Solved System Freezes & hangs - possible broken motherboard?

[NickFrancis]

Hi

My system is completely unstable - it regularly hangs/freezes/stalls/makes horrible noises - this can be at any time: during boot-up, when windows is loading, whilst browsing, playing games - there is no consistent trigger.

Last week my PSU went bang and since then it's been far far worse. (replaced it & updated profile specs).

I've been trying to establish the fault and I've done the following:

- Run chkdsk on both hard disks (windows mounted on 1 disk, my docs etc. on disk 2) with no faults
- Run Memtest86+ for about an hour with no faults found
- Run FurMark for about 5 mins with no stability issues/crashing etc (temp got up to about 97c)

I've been trying to run Hot CPU Lite but it always seems to freeze about an hour into the test (if it gets that far).

I'm thinking that it looks like the motherboard is the problem, and the PSU going may have done some additional damage. Unfortunately I don't have a spare one lying around that I can test it with so wanted some opinions before I go spending money I don't have on something I might not need!

Thanks

 

[Maguscreed]

If you have anything in c:\windows\minidump
zip it up and attach it would you?
If it's a hardware fault a minidump should point that out.

 

[NickFrancis]

Hi
I've zipped up the last couple of days of minidumps - hopefully they can tell you something.

Thanks

Nick

 

[Maguscreed]

Sorry to be so slow getting back to you it's been a long day.

At any rate you are getting a 124 stop which does indicate a hardware level problem. Trying to narrow it down can be a bit of an issue. We have a thread on this kind of failure and a list of things to do to narrow it down. http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lockup-debug-how/35349-stop-0x124-what-means-what-try.html

Sorry I can only really verify what you already suspected. However you can be confident you have a hardware related problem at this point.

Probably caused by : hardware

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

1: kd> !analyze -v
*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR (124)
A fatal hardware error has occurred. Parameter 1 identifies the type of error
source that reported the error. Parameter 2 holds the address of the
WHEA_ERROR_RECORD structure that describes the error conditon.
Arguments:
Arg1: 0000000000000000, Machine Check Exception
Arg2: fffffa8002e1c4f8, Address of the WHEA_ERROR_RECORD structure.
Arg3: 0000000000000000, High order 32-bits of the MCi_STATUS value.
Arg4: 0000000000000000, Low order 32-bits of the MCi_STATUS value.

Debugging Details:
------------------


BUGCHECK_STR:  0x124_GenuineIntel

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT:  1

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  VISTA_DRIVER_FAULT

PROCESS_NAME:  System

CURRENT_IRQL:  0

STACK_TEXT:  
fffff880`031806b0 fffff800`03118ca9 : fffffa80`02e1c4d0 fffffa80`018d0b50 00000000`00000008 00000000`00000000 : nt!WheapCreateLiveTriageDump+0x6c
fffff880`03180bd0 fffff800`02ff9587 : fffffa80`02e1c4d0 fffff800`030732d8 fffffa80`018d0b50 00000000`00000000 : nt!WheapCreateTriageDumpFromPreviousSession+0x49
fffff880`03180c00 fffff800`02f60985 : fffff800`030d4ae0 00000000`00000001 fffffa80`027e0a60 fffffa80`018d0b50 : nt!WheapProcessWorkQueueItem+0x57
fffff880`03180c40 fffff800`02edf851 : fffff880`01089e00 fffff800`02f60960 fffffa80`018d0b00 00740073`00790073 : nt!WheapWorkQueueWorkerRoutine+0x25
fffff880`03180c70 fffff800`0316ce6a : 00000000`00000000 fffffa80`018d0b50 00000000`00000080 fffffa80`018be040 : nt!ExpWorkerThread+0x111
fffff880`03180d00 fffff800`02ec6f06 : fffff880`02f63180 fffffa80`018d0b50 fffff880`02f6dfc0 fffffa80`0282e960 : nt!PspSystemThreadStartup+0x5a
fffff880`03180d40 00000000`00000000 : fffff880`03181000 fffff880`0317b000 fffff880`0379e790 00000000`00000000 : nt!KxStartSystemThread+0x16


STACK_COMMAND:  kb

FOLLOWUP_NAME:  MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: hardware

IMAGE_NAME:  hardware

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP:  0

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  X64_0x124_GenuineIntel_PROCESSOR_BUS_PRV

BUCKET_ID:  X64_0x124_GenuineIntel_PROCESSOR_BUS_PRV

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

 

[NickFrancis]

Hi
Don't worry for the delay - I'm grateful you've given it the time.

Thanks for confirming my suspicions. Seeing as I've run test on the GPU & RAM (I'll try to run MemTest86+ overnight to give it a really good run) then it's looking like it's the mobo.....the only other piece of hardware I have is a wifi card. I'll remove it, boot up & see if that makes any significant changes.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Maguscreed]

Yeah this specific stop is pretty much always related to either a bad overclock or actual damaged hardware.

Removing any additional cards/devices the system can actually boot without is another good test.

 

[NickFrancis]

Definitely not an over clock issue as have avoided doing that so far. Removed the wifi card and system still very unstable.

Have been running memtest overnight -it says the pass is all clear but the screen has gone very odd (see attachment) is this normal?

It does still seem to be running - the keyboard shortcuts bring up menus...

So far all seems to be pointing to mobo.

 

[Maguscreed]

Well I've never personally been a huge fan of foxconn to begin with.

We are basically to the point that the motherboard and/or cpu itself are coming into question.

 

[NickFrancis]

Thanks.

Shopping for new mobo now. Choice is slightly overwhelming! Looking at either ASUS or Gigabyte. Will buy, install & report back here when all done. Hopefully it'll fix it...if not, I might be sleeping on the sofa for a while

 

[NickFrancis]

new mobo delivered & installed. PC is up & running and showed no signs of instability. Have done all the things that previously made it crash with no crashes.

Problem solved!

Thanks for your help Maguscreed

 

[keithke]

Additionally the following Windows 7 Intel Microcode hotfix may also have helped. Microcode update for Intel processors in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2