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Possible Hardware Problems?

Tags:
  • Hardware
  • Desktops
  • Hardware Problem
  • Components
  • crashing
Last response: in Components
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August 27, 2014 6:05:48 AM

Well since building this new desktop under a month ago I've had no end of problems with it.

It started off being that the front USB's weren't working at all, even though they had been correctly plugged in, and all the drivers were installed, and somehow they now work.

The next problem I found was that my desktop would randomly crash, and I checked the error logs and it came up that the error was the power kernal, but checking with WhoCrashed, it came down to being Atikmdag.sys from the Graphics card drivers, this problem still persists but its too random to try and replicate the result. It normally happens when exiting full screen youtube videos or browsing on facebook, which seems strange, as rendering animation in 3D, using huge files in photoshop, and playing games on top settings or stress testing fully hasn't caused a crash once.

The next problem I have is not being able to get into UEFI Bios, I press F2, it loads up the ROG UEFI, but freezes before displays any of the system speeds or anything, and the one time it did I clicked on tools to try and flash it, and it froze immediately, I've tried moving the hardware around, e.g. moving the GPU down a pcie slot but it still happens.

Then when i tried to boot this morning, it loaded the bios part, but just showed a black screen for 2 minutes, i then restarted the desktop and it came up with 'windows can't start correctly' or something along those lines, so i had to refresh and start again.

Any help on what could be causing these problems? because I'm pretty sure these shouldn't be happening

The system I have is:
Motherboard: Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z
CPU: AMD FX8320
GPU: Gigabyte R9 290
PSU: Superflower Leadex 750W
RAM: Corsair CML32GX3M4A1600C10B Vengeance Low profile 32GB

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB
SSD: Samsung Pro 804 256GB

OS: Windows 8.1

Thanks

More about : hardware problems

August 27, 2014 6:18:23 AM

this seems like quite a complex issue but then again it could just be the Mobo has blow a chip.

First thing I would say is try reinstalling Windows onto your SSD
after that reinstall all drives for your ports and GPU, if you issue still isn't solved then I would test to see if there is a cooling issue with either the GPU or the CPU although both those components you have are good just make sure they are not overheating. if none of this works then try fitting a new Motherboard as there may be an issue with that also try only installing 16GB of ram, I don't know why sometimes anything over this causes an issue with some systems, I would usually suggest looking at the PSU and this also may be an idea for you. out of curiosity how old are the components you've got ?
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August 27, 2014 6:26:21 AM

How does it do with just two ram sticks in? Use same colored slots.
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August 27, 2014 3:41:23 PM

I've reinstalled windows and so far the problem hasn't persisted, the GPU runs at 42 degrees idle, but I've heard thats normal for the card i have?

I also don't have another motherboard to try in the system, so i would have to try and see if i could get the replacement for it or something, I have a feeling it may be a motherboard problem but i'm sure as yet, and I'll give the 2 memory cards a go tomorrow and see if they work, but it means removing the heatsink for the CPU as it covers over the first 2 RAM slots, so it's a pain to remove and reinstall to the system, I've had a word with the people that I had the PSU from and they said the only thing they can do for that is send it back and they will test it, which means I'm without the computer for 2-3 weeks and I doubt they will be able to replicate any of the problems with it.

The components are brand new, I purchased all of them at the same time around a month ago
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August 28, 2014 12:45:04 AM

Then just try with sticks in the first two slots,in the end it doesn't really matter,just that you run in single channel.I just want to see if you can get into the bios like that,the same colors thing was a kind of standard thing to say.

That psu is a very good choice,don't see why that should be causing problems.Look at it when done trying to see if it's the motherboard,which i think could be the problem seeing you can't even get into the bios normally.

Did you try a clear cmos,just to see if that helps,it shouldnt give further problems,it just resets the bios.
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August 28, 2014 4:03:55 PM

I'm going to take it apart on Saturday and try it with the 2 ram in, and I've not tried resetting CMOS, I'll do that first in fact, just to check, because I've put memtest through and it tested all 4 memory cards, for 12+ hours and not a single error occured with them.

Well that's one problem down, apparently the BIOS problem was due to the monitor, I have got a new one today, set it up, and tried to boot to bios and it loads instantly, there are a few occasions while clicking through menus that bios either seems to freeze or become unresponsive, but thats only while clicking through quite quickly. I also haven't occured the crash again for a few days, so fingers crossed, but if it is the PSU I might upgrade it to a 1000w or something to Xfire the cards in the future
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August 29, 2014 10:47:20 AM

You solved your problem?
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