- Jan 15, 2014
- 505
- 0
- 11,160
There's a lot of info here since i've been slaving over this broken PC so i'll categorize it. Read what you think you'll need.
Build:
Antec Basiq 550W PSU
4gb DDR3 RAM
Athlon II x3 455 3.3Ghz CPU
ASROCK 970 Extreme3 Motherboard
250gb 7200RPM HDD
GTX 660 2gb GPU
Problem Description:
Whenever I boot Windows 8 it will typically restart at the loading screen. Occasionally it will get past it and let me log in, running for up to 4 minutes before restarting again. It will choose to freeze randomly, even in the BIOS. Lately it won't even show up on the monitor. There are no beep codes except the single beep that is given when the BIOS is passed.
History:
It began around the time when I did quite a few things to my computer. I moved it, cleaned it out using a dust remover spray, and OC'd the CPU from 3.3ghz to 3.9 (stock cooler, temps never exceeded 45C). Around a day after, it crashed. No errors, just 'Sorry
Your PC has ran into a problem.' At this point I returned the CPU back to 3.3. The crashes became more frequent up until the point where I can't even boot past the Windows logo, and I no longer receive the error message, just automatic restarts.
Attempted treatments:
- Swapped PSUs (and changed gpu to Radeon 7750 so it had enough wattage)
- Changed RAM slots (Windows recognizes the 4gb)
- Swapped GPUs
- Unplugged all unneeded parts
- Cleared BIOS
- Removed some plugs from outlet
- Attaching the PSU + HDD to an older MB, CPU, and RAM (Motherboard went up in smoke)
- Windows Automatic Repair (could not find the problem)
- Disabled unneeded drivers
- Swapped SATA ports/cables
Important things I haven't tried:
- Swapping HDDs
- Swapping CPU
- Swapping Motherboard
- Manually testing the PSU
Results:
Booting into Safe Mode (which is impossible at this point, have to be able to login to do it) seems to prolong the time it takes to crash by about 5-10 minutes. Booting into Safe Mode with Networking still hasnormal crashes. I ran a malware scan, no results. I ran "whocrashed.exe" and it found no dumps. Problem continues to get worse. I tried re-installing Windows with a flash drive but numerous problems such as "BOOTMGR cannot be found" and my laptop refusing to setup Windows 8.1 Installation to the flashdrive stopped me.
Notes:
The computer can sit at rest for long periods of time without crashing. It only crashes with user input once it gets past the loading screen. There is defintely a relationship with CPU stress and crashing.
Edit:
Just crashed again after having the longest run so far (10 min). Went straight to BIOS because it did not recognize the HDD. After rebooting now it does.
So at this point I've accepted that its mostly likely going to be a hardware issue and its going to cost me money. I just want to know what part seems to be failing. From my knowledge it appears that the CPU might have burned out due to overclocking and can't take much stress, hence why Safe Mode works.
Any advice is helpful. Keep in mind that I can't run tests such as memtest because I can't get past the loading screen.
Build:
Antec Basiq 550W PSU
4gb DDR3 RAM
Athlon II x3 455 3.3Ghz CPU
ASROCK 970 Extreme3 Motherboard
250gb 7200RPM HDD
GTX 660 2gb GPU
Problem Description:
Whenever I boot Windows 8 it will typically restart at the loading screen. Occasionally it will get past it and let me log in, running for up to 4 minutes before restarting again. It will choose to freeze randomly, even in the BIOS. Lately it won't even show up on the monitor. There are no beep codes except the single beep that is given when the BIOS is passed.
History:
It began around the time when I did quite a few things to my computer. I moved it, cleaned it out using a dust remover spray, and OC'd the CPU from 3.3ghz to 3.9 (stock cooler, temps never exceeded 45C). Around a day after, it crashed. No errors, just 'Sorry
Your PC has ran into a problem.' At this point I returned the CPU back to 3.3. The crashes became more frequent up until the point where I can't even boot past the Windows logo, and I no longer receive the error message, just automatic restarts.Attempted treatments:
- Swapped PSUs (and changed gpu to Radeon 7750 so it had enough wattage)
- Changed RAM slots (Windows recognizes the 4gb)
- Swapped GPUs
- Unplugged all unneeded parts
- Cleared BIOS
- Removed some plugs from outlet
- Attaching the PSU + HDD to an older MB, CPU, and RAM (Motherboard went up in smoke)
- Windows Automatic Repair (could not find the problem)
- Disabled unneeded drivers
- Swapped SATA ports/cables
Important things I haven't tried:
- Swapping HDDs
- Swapping CPU
- Swapping Motherboard
- Manually testing the PSU
Results:
Booting into Safe Mode (which is impossible at this point, have to be able to login to do it) seems to prolong the time it takes to crash by about 5-10 minutes. Booting into Safe Mode with Networking still hasnormal crashes. I ran a malware scan, no results. I ran "whocrashed.exe" and it found no dumps. Problem continues to get worse. I tried re-installing Windows with a flash drive but numerous problems such as "BOOTMGR cannot be found" and my laptop refusing to setup Windows 8.1 Installation to the flashdrive stopped me.
Notes:
The computer can sit at rest for long periods of time without crashing. It only crashes with user input once it gets past the loading screen. There is defintely a relationship with CPU stress and crashing.
Edit:
Just crashed again after having the longest run so far (10 min). Went straight to BIOS because it did not recognize the HDD. After rebooting now it does.
So at this point I've accepted that its mostly likely going to be a hardware issue and its going to cost me money. I just want to know what part seems to be failing. From my knowledge it appears that the CPU might have burned out due to overclocking and can't take much stress, hence why Safe Mode works.
Any advice is helpful. Keep in mind that I can't run tests such as memtest because I can't get past the loading screen.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram