Constant Crashing on New System

[powwow]

I posted about this in an earlier thread, but it seems that the problem has not been solved. From the other post:
I built a new system recently and it crashes constantly, sometimes bsod, sometimes frozen screen, sometimes reboot. There doesn't seem to be any particular activity that causes it, though there are some that guarantee a crash, even just leaving the computer idle can cause it to freeze or reboot. This seems to be a hardware problem, can you suggest some diagnostics that'll help me determine what's going on? I'm running windows xp, windows 7 would freeze during installation(installing games also seems to provoke crashes). I did have to restart once or twice while installing xp, but I managed to get through it eventually.

Someone suggested I set the memory timing manually according to manufacturer and that does seem to have stopped some crashes(certain games that wouldn't run before now work) but the random crashing is still going on. I'm not sure if the system specs will help to solve this, but I figure it can't hurt.

psu - corsair 750tx
cpu - amd 965
gpu - ATI HIS cooler V 5850
ram - corsair xms3 4gb ddr3 1600
mobo - gigabyte 790xta-ud4
hdd - samsung spinpoint 1tb
case - cooler master storm scout
cooler - cooler master v8

I haven't done any overclocking, though hopefully I can once all this is sorted out.

 

[brandoncatz]

Have you run your RAM through MEMTEST? Might want to start there if a timing change seemed to help.

http://www.memtest.org/

 

[powwow]

I ran MEMTEST and it didn't come up with any errors

 

[smile9999]

the same happened to me when I first got my comp, and also memtest told me I have no proplem but someone from this forums suggested a program called linX , wonderful program after exactly 2 mins it told me I have an error, it turned out the ram was faulty, replaced now everything is working.

try it out

 

[smile9999]

btw here is the download link http://www.mediafire.com/?hia0aqrjk7csl77

and when you download make sure to press all available memory so he can test it all

 

[powwow]

I let linX run for more than 3 hours before the system crashed, and nothing popped up in all that time. I'm trying again this time only running 3 times instead of 20, but I don't think this is going to find my problem.

 

[smile9999]

ok two suggestions, remove one of stick of ram, run linx or play any game, see if there is any crashes if it happens swap it with the other one, if there is any fault with the ram its highly unlikely for both rams to be faulty.

also see if you have any overheating proplems, a good program to measure temp of processor is core temp and do a test with amd overdrive while monitoring your temps.

 

[powwow]

Ok, I tested each stick individually and had them crash in a variety of situations. I also downloaded amd overdrive and checked it out. I don't think overheating is an issue since the temps are fairly low and stable, and I managed to get a crash with the case temp at 40C, CPU at 32 and GPU at 38C. When I tried some of the stability tests in overdrive, I found that CPU test 0 and FPU test 0 didn't cause any problems, but the system would freeze immediately when I tried Calculation test 0. I tried each a few times to make sure, but I haven't tried the other tests. I hope this doesn't mean it's a problem with the CPU. What should I try next?

 

[smile9999]

well we are sure that its not a memory proplem now, its not overheating either, cpu proplems are very rare but they do happen, if you want to make sure try prime95, also while you are doing that check your cpu usage with task manager, see whether you are using all cores or not.

also if you wanna make sure your GPU is working great try furmark its a great program to test GPU

you can try to RMA the CPU and see if that solves the proplem but all things point to the CPU now, your choice really.

 

[powwow]

Ok, Furmark ran for an hour with no problems at all, never going above 65C. Prime95 crashed immediately once testing started and since the default is to run at startup, crashed the computer several times before I killed the process before it started and deleted it. I also tried the OCCT test which crashed a few times. It does seem like the CPU is the most likely culprit. I'll run some of the higher levels on memtest just to be certain, but I think the memory timing business was a red herring. Just to be certain that the CPU is the one responsible, are there any other tests you can suggest? Also, is there any tests I can run to check if the motherboard might not be at fault?

Edit: I let memtest run through a few more passes, but still no errors. I also tried some of the cpu stress tests on the ultimate boot cd, which again caused the system to crash.

 

[logan the huge]

What's your CPU-NB voltage set at? If you're running trying to run 1600MHz RAM then technically you are overclocking since AMD chips(and most of Intel's as well) only officially support 1333MHz memory. Try raising your CPU-NB(memory controller) voltage to 1.20v-1.21v to see if that stabilizes to system. Is your 965 a C2 or C3 stepping chip. If it's a C2 you probably won't be able to run your memory at anything higher than 1600MHz/CL8 no matter what you do.

 

[smile9999]

I dont have anymore CPU tests that are more helpful than prime95 and amd overdrive, I dont think there are any tests to confirm if it was the mobo thats faulty but in my experience faulty mobo most of the time dont need 3+ hours to crash, for me the 2 mobo faults I had both the PC didnt even boot.

try what logan is suggesting to rule out once and for all a memory fault if you havent tried already

 

[powwow]

Ok, I RMA'd the CPU and got a new one, but the problem persists. I then tried flashing the BIOS, there are 4 different versions for this mobo, but none of them fixed the problem, so I returned it to the original version. I guess the problem is either the GPU or the HDD, do you guys have any ideas on how to figure out the culprit?

 

[tluxon]

Have you tried the latest diagnostic software and utilities from the manufacturer of your hard drive?

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287
or
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic28744.html/page__hl__hard+drive+diagnostic

 

[powwow]

ES-tool didn't find any errors. I guess it must be the GPU, unless anyone else has any suggestions?