Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit Retail
GA-MA770T-UD3P Motherboard
2 2x2gb CM3X2G1333C9 Corsair DDR3
AMD Phenom II X4 B50 (4 cores at 3.1ghz stock speeds, 1.4v)
NVIDIA Geforce GTX 260 768mb
Fresh install of windows, roughly 1 month ago
2-3 years old hardware, 4 year old harddisks
Verbose Background Information:
The computer was acquired from a friend in exchange for a good deal of work over time, he has claimed to have never seen a BSOD over the 2 years that he had it. It has seen no hardware changes between us except harddrives and I added an aftermarket heatsink.
Originally he had designed the system via newegg and had it in his shopping cart, he asked me to critique it and swap out any hardware that needed changed, I replaced his 2 sets of 2x2gb ram with a single set of 4x2gb ram and bumped up the PSU. The parts arrived and he assembled the system and installed, unbeknownst to me at the time, Windows 7 Home 32bit.
The cpu ordered was an AMD Phenom II X4 of some description, I forget the model but apparently he switched it to an X2 at some point, though, it has proven to unlock to an X4 B50 since I received it and shows full stability under extensive Prime95 testing after installing a Corsair A50 heatsink and fan to ensure cool running. This occurred on saturday, march 17th. I'm not honestly sure if it is an actual stock X4 or unlocked X2 being that information in differentiating the two is difficult to find. Between X2 and X4 modes the crashes occur at the same frequency and with the same codes.
The BSOD's started within a couple days of getting the system and installing Windows 7 Enterprise x64. I originally theorized it may be the ram being that he had been running 32bit previously and not been using all of it, however, a Memtest86 run overnight succeeded 13 passes without error before having an Unexpected Interrupt, the room was very hot and I attributed it to the heat, the ram was tending to get much warmer to the touch than I was comfortable with, the addition of the A50 seems to have solved this as it is barely warm under load now.
I later tested each stick individually and they all passed 3 passes without issue. This is when I noticed they are two sets of 2x2gb once again, presumably switched for the cost.
Anyway, everything has been running cool with cpu throttling disabled, the cpu cores had previously run roughly 2-8 degrees cooler than the CPU reading in CPUID Hardware Monitor and now never goes about 49 degrees celsius running Prime95 and never above 44 degrees celsius in normal usage suggesting the cores themselves are running no higher than 41-47 degrees celsius under prime95 and 36-42 degrees celsius under normal usage. The cpu reading would usually have a larger spread the higher it ran and at its most extreme before adding the cooler I had seen it at 54c under cpu reading and 46c under cores. This occurred only once, I'm fairly obsessive over keeping the system running cool.
The video hardware has never gone over 79c and is rated to 105c, usually going no higher than 38c idle and 49c while in use.
I've updated all drivers to the most recent I can find. I've uninstalled Daemon Tools and switched to the recommended MagicIso for using image files.
I'm using MSE for antivirus and have been for many years.
The Enterprise Edition install disc of Windows used is the same as on my work computer which has never BSOD'd and leads me to believe it is most likely a hardware issue.
I personally believe the problem is the unpaired ram having exceptionally rare conflicts which usually occur no more than once every two days but have occurred as close as within an hour or two of one another.
After going over many pages of google, digging through every crash dump in Windbg numerous times, cleanly updating any drivers I can and running numerous successful stresstests and stability tests in Prime95, Memtest86 and generally putting the system through great deals of gaming rigor without issue, I'm finally turning to the experts in hopes of finding a solution that may not be dumping down to 4gb ram. The existing sticks while not sold as a package, and I know it can't be guaranteed they will function together, are identical models with identical lot numbers. However, I will drop down in Ram if need be.
Many of the bluescreens earlier on I was able to source and solve the cause of, be it incompatibilities or my own stupidity, the 0x1e, 0x3b and 0x7e crashes, however, remain present.
In summary:
System built roughly 2 years ago.
Installed to windows 7 x86, no BSOD's reported (supposedly)
New install of x64 in February of this year
Crashes occurring within days
Ram is not 100% matching set and was not fully utilized before but same model and same lot (I'm going to pull one set after posting this and see how it behaves)
Sometimes goes hours between crashes, has gone over two weeks, system usage habits have not changed.
Receive no crashes with verifier enabled now
Prime95 runs stable and cool
Memtest86 reports no errors directly, one time had unexpected interrupt error after 13 passes but have not been able to reproduce
Crashes have no connection between activities, usually occur when I am away from the system, have disabled all sleep modes and power saving features with no changes, have mostly occurred in general usage with minimal software running, have occurred rarely with games or other high demand software running but only I think 4 times in total weeks apart
Thank you for your time and patience with my Verbose Background Information(™) and I look forward to insightful response.
Will report back with additional crashes after pulling 2 sticks of ram if they should occur.
