PC consistently freezing on boot, subsequent reboots are fine though

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Five5ign

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Oct 1, 2013
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Hi all, my pc lately is freezing a few minutes after windows loads, so I have to reset it. When it loads the second time it usually runs fine (once or twice I had to reboot twice). This behavior is pretty consistent, so I'm curious what's wrong.

For some background, one of my two ram DIMMs failed a couple months ago, and in the past few months I've had to run HDD check/repair a couple times to fix some other boot/hanging issues, so I'm not sure if the HDD or last ram DIMM is on it's way out as well, or something else entirely like PSU or mobo.

I bought the PC as a custom build in 2008 for a small-ish computer shop.

If it's relevant the major parts are:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: Asus P5K-SE
Memory: 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR2-800 Memory (unsure of brand)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 500GB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 5670 1GB Video Card
Case: Antec SONATA III 500 ATX Mid Tower Case w/500W Power Supply
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1

Thanks for any suggestions!
 
Solution
clutchc
No sense really checking any further. Normally, I'd say you got a pair of 2GB sticks that were miss marked. But you said you are sure they registered 4GB at one time. I can't imagine any way the MB could be causing it, other than a failed north bridge. If it were mine, I'd find some way to beg, borrow, buy another 4GB stick (or 2) to verify. Or find someone that will let you put those sticks in their machine to verify.
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clutchc

clutchc

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Apr 22, 2009
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It would be easy to check the RAM. Just run memtest on one stick at a time. Let it run for at least one full pass on each stick.
http://www.memtest.org/

Have you run something like CCleaner recently? It will clean your PC of registry errors, junk files, and resource hogging crap.
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

What is the make/model of your PSU? And, I'll bet HDD access is kinda slow with those 5400 RPM drives.
 
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Five5ign

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Oct 1, 2013
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I ran CCleaner and Memtest which passed without errors.
I tried to update drivers but Asus' update tool was not cooperative, so I'll have to keep looking in that regard.

As an interesting note from the memtest, it wasn't that one 4gb DIMM failed, apparently both 4gb DIMMs read as 2gb now (I definitely had 8gb before, and the DIMMs are even labelled 4gb).
I reseated them but to not avail, but that's another issue...
 
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Five5ign

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Oct 1, 2013
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Yup, I even pulled the sticks to double check (when I reseated them).
http://imgur.com/a/ac7ut#0

The screenshot is early on in the test, but once I exited once it said tests were done (Pass had 1), and a message appeared in the bottom space that said Test Passed, Press ESC to exit. It did seem to still be running though, I thought it just started another test. Did I do this wrong?
 
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clutchc

clutchc

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That's the first time I've ever seen anything like that. If it was just one stick, I'd say the stick has failed somehow, but not with both sticks... the exact same issue. I'm going to say the problem is with the MB. The memory controller on the north bridge.

Try memtest again with just a single stick in the 1st slot and see what it says.
(Normally, you should run memtest with just 1 stick in at a time so you can tell which stick is bad, if any. And you only need to run for 1 pass for a quick test to just see if the memory is OK. More than 1 pass for stress testing the memory/system together to see how it performs when the system heats up.)
 
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Five5ign

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Oct 1, 2013
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I checked and the MB bios was up to date all along (no updates since last update).
I ran memtest again, 2 passes on each stick individually, no errors...

Is there some way to diagnose the memory controller outside buying new memory to verify?
I guess I'll see if can contact Asus for support.
 
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clutchc

clutchc

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Apr 22, 2009
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No sense really checking any further. Normally, I'd say you got a pair of 2GB sticks that were miss marked. But you said you are sure they registered 4GB at one time. I can't imagine any way the MB could be causing it, other than a failed north bridge. If it were mine, I'd find some way to beg, borrow, buy another 4GB stick (or 2) to verify. Or find someone that will let you put those sticks in their machine to verify.
 
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Five5ign

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Oct 1, 2013
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Thanks for the suggestions all!
Unfortunately no ddr2 boards or RAM easily available, so I'm going to have to wait it out (4gb good for now). The freezing is oddly gone, so maybe it's not as consistent as I though, or a software issue... maybe. I just got a SSD so we'll see if the new install fixes things. If not the mobo/cpu/ram upgrade is in the pipe eventually since I rather not buy more ddr2 at this point.
 
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