Computer randomly freezes

[triplej]

CPU: Intel i5-760 with Hyper 212 Plus
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3
RAM: Corsair Dominator 4 GB 1600 MHz
GPU: Nvidia GTX 460 1GB
PSU: Antec TruePower New TP-750 Blue
HD: 1 TB Samsung SpinPoint HE103UJ
Case: HAF 922

My computer has been randomly freezing ever since I first built it in September. It freezes often in the windows loading screen but also randomly while web browsing, gaming, or even while left idle with no screen saver/sleep mode.

I ran memtest 4 times and it completed with no errors, prime 95 for an hour with no problem, and furlog for 10 minutes with no errors but I stopped it that soon because the video card was upto 90 C.

My temperatures are CPU 35 C idle and 50 C Starcraft 2, and GPU 40 C idle and 70 C Starcraft 2. I can't remember the Prime95 CPU temp exactly but I think it went upto 59 C.

I just reinstalled Windows 7 incase that was the problem, but because of freezing it took me 5 tries to successfully install it. 4 times the computer just froze where I couldn't move the mouse and nothing was loading but one time the screen turned black during the middle of the install. Also one time right away in the windows installation the screen had lots of black lines through it so I restarted.

I re-installed the F11 update on the BIOS, and selected Optimized Default Settings and changed the ram to Xtreme Memory Profile which changes the Mhz from 1333 to 1600 and voltage from 1.5v to 1.65v as specified on the RAM.

I looked at the Gigabyte compatability chart on their website, and my CPU is listed but my RAM is not. This worries me a little, and so does the video card, but I don't have extra components to test right now and I'm scared to spend more on the system. I also e-mailed Gigabyte, telling them my problem, and so far their reply was to check my ram voltage and cpu temperature. I did e-mail back and I'm waiting for a reply.

Anyone else have any ideas?

 

[dokk2]

Wellll, at least everything is still under warranty, right??,,,sounds like you have either a bad mobo or hdd, [the freezing thing] as to the unlisted ram not to worry I am presently running unlisted ram on my Gigabyte mobo and the sucker loves it, still though that particular brand, you are using, is not completely unknown as it were, and as to your video card there should be no problem there your system is well thought out etc,just one dumb question ?? you do have all the power plugs plugged in right mobo,video,cpu ???, just checking, ya never know , and you might consider with the OEM Samsung software writing ZEROS to the whole hdd...

 

[triplej]

Yes everything is plugged in right and I did try reformatting the harddrive.

Gigabyte just e-mailed me and they wrote that my motherboard is meant to be used with an ATI graphics card, but an Nvidia card should work as well. They said to try an ATI card and if that doesn't fix the problem then RMA the motherboard.

I've been reading through other peoples' "random freeze" posts, and I found other people who bought a gigabyte motherboard with a geforce gtx 460 and also experience random freezing.

If anyone has used these two parts (gigabyte p55a-ud3 and gtx 460) and not had any freezing at all, let me know.

 

[triplej]

Update: I tried using an ATI card in the system, but it froze while installing the driver, and then multiple times after that at the windows loading screen. I tried reformatting, installing windows then the video card but it still froze again a couple times so I don't think it was the video card but I'm not 100% sure.

I'm trying to figure out if its the motherboard being faulty or if it's the BIOS settings. I tried "fail-safe settings" with nothing changed but it froze, so then I changed "turbo" to "standard" on the ram settings, and it still froze. I tried "optimized defaults" with ram set to 1600 mhz 1.65v turbo (the Profile1 extreme memory profile), and also looked at the gigabyte sticky thread so I disabled "cpu enhanced halt c1e", "c3/c6", "cpu eist" but for some reason after the computer froze that time and I restarted the computer, the POST screen said overclocking caused problems.

An example of the freezing would be, I make it into windows, see windows update has 51 updates from fresh install, download and install makes it to 14, it freezes, restart, install upto 30, it freezes, restart, install the rest, restart to finish installation, and then install microsoft security essentials, restart, it configures but soon after freezes before windows fully loads and goes into the main screen with taskbar.