BSODs on a relatively new Custom Built Gaming PC

[sonic77]

Computer was built around mid August this year, started crashing around mid-september for seemingly no reason. It's crashed around 7-10 times by now, the most recent one being today while playing Guild Wars 2. Every time it's crashed has been while a game was running except for one time when it crashed sometime during the night, when it was supposed to be asleep. I've constantly been checking the temps of my CPU and Graphics Card and neither ever go beyond around 70 degrees Celsius while gaming. After posting on a different forum I was told that the problem was due to a bad 360 controller driver from windows, so when I updated it, I figured that the problem had passed since there have been no crashes that I know of (that was around a month and a half ago).

When I was building the computer I accidentally got some of the thermal compound on the outer edge of the metal cover on top of the CPU while installing the heat sink. I wiped it off as best as I could, but I'm worried that it might be causing a problem as well. I used IC Diamond 7, which as far as I know is non-conductive, so I wasn't too worried about it. I'm running a Mini-ITX system in a BitFenix Prodigy, so space is pretty tight, and it would be fairly difficult to take apart to try and clean the rest of it off, if possible. If nothing software related can be found in the attached file, then I'll take a look and see what I can do, but I would rather not if possible.

Thank you in advance for any help you may be able to provide!

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hello ands welcome sonic mate I wouldn't be too worried about the compound unless it got down into the socket and then it would have to be a lot.

Just for starters and elimination purposes run these first in this order and delete any rubbish

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html<= DO NOT run on a SSD

http://www.superantispyware.com/

http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free/

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

* download from bleeping computer

 

[sonic77]

Thanks. I'll get started on that and look through the tutorials in the meantime to see if I can narrow down the problem.

*Edit* System File Checker came up with nothing, running disk check right now.

*Edit 2* Pretty sure the disk check came up with nothing as well. I wasn't in the room when it finally finished but after it rebooted it said the drive was clean.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Ok mate now if those scans don't come up with anything or fix it maybe itwould be time to reseat all the RAM sticks the GPU and power leads.

Cleaning the slots is good to do at this tiem.

If that doesn't work then we might need to work on the drivers for the cardand even a memtest

http://www.evga.com/support/download/default.aspx

SLOTCLEANING

Now as for the slots to clean them use astrip of old credit card about 1/2 inch wide nip the corners off one end - preferably round them off hold apiece of thin lint free cloth over the end dab on some form of alcohol - isopropyl alcohol (what we swab the skin with before an injection) is good and GENTLY swipe along the slots.

This can also be done for the GPU slot/s.

MEMTEST

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.htmlthis one you will need to make a bootable disk set the BIOSto optical (or USB if preferred) boot the machine and let it run for at LEAST 8passes unless the errors come up straight away. Takes fair time to complete andsome leave it running overnight.

Now it could also be a power supply problem to Try this
PSU- Jump Start

for a reference
PowerSupply 101: A Reference Of Specifications - Power Supplies asyou will see there is a +/- 5% variance that can make all the difference so11.4v is way too low and 12.6v way too high.

 

[sonic77]

Ok, I guess I could try that, but I'll have to completely dismantle the computer, so I won't be able to get around to it until at least tomorrow, maybe later than that. I'll run memtest as well and see if that comes up with anything before I try taking the computer apart. Thanks for the help!

The bluescreens themselves are typically fairly far apart, so I don't think that I'll be able to tell right away if the problem is fixed or not.

*edit* I don't know why, but it only just occurred to me that the zip file I uploaded was taken from a different user profile than the one that had the crash. I don't know if it makes a difference at all, but I uploaded a crash file from the profile that had the last BSOD in the original post, called sonic77_2.

 

[sonic77]

Sorry if double posting is against the rules, but my thread was starting to get a little buried, and I don't think that that editing bumps it at all.

Anyway, I ran memtest overnight and when I checked this morning it was on it's 12th pass without any errors, so I guess the memory isn't the issue. I'm going to start taking the computer apart and cleaning the slots to see if that helps.

I'm not sure how jump starting the PSU would help me, but I already did that before putting the computer together to make sure that it and a couple of fans were working before the motherboard arrived and it started up just fine. I have noticed that it gets a little hot under load though, I don't know if that's normal or not. PSU is a Corsair TX 750 V2, I checked it out before I bought it and it's supposed to be able to support Haswell's low power states as well as supply enough power on the 12v rail to run the graphics card without any problems.

*Update*

I just finished reseating the graphics card and memory, cleaned the slots with a clipped credit card and isopropyl alcohol, and made sure that all the power connectors were firmly plugged in. I also blew around inside the slots and power leads with some compressed air. I'm going to load up some games and see if it crashes again once I finish modding Skyrim, and I'll post back here again if it BSODs.

 

[sonic77]

"Uncorrectable Hardware Error" BSoD

My computer BSoD'd Again for the first time since November (that I know of). This time it came up with the message "Uncorrectable Hardware Error" or something like that. I don't know what the rest said because I wasn't the one using the computer at the time of the crash. I attached an SF Diagnostic Folder but I'm not sure that it will be able to narrow anything down if it is a hardware issue.