Menagerie of Death: Crashes, Error Codes, and No Display

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edisonfloyd

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Sep 19, 2014
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Here's a speccy link to my computer with a summary of my computer at the top and more detailed info on each component below that.

Since it doesn't list it my PSU is a SeaSonic SS-650HT.

I've been having some trouble with my computer as of late and here are the symptoms I've been experiencing roughly in the order that the first problem appears during boot up.

Error/Beep codes:
I get error codes fairly often. The motherboard manual has no information of the error codes and I can't seem to find anything online about them.

There are two patterns I get, I would describe the first pattern as 2 short beeps quickly, followed by 8 short beeps at a medium speed. If a period were to represent a beep and a space to represent a pause it would look like this.
.. . . . . . . . .

The second is one short beep.

In either case the keyboard and mouse are off, no signal to the display, and I have to hold down the power button to shut down.

When I don't get error codes I always get a POST.

No display but successful boot:
Computer boots up successfully but I never have any display, I don't see the motherboard logo, the windows icon, or the desktop. The keyboard and mouse turn on and I can initiate shut down by pushing the power button once.

Displays windows icon:
Computer boots normally up until the windows icon. At this point there's no spinning circles (used to represent loading) and waiting does nothing. Display shows the logo but keyboard and mouse turn off and I have to hold the power button to shut down.

Past windows icon into nothing:
Computer boots normally up until after the windows icon. Normally at this point I would see my default user account logging in but instead my display loses signal and keyboard and mouse shut off. I have to hold the power button to shut down.

Nvidia driver crash:
Sometimes after booting successfully the screen will turn black briefly and then resume working. In the dock there will be a message saying that the nvidia driver recovered.

Instant death black screen:
Sometimes after booting successfully the display will turn black and after a brief interlude the computer will boot again.

My motherboard supports integrated graphics as long as there is no graphics card connected. The integrated graphics have a better success rate (something like 1 in 10 rather than 1 in 70) but still fail to boot pretty frequently.

Obviously something is broken, I've checked the connections a dozen times each and they are correctly placed. My question is which component is the issue originating from/what tests and checks should I do to confirm that?
 
Solution
capt_taco



No, two sticks are not any more stable than one. Mainly what you'd be looking for is a) If boot & memtest always fail with both sticks, then probably you've narrowed it down to one of the sticks being bad. b) Try using the pair in the DIMM0 slots only, and in the DIMM1 slots only. If it is stable in one but not the other, then you may have a problem...
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festerovic

festerovic

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Jul 16, 2008
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What type of power supply do you have?

Try replacing the RAM with a SINGLE stick (one of the 2gb ones) and try again. Next, if that doesn't work, remove it, and try the SINGLE 4gb stick. You aren't supposed to mix speeds of RAM together.

Create a mem86 boot disk and run the full suite on your system, 1 stick at a time. Make sure the single stick is set to AUTO (everything) OR to the correct numbers in manual mode.

Sounds power or RAM related due to variety of fails.
 
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edisonfloyd

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Sep 19, 2014
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Updated the post to include PSU. I've been using this build for about 2 years without much issue. Currently I'm booting with just one of the 2gb sticks but the same issues persist. I ran memtest a week or so ago without issues but could be worth trying again.
 
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nostall

nostall

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Nov 28, 2012
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GREAT! I didn't catch that in the list. Another good starting point.

 
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nostall

nostall

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Your Speccy list did not include the make, model of your powersupply. If you can, post a picture of the label on the side of the Power Supply Unit.
Is this a pre-built (?Acer?) computer or did you build it or have someone build it for you?
There are a helluva lot of things that can be causing your problems, but the starting point for me would be the PSU.
 
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edisonfloyd

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Sep 19, 2014
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This is self-built.
 
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edisonfloyd

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This is sometime later but here's an update.

I ran memtest86 on all three sticks as well as each slot afterwards without getting any errors (each run was overnight so roughly 8 hours). I've been using the computer with just one memory stick for roughly the last month now.

When the computer starts messing up (doesn't boot) it seems like removing and then sticking the same or a different memory stick back in causes it to do something different (sometimes it fails post, sometimes black display, sometimes it boots successfully) and this leads to a much greater success rate.

When run with all three sticks in memtest86 fails.

Still having issues though.
 
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capt_taco

capt_taco

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I wouldn't even try it with all three sticks in there. As mentioned above, you don't want to mix and match different timings.

What happens if you test the two OCZ sticks together, anything?

Also, one thing that would sometimes happen with more than 2 sticks of RAM in a four-slot board is that they would all start demanding slightly more voltage; if you left that at the stock 1.5V, all three (or more usually four) sticks would get jumpy. So that could be causing issues when there's three sticks but not with one at a time.

Honestly, I would just take that mismatched stick of AMD memory and set it aside until you figure this out. It's not helping anything.

 
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edisonfloyd

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Sep 19, 2014
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Well for the last month roughly I've been using just one stick but I have been rotating them in/out. I'll try to stick to just with just the 4gb from now on and see if that influences anything.

I don't know what happens when the two OCZ sticks are tested together as I hadn't thought of that. Is that an important concern though? I don't imagine that 2 sticks are more stable than 1.
 
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capt_taco

capt_taco

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No, two sticks are not any more stable than one. Mainly what you'd be looking for is a) If boot & memtest always fail with both sticks, then probably you've narrowed it down to one of the sticks being bad. b) Try using the pair in the DIMM0 slots only, and in the DIMM1 slots only. If it is stable in one but not the other, then you may have a problem with one of the slots, not the RAM. c) in any case, the third stick of RAM with different timings is right out for all of this.

Normally I wouldn't guess at this, but at this point why not try blowing out the RAM slots with compressed air? If there's crud in there, maybe that is a lucky fix.

Based on all the other seemingly random symptoms, and particularly the difference between the onboard graphics working more often than the standalone card, if the RAM is not the problem then my best guess would be that the motherboard is starting to go wonky on you.

Last thing: You are correct that your motherboard's manual contains zero troubleshooting hints or beep codes BUT, I think, it uses American Microtrends (AMI) BIOS. In that case, the beep codes can be found here, and would seem to indicate memory or video: http://www.bioscentral.com/beepcodes/amibeep.htm

Whatever you do, next time you get a boot or near-successful boot, remember the BIOS name and look up the beep codes based on that, not the motherboard. That may be where you start to get real clues if none of this works.

 
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