- Jun 28, 2008
- 22
- 4
- 18,510
I upgraded my system a couple of days ago and am having a rather odd problem. Here's the list of components:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 (at stock)
Radeon 4870 Graphics card (at stock)
4GB (4x1GB) OCZ Platinum XTC 800MHz DDR2 RAM
Gigabyte EP45-DS3R Motherboard
E-mu 1820 Soundcard
320GB Western Digital SE16 Hard Drive
Thermalright Ultra-120 Heatsink w/120mm Scythe Fan
Thermalright HR-03 GT Graphics Card Cooler
2 Scythe 120mm Case Fans
Corsair 450VX Power Supply
Windows Vista Premium x64
- All current drivers and windows updates
When I first turn the system on, it will about 30% of the time crash with a blue screen in windows or just hang at a blank screen just before displaying the desktop. Unfortunately I can't remember what file was giving the blue screen error - it hasn't given me a blue screen, only a blank screen, the past few times it's done it.
More strangely, about 20% of the time, when I first turn the computer on or restart the computer, it will get stuck in an endless reboot cycle at POST. The system powers up, the POST screen comes up for 1 second, and then the system powers down and powers back up a second later. This will repeat until I hard-kill the power and leave the system off for 10 seconds or so.
If the system actually boots into Windows, it is 100% stable. I've played Bioshock for a couple of hours with no issue and left the system on over night with no issue, as well as just general use over the past few days. No crashing, odd behavior, or anything.
So here's what I've ruled out:
Heat: I'm using very good heatsinks on my processor and video card - the video card idles ~45 degrees (about 20 degrees lower htan stock) and the CPU idles at about 22 degrees. No heat issue, for sure.
RAM: The OCZ RAM was 100% reliable pre-upgrade and is running at its correct voltage (2.1volts, high, but that's what the instructions recommend). I haven't tried removing one pair of the 2 pairs but I can't imagine RAM causing the looping reboots at POST and then not causing problems under general usage.
The two areas I'm concerned about are power supply and windows load. I didn't reload windows after the upgrade (I'm planning on doing it soon) so I could see that causing the random blue screen/blank screens on boot. However, that obviously wouldn't cause the looping reboots at post. That could be caused by...
Power supply. I know a 4870 with a quad-core processor is really, really stretching a 450-watt power supply, even a really good one like the Corsair. So I'm sort of leaning to this as the problem. The only odd thing about it is that I would expect a lacking power supply to give me problems when I put the system under load, and it doesn't. I only have problems during booting. Is it still possible that this is my problem?
Any feedback, suggestions for troubleshooting, or anything would be much appreciated. I'm thinking of ordering a Corsair 620HX power supply but I don't want to drop the $150 on that before I'm relatively-sure that's my problem. Thanks!
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 (at stock)
Radeon 4870 Graphics card (at stock)
4GB (4x1GB) OCZ Platinum XTC 800MHz DDR2 RAM
Gigabyte EP45-DS3R Motherboard
E-mu 1820 Soundcard
320GB Western Digital SE16 Hard Drive
Thermalright Ultra-120 Heatsink w/120mm Scythe Fan
Thermalright HR-03 GT Graphics Card Cooler
2 Scythe 120mm Case Fans
Corsair 450VX Power Supply
Windows Vista Premium x64
- All current drivers and windows updates
When I first turn the system on, it will about 30% of the time crash with a blue screen in windows or just hang at a blank screen just before displaying the desktop. Unfortunately I can't remember what file was giving the blue screen error - it hasn't given me a blue screen, only a blank screen, the past few times it's done it.
More strangely, about 20% of the time, when I first turn the computer on or restart the computer, it will get stuck in an endless reboot cycle at POST. The system powers up, the POST screen comes up for 1 second, and then the system powers down and powers back up a second later. This will repeat until I hard-kill the power and leave the system off for 10 seconds or so.
If the system actually boots into Windows, it is 100% stable. I've played Bioshock for a couple of hours with no issue and left the system on over night with no issue, as well as just general use over the past few days. No crashing, odd behavior, or anything.
So here's what I've ruled out:
Heat: I'm using very good heatsinks on my processor and video card - the video card idles ~45 degrees (about 20 degrees lower htan stock) and the CPU idles at about 22 degrees. No heat issue, for sure.
RAM: The OCZ RAM was 100% reliable pre-upgrade and is running at its correct voltage (2.1volts, high, but that's what the instructions recommend). I haven't tried removing one pair of the 2 pairs but I can't imagine RAM causing the looping reboots at POST and then not causing problems under general usage.
The two areas I'm concerned about are power supply and windows load. I didn't reload windows after the upgrade (I'm planning on doing it soon) so I could see that causing the random blue screen/blank screens on boot. However, that obviously wouldn't cause the looping reboots at post. That could be caused by...
Power supply. I know a 4870 with a quad-core processor is really, really stretching a 450-watt power supply, even a really good one like the Corsair. So I'm sort of leaning to this as the problem. The only odd thing about it is that I would expect a lacking power supply to give me problems when I put the system under load, and it doesn't. I only have problems during booting. Is it still possible that this is my problem?
Any feedback, suggestions for troubleshooting, or anything would be much appreciated. I'm thinking of ordering a Corsair 620HX power supply but I don't want to drop the $150 on that before I'm relatively-sure that's my problem. Thanks!
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