New Custom Build Freeze problem

[noobpcbuild]

Hi Everyone
I am new to the business of building PC but generally I am quite capable of handling PC hardware issues. I recently decided to build a PC for home entertainment and bit of gaming
Here are the components I used for the build
Intel Corei7 3 GHz
Asus P6TSE motherboard
GSkill Ripjaws DDR3 RAM 4GBx2
ATI Radeon HD 5770 1 GB GPU
Corsair 950W Power supply
Sony Optriac DVD RW optical drive
OCZ Solid State 3.5" 120 GB hard drive
Corsair H7O Cooling system

The problem I am having is with freezing of the system. I tried installing windows 64 bit which froze at different times - sometimes during install but at other times if proceeded and then freezes randomly while booting into windows and other times after having started windows.

I read the forum re similar issues people had and have done tests including memtest 86 which revealed no errors, tried booting with single ram module alternately which made no difference. Ran checkdsk for the hard drive and no errors found. Even disconnected the optical drive after install to see if that was the cause with no change in freezing. Tried swapping the GPU with an old Nvidia graphics card but that did not seem compatible and no video output.
Checked the voltages and temp of the CPU which has always been below 40 degree.
Now the situation is I am unable to boot into Windows, it just freezes at the logo and if I restart and it gives option to repair start up and I chose that, the start up repair freezes as well.
Now running out of ideas. The motherboard speaker is connected and it gives only 1 beep which according to my mb guide is when it detects a vdu and it seems to correspond to the monitor coming on, no other fault beeps heard, not had a BSOD as well.
Can someone point me in the right direction, where to go from here?

Is their a bootable disc or usb option to test my hardware further?

I would appreciate any help

Thanks

Allen

 

[pinaklonkar]

Allen,

After completing what we call basic tests such as monitoring temperatures, making sure the fans are spinning, no cables are blocking anything, etc, let's try the following -

Before I get there, I personally think you have way more power than your hardware needs. I am using a very similar system are using Corsair 650W.

Try to visually inspect the system for any components touching the case metal unknowingly. Hopefully you have screwed the motherboard on the case metal surface properly.

Then make sure and absolutely sure that your heat sink is seated properly on your CPU and isn't loose. But this should be okay in my opinion.


Then try to run the system with minimum hardware connected. Only connect the hard disk. Keep your CD roms, any other cards or devices disconnected. If your motherboard has an on board graphics card, use that for testing. If not, use the one you have. See the results.

Is your system hanging randomly or after you use it for a while - in which case it would be a temperature issue for sure. If not, the above step should tell you something.

The last resort is the bad hard disk.

 

[noobpcbuild]

Allen,

After completing what we call basic tests such as monitoring temperatures, making sure the fans are spinning, no cables are blocking anything, etc, let's try the following -

Before I get there, I personally think you have way more power than your hardware needs. I am using a very similar system are using Corsair 650W.

Try to visually inspect the system for any components touching the case metal unknowingly. Hopefully you have screwed the motherboard on the case metal surface properly.

Then make sure and absolutely sure that your heat sink is seated properly on your CPU and isn't loose. But this should be okay in my opinion.


Then try to run the system with minimum hardware connected. Only connect the hard disk. Keep your CD roms, any other cards or devices disconnected. If your motherboard has an on board graphics card, use that for testing. If not, use the one you have. See the results.

Is your system hanging randomly or after you use it for a while - in which case it would be a temperature issue for sure. If not, the above step should tell you something.

The last resort is the bad hard disk.

I know the PSU unit seems an overkill but with my last PC I had to change it twice and was planning to use the crossfire GPU and possibly add HDTV tuner and blu ray burner in future so thought would go for this one.

Re Motherboard, it is an ATX motherboard with 9 points where it is fixed to the case plate with the base screws to prevent touching the case. The heatsink is the custom Corsair H7O, it seemed to fit well and temp seem to be fine, CPU fan seems to run steady as well, so thought that should not be a problem, I can try the CPU cooler which came with the cpu but dont want to try that first.

