System Freezing, Instability. New Build W7 x64

[Learner]

Well we can test the drivers using the method described here. I'm much better when I have a minidump file to work with anyhow, and this will hopefully generate some.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/101379-driver-verifier-enable-disable.html
(Please read all instructions for driver verifier before using as it's possible it will make the machine behave badly and you need to know how to undo it.)

okay iam doing this now. although how could i create a minidump file for you? or should enabling driver verifier do this?

many thanks for your help so far.

cheers

 

[v2kai]

Just another few suggestions if not already mentioned:

* Safe Mode DONE & CHECK
* Replace videocard with another ordinary card, just to be sure it had nothing to to with it TO DO LIST
* fukc around with some BIOS settings like AHCI/IDE or SATA options DONE & CHECK
* Dubblecheck Asus.com for Mainboard updates DONE & CHECK
* Check Intel for firmware updates for 510 AND p67 updates for Mboard chipset (compare with the ones on Asus) DONE & CHECK
* Try Firmware downgrades DONE & CHECK
* Dubblecheck windows settings like turn off indexing and some other things that are best for your SSD. DONE & CHECK
* Try USB boot tools and do some tests DONE & CHECK
* RMA card and try again ON POTENTIAL TO DO LIST
* Keep searching on Google or Intel with the right combination of keywords DONE & CHECK WILL CONTINUE
I remember seeing a review of the 510 where a test tool reported power offs of the 510 caused by SATA port. VERY INTERESTING... WILL LOOK INTO
* Erase disk with the appropiated tool and start all over again but now make a step by step diary. DONE & CHECK (except for the diary)
Also make images during the new installation process. DONE & CHECK
* Think harder MY BRAIN HURTS

I particularly like your last recommendation. I am quite a determined individual who keeps digging and enjoys solving problems. But with my current work project hogging my time and brain power at the moment and for the next two weeks I'm not at my full capacity right now. But TO DO items on your list I will definitely give them a whirl. As always, very much appreciate any input. Thanks eraseme

 

[eraseme]

Well to be honest, I was also thinking for myself.
I'm stuck with this Vertex-2 120GB and waiting for my RMA Asus Mainnboard to arrive (now B3 version). Then I will have to try all that, to begin with a a secure erase.
Can you believe it? Creating DVD or USB boot stuff and start your pc over and over again. Open cases, screwdrivers on the floor...
Remember the MS-DOS ages? Pfff. Still thinking of a 2 HDD fast raid. But dammit, I was used to the speed.
Oke, I like solving problems like you, but this goes beyond the pale.
Keep in touch

 

[v2kai]

Well to be honest, I was also thinking for myself.
I'm stuck with this Vertex-2 120GB and waiting for my RMA Asus Mainnboard to arrive (now B3 version). Then I will have to try all that, to begin with a a secure erase.
Can you believe it? Creating DVD or USB boot stuff and start your pc over and over again. Open cases, screwdrivers on the floor...
Remember the MS-DOS ages? Pfff. Still thinking of a 2 HDD fast raid. But dammit, I was used to the speed.
Oke, I like solving problems like you, but this goes beyond the pale.
Keep in touch

Agreed. Solving problems is one thing, having to troubleshoot a brand new build with all new components isn't all that fun or something I was expecting. Definitely will get my updates posted when I get some time opening up in my schedule to get back on the troubleshooting train with this new setup.

 

[v2kai]

well I haven't had much time to actively troubleshoot as I'm so tied up at work lately, however I have been able to leave my computer on all day for the last week. I also ran a few more longer memtests overnight. All came back clear.

Here is the part where it seems like I'm on the right track. For this past week, when I leave it on in the morning in regular boot and login, without fail every single day I come home from work and it is frozen; roughly 5 consecutive days. These past two days, I booted up and logged in via safe mode with networking it has now been 2 consecutive days. No lockups, no freezing...

I'm going to leave it for a couple more days to make sure its not just a fluke and start digging back in from there.

Also I noticed in normal boot up and login, occasionally I would get some serious lag, stuttering and loss of functionality from the mouse and keyboard. This has not cropped up at all while in safe mode these past two days.

 

[v2kai]

Alright work has eased off a bit, gonna try and get back on this gremlin. Installing ubuntu to see if its hardware related.

