Hardware Fault With New System

[Macka1080]

Hi,

SPECS:

i5 - 750
Asus P7P55D-LE
4GB G.Skill ECO - 1600 (Running at 1300 because of the CPU)
HIS 5770 1GB
500GB SATA II

Windows 7 Professional x64

I built my computer 2 weeks ago, and since then I've been suffering numerous random crashes and blue screens. These have occurred seemingly irrespective of what it is I am doing on the computer, and the blue screen errors have been either MEMORY_MANAGEMENT or IRQL_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL.

The random occurrences of these errors has meant that on some occasions I've been able to game all night without an issue, yet on other occasions simply turning the computer on and trying to surf the web has resulted in a system crash.

At first I thought it was a software problem, so I tried updating driver, reformatting and reinstalling windows, installing ubuntu as a dual boot, and a bunch of other things.

This morning however, after a blue screen in Windows, I rebooted to Ubuntu to see what would happen there (up to this point ubuntu hadn't crashed yet), and ran mprime (the Linux version of prime95). This instantly returned a hardware failure, and subsequent attempts did not change the results. Within about 5 minutes Ubuntu crashed.

I have run many diagnostic tools to try and diagnose the problem, but none have really indicated a cause to my problem. I ran memtest for 8 hours without an issue, but I know that doesn't mean there isn't a RAM problem.

Nothing is overclocked, but I understand there could be a problem with voltages or RAM timings, but I have no idea where to start with these. Any help towards fixing this would be extremely appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[tecmo34]

It sounds like a memory timing & voltage issue... I would read through your motherboard manual and adjust the voltage and timings to the specifications on the RAM stickes.

Why aren't you running the RAM at DDR3 1600? The CPU can handle it.

 

[Macka1080]

Hey, thanks for the reply!

I've just set the memory voltage manually in the BIOS as according to the memory settings, and the timing is the same as it should be, at least the first 4 numbers that were listed on the G.Skill website.

This page: http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=42915 says that the CPU only supports 1333 at max, and when I leave the frequency setting to auto in the BIOS it reports 1333.

The thing is, after just setting the RAM voltage manually, and also setting the CPU voltage manually to stock values, I was able to jump into a game and play no worries. I'm sure that it would be fine if i kept playing for the day as well.

The problem seems to occur most frequently when I turn the computer on in the morning, after it has been off for the night. It is annoyingly hard to replicate, and makes it more difficult to determine whether any changes actually fix the problem.

 

[tecmo34]

Has that seemed to help with your issues?? It is okay to run at DDR3 1333 but your CPU will handle DDR3 1600 without issues.

 

[Macka1080]

Well, unfortunately it's very hard to tell if anything fixes the issue, as it doesn't seem to crop up except in the morning usually. It does occur during normal use sometimes, but it's less likely than happening in the morning on the first boot up.

In the BIOS, there are only two options for RAM frequency's, 1333 and 1066. As the intel website says, the i5-750 only supports those frequencies.

 

[Macka1080]

Unfortunately setting the timing and frequency and voltage settings did not solve the problem. I suffered another crash and BSOD this morning.

I'm going to try with one stick of RAM, but I'm starting to consider the possibility that it's the motherboard maybe?

Any other suggestions?