Havent connected any extra internal or external hardware. only have one optical drive connected via SATA connection, not IDE. PS2 keyboard and USB mouse. No on board graphics card so have to use the GPU, tried connecting an old Nvidia graphics card which is working in another PC but not compatible with the MB, no output.

Hanging is random, generally never hangs when start a fresh install from windows cd, get to the stage where windows starts writing files and have to reboot few times, gets stuck there. tried restarted by power down since nothing else worked and it managed to complete install but now hangs at start up, managed to get into windows few times - once using safe boot and once managed to install latest mb and gpu drivers but then hanged again. once hanged when inserted disk for driver into the optical drive, tried usb option but got a freeze there as well. Generally not able to reach any usable state of windows. Also for info using Windows 7 64 bit (Home professional). Also tried latest bios from ASUS for windows 7 64 bit and flashed with same with no change.

Initially felt it was a RAM issue so tried various combinations of the RAM, checked they are in recommended sockets as per manual and properly seated, did memtest as well as windows memory test - both show no error.

Next was feeling may be Graphics card but no problems noted with resolution or display, get full resolution.

Re Hard disk - tried to used new solid state drive, then have a few weeks old normal Seagate hard drive as well, tried installing on each, only connecting 1 hard drive at any time but same results and hard drive checks have been fine.

Unsure of what should be next step. I will look into case again to see if any wires touching MB

 

[noobpcbuild]

Have taken few pics of the build to give an idea, if that might help anyone point out any problems to me

Thanks

Allen

 

[noobpcbuild]

I have uploaded a video as well showing my bios config and different times when it freezes. Hope someone can highlight the problem to me. It is a short video, I have cut the parts to make video short and only relevant parts where it froze just to give an idea of the problem.

Freezing Issues Video

Allen

 

[pinaklonkar]

Hmm...good job showing us everything in detail. The only thing I can think of is your hard disk drive(s).

Let's rule that out - from another computer, download a copy of UBUNTU and burn it on a DVD.

Disconnect ALL drives except your DVD drive and keep that as a boot media from the BIOS. Put UBUNTU CD in, and boot it up and see what's the result.

If Ubuntu runs for at least 2 hours without a single hang, ALL your hardware is good. If Ubuntu hangs without a single HDD in your machine, the problem is the motherboard as you have tested different combinations of RAM, and another graphics card.

I had a similar issue where the problem turned out to be my hdd FIRST, and then the MOBO.

 

[suteck]

When it freezes during start up have you left it long enough to get to the blue screen? Can you see what that says? I know you're not overclocking but have or would you try setting your cpu voltage to 1.28 or 1.3? It won't hurt your cpu, I have the same board and a i7 9xxx series is good for 1.4v. When I overclock it hangs up right around there and some times it's the voltage is too low for the clock, If you let it get to blue screen while it's doing its' memory dump you can get a glimpse at the code. If it's 101 then it's not enough voltage. Again, I know you're not overclocking and all(most) of your settings are on auto but sometimes giving it a little more juice will help. Also, If you let it get to blue scree or just leave it long enough you can copy the code it does give you and look that up.

 

[noobpcbuild]

Hmm...good job showing us everything in detail. The only thing I can think of is your hard disk drive(s).

Let's rule that out - from another computer, download a copy of UBUNTU and burn it on a DVD.

Disconnect ALL drives except your DVD drive and keep that as a boot media from the BIOS. Put UBUNTU CD in, and boot it up and see what's the result.

If Ubuntu runs for at least 2 hours without a single hang, ALL your hardware is good. If Ubuntu hangs without a single HDD in your machine, the problem is the motherboard as you have tested different combinations of RAM, and another graphics card.

I had a similar issue where the problem turned out to be my hdd FIRST, and then the MOBO.