GA-MA770T-UD3P Motherboard
2 2x2gb CM3X2G1333C9 Corsair DDR3
AMD Phenom II X4 B50 (4 cores at 3.1ghz stock speeds, 1.4v)
NVIDIA Geforce GTX 260 768mb
Fresh install of windows, roughly 1 month ago
2-3 years old hardware, 4 year old harddisks
Verbose Background Information:
The computer was acquired from a friend in exchange for a good deal of work over time, he has claimed to have never seen a BSOD over the 2 years that he had it. It has seen no hardware changes between us except harddrives and I added an aftermarket heatsink.
Originally he had designed the system via newegg and had it in his shopping cart, he asked me to critique it and swap out any hardware that needed changed, I replaced his 2 sets of 2x2gb ram with a single set of 4x2gb ram and bumped up the PSU. The parts arrived and he assembled the system and installed, unbeknownst to me at the time, Windows 7 Home 32bit.
The cpu ordered was an AMD Phenom II X4 of some description, I forget the model but apparently he switched it to an X2 at some point, though, it has proven to unlock to an X4 B50 since I received it and shows full stability under extensive Prime95 testing after installing a Corsair A50 heatsink and fan to ensure cool running. This occurred on saturday, march 17th. I'm not honestly sure if it is an actual stock X4 or unlocked X2 being that information in differentiating the two is difficult to find. Between X2 and X4 modes the crashes occur at the same frequency and with the same codes.
The BSOD's started within a couple days of getting the system and installing Windows 7 Enterprise x64. I originally theorized it may be the ram being that he had been running 32bit previously and not been using all of it, however, a Memtest86 run overnight succeeded 13 passes without error before having an Unexpected Interrupt, the room was very hot and I attributed it to the heat, the ram was tending to get much warmer to the touch than I was comfortable with, the addition of the A50 seems to have solved this as it is barely warm under load now.
I later tested each stick individually and they all passed 3 passes without issue. This is when I noticed they are two sets of 2x2gb once again, presumably switched for the cost.
Anyway, everything has been running cool with cpu throttling disabled, the cpu cores had previously run roughly 2-8 degrees cooler than the CPU reading in CPUID Hardware Monitor and now never goes about 49 degrees celsius running Prime95 and never above 44 degrees celsius in normal usage suggesting the cores themselves are running no higher than 41-47 degrees celsius under prime95 and 36-42 degrees celsius under normal usage. The cpu reading would usually have a larger spread the higher it ran and at its most extreme before adding the cooler I had seen it at 54c under cpu reading and 46c under cores. This occurred only once, I'm fairly obsessive over keeping the system running cool.
The video hardware has never gone over 79c and is rated to 105c, usually going no higher than 38c idle and 49c while in use.
I've updated all drivers to the most recent I can find. I've uninstalled Daemon Tools and switched to the recommended MagicIso for using image files.
I'm using MSE for antivirus and have been for many years.
The Enterprise Edition install disc of Windows used is the same as on my work computer which has never BSOD'd and leads me to believe it is most likely a hardware issue.
I personally believe the problem is the unpaired ram having exceptionally rare conflicts which usually occur no more than once every two days but have occurred as close as within an hour or two of one another.
After going over many pages of google, digging through every crash dump in Windbg numerous times, cleanly updating any drivers I can and running numerous successful stresstests and stability tests in Prime95, Memtest86 and generally putting the system through great deals of gaming rigor without issue, I'm finally turning to the experts in hopes of finding a solution that may not be dumping down to 4gb ram. The existing sticks while not sold as a package, and I know it can't be guaranteed they will function together, are identical models with identical lot numbers. However, I will drop down in Ram if need be.
Many of the bluescreens earlier on I was able to source and solve the cause of, be it incompatibilities or my own stupidity, the 0x1e, 0x3b and 0x7e crashes, however, remain present.
In summary:
System built roughly 2 years ago.
Installed to windows 7 x86, no BSOD's reported (supposedly)
New install of x64 in February of this year
Crashes occurring within days
Ram is not 100% matching set and was not fully utilized before but same model and same lot (I'm going to pull one set after posting this and see how it behaves)
Sometimes goes hours between crashes, has gone over two weeks, system usage habits have not changed.
Receive no crashes with verifier enabled now
Prime95 runs stable and cool
Memtest86 reports no errors directly, one time had unexpected interrupt error after 13 passes but have not been able to reproduce
Crashes have no connection between activities, usually occur when I am away from the system, have disabled all sleep modes and power saving features with no changes, have mostly occurred in general usage with minimal software running, have occurred rarely with games or other high demand software running but only I think 4 times in total weeks apart
Thank you for your time and patience with my Verbose Background Information(™) and I look forward to insightful response.
Will report back with additional crashes after pulling 2 sticks of ram if they should occur.
My Computer
At a glance
Windows 7 Enterprise x64
- OS
- Windows 7 Enterprise x64
I thought we were on the right track, too. There should be a sticker on the motherboard somewhere with the revision number. Usually the sticker is on one of the PCI-E slots, RAM slots, or between them. It can sometimes be near the power connections or the expansion slots, as well.
Unfortunately that link gives me an error blocking direct links to inside content.
Keep us updated as things progress.
