issues, aside from the machine up and crashing at seemingly random times performing random tasks.

Oh, I'm not sure. :/

Dem0nGam3r said:

I know you can't possibly know anything for certain about the origins of the issues I'm having, but I'm just hoping you can speak from experience as you have already. That's all one can really hope for with these cryptic computation boxes, just for the best and most informed guess .

Yeah, between all of us, I'm confident that we'll get to the bottom of this sooner or later.

Code:

===============================================================================
Section 2     : x86/x64 MCA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptor    @ fffffa8008004138
Section       @ fffffa80080042c0
Offset        : 664
Length        : 264
Flags         : 0x00000000
Severity      : Fatal

Error         : Internal timer (Proc 0 Bank 3)
  Status      : 0xbe00000000800400
  Address     : 0x00003880059231e6
  Misc.       : 0x000000000003ffff

Stop 0x124 points to the CPU, although, since the error was generated by the CPU (Machine Check Exception) the CPU may be blamed. In my opinion, from the Stop 0x117 being generated shortly afterwards, the problem seems to be pointing towards the graphics card so far, but we can shortly find that out soon after the graphics card swap.

Have you updated all your drivers to rule out the possibility of a corrupted driver?

So far I've updated my USB, LAN, audio, and graphics drivers, as well as the BIOS.

I updated the USB, LAN and audio after a guy on the Microsoft forums told me to do so, and he made sure to point me to the newest versions (at the time, though I doubt there's been an update in only a few weeks) from ASUS's website.

I always update my graphics drivers soon after Nvidia releases an update; when it still crashed with the latest dirvers installed, I even tried downgrading to an old driver version and it still crashed then.

I updated the BIOS very recently.

Are there any other driver updates for other components that I should be aware of?

Chipset driver?

With the graphics card driver, it's best to install the latest WHQL driver and not the Beta drivers.

How long did you have your rig put together before this started happening?

@BlueRobot I'll check for a chipset driver update, I guess from ASUS's site.

@TwoCables I built the computer around Oct. 9, 2012, and the first time it crashed was on Nov. 30, 2012.

I crashed while I was away a few minutes ago, but it wasn't a BSoD or freeze, it must have restarted itself again (it did the same thing about a week ago). I was hoping there would be some new dump info.

Here are some errors which I found:

Code:

The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk1\DR1.

Code:

The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

Shortly afterwards, the bugcheck occurred:

Code:

The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck.  The bugcheck was: 0x00000124 (0x0000000000000000, 0xfffffa8008004028, 0x00000000be000000, 0x0000000000800400). A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 040113-22869-01.

What were the results of the hard-drive tests? I don't think you completed all the tests.

So far I only ran chkdsk, and I don't know what the results were because I never found out where the logs save (if it saves any logs, that is). I'll let you know once I've run the other hard drive tests and/or when I get another BSoD.

What do you make of that first crash I got? Does it look more like a software or hardware problem to you?

I was thinking maybe something went wrong with one of my Windows updates or something (I think at some point I encountered some weird errors with a Windows update, though I may be confusing a later occurrence with that one) and when I did a system restore it fixed the problem, only to return upon reinstallation of said updates.