Will try to download ubuntu, does it not require a hard drive at all to install and run, does it have anything in terms of diagnostics built in?

 

[noobpcbuild]

When it freezes during start up have you left it long enough to get to the blue screen? Can you see what that says? I know you're not overclocking but have or would you try setting your cpu voltage to 1.28 or 1.3? It won't hurt your cpu, I have the same board and a i7 9xxx series is good for 1.4v. When I overclock it hangs up right around there and some times it's the voltage is too low for the clock, If you let it get to blue screen while it's doing its' memory dump you can get a glimpse at the code. If it's 101 then it's not enough voltage. Again, I know you're not overclocking and all(most) of your settings are on auto but sometimes giving it a little more juice will help. Also, If you let it get to blue scree or just leave it long enough you can copy the code it does give you and look that up.

Hi sutek, I never reached a blue screen. I have left it few tes to work for couple of hours and once overnight. Just find it stuck where it was. If you saw the video even the chkdsk freezes and did that at 2% of stage1.

Will try the voltage change, today after work

 

[pinaklonkar]

Ubuntu does not require a hard disk drive to run. You are not technically installing linux but only running the on-the-fly instance of the fully functional OS that will detect all your hardware and connect to the internet seamlessly.

Yes, it's neat.

You can certainly try fiddling with your voltages, but at stock, you should never have to touch the voltages if everything is set to AUTO in your BIOS. I don't really recommend changing the voltages at this point although it could very well be the cause of the problem.

And also, can you please not leave the computer powered on for a long time after it hangs? If it is hanging even before it boots up completely, it is not going to generate a dump anyway so it may never create one even on fully loaded Windows.

 

[noobpcbuild]

I tried the Ubuntu live CD, used the 10.10 64 bit version, boots ok, starts loading but then froze on the Ubuntu logo, did not reach the desktop at all.

So I guess that leaves the problem as MB or the GPU, any way to be sure which one it might be, the MB does not have any onboard video out so cant test without the GPU. I thought if the GPU had any problems the MB speaker should have given some odd beeps.

What do you think?

 

[noobpcbuild]

Further update, managed to borrow a working graphics card off a friend and tried using that with the ubuntu live cd, again gets to the ubuntu logo then freezes, so guess MB problem, if there any particular tests I could do to confirm if MB is the cause of my comp freezing, since that would mean dismantling whole system and getting MB replaced.

 

[pinaklonkar]

Hopefully you physically disconnected the hard drive(s) before loading up Ubuntu. I personally think your GPU should be okay.

1) Can you install stock cooler on CPU and test the system again?

2) I am thinking about the RAM. Is your memory model compatible? Do you think you can buy a couple of chips of RAM to test? You can always use the consumer capitalistic nature of the market and buy these components from a store and return later on. Be very careful about the motherboard pins though if you decide to do that. If not, you can borrow RAM from someone else and test.

3) last thing would be the motherboard - either find a quick similar motherboard from a store to test, or RMA the motherboard with ASUS.

4) if that does not solve the issue - it's your house! ... just kidding. It could then be the power supply, sigh.

 

[suteck]

^+1

2) I am thinking about the RAM. Is your memory model compatible? Do you think you can buy a couple of chips of RAM to test? You can always use the consumer capitalistic nature of the market and buy these components from a store and return later on. Be very careful about the motherboard pins though if you decide to do that. If not, you can borrow RAM from someone else and test.

I checked both ASUS memory lists and also the G-Skill list and the memory you have - F3-10666 CL9S 4GBRL - is not on any of them, You should change it out for G.SKILL
F3-10666CL8D-4GBHK(XMP) DDR3 1333 4096MB (Kit of 2), These are at 8-8-8 timings and will work in all 6 slots if/when you get them all, (It will take 3 kits) - OR - F3-10666CL9T-6GBNQ DDR3 1333 6144MB(Kit of 3) @ 9-9-9 timings and will also work in all 6 slots if/when you get them all, (it will take 2 kits). I picked the ones with the same speed you have already picked. You can get G.SKILL F3-12800CL7D-2GBHZ DDR3 1600 2048MB(Kit of 2) @ 7-7-7 timings and 1600MHz speed and they will work in all 6 slots also. Stuck with G-Skill for you.

