Windows random lock-ups force a hard boot

[mrpuppt]

I have scoured the net, and this board, and have yet to see this particular issue quite like mine. So, first, let me list my pc specs for you:

ASUSTek M5A97 LE R2.0 (Socket 942) mobo
AMD FX-8320 8 core processor (NOT overclocked)
8 gig single channel DDR3 803 MHz memory chip
AMD Radeon R9 270 2 gig graphics card
Antec Neo Eco 620W Active PFC ATX 80+ Bronze Power Supply
Western Digital WDC WD3200AAJS-65VWA0 SATA drive
Western Digital WDC WD1600JS-007A0 SATA drive
5 case fans (2 front, one side, one top, one back)
Windows 10 professional

Outside of the 2 HDD's, the rest of the above was purchased brand new from November 2014-through February 2015. This system was put together by a reputable computer company (I added the HDD's and video card myself) so I feel certain it was done correctly. Now to my problem(s)...

My PC randomly locks up to where the only thing I can do is shut it down or hit the reset button. I first began to notice this while playing World of Warcraft. I may get 5 minutes of game time, or I could get several hours. It is not a matter of if but when. However, it also has decided to lock up outside of Warcraft. I can be surfing the net, watching something on Netflix, etc... As a matter of fact, it locked up as I was typing this message

So, 75% of the time it will lock up with absolutely no BSOD. My only recourse is to hard boot or shut down. The other 25% I have received two messages - WHEA_Uncorrectable-Error & Kmode_Exception_not handled. In both these 25% cases, Windows says it is collecting information on the error but I have let it sit for well over 5 minutes and it has done nothing.The % has not moved from 0%.

I have read about "WHEA" errors and that could be tied with the voltage of the processor, the bios, or even the temps. I updated my Bios (ASEUS UEIF ver. 2601) to the latest and set everything to default. Checking the temps, using Speccy, it shows the processor at 23-34C (like right now for example). The mobo temp is showing 35C and the Video card is showing 34C. Both HDD's are showing 37C and 34C respectively. I will note that when I go into the Bios it shows my CPU temp at 46C, different as you can see from the Speccy temps.

I ran a memory diagnostic through Windows with no errors, did a chkdsk which found nothing wrong either. I cleaned the case, fans, heat sync of dust and debris. I have no older hardware (like memory, vid card, etc... to swap out to see if that's an issue). That's why I upgraded because my old hardware died, save the HDD's.

I need all the help I can get on what I can do to figure this out. The fact that it happens so randomly and may or may not give me a BSOD if driving me nuts. Any help that can be given is greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope I gave all the necessary info.

 

[basroil]

You can try running sfc /scannow to see if it's a Windows corruption, but it does seem like a general failure, perhaps generic motherboard issues or power supply.

The easiest test that might help is to run a linux livedisk for a bit and see if that also crashes. If it does, it's definitely hardware, if not it might need further testing.

 

[mrpuppt]

You can try running sfc /scannow to see if it's a Windows corruption, but it does seem like a general failure, perhaps generic motherboard issues or power supply.

The easiest test that might help is to run a linux livedisk for a bit and see if that also crashes. If it does, it's definitely hardware, if not it might need further testing.

Thanks for the reply! I ran /sfc scannow and Windows is fine. I'll look into linux livedisk and see what happens.

 

[mrpuppt]

Greetings everyone. I wanted to give an update, as it's been a bit. My PC still locks up at random for no rhyme or reason. I've exhausted all of the tests and everything did ok... surprisingly I didn't get a lockup during any of the tests It did seem to get better, as i went days without an incident but over the weekend it started locking up more, like I couldn't get more than an hour of time before it would lock up if that. The time seemed to get less, like less than 5 minutes after I turn it on it would lock up. The latest - it will turn on, the fans spin, the MOBO green light is on, the power light is on, but it won't activate the HDD; it just sits there. As of a few minutes ago, now the HDD light comes on but it stays on and it sits there.

