JaxomofRuatha
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All right, so I'm pretty much at the end of my rope here and I'm hoping that y'all can give me ANY idea what course of action to take.
I built a computer back in May and have already fully formatted it 5 times due to problems with crashing and restarting. It has survived a prime95 torture test with no problems at all, and actually seems to work better under higher load. Here is the build:
AZZA Solano Full Tower ATX case (air-cooled)
GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i3-530 Clarkdale 2.93GHz LGA 1156 73W Dual-Core Desktop Processor, stock cooling
XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 Video Card
Antec EarthWatts EA750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V version 2.3 Power Supply
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) 9-9-9-24 timings Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA Internal Hard Drive
Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit OS
I have already tried increasing voltages slightly to increase stability in addition to trying several stable voltage/frequency settings from this and other sites, turning off power-saving features, using memtest86+ for 12 passes (no problems), and running from integrated sound and video. It’s been a long time trying to get this thing working, so my apologies if I forgot something specific. I can post data from any testing program, but I honestly don’t really know where to start given the problems I am experiencing.
The primary point is that this doesn’t seem to be related to hardware installation, since the build works perfectly with Windows 7 before installation of drivers and programs, and during the latest restore even was working after installation of all drivers and several programs (MS Office, MediaMonkey, Firefox, Security Essentials, etc.) It also seems to have completely random errors with programs when it starts up, but particularly Windows Explorer. The one error message I have written down (most of the rest flash right before BSOD) in relation to several explorer.exe processes is “The instruction at 0x76919A70 referenced memory at 0x00000250. The memory could not be read. Click OK to close the program.”
Also, the computer seems to be worst from cold boot. I noticed recently that it goes in a pattern, normally taking 3-4 boots to remain stable in Windows in any combination of these crashes/errors:
-Gets past “Loading Windows” screen and then BSOD
-Gets to login screen, then BSOD when I click on my profile.
-Click on profile, then goes to a black screen with a cursor, must be manually shut down
-Get into Windows Explorer, let load for about a minute, then try and do anything and it BSOD’s (click on link, open program, etc.)
-Click on profile and it takes longer than usual at the “Preparing desktop” screen. Then it “sets up a temporary account” and I have to log off in order to get back to my actual account. It seems like it normally runs stable after that.
-When Windows Update is installing things, it will BSOD and then freeze there without restarting. This seems to happen every other time.
-I ran WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics on the first HD but it came up with no problems. My brother (who built a computer of his own) said that most of the problems sounded like HD problems, and that I shouldn't trust that diagnostic software would catch everything.
-While my brother was there, I used the video card from his computer which I know works (I believe it is a nVidia 9000 series or something) in place of the one currently in mine. It immediately had the exact same problems, so it seems as though at least none of the major issues are caused by the video card. I have heard that the ATI drivers can cause stability issues, so I've tried both the Catalyst suite and the basic drivers with no difference. I also installed .NET Framework 4.0 beforehand because I had read that if it is not present there may be problems.
-I bought a new HD because that was the most likely candidate for the problems I've had. The new one is a "Western Digital Caviar Black WD6402AAEX 640GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive." It worked better for installation of Windows 7 and hasn't had the constant crashing problems that the other one did, but it just gave me a BSOD twice, booted Windows with a black screen and a cursor, crashed Firefox/Chrome and Catalyst Control Center several times, and has prompted me several times to run both disk check and startup repair. The problems went away for a bit, but then came back just the same. I do have my original Caviar Blue HD installed as a second non-RAID hard drive.
-I have disabled all power saving BIOS options and changed the "minimum CPU load" setting to 100%, and while this seemed to help for a week or so it's back to doing the same thing it normally does.
-I looked at http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/25106-win-7-reboots-randomly-kernel-power.html and tried most of the ideas on there, but I don't want to buy a new motherboard or PSU without at least having someone look at the dump files I'm uploading here.
There are two things I'd like to know in addition to ANYTHING that you guys happen to think would help. First, is there a software that effectively runs diagnostics on the motherboard/PSU? I'm starting to think that the motherboard might be the problem. Second, I've been looking for RAM specs. I've tried to figure out where to locate these, but have so far had no luck. Is there a site that would have the full voltage and frequency specifications for my RAM when used in this GIGABYTE motherboard (or something close enough that it would at least be accurate)? I've looked on the G.Skill website with no luck on full stats, and most other sites only have partial stats that I'm not sure are accurate for my specific RAM.
It does seem like a lot of these errors are related to explorer.exe and result in a BSOD, but I lack the experience to know how to troubleshoot problems of this sort. I apologize if this post isn't exactly what you need, but please let me know if there's anything else that would help diagnose what the hell is going on and I'll try and get it (since stability is the problem, it might be difficult...). Thank you so much for any help, I really appreciate it.
