Annoying Lock-ups.

[Akorahil]

I recently put together a new system and installed Windows 7 x64 Professional. For the last month, I've been struggling with complete lockups that happen anywhere from one to three times a day.

There is no way of recovering from them; I'm forced to do a hard boot. Everything on my screen freezes, and the lights on my keyboard go off as if it has been unplugged, and the speakers emit a horrible glitchy sound. Unfortunately, these crashes don't seem to leave me any data about what went wrong. BSOD, where art thou?

I've tried multiple fixes- updating every driver I could think of, cleaning up old drivers and registry entries, etc. In the process, I've discovered something interesting.

I have an AMD Phenom 1055t on an Asus M4A87TD EVO mobo. While most of the voltages appear to be in line, two in particular stand out to me. The 12v rail runs around 11.6v, and the CPU VCORE fluctuates, bouncing from 1.38 to 1.45v.

Any flags going up? If not, I'd appreciate any advice you guys could offer, especially about finding out the particulars of these crashes. Is there a log I could check?

 

[Jonathan_King]

Welcome!

Go ahead and check in Event Viewer>Windows Logs>Application Logs to see if an app is causing the hangs.

A faulting CPU is certainly a cause of hangs and the like. I encourage you to test it: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/100352-cpu-stress-test-prime95.html

 

[Petey7]

If you want a BSOD there is always Driver Verifier. If you have a driver issue, you will get a BSOD.

Have you looked in Event Viewer for something that might cause it? Type Event Viewer into the start menu search bar. Open it, and go to Windows Logs > applications. Look for a red circle with a white X or !. Anything else, including warnings, can be ignored. You can also look under system. You might find something from around the time of each crash that points you in the right direction.

 

[Akorahil]

Wow, fast response! Well, good grief. I looked in the Event Viewer and was greeted by an unholy cascade of errors. Lots and lots and lots of them. Critical errors mark the time at which each hard boot occurred, so now I think I can find exactly what was going on when the crashes happened with a little more looking...

EDIT: preliminary finding here - each crash is accompanied by this error:
Session "Microsoft Security Essentials OOBE" stopped due to the following error: 0xC000000D

 

[Jonathan_King]

Because MSE was mentioned, I advise uninstalling it and reinstalling it. However, a search on your error seems to point to a hardware error.

Carry one with the CPU test, but add RAM test to your list as well.

Download a copy of Memtest86 and burn the ISO to a CD using Iso Recorder or another ISO burning program. Boot from the CD, and leave it running for at least 5 or 6 passes.

 

[Akorahil]

You're right, it's probably not MSE - on closer examination the MSE error flag goes up about a second after the hard boot, for some reason.

Tested with memtest (1 pass, took nearly an hour) and everything looked good. Tested my processor with Passmark's torture-testing software - also good, no crashes.

Any more ideas? :/

 

[ttran]

keep memtestx86 running for at least 5 or 6 pass as JK mentioned, 1 pass is not enough

Do also a system file check eventhough It doesn't have much effect if this is really hardware issue, but never hurt to try:

Open an elevated command prompt and enter sfc /scannow.

 

[Akorahil]

Okay, have tried both of those now, nada. :/ I've had one crash during normal use today. Interestingly, rather than turning off when I hold the power button down, the system restarts.

 

[ttran]

The reasons that your computer restart itself is most likely an overheating situation. Itunes, RealPlayerhttp://askbobrankin.com/computer_shuts_down_by_itself.html#, etc. require a lot of processing power to decompress and decode music files, which can cause the system to get hot.
If your CPU is running at over 60 degrees you might be at risk of burning it out. Some systems shut down automatically when the temperature reaches an unsafe level.
Download the free Speedfan utility and it will tell you the temperature at which your CPU and hard drives are running.If you determine that overheating is not the problem, the most likely suspect is bad memory.

 

[Akorahil]

I thank everyone who has replied for their help. I haven't been able to find any overheating issues thus far, nor does the system behave like it's overheating - the power doesn't go off, nor does the system restart, without my intervention - it just hangs where it crashed. Bad memory might be it.

I noticed, when thumbing through the manual for my mobo, that there was a list of 'approved' ram products, and that my sticks aren't included there (even though the board is supposed to accept any ddr3 1333 ram.) Moreover, the ram timings and voltage when I first ran the system were totally wrong, and had to be fixed via BIOS. I've read elsewhere that using RAM that isn't on that arbitrary list can cause problems. Any thoughts on that?

 

[Petey7]

According to what I've read, any time you use ram not on the approved list, your taking your chances, even if the timings, voltages, etc. match your boards requirements. But I'd wait for a second opinion before buying anything.

 

[Akorahil]

According to what I've read, any time you use ram not on the approved list, your taking your chances, even if the timings, voltages, etc. match your boards requirements. But I'd wait for a second opinion before buying anything.

I agree. I'd shell out some money to fix this, but only if I know it'll work.

More information - as I mentioned earlier, audio always glitches out, producing a high-speed skipping sound when the crash occurs. However, sometimes when the system is doing several things at once, I'll get fleeting audio artifacts and a brief hang that resembles the lock-ups.

 

[Petey7]

More information - as I mentioned earlier, audio always glitches out, producing a high-speed skipping sound when the crash occurs. However, sometimes when the system is doing several things at once, I'll get fleeting audio artifacts and a brief hang that resembles the lock-ups.

Sounds like a RAM or sound driver problem to me. Considering how this thread has gone, my money is on it being the RAM.

 

[Akorahil]

Sounds like a RAM or sound driver problem to me. Considering how this thread has gone, my money is on it being the RAM.

Thanks for your input. And yes - if it's a sound driver problem, I'm in trouble; the sound driver is a one-off, custom-made by Asus for this board. It's doubtful they'll bother to release new drivers for it.

EDIT: Now upping the voltage on this RAM to 1.8; was previously running it at the low end of its rated voltages (1.7). It might make a RAM overheating issue more obvious, or mitigate instability from low voltage. I'm out of ideas here.

 

[Akorahil]

Update: Upping the voltage on my ram to 1.8 seems to have worked! I'd read several reviews of this RAM since then stating that while it's rated for 1.7-1.8, if it gets any less than 1.8, it tends to go on the fritz. Problem solved, I hope.