Problem with motherboard?

[dn2222]

I've been having problems lately with my rig which has worked fine for a few monthes and now runs slow and blue screens at start up at times. Thinking its some nasty virus I formatted my drive. When installing windows 7 it would not recognize any hard drive until several tries later. When finally installed the performance informaion rates my hard drive at a 3.7. Everything else is between 7.3 and 7.7. I switched sata ports and nothing changed. I would think its just my hard disk but Windows fails to fully recognize my video card as well. When trying to install drivers for it it says I don't have the necessary hardware. It displays nohing of my vid card in device manager. If both my hdd and video card are acting up, is that possibly the motherboard. How likely is it that those two things to go bad at once. It first started when I moved my rig. I powered it off and unplugged it. I'm always creful when working on it. I can't find anything visually wrong with connections etc. Sorry for the long post but, the more info the better. This is my first rig and may be unfamiliar with things that would be obvious to others. Any help would be appreciated.
specs:
EVGA X58 SLI LE mobo
i7 920
ocz gold 6g 1600 triple channel RAM
Corsair 750W Power supply
EVGA GTX 260
WD 320G HDD 7200rpm
3 80mm Tornado Fans
1 Scythe Ultra Kaze 120mm Fan
Windows 7
No OC

 

[Hellboy]

I've been having problems lately with my rig which has worked fine for a few monthes and now runs slow and blue screens at start up at times. Thinking its some nasty virus I formatted my drive. When installing windows 7 it would not recognize any hard drive until several tries later. When finally installed the performance informaion rates my hard drive at a 3.7. Everything else is between 7.3 and 7.7. I switched sata ports and nothing changed. I would think its just my hard disk but Windows fails to fully recognize my video card as well. When trying to install drivers for it it says I don't have the necessary hardware. It displays nohing of my vid card in device manager. If both my hdd and video card are acting up, is that possibly the motherboard. How likely is it that those two things to go bad at once. It first started when I moved my rig. I powered it off and unplugged it. I'm always creful when working on it. I can't find anything visually wrong with connections etc. Sorry for the long post but, the more info the better. This is my first rig and may be unfamiliar with things that would be obvious to others. Any help would be appreciated.
specs:
EVGA X58 SLI LE mobo
i7 920
ocz gold 6g 1600 triple channel RAM
Corsair 750W Power supply
EVGA GTX 260
WD 320G HDD 7200rpm
3 80mm Tornado Fans
1 Scythe Ultra Kaze 120mm Fan
Windows 7
No OC

were going to have to work on this on an elimination basis

sounds like initially your hard disk is playing up... but it could be the ram.. I doubt the video card is playing up and the Corsair is in the best of the bunch league but it doesnt mean its not playing up.

google burn it in pro from the internet and run it.

my bets on the hard disk and its the weakest component in your system.

 

[dn2222]

were going to have to work on this on an elimination basis

sounds like initially your hard disk is playing up... but it could be the ram.. I doubt the video card is playing up and the Corsair is in the best of the bunch league but it doesnt mean its not playing up.

google burn it in pro from the internet and run it.

my bets on the hard disk and its the weakest component in your system.

Ran it. Oddly enough it says my HDD has no errors. My video of course was bad because I have zero drivers for my card. It said my network was bad because I guess I didn't give administrative permission for it to run. I recently downloaded a driver for my HDD. Don't know if that made a difference. Computer seems to be going a bit faster but who knows for how long. I'm limited to only 15 minute tests with the free trial. My RAM had one error. Error verifying data in RAM. Had the RAM and disks on 100% load. Could that one error be enough to say my RAM is bad? Can My absent vid card drivers be bluescreening me from booting up? By the way thanks for the help.

 

[rsmith13]

One error in ram is all it takes. Try running memtest86+ for a couple of hours.

http://www.memtest.org/

 

[donpacific2k]

What happens when you test with one stick at a time? It's not absolutely certain, but from what you described, RAM seems to be the likely culprit. I'd also make sure your bios settings are at the most stable option for your configuration if you have that choice. If it is the ram or you have any doubt I'd RMA it, and do a OS reinstall since who knows what it corrupted. My next guess would be motherboard, and I wouldn't hesitate to send that back either after you've done a reasonable amount of testing. Not sure what to say about the drive, that would probably be number 3 on my list, despite that being the first symptom. Do you have a working spare you could test the mobo and ram with?

 

[Hellboy]

if once the ram failed then it will fail again..


ram has to be 100% error free.

run memtest for a while - leave it running overnight then if you get an error replace the ram.

 

[dn2222]

Thanks a lot everyone. Haven't been on my computer for a couple days. Its kinda disheartening to start it up anymore. I don't have any parts to switch out. I'll try running that memtest. It would suck if my RAM is bad. But would that have anything to do with my video card not being recognized? I appreciate the help. I hate not knowing for sure whats wrong with something I sunk money into. I guess I'm getting closer.

 

[Hellboy]

Thanks a lot everyone. Haven't been on my computer for a couple days. Its kinda disheartening to start it up anymore. I don't have any parts to switch out. I'll try running that memtest. It would suck if my RAM is bad. But would that have anything to do with my video card not being recognized? I appreciate the help. I hate not knowing for sure whats wrong with something I sunk money into. I guess I'm getting closer.

but it would stop loading a good version of windows and possible corrupt video card drivers.

secondly it could be a problem with the chipset on the motherboard.

 

[dn2222]

I took a look at the settings in BIOS for the memory. With everything set to auto the tcl, trcd, trp, and tras was wrong. Newbie mistake, I should have had it right from the get go. I set it right and seems to be working again. I still have to run a memtest to make sure, but my video card drivers finally installed. I appreciate all the help. I wasn't thinking it was the RAM for a second. I didn't figure it would have an impact on everything else. Now I guess I'll end up re-installing everything over again. Thanks for the help. I think my problem is solved.

 

[Hellboy]

I took a look at the settings in BIOS for the memory. With everything set to auto the tcl, trcd, trp, and tras was wrong. Newbie mistake, I should have had it right from the get go. I set it right and seems to be working again. I still have to run a memtest to make sure, but my video card drivers finally installed. I appreciate all the help. I wasn't thinking it was the RAM for a second. I didn't figure it would have an impact on everything else. Now I guess I'll end up re-installing everything over again. Thanks for the help. I think my problem is solved.

excellent,

make sure you pick a best answer as it makes us techies feel appreciated ( god knows why ??? )

 

[dn2222]

Best answer selected by dn2222.