So, as I do not have another motherboard or power supply to test each, I'm having to go with the least expensive option and see if that helps. I bought a Seasonic M12II 620 Bronze. It's under the "tier 2" of PSU's on the list here (if memory serves), and was at the max of what I could afford. From my calculations that should easily run what I have above in my system specs.

Question - does what it's doing now (turning on, lighting up, but zip after that) look more like a PSU issue? The PSU should be here by Thursday or Friday of this week... but it'd be nice to know how much hope I should place in it working. Thanks for taking the time to read my post and for anyone who replies!

 

[basroil]

It can certainly be a PSU issue, though problems at start up can also be a corrupted BIOS. If the BIOS screen never pops up though, no way to fix it without replacing it (or external reflash, which is not a beginner or even intermediate level hardware hack and should only be done by very experienced people). Just hope that it's a PSU issue.

 

[mrpuppt]

It can certainly be a PSU issue, though problems at start up can also be a corrupted BIOS. If the BIOS screen never pops up though, no way to fix it without replacing it (or external reflash, which is not a beginner or even intermediate level hardware hack and should only be done by very experienced people). Just hope that it's a PSU issue.

*fingers crossed* It was doing this locking for months, then I read that it could be a bios issue so I updated to the latest version for my board. That didn't help, but it ran for months with this latest bios, locking up whenever. I'm hoping the bios didn't get corrupted somehow, we shall see. It's funny - I was trying to watch something on Netflix and it kept locking up, so I finally decide to not bother until I get a new PSU. I randomly decide to turn it on on a whim the other day and now it's doing what I described earlier. *toes crossed* Here's hoping my bios is ok. I don't have the cash to take it to a professional right now. Thanks for the info!!

 

[mrpuppt]

Update #2 - the power supply came in, hooked it up and at first things were the same. Lights were on, fans were spinning but it wouldn't do anything else. I turned it off and back on and suddenly it starts booting Windows. It ran for hours just fine, then *poof* locks up like it has before. So, with it still doing it, I have my answer - it's the mobo.

 

[mrpuppt]

Update number 3:

I bought a new mobo but neglected to notice that mine is the LE edition, and the new one I bought is not. Other than that it looks to be the same, save some extra heat spreaders. I have hooked everything up to it, but when I turn it on, the lights come on, the fans turn, the power light is on, but it won't do anything else. The screen remains black.

I did notice that this new board has an 8 pin EATX 12v power for the chip, where my old LE board has a 4 pin ATX power 12v power. Looking at my power supply, it doesn't have an 8 pin connector. It does have 2 4 pin connectors on the same cable. Could it be that I need a true 8 pin connector? From the manual, it says that if I'm using the 4 pin I need enough on the 12+ rail. I have double or more from what they recommend. I have both 4 pins plugged in.

Or maybe since I bought the non LE board, I need to send it back and get the LE one? I totally didn't catch that when I was ordering. Thanks for any help anyone might offer...

 

[basroil]

Make sure you aren't stuffing PCIe connectors into the EPS slots! You can definitely short out a PSU and mobo with that.

The 12II should have 8 pin in 4+4 form, check to see if you can find it

 

[mrpuppt]

Make sure you aren't stuffing PCIe connectors into the EPS slots! You can definitely short out a PSU and mobo with that.

The 12II should have 8 pin in 4+4 form, check to see if you can find it

I failed to mention that I sent the new power supply back since it was still locking up with it, and put the old Antec Neo Eco 620C back in. I do not see an 8 pin 4+4 cable.Should I reinvest in another power supply? Or maybe I need to send this mobo back and get the LE one like I meant to do...

 

[basroil]

http://www.antec.com/connectors.php?ProdID=98338

According to Antec you should have a 4+4

 

[mrpuppt]

http://www.antec.com/connectors.php?ProdID=98338

According to Antec you should have a 4+4

And I've plugged them in, but still nothing. The mobo green light is on. The fans (cpu and case) spin. I can hear the 2 HDD's come one and spin. The DVDRW light comes on. The green video card light is on. Yet, when I press the power switch, the power led lights up red, but the HDD light does nothing. The monitor screen remains black. A curious thing as well - the case reset switch doesn't work (and it did prior), and I've triple checked to make sure the right wires are going to the right places (positive/negative, etc...).