 

[v2kai]

after a day at work, came home to a frozen ubuntu computer. looks like my problems are hardware.

 

[Maguscreed]

The first thing I would check is your ram.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html

 

[v2kai]

The first thing I would check is your ram.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html

I have run extensive tests on my RAM multiple times now all tests come back clean with memtest and windows memory diagnostic. Have let it run for a day or two at times. I'm leaning towards MOBO or graphics card right now. I ran Furmark on my HIS HD 6870 and the score came back much lower than expected but didnt crash... and I have been having artifacts showing up recently during movie playback and mouse lag.

no artifacts during multiple furmark tests of HD6870 tho.

edit: now it seems to be exponentially worse. within seconds of booting up and logging in it freezes up.

gonna try reinstalling windows 7 on a conventional hdd 2TB WD Black to rule out the Intel 510 SSD as the problem.

 

[Maguscreed]

Motherboards are hard to test for.
If you can stress the graphics card and create artifacts on demand I would blame it, otherwise I'd be leaning more towards the mobo.

...have you looked into bios updates for it?

 

[v2kai]

Motherboards are hard to test for.
If you can stress the graphics card and create artifacts on demand I would blame it, otherwise I'd be leaning more towards the mobo.

...have you looked into bios updates for it?

I have run every single bios update available for my board. upgrading downgrading same results.

I was about to begin RMA'ing my video card and mobo but I really dont wanna go down that long road unless i really know what is the issue.

 

[v2kai]

did a fresh windows install on new drive, performed all windows updates, left it overnight. frozen by this morning.

gonna try this again with an xp install same disk tonight.

 

[v2kai]

did a fresh windows install on new drive, performed all windows updates, left it overnight. frozen by this morning.

gonna try this again with an xp install same disk tonight.

didnt do the xp install. ended up taking it to the techs where i bought the components. They troubleshooted hardware with the tools i didnt have, swapped RAM, tested PSU, HDD etc and no hardware faults found.

Disabled PLL overvoltage setting in BIOS and reset all other settings to default. They said that was the issue however upon reconnecting up back at home it froze randomly like it had been doing before. Ran Prime95 and Furmark all night for 8 hours, no issues found. Ran Intel CPU test utility. No issues found.

I disabled C3 Reporting and C6 Reporting settings in Advanced -> CPU settings in BIOS and this seems to effectively stop the ranbdom freezing. However this also disables CPU throttling and it stays at full clock speed while running.

Also updated AMD HD audio driver with the correct Realtek HD Ati driver. W7 automatically updates it to AMD which is incorrect.

Tech also mentioned the possibility that having lots of other stuff plugged into the wall outlet could lead to power issues. Currently installed UPS to see if this improves anything and re-enabled CPU throttling. Will report back.

Also going to contact ASUS as I am starting to think this issue is in fact related to power supply gremlins due to other large draws on my available outlet which are affecting the motherboard and the throttling of the CPU to improve energy efficiency.

My PSU should be more than sufficient for my rig so I'll wait and see if the UPS helps any and what ASUS has to say.

EDIT: Re-enabling C3 & C6 CPU throttling function leads to freezing again.

 

[Beast52702]

Your situation reminds me of a build I did about a year ago. My friends new computer would randomly lockup at the most random times. You could stress it with furmark and prime and it would be fine, but it would just randomly lock up in normal use. I had run memtest86+ with no errors multiple times, cpu not oc'd, vga furmark stable....

As soon as I RMA'd his mobo it was all good. Ill never use an asrock board again. Gigabyte or ASUS, no compromise.

If I were you I would seriously consider your motherboard as a possibility. Also, Given your description, it may be your graphics card. Artifacts are never ok.

Good Luck

 

[Beast52702]

did a fresh windows install on new drive, performed all windows updates, left it overnight. frozen by this morning.

gonna try this again with an xp install same disk tonight.

didnt do the xp install. ended up taking it to the techs where i bought the components. They troubleshooted hardware with the tools i didnt have, swapped RAM, tested PSU, HDD etc and no hardware faults found.

Disabled PLL overvoltage setting in BIOS and reset all other settings to default. They said that was the issue however upon reconnecting up back at home it froze randomly like it had been doing before. Ran Prime95 and Furmark all night for 8 hours, no issues found. Ran Intel CPU test utility. No issues found.

