Combo built, loaded with problems

[james9120]

Hello,
I ordered a Combo from newegg for a complete PC. After putting it together, I have experienced nothing but problems. Here's what's inside:
ASUS M5A88-V EVO
AMD|8-CORE FX-8120
MEM 2Gx2|KST
HDD 1.5T
CASE RAIDMAX|ATX-612WBP 500W

I just copied and pasted all the stuff above from the invoice. Here's the problems:

The first major problem I had was a complete system failure when loading Mass Effect 3 on the lowest graphics. I know the graphics card isn't good, but I planned on putting in a new one. What happened was the game started to play (laggy) and then suddenly the PC just shut down. The screen went black and said disconnected, but the power remained running in the PC case. So I turned off the PC by holding the power button, waited, then turned it back on. Nothing would boot. The case and CPU fan turned on, but that was it. The memtest light (I think that's what it is) remained solid red the entire time. I tried everything, disconnecting HDD, RAM, checking connections, etc. Then while the PC was on, I held the memtest light till it reset I guess. (the guide booklet that came with the mobo didn't say anything) And voila, it worked again. Booted successfully, I restored the bios to make sure I didn't adjust anything by accident. Now with Windows successfully installed, the PC is running again. Now, I get random BSOD. It doesn't matter what I'm doing, suddenly the PC just goes blue screen and shuts down. I installed Windows twice, and used the same operating system on a different PC I built.
Another thing, I was running a program I use, and the PC just randomly BSOD again, and I rebooted it hours later. Now all my files I copied over from a USB drive are gone. Just vanished, poof! Very strange.
I also noticed that the simple actions like clicking file manager were sometimes laggy, compared to my OC'ed AMD FX-6100 in my other machine.
I ran a system stability test on the CPU, and it came out fine. No errors or nothing. I am going to try memtest next, unless someone says otherwise.

Also, everything is updated, from Windows 7 32-bit to the BIOS. But I am going to double check the drivers.
-Thanks for your help,
James

 

[treefrog07]

Use memtest86+ and be sure the BIOS RAM settings match the data on the RAM stickers for speed (MHz), latencies, and voltage before you start the test.

 

[james9120]

Use memtest86+ and be sure the BIOS RAM settings match the data on the RAM stickers for speed (MHz), latencies, and voltage before you start the test.

Thanks, that's exactly what I did, passed perfectly.

I rebooted the PC and magically my files are there again... Maybe I was looking in the wrong spot? Who knows. But after the memtest, I ran the PC for a couple hours and apparently I didn't update Windows 7 all the way, even though it said it was fully updated. I installed Service Pack 1 and made sure the PC was completely updated again. Still no BSOD. To solve my crappy graphics issue, I put in my GTX 460 v2 card and worked perfectly. I played Mass Effect 3, some Need for Speed, and no errors so far.
One thing I noticed was that the power supply I ordered sent a very thin wire... It would heat up to the point that it was almost untouchable. I quickly replaced that with a much thicker one I had laying around. Could that cause anything?
-Thanks.

 

[treefrog07]

The PSU came with a wire that gets too hot to touch? It could have caused a fire. The heat was from electrical resistance, so that could have been a contributing factor. It sounds like system is now working as you expected.

 

[james9120]

The PSU came with a wire that gets too hot to touch? It could have caused a fire. The heat was from electrical resistance, so that could have been a contributing factor. It sounds like system is now working as you expected.

Yeah the wire that came with it. It got so hot to touch that I went to plug in a USB behind it and the wire brushed on my hand and it made me jump lol.
But, everything was running smooth.. Until now. Another BSOD, I was copying many large files over from a portable USB HDD and running Fruity Loops at the same time.
When I get a BSOD, the PC does not shut down. I have to hold the button until it turns off. If it happens again, I'll take a picture of it. Can the screen tell you guys anything that could help figure out what's wrong?

EDIT:
Nevermind guys, I've been lying about the BSOD this whole time I'm really translating for a friend with no internet who I built the PC for... It's not the BSOD, he was saying blue screen, which meant "no input" on his monitor. I thought he meant the BSOD this whole time... Anyways what really happens is the PC just freezes and the video (HDMI) connection is lost. Then he has to do a hard reset.