From my research, my AMD FX-8320 8 core processor (NOT overclocked) should work with this mobo, as should the 8 gig single channel DDR3 803 MHz memory stick, unless I'm missing something.

I hope I didn't damage the chip when I took it off the old mobo and transplanted it to this one. Could all of this be a symptom that I've done that? I didn't notice me doing something stupid, but one never knows...

 

[basroil]

If it's a fairly old board it's possible the graphics card isn't supported without a bios update. It is PCIe 2.0 while the card defaults to PCIe 3 after all (not an issue in itself, but some firmware can't handle PCIe cards properly without updates)

 

[mrpuppt]

If it's a fairly old board it's possible the graphics card isn't supported without a bios update. It is PCIe 2.0 while the card defaults to PCIe 3 after all (not an issue in itself, but some firmware can't handle PCIe cards properly without updates)

Thing is, it worked fine with my old LE board without an update. I did not update the bios until I started getting more frequent lockups.. But even if it were a video card issue, that wouldn't cause the HHD to not boot would it? It is not booting period. The HDD comes on but it refuses to boot.

Another crazy thing I failed to mention with my old LE board - I had been running it for days without a single lockup. Before I ordered the new board, it was locking up quite often. As soon as I bring the new one in the house, the lockups stop. I hesitated doing anything, but eventually convinced myself that it would lockup again as it has in the past. So I went from locking up occasionally, to locking up a lot, to not locking up, to now that I switch boards it won't even boot up to lock up. Crazy!

I did get an extended warranty with this new mobo. I'm also wondering what are the odds i got a dud? All is hooked up correct and it won't do anything save power up. Maybe I could try sending it back... I'm totally at a loss here. Or maybe I should return it and get the LE version of the board since I know for a fact that worked for me as that's my old board.

 

[basroil]

Thing is, it worked fine with my old LE board without an update. I did not update the bios until I started getting more frequent lockups.. But even if it were a video card issue, that wouldn't cause the HHD to not boot would it? It is not booting period. The HDD comes on but it refuses to boot.

It will just refuse to go past the POST if there's a glitch in the handoff, so if the board never worked then it's certainly possible it was a BIOS issue.

As for the rest, you need to write a proper timeline in bullets, the story keeps changing and it makes finding information impossible.

 

[mrpuppt]

Thing is, it worked fine with my old LE board without an update. I did not update the bios until I started getting more frequent lockups.. But even if it were a video card issue, that wouldn't cause the HHD to not boot would it? It is not booting period. The HDD comes on but it refuses to boot.

It will just refuse to go past the POST if there's a glitch in the handoff, so if the board never worked then it's certainly possible it was a BIOS issue.

As for the rest, you need to write a proper timeline in bullets, the story keeps changing and it makes finding information impossible.

Ok. I can see where this is confusing... I'm not the best at explaining what's going on and I don't want to contradict myself. I'll try to build a timeline below:

1... ASUSTek M5A97 LE R2.0 (Socket 942) mobo
AMD FX-8320 8 core processor (NOT overclocked)
8 gig single channel DDR3 803 MHz memory chip
Antec Neo Eco 620W Active PFC ATX 80+ Bronze Power Supply
All of the above purchased from November 2014 through the first of the 2015. Remaining parts are from previous build.

2... PC put together in late February 2015 and there are no issues noticeable. Ran fine.

3... At some point in late Spring, began to notice PC locking up at random. It seemed to do it more when playing a game (such as World of Warcraft).

4... PC continues to lock up but is more frequent even outside World of Warcraft. No rhyme or reason to lockups. Ran various tests mentioned in previous posts. No closer to solution.

5... After the various tests and dialogue here, concluded it was either the PSU or the mobo. Also updated to latest bios but that did not help.

6... November 2015, replaced PSU, but that didn't help. PC still locked up.