 

[noobpcbuild]

Thanks sutek, I think you are right. I was intending to buy 8-8-8-8 which was compatible, initially looked at a kit of 2gbx3. The decided will change to 4gbx2. Since searched for g.skill with 8-8-8-8. I thought the one I bought will be compatible, silly mistake really. Will need to get these changed, I hope the bad weather does not delay delivery, snowing like mad.

Allen

 

[pinaklonkar]

Now we are getting somewhere!

Yeah it's kind of complicated these days with so many models and ratings - best to buy what's in the manual, literally. Once you test your system with the compatible RAM chips, please post back.

 

[suteck]

Just make sure you get something from those lists that have all channels supported. That way you can buy 2 X2GB sticks now and you can add 2 more later and then 2 more after that. Of course making sure you buy exactly the same thing each time!

 

[noobpcbuild]

Now we are getting somewhere!

Yeah it's kind of complicated these days with so many models and ratings - best to buy what's in the manual, literally. Once you test your system with the compatible RAM chips, please post back.

I was so hoping to sort this over the weekend but I guess elements are against me, first the snow delayed things, now got the delivery but seems online retailer have sent me the wrong item altogether, they hope to send me replacement as soon as I return this one. Will definitely post response once test out with correct RAM

 

[noobpcbuild]

Just make sure you get something from those lists that have all channels supported. That way you can buy 2 X2GB sticks now and you can add 2 more later and then 2 more after that. Of course making sure you buy exactly the same thing each time!

I couldnt find the GSkill ram for my MB, so went to the nearest store and got this, OCZ3G1600LV6GK, checked beforehand at ASUS website for compatible RAMs with P6T SE and this was one of them, this is 1600MHz 2GBx3 kit.

Was very hopeful to see end of my plight but still the same, freezing exactly like before, tried with just one, two and three slots occupied, rotated them as well to no avail. Even Ubuntu live did not work. Once got to stage of booting windows, chose safe mode but gets stuck at this stage (see screenshot), if let it run normally then gets stuck at the starting windows logo.

Where should I go from here.

 

[noobpcbuild]

Had another go, this time tired to run the Ubuntu live Cd and gues what with the OCZ RAM module, Ubuntu live loaded, graphics ok, sound ok, networking ok, seems to be running fine. Does that mean its the hard drive which is at fault?

 

[pinaklonkar]

Exactly same thing had happened to me, and hard disk and eventually motherboard were RMA'd.

But you said you tried with two different hard disks? Then we can't suspect that. If you have patience, RMA your motherboard.

 

[noobpcbuild]

How do I do that

 

[noobpcbuild]

Just to update, I flashed my mb bios with the latest bios, still had freeze issues then reflashed to the 0808 64 bit bios for windows 7 and since then freeze issue has gone, I can connect both my hard drives but when I use the SATA3 connection on MB, get freeze again. so not sure if the flashing of bios helped or it was just the SATA3 connection which was a problem but have decided to leave it alone. Been up on the system for 8 hours now, going good. Anyone know how to test individual SATA ports for problems except connecting my drive physically to it since I have decided to leave it alone at the moment.

 

[pinaklonkar]

were you always using the SATA3 port before and getting those freezes? that is still strange because you sometimes did not have any hard disks connected to the system. As predicted some days back, motherboard seems to be the culprit.

 

[noobpcbuild]

Thats true, I did not use the SATA 3 port, somehow avoiding it made it possible for me to complete the install and the OS was working, although still got some freezes subsequently so talked to supplier and have sent both Motherboard and GPU to be RMAd, will update once get response from them