Unusual new rig problem

[Balrog808]

I've build 2 rigs in the past so I like to think I'm decent in trouble shooting. This new rig I just assembled has me stumped on an ongoing issue I've had in the past 4 days since I've put it together. Please give me some advice/direction.

I'll start with the specs first

Gigabyte P55-USB3 Motherboard
Intel I5 760 2.8G processor
2Gx2 Patriot Memory DD3 1333
WD Caviar Black 1TB (was WD Caviar Blue 640 I'll explain that part)
BFG GeForce GTX 275 OC
Corsair 650W PSU
Asus DVD Drive
Windows 7 64 Bit

Day 1
Rig assembled and booted up good, checked BIOs and everything seemed in order except it read the memory modules as 1066. Was going to adjust in the future once everything else checked out. Inserted Windows 7 and that's where trouble begins. First it kept getting locked up on expanding files, then after several reboots it didn't recognize the hard drive. I swapped the HD with a spare 80G barracuda drive and it was able to install. I figured bad HD so I went out and bought the WD black HD and am planning to return the WD blue HD which was an oem and I figured is bad. Rest of the day went with no hitch.

Day 2
This is where it starts getting wacky. Booted PC and it for whatever reason it won't load windows properly. I got a couple of BSOD, ran windows in safe mood, let it run all its diagnostics. I'm not sure what the problem is since the rig ran smoothly the other day. About 15 minutes of basically just rebooting it, Windows 7 finally loads and everything works fine. Just to work the hardware I installed Starcraft 2 and ran it on ultra settings for a couple hours. Played smoothly with no hitches. I also installed a bunch of software (the usual anti-virus, driver updates etc) and had to reboot the PC many times and it never had any problems. Figured it was a one time thing, shut the PC down and went to bed.

Day 3
Same thing, on boot up it has trouble starting windows. Had windows run diskchk, memory check and whatever else it recommended. Same thing again I just fiddled around with whatever it recommended, rebooted PC for about 15 mins again and it then it loads. Note I did not make any hardware adjustments. I didn't know where to start checking for problems so I said if this happens again I'm going to tomshardware. Installed and played Final Fantasy 14 for several hours, no problems. Before I went to bed I rebooted the rig several times just to see if anything would happen. Nothing. Shut down and went to bed.

Day 4
Pulling my hair out now as windows did the same thing. Didn't load properly. After 15 minutes of just leaving it to its own devices I'm able to run windows but now, it doesn't DETECT my video card. What's weird too is I activated my windows 7 copy on the first day, and now it says I have to activate it again.

I'm not sure where to tackle this problem. Usually I can solve hardware problems because I'll do the old swap technique with old parts I know work. But something tells me this isn't a hardware issue since when windows is up and running everything works fine. I've never read anyone having such a bizarre issue like this. Any help is much appreciated!

Dunno if this helps but I wrote down one of the codes during a BSOD
stop: c000021a{Fatal system error}
0x00000000 (0xc0000001 0x001003F0)

 

[zach538467]

Have you tried any other RAM or running with a single stick? I've seen Windows do some weird things because of a bad stick of RAM...

 

[Balrog808]

Yup ran single and different sticks. No issues. I'm puzzled why my motherboard won't detect my video card now when it did for the past few days. It's like the rig gets worse with each passing day, but I'm not making any hardware/software changes.

 

[zach538467]

I assume you have ran temp checks on everything? I have had similar problems in the past and it turned out to be a bad mobo and/or RAM. Or perhaps a bad CMOS battery.

 

[Balrog808]

How do I run temp checks on everything? Also its still safe to assume it can be a hardware issue even though rig was able to run for several hours past few days after boot up hiccups?

 

[zach538467]

That's the joy of computers, hard to say although if you have tried two separate media types on two different hard drives, in my mind that pretty much rules out a software problem being the root(although if you are installing some odd piece of software that could always be it, I personally would try running it bare-bones for a week or so, drivers and games only). Use a program like speedfan or realtemp. Run prime95 for a good hour or two. Also make a memtest cd and run that.

 

[Balrog808]

Hmm, would a hardware problem cause Windows to go wacky? I activated windows on my first day, now it says it's not activated and it won't let me (I get an error message). Also my desktop windows manager can't run.