New installation Windows 7 keeps hanging

[Tepid]

This is why I suggested a look at the dram timings to see if those are set correctly since memory problems can seem like bad ram when all you might need is a change in settings. Personally to get to 4gb I went with a pair of 2gb dimms rather then populating all four dimm slots with 1gb dimms.

Some boards are known to be hassles when all slots are used. The OP will still have to get to us here to let us know what can be ruled out and what still needs to be looked at.

I agree.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Does anyone even bother to actually measure the power used by a system at idle or under load?

Whatever became of that radical idea?

Never mind what a calculator says.

Try checking what a few systems actually use.

Not really,,, there is almost no point to doing that anymore.


But, when building a PC, you really need to know what you are doing and do your homework.

I see.

 

[Tepid]

However, I might add,, that if you are starting out as a PC tech, it is not a bad idea for anyone to do their own testing, so that maybe they can get a better understanding of the over all picture.

Is it necessary? No.

 

[fyrestar]

Firstly, thank you to everyone who has posted back, I have tried to go through each post suggestion individually so here goes:

Seekmeister: yes have run win 7 compatabilty test and passes on all counts

richc46: checked device manager, no conflicts and all drivers appear to up to date.
ran memory diagnostic which didnt turn up any issues.
Event viewer showed a few issues, mainly seemed to be relating to lsass.exe, its not a virus (i dont think) ran sweep with avg free, nothing turned up.
lsass seems to be a security led application but it could be falling over due to something else?
I found the wireless card i had connected didnt have the most up to date driver so corrected that.
performance monitor showed 2.584gb of Ram is available which is about right i guess for a 32 bit installation but i dont know what else i should be looking for here likewise on task manager, i mean I dont see anything untoward either.

Chev65: The PSU calculator from antec reckons I will only see 138W power consumption, Im not running any GPU yet (onboard only) although i do have one, i hadnt put it in yet as I wanted to see how it would run without one.
At the moment its just the mobo, 2 sticks of memory, bluray drive, HDD and PSU in there with usb keyboard and mouse.
The PSU that came with the case is 450W P4 with 28A on 12v rail which I think satisfies the criteria in the mobo instruction manual. see it here : http://www.scribd.com/doc/19094018/M4A785TDV-EVO
Like a lot of you i was wondering about it but i cant find a good reason to suspect it yet as it seems to satisfy all criteria from the manufacturer

NightHawk: I wasn’t so lucky, I tried “last known configuration” which didn’t change anything, it was still hanging.

Gregrocker: This one was interesting but I was getting error messages.
It was about here I decided that, I didn’t have anything to lose except another 20 mins, so decided on a fresh install.

So that’s as far as I have gotten right now, but still working on it.
I know you guys aren’t keen on this no name PSU and it was a bit of a chance on a cheapo case and PSU deal however, its showing the correct voltages in the Bios (doesn’t account for Amperage under load I know) still I’m starting to wonder if there is anything to look at with regards the HDD?

When it used to hang the HDD would stop dead in its track at the same time as the hang occurred, could be that it was made to by something else but worth checking some how?
Whats your thoughts peeps?

Also, I have to admit, I don’t have much experience with timing adjustments on RAM but the G.Skill website says its compatible with this board so I was hoping it would be a simple plug and play deal, maybe not?

Again, thank you for all your contributions

 

[chev65]

In responce to this > Chev65: The PSU calculator from antec reckons I will only see 138W power consumption, Im not running any GPU yet (onboard only) although i do have one, i hadnt put it in yet as I wanted to see how it would run without one.
At the moment its just the mobo, 2 sticks of memory, bluray drive, HDD and PSU in there with usb keyboard and mouse.
The PSU that came with the case is 450W P4 with 28A on 12v rail which I think satisfies the criteria in the mobo instruction manual. see it here : http://www.scribd.com/doc/19094018/M4A785TDV-EVO
Like a lot of you i was wondering about it but i cant find a good reason to suspect it yet as it seems to satisfy all criteria from the manufacturer.

You missed my point entirely.

It's not that your power supply doesn't have the output, I explained this earlier, although I would go with a much higher output model for your system depending on the GPU set up. It should be a crime to put that power supply in a system as nice as yours. Those power supplies that come with the case are absolute junk. That is like a 50 dollar PSU!

Sorry but I can't think of a nicer way to spell out the facts here.

The real problem is that your board picks up a low power signal during cold boots so it's automatically shutting itself down because it was programed to do so in such an event. I can also promise you that the second you install a decent GPU in your system it will be an Epic Fail and you could very well take out the rest of your system in the process.

It's a very common problem and well documented but only seems to occur with certian power supplies regardless of total output. I've seen this happen with 1000watt Thermal Take PSU's also with i7 sytems. It's a low power shut off that occurs during cold boots which the board is programmed to do on purpose in order to save itself from damage. And yes it's very likely that running with your power supply could easily damage your system.