I built a computer back in May and have already fully formatted it 5 times due to problems with crashing and restarting. It has survived a prime95 torture test with no problems at all, and actually seems to work better under higher load. Here is the build:
AZZA Solano Full Tower ATX case (air-cooled)
GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i3-530 Clarkdale 2.93GHz LGA 1156 73W Dual-Core Desktop Processor, stock cooling
XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 Video Card
Antec EarthWatts EA750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V version 2.3 Power Supply
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) 9-9-9-24 timings Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA Internal Hard Drive
Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit OS
I have already tried increasing voltages slightly to increase stability in addition to trying several stable voltage/frequency settings from this and other sites, turning off power-saving features, using memtest86+ for 12 passes (no problems), and running from integrated sound and video. It’s been a long time trying to get this thing working, so my apologies if I forgot something specific. I can post data from any testing program, but I honestly don’t really know where to start given the problems I am experiencing.
The primary point is that this doesn’t seem to be related to hardware installation, since the build works perfectly with Windows 7 before installation of drivers and programs, and during the latest restore even was working after installation of all drivers and several programs (MS Office, MediaMonkey, Firefox, Security Essentials, etc.) It also seems to have completely random errors with programs when it starts up, but particularly Windows Explorer. The one error message I have written down (most of the rest flash right before BSOD) in relation to several explorer.exe processes is “The instruction at 0x76919A70 referenced memory at 0x00000250. The memory could not be read. Click OK to close the program.”
Also, the computer seems to be worst from cold boot. I noticed recently that it goes in a pattern, normally taking 3-4 boots to remain stable in Windows in any combination of these crashes/errors:
-Gets past “Loading Windows” screen and then BSOD
-Gets to login screen, then BSOD when I click on my profile.
-Click on profile, then goes to a black screen with a cursor, must be manually shut down
-Get into Windows Explorer, let load for about a minute, then try and do anything and it BSOD’s (click on link, open program, etc.)
-Click on profile and it takes longer than usual at the “Preparing desktop” screen. Then it “sets up a temporary account” and I have to log off in order to get back to my actual account. It seems like it normally runs stable after that.
-When Windows Update is installing things, it will BSOD and then freeze there without restarting. This seems to happen every other time.
-I ran WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics on the first HD but it came up with no problems. My brother (who built a computer of his own) said that most of the problems sounded like HD problems, and that I shouldn't trust that diagnostic software would catch everything.
-While my brother was there, I used the video card from his computer which I know works (I believe it is a nVidia 9000 series or something) in place of the one currently in mine. It immediately had the exact same problems, so it seems as though at least none of the major issues are caused by the video card. I have heard that the ATI drivers can cause stability issues, so I've tried both the Catalyst suite and the basic drivers with no difference. I also installed .NET Framework 4.0 beforehand because I had read that if it is not present there may be problems.
-I bought a new HD because that was the most likely candidate for the problems I've had. The new one is a "Western Digital Caviar Black WD6402AAEX 640GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive." It worked better for installation of Windows 7 and hasn't had the constant crashing problems that the other one did, but it just gave me a BSOD twice, booted Windows with a black screen and a cursor, crashed Firefox/Chrome and Catalyst Control Center several times, and has prompted me several times to run both disk check and startup repair. The problems went away for a bit, but then came back just the same. I do have my original Caviar Blue HD installed as a second non-RAID hard drive.
-I have disabled all power saving BIOS options and changed the "minimum CPU load" setting to 100%, and while this seemed to help for a week or so it's back to doing the same thing it normally does.
-I looked at http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/25106-win-7-reboots-randomly-kernel-power.html and tried most of the ideas on there, but I don't want to buy a new motherboard or PSU without at least having someone look at the dump files I'm uploading here.
There are two things I'd like to know in addition to ANYTHING that you guys happen to think would help. First, is there a software that effectively runs diagnostics on the motherboard/PSU? I'm starting to think that the motherboard might be the problem. Second, I've been looking for RAM specs. I've tried to figure out where to locate these, but have so far had no luck. Is there a site that would have the full voltage and frequency specifications for my RAM when used in this GIGABYTE motherboard (or something close enough that it would at least be accurate)? I've looked on the G.Skill website with no luck on full stats, and most other sites only have partial stats that I'm not sure are accurate for my specific RAM.
It does seem like a lot of these errors are related to explorer.exe and result in a BSOD, but I lack the experience to know how to troubleshoot problems of this sort. I apologize if this post isn't exactly what you need, but please let me know if there's anything else that would help diagnose what the hell is going on and I'll try and get it (since stability is the problem, it might be difficult...). Thank you so much for any help, I really appreciate it.
My Computer
- OS
- Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit
