Hello all,
I built a little m-itx gaming rig.
Here are the specs:
Cooler Master Elite 110
AMD 5350 2.05GHz
MSI AM1I Mobo
4GB Crucial Ballistix Sport VLP RAM
EVGA NVIDIA GeForce Superclocked 750ti
Corsair CXM430 PSU
1TB Seagate Barracuda HDD
---------------------------------------------------------------
BACKGROUND
Every time I tried to boot Windows onto this machine, I had varying degrees of success, but was always faced with the dreaded BSoD, almost always with a different error code.
I'd tried four different versions of Windows 8.1 (both legitimate and illegitimate) and Ubuntu 14.
As for the Windows installations, the PC boots, I booted from a bootable USB, and installed Windows to the Seagate HDD. The first ever attempted install on this machine, and I got the BSoD in the middle of the process.
The second time, I rebooted from the USB, erased the hard drive, and tried again. This time, Windows installed successfully, but as soon as I was taken to the desktop and attempted to open Windows Explorer, I got another error message. Upon every reboot, at some point or other, I would receive a different BSoD error, typically when installing drivers or performing more than one action at once (opening Firefox while a graphics driver was installing).
Hoping it was a potentially faulty install of Windows and not a hardware issue, I found a different ISO, made another bootable USB, deleted the HDD from the custom Windows install screen, and tried again, only to be greeted with more error messages at random times.
After four days of installing, reinstalling, trying different versions, etc., I opted to try Ubuntu 14 to see if anything would change. Ubuntu installed successfully the first time, but I kept getting "Internal System Error" popups, again, at random times during everyday usage. System didn't reboot itself, I just got the popup and was able to close it with no apparent issues.
Ubuntu seemed to work better than Windows, and there were no more BSoD errors or random restarts, but I thought that the Internal System Error popups were the BSoD equivalents on Linux. Eventually I switched back to Windows 8.1, as I was unable to install wireless USB drivers or Nvidia graphics drivers on a Linux system.
Finally I got another (completely legitimate) copy of Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry and did another clean install, wiping and reformatting the HDD again and it installed without fault. However, when trying to install the motherboard chipset drivers, the BSoD error "PFN_LIST_CORRUPT" showed up.
Computer booted up again and was able to install drivers with no further errors. However, through day-to-day use, new BSoD errors would present, requiring many restarts.
All Encountered BSoD Errors:
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA (multiple times)
SYSTEM_PTE_MISSUE
DRIVER_OVERRAN_STOCK_BUFFER (multiple times)
PFN_LIST_CORRUPT
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CURRENT
Lately, I've been using the computer for day-to-day things, and ignoring the random BSoD errors, just restarting and returning to whatever I was doing before. There doesn't seem to be a pattern anymore - sometimes the computer will run functionally for hours, even days, but other times it'll crash five minutes after I've restarted it.
Eventually I got sick of it, and tried to confront it as a hardware problem. I tried running memtest - it boots from the USB, but the test won't even run. Hangs on a black screen with text and a timer as if the test is active.
In addition, I tried running Prime95 for the CPU, but this test started and shut down as well. Stating that there was a "fatal error" and had to abort the test. Appears to be connected somehow...
I was only running one 4GB RAM module, though this is a dual-channel board. I suspected that this was the issue, so I installed G.SKILL Ripjaws 16GB (2x8GB) kit instead of The Crucial Ballistix, which has identical specs (9-9-9-24, 1600mhz, 240pin, DDR3, PC3 12800, etc.). I turned on the power got immediate three short beeps (RAM error). Reseated RAM, reset CMOS, same error.
No more progress has been made. System will not boot.
Thoughts:
CMOS was not actually reset?
Faulty Ripjaws kit?
Other hardware issue?
Please help! Any suggestions welcome!
Thanks
I built a little m-itx gaming rig.
Here are the specs:
Cooler Master Elite 110
AMD 5350 2.05GHz
MSI AM1I Mobo
4GB Crucial Ballistix Sport VLP RAM
EVGA NVIDIA GeForce Superclocked 750ti
Corsair CXM430 PSU
1TB Seagate Barracuda HDD
---------------------------------------------------------------
BACKGROUND
Every time I tried to boot Windows onto this machine, I had varying degrees of success, but was always faced with the dreaded BSoD, almost always with a different error code.
I'd tried four different versions of Windows 8.1 (both legitimate and illegitimate) and Ubuntu 14.
As for the Windows installations, the PC boots, I booted from a bootable USB, and installed Windows to the Seagate HDD. The first ever attempted install on this machine, and I got the BSoD in the middle of the process.
The second time, I rebooted from the USB, erased the hard drive, and tried again. This time, Windows installed successfully, but as soon as I was taken to the desktop and attempted to open Windows Explorer, I got another error message. Upon every reboot, at some point or other, I would receive a different BSoD error, typically when installing drivers or performing more than one action at once (opening Firefox while a graphics driver was installing).
Hoping it was a potentially faulty install of Windows and not a hardware issue, I found a different ISO, made another bootable USB, deleted the HDD from the custom Windows install screen, and tried again, only to be greeted with more error messages at random times.
After four days of installing, reinstalling, trying different versions, etc., I opted to try Ubuntu 14 to see if anything would change. Ubuntu installed successfully the first time, but I kept getting "Internal System Error" popups, again, at random times during everyday usage. System didn't reboot itself, I just got the popup and was able to close it with no apparent issues.
Ubuntu seemed to work better than Windows, and there were no more BSoD errors or random restarts, but I thought that the Internal System Error popups were the BSoD equivalents on Linux. Eventually I switched back to Windows 8.1, as I was unable to install wireless USB drivers or Nvidia graphics drivers on a Linux system.
Finally I got another (completely legitimate) copy of Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry and did another clean install, wiping and reformatting the HDD again and it installed without fault. However, when trying to install the motherboard chipset drivers, the BSoD error "PFN_LIST_CORRUPT" showed up.
Computer booted up again and was able to install drivers with no further errors. However, through day-to-day use, new BSoD errors would present, requiring many restarts.
All Encountered BSoD Errors:
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA (multiple times)
SYSTEM_PTE_MISSUE
DRIVER_OVERRAN_STOCK_BUFFER (multiple times)
PFN_LIST_CORRUPT
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CURRENT
Lately, I've been using the computer for day-to-day things, and ignoring the random BSoD errors, just restarting and returning to whatever I was doing before. There doesn't seem to be a pattern anymore - sometimes the computer will run functionally for hours, even days, but other times it'll crash five minutes after I've restarted it.
Eventually I got sick of it, and tried to confront it as a hardware problem. I tried running memtest - it boots from the USB, but the test won't even run. Hangs on a black screen with text and a timer as if the test is active.
In addition, I tried running Prime95 for the CPU, but this test started and shut down as well. Stating that there was a "fatal error" and had to abort the test. Appears to be connected somehow...
I was only running one 4GB RAM module, though this is a dual-channel board. I suspected that this was the issue, so I installed G.SKILL Ripjaws 16GB (2x8GB) kit instead of The Crucial Ballistix, which has identical specs (9-9-9-24, 1600mhz, 240pin, DDR3, PC3 12800, etc.). I turned on the power got immediate three short beeps (RAM error). Reseated RAM, reset CMOS, same error.
No more progress has been made. System will not boot.
Thoughts:
CMOS was not actually reset?
Faulty Ripjaws kit?
Other hardware issue?
Please help! Any suggestions welcome!
Thanks