If you can find another power supply to try that would be very helpful. I can just about guarantee that is the problem in this case.

By the way, no amount of power calculators can make up for common sense. In this case you should have used better judgment in your power supply selection because the one you are using is grossly inadaquate for such a nice system such as the one you built.

 

[Tepid]

ran memory diagnostic which didnt turn up any issues.

How many passes? 1 to 3 is not good enough,, mem diags should run a minimum of 4 to 6 hours.

avg free

AVG is Garbage,,, run several different On-Line scanners,, such as ESET, Live Safety Scanner, Panda Online Scanner.

Then install Microsoft Security Essentials,, it is a ba-billion times better than AVG could ever hope to be.

Yes, run HDD Diags. It's not going to hurt and you will eliminate it as a problem.

 

[fyrestar]

Chev65: Well, that told me.
I'll start looking around for a higher rated PSU, forgive me for being naieve on this subject but I thought it would probably do the job and this is my first self build rig.
Any suggestions on PSU make/models?

Ran memory Diag 4 times in all but can give it a go a few more times to makes sure and will be checking the HDD later tonight.
Also installed Micrsoft essentials which shows a clean bill of health

Ran event viewer after the fresh install and was getting Atikmdag errors which turned out to be ATI drivers for the onboard graphics, so thats sorted only other item showing is a warning relating to "WLAN AutoConfig service has successfully stopped."
But no actual errors are showing now.

As this fault seems to only show up on cold start its tough to get it to show up without waiting an hour or two for it to cool down but I reckon we must be getting closer to a fix, either way I'll let you guys know if I trip over anything else

 

[Tepid]

This info right here....

As this fault seems to only show up on cold start

I agree with Chev65. I would try a new PSU also...

Corsair, In-Win, Antec are proven names

Thermaltake can have issues, but is a proven name.

I would personally go with Corsair... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006
Oh, yeah,, I did go with Corsair.

 

[Night Hawk]

ran memory diagnostic which didnt turn up any issues.

How many passes? 1 to 3 is not good enough,, mem diags should run a minimum of 4 to 6 hours.

avg free

AVG is Garbage,,, run several different On-Line scanners,, such as ESET, Live Safety Scanner, Panda Online Scanner.

Then install Microsoft Security Essentials,, it is a ba-billion times better than AVG could ever hope to be.

Yes, run HDD Diags. It's not going to hurt and you will eliminate it as a problem.

I've seen times when memtest would report scores of error in only a few passes on memory that otherwise was flawless. Memtest like any other program is still software. When running the same memory on another build with a different board entirely memtest found 0% errors there. The previous board had a board problem as it turned even reporting a good cpu was cooked!

With AVG 9.0 on and the IE security toolbar active bugs were flagged by the toolbar before they could be placed on the system. With AVG disabled as well as the toolbar the latest trojan was found only once on the system! MSE finally prompted for a cleanup.

On a brand new build seeing problems right off either hardwares or some settings or even more then one item have to be considered. 28A on the rails means nothing if the supply has poor regulation resulting in problems being pulled down with a load. As for better brand supplies and expansion later once you have a good card in your typical 500-600w supply is like the Seasonic model seen at Newegg.com - SeaSonic SS-550HT 80plus 550W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Power Supplies

OCZ has one in that wattage range as well.
Newegg.com - OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply compatible with core i7 - Power Supplies

For a 550w by Corsair depending on on your price range and actual needs another model is seen at Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Power Supplies

On the last build here a 550w Antec sufficed until this case was built due to the original 480w model taking a nose dive with only pair of HDs. For expansion on this build being planned out I went with the 700w to handle s little more then needed. Soon I'll be looking for the same again for the new build waiting to see USB 3.0 capability there.

 

[chev65]

Chev65: Well, that told me.
I'll start looking around for a higher rated PSU, forgive me for being naieve on this subject but I thought it would probably do the job and this is my first self build rig.
Any suggestions on PSU make/models?

Ran memory Diag 4 times in all but can give it a go a few more times to makes sure and will be checking the HDD later tonight.
Also installed Micrsoft essentials which shows a clean bill of health

Ran event viewer after the fresh install and was getting Atikmdag errors which turned out to be ATI drivers for the onboard graphics, so thats sorted only other item showing is a warning relating to "WLAN AutoConfig service has successfully stopped."
But no actual errors are showing now.

As this fault seems to only show up on cold start its tough to get it to show up without waiting an hour or two for it to cool down but I reckon we must be getting closer to a fix, either way I'll let you guys know if I trip over anything else

I like the ThermalTake power supplies because I have had nothing but good luck with them on many builds. They did put out a 1200watt model that had the low voltage problem at start up problem but they quickly figured it out and fixed it in the new models.

This is one area of investment where you don't want to cut corners or try to save a buck on a build. It's just too important of a piece of hardware to skimp on.

If you ever plan on installing a modern GPU on that nice machine of yours consider a 750 watt unit. You can probably get by with a 600 watt unit with no GPU but that is really cutting short the ultimate potential of your system.

