PS cause Mem & HD failure?

[adapa]

I got a 4 year old home built system which just had a bad HD & a bad mem stick.
I started getting a BSD then replaced the HD then was getting a fail to install windows error so I pulled mem sticks till I got win to install.

It seems too coincidental to have both the HD & a Mem stick go bad at the same time. Is it reasonable to think the PowerSupply might be the root cause of the problems?


Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775

GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard

4GB total of CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400

EVGA 256-P2-N624-AR GeForce 7900GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Support Video Card

corsair vx550W PowerSupply cmpsu-550vx

 

[adapa]

The drive was a 6 month old WD carver Black

 

[Lutfij]

well the PSU is the one who seems likely to give all the errors. cos it'd be very ironic to loose both HDD and memory cos of age, WD's when come of age, don;t fail like seagates do.

That PSU, was it in th build as well, meaning, is it 4 years old?

IF so the capacitors in the PSU have taken damage due to heat wear and capacitor aging...all the more reducing power output. Chances are your KILLING your components one by one.

one more thing, BSOD either refers to:
failing PSU
driver issues
bad ram sticks

 

[Lutfij]

Failing PSU's also mean a lack of power supplied to components, Its happend to me with an XFX ATi 4850 where i lost my rams in the process before which i got alot of BSOD's. I mentioned,The BSOD also happens when your drivers (namely nvidia) are faulty...something nvidia had an issue with causing their GPU's to run over spec'd speeds.

A glitchy/failing PSU will have taken down some components causing them to also be glitchy.

BUT, yeah take a pic of the error and post back

 

[adapa]

The first BSD error I got was 'hardware or software failed".

I don't remember how I was informed of the BCD error but I tried to fix that first. I switched to the c prompt & tried to fix the bcd error.
When that didn't work I pulled the drive & ran WD test's on it & got the can't write 0's error.

After I replaced the hd, while installing windows 7, I got the following bsd (or maybe a black screen) error; 0x80070570
I found a thread on the win7 forum indicating a mem problem.

I pulled the bad mem stick & ran memtest86 on it. It failed at test 2. It was about 4 years old.

The PSU is about 2 years old. It was a replacement for a failed psu.

I can't post any pics 'cuz the rig is up & running.

 

[shovenose]

have you checked all the capacitors on the motherboard for bulging or leakage? (esp near the ram slots)...

its interesting, i was having trouble with a new build (well it was a brand new p4 mobo i got free)...upon first plug-in, my hdd had a chip burn on the controller board...

then after installing windows (new hdd of course)...the ram went bad in the middle of activation. then i got new ram, and it wont even start?

very frustrating!

 

[adapa]

Yeah, having two problems back to back is too weird. I keep triple checking the plug into the ups. Thankfully it's not my rig but my son's.

My only option at this point seems to be letting the rig run for a while. Hopefully my problems were just a coincidence.

No beeps on your nonstarting rig?

 

[Lutfij]

@ shovenose - very wierd indeed, never seen anything take out parts after every intervention. :/

replacement for a PSU? what was in it before the corsair vx550W?

 

[adapa]

OCZ GameXStream OCZ600GXSSLI 600W

Yeah, I started getting the BSD with no errors in '09 but the experience taught me about PSU's. <grin>

 

[Lutfij]

Your absolutely sure there was nothing terribly wrong that needed the PSU change? like a blow out, spark, audible clicks?

Your mobo has to be the issue. Due to a blown PSU, all my parts went out one by one, first the agp, then the soundcard, then the rams and finally the mobo and HDD...i think your OCZ dealt the killing blow :/ they weren;t good PSU's to begin with...only recently have they made improvements to their PSU innards.

But then again, you haven't posted a pic of BSOD - have a cam ready and take a pic the next time it appears...or maybe your son can keep watch and take a pic

EDIT - i also forgot, what case are using, aging hardware tend to run hot cos of the deterioration of the TIM. When my xfx 8600GT Fatal1ty DDR3 256MB passively cooled card would run at high settings it'd heat up and show a BSOD - physcical dump error ( i solved it by hot glueing an 80mm fan on the passive cooler...there are other kinds of BSOD's thas why the pic is neecessary.