I disabled C3 Reporting and C6 Reporting settings in Advanced -> CPU settings in BIOS and this seems to effectively stop the ranbdom freezing. However this also disables CPU throttling and it stays at full clock speed while running.

Also updated AMD HD audio driver with the correct Realtek HD Ati driver. W7 automatically updates it to AMD which is incorrect.

Tech also mentioned the possibility that having lots of other stuff plugged into the wall outlet could lead to power issues. Currently installed UPS to see if this improves anything and re-enabled CPU throttling. Will report back.

Also going to contact ASUS as I am starting to think this issue is in fact related to power supply gremlins due to other large draws on my available outlet which are affecting the motherboard and the throttling of the CPU to improve energy efficiency.

My PSU should be more than sufficient for my rig so I'll wait and see if the UPS helps any and what ASUS has to say.

EDIT: Re-enabling C3 & C6 CPU throttling function leads to freezing again.

How did the techs rule out RAM without testing for atleast several hours?

 

[v2kai]

did a fresh windows install on new drive, performed all windows updates, left it overnight. frozen by this morning.

gonna try this again with an xp install same disk tonight.

didnt do the xp install. ended up taking it to the techs where i bought the components. They troubleshooted hardware with the tools i didnt have, swapped RAM, tested PSU, HDD etc and no hardware faults found.

Disabled PLL overvoltage setting in BIOS and reset all other settings to default. They said that was the issue however upon reconnecting up back at home it froze randomly like it had been doing before. Ran Prime95 and Furmark all night for 8 hours, no issues found. Ran Intel CPU test utility. No issues found.

I disabled C3 Reporting and C6 Reporting settings in Advanced -> CPU settings in BIOS and this seems to effectively stop the ranbdom freezing. However this also disables CPU throttling and it stays at full clock speed while running.

Also updated AMD HD audio driver with the correct Realtek HD Ati driver. W7 automatically updates it to AMD which is incorrect.

Tech also mentioned the possibility that having lots of other stuff plugged into the wall outlet could lead to power issues. Currently installed UPS to see if this improves anything and re-enabled CPU throttling. Will report back.

Also going to contact ASUS as I am starting to think this issue is in fact related to power supply gremlins due to other large draws on my available outlet which are affecting the motherboard and the throttling of the CPU to improve energy efficiency.

My PSU should be more than sufficient for my rig so I'll wait and see if the UPS helps any and what ASUS has to say.

EDIT: Re-enabling C3 & C6 CPU throttling function leads to freezing again.

How did the techs rule out RAM without testing for atleast several hours?

They did,sorry wasnt clear in my quick blurb. Like myself they ran memtest for hours with no errors,they also tested with other brands.

I'm really leaning towards mobo after reading your response and similar sounding experiences. Given the issue was present in both Ubuntu and W7 this seems to be the likely culprit. Really sucks, always been an ASUS fan... guess everyone gets duds now and then. Gotta see if I can prepay for a replacement RMA to eliminate downtime. Appreciate the reply Beast. I really hope this nails it.

 

[Beast52702]

Replacing the board is a pain since you'll have to rebuild the whole system, I would try to absolutely rule out the videocard first.

Also, have you considered a clean install of windows onto a mechanical drive? just to rule out the ssd side of things.

*edit* i just read your post about installing onto new drive and frozen by morning. Was that a mechanical drive? just to make sure

 

[v2kai]

Replacing the board is a pain since you'll have to rebuild the whole system, I would try to absolutely rule out the videocard first.

Also, have you considered a clean install of windows onto a mechanical drive? just to rule out the ssd side of things.

*edit* i just read your post about installing onto new drive and frozen by morning. Was that a mechanical drive? just to make sure

yea that was a conventional hdd. I'm 90% sure it's mobo. Video card artifacts were usually during video playback and quite rare, I have a hunch those might be tied to power supply issues relating back to the root mobo problem. Just submitted support ticket with ASUS.

 

[Beast52702]

Let us know if the problem persists after you have installed the new board.

Good Luck,

MP

 

[v2kai]

Sorry for the long overdue reply. I ended up purchasing a new P8P67 EVO board and sold the RMA replacement, also got a new i5 to run with the EVO. The old processor is running in my other setup flawlessly and the old RAM is now with the EVO board so it seems it was MOBO related.