 

[Tepid]

Yep, I agree,, the 3 places (in order of importance) that you should not cut corners on, are....

1. PSU (for good power generation)

2. Case style (for good cooling, doesn't matter how good the case looks if it doesn't provide good cooling) (it can have all the pretty lights in the world, but cooling is far more important)

3. Motherboard (for stability)

 

[Night Hawk]

A wimpy supply is a headache from the start! Corsair had a good 620w model out some time back that would be adequate for that build even when you add a good video card. The OCZ 700w was selected here knowing additional hardwares like drives, tuner card, etc. would be added on later.

Forget case styles while some that see the board drop down on one side for ease of installation/removal look nice the lack of sufficient air flow or alternate liquid cooling is a major temp problem from the start there. Tepid called that one on the head!

Try moving a board out of one case that lacked even vents to one with a large front fan to see board temps drop some 15C+! Once the board temps came down the cpu and everything benefited as well.

As far as boards you have perhaps 6 or 7 top makes and even running into a bad board from one of them is always possible! Make sure you order your board through a good vendor having a good rma policy! If you should end up getting a bad board or two in model series they'll work with you on replacing with a different board or model even another make and model.

 

[Tepid]

If I continue the list above I would say,,,

4. RAM (bad ram can cause data corruption among other things)

5. Hard drive (and crappy slow drive isn't going to do you any good)

6. Video Card (self explanatory)

7. CPU (it is very rare for the CPU to go bad, so you rea really looking for speed here)

8. Optical Drive (while important, these are almost a dime a dozen)

9. Keyboard and Mouse

10. Monitor (while also important, just about anything will do, however, notice that a monitor with better refresh rates [or LCD's these days with high Hz ratios] do play a part in the speed of your system. in other words, yes, actually a slow monitor can have the effect of slowing the feel of your system, it can become a bottle neck)

11. The rest are after thoughts.

 

[Night Hawk]

4) bad ram or timings, voltage not set correctly or the board using a standard memory not performance dimms depending on make and model will be a factor to add to that.

5) WD Green Power models good for storage not OSing used mainly in 3.5" My Book external application there. The same applies to Seagate and other make external drives usually lower end series.

7) depends on whether or not you plan to oc or run stock. You can easily cook a cpu not having an adequate hsf inplace and watch temps soar as well as insufficient cooling in general. Cool the board more and watch cpu temps come down!

 

[Tepid]

Well I was just generalizing.

 

[Night Hawk]

Each individual environment as well as the intended usage will always be a factor since that varies with each person. Those were just a few tips on things there as well.

One other thing I could recommend here since the problem is mainly seen at startup besides the supply being pulled down during the post tests where the largest draw on the supply is seen would be scheduling a run of the check disk utility with the repair switch added to see if this is an OS startup related problem.

Simply go to the Run command line if you have checked off to be displated on the Start menu there and type in "chkdsk /r" without quotes to schedule a run on the next startup. That will tend to correct any basic partition table and other logs as well as scan for bad sectors and work around them on the drive itself.

 

[fyrestar]

Well, looks like we have a winner.
I spent about 40 mins pulling my 650W Antec PSU out of my gaming rig and used that, after several cold start ups the failure has dissapeared with no event log warnings or issues.

Hats off to you fellas, you spotted the issue pretty quick and it took some time for me to go off and test all your ideas as the days are not my own at the moment but I had a day free this weekend which allowed me to have a proper look and as most of you had said it looks like the PSU was he culprit.

I still havent added the GPU as I halted the build at this point until satisified that the problem was sorted so Im off looking for a decent 700W+ PSU now.

Thanks again.

 

[Night Hawk]

I've been running the OCZ GameXStream 700w for 3yrs. now. And that takes a pounding with the amount of drives run here. At the moment however newegg only has one of those instock(recertified). Newegg.com - Recertified: OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI-B 700W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply

For the next build I'll likely end up with the Fatality model seen at Newegg.com - OCZ Fatal1ty OCZ700FTY 700W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Power Supplies

But at least you know where the problem was. This is why I was pointing out that supplies that come included with cases exspecially generic labels are generally garbage! If you are not into gaming and not looking any high performance card to start with there are plenty of good mid range to look over by both ATI and NVidia.

 

[Tepid]

Like I always say,,, Power is a strange thing, with strange properties that cause strange issues.

When you have looked at all other things. Check the PSU.

I was hit by lightnening once and the system seemed fine, for a while, then it started flaking out
little did I know, the PSU had been hit and created a short at the Mobo.
None of the problems I was seeing pointed to the Power. But that was it.

 

[Night Hawk]

When the board saw a short you had two problems not one! Someone else lately heard two beeps and no display where it became obvious the video card was toast. But even with the onboard nothing came on! The supply a weak off name 450w had done something like being pulled down too far by a short on the card or surged and cooked the card somehow. Now the board is ? with an 850w in!