7... Put old PSU pack in system, and sent new PSU back for refund.

8... Decided to order new mobo. Bought new mobo but did not put it in right away.

9... PC (with original mobo and PSU) went from locking up quite often to not at all. The timing was right when the new mobo entered the house. Almost as if it knew

10... Debated installing new mobo since original wasn't locking up at present. Decided it was only a matter of time before it did so put new mobo in.

11,,, While installing new mobo, discovered my original board was the LE edition, and the new board is not. Looked up differences between the two boards. Two main differences I found - extra heat spreaders, and an 8 pin cpu power versus the 4 pin my old board has.

12... Did research to make sure my processor and memory would work in new board. I had thought I was buying the exact same mobo as my original. When I saw I had bought the non LE board, wanted to make sure it would still work. All research shows the processor and memory to be compatible.

13... Installed new mobo to case. Attached my original processor, and memory stick. Hooked up other components.

14... Everything is installed/hooked up to new mobo. Ready for the boot. When power is turned on, the mobo is getting power (green light is on), the video card is getting power (green light is on). The 2 HDD's are getting power. The DVDRW is getting power. The power LED on the case is lit up. However, the HDD LED isn't on, and doesn't come on.

15... Double checked PSU to make sure it was compatible/powerful enough. It is. made sure everything was hooked up and hooked correctly. Made sure all case wires (pwr switch, pwr led, hdd led, reset) were hooked up correctly. They are.

16. Noticed case reset switch does not function, and it did with old mobo. This may have zero to do with it not firing up correctly, but felt it should be noted.

17. To recap - when I turn on the power switch, everything looks like it's running as it should; it just doesn't show anything on the monitor and it doesn't engage the HDD to boot into Windows. Never had starting/booting issues before.

Hopefully that's not confusing. And I hope I'm not contradicting myself either. If I am, point it out and I'll make sure to clear it up. I'm ready for this to be done. Thanks for your patience with me.

 

[mrpuppt]

Update - sent the new mobo back for a replacement. It came today so i hooked it up. No change. Lights up, components are on, but it refuses to boot or do anything. So, I decided to hook my old mobo back up. It worked when I took it out - it just locked up at random. Put my old mobo back in, and it isn't working right now. Turn the pc on, and everything is working, except the HDD light stays on and it's not booting.

This makes me wonder... could my processor be bad? This is crazy...

 

[basroil]

Try two things:
1) Try booting without disks
2) Try booting without graphics or with an old graphics card if you have one.

It's certainly possible that something fried or was otherwise damaged in the swap, but you should make sure the above two don't help first.

 

[mrpuppt]

Try two things:
1) Try booting without disks
2) Try booting without graphics or with an old graphics card if you have one.

It's certainly possible that something fried or was otherwise damaged in the swap, but you should make sure the above two don't help first.

Xmas Eve Update...

I managed to get the this latest mobo sent back and have now received an identical mobo to my original. (Reminder: My original board was the LE edition. What I got by mistake was the non LE). Hooked everything up - and just like before, it lights up, HDD's come on, fans spin, but it won't boot, and in a new wrinkle the HDD led is not coming on, where it was staying on permanently before.

I do hear my main HDD come on and sort of "spit and sputter" before it goes silent... but I get nothing on screen to say that my HDD isn't working properly or anything.

I do not have an older video card that I can test with, so I took mine out completely and it does the exact same thing noted above. When you saiy boot without disks, I assume you mean booting from a boot disc in my cd/dvd drive?

Thanks again for hanging in there with me. Hardware issues are something I've hardly ever had to deal with since I got a desktop pc back in the mid 90's. I guess now I'm making up for lost time.

 

[mrpuppt]

Latest update...

I went back to square one and decided to re-check every single thing, leaving no stone un-turned. It would seem that all of this (at least since I replaced my original mobo) is more than likely of my own making. In examining my processor I noticed several of the pins were bent. Go figure. No wonder it just sits there. So, I'll update again when I get this fixed.

 

[basroil]

In examining my processor I noticed several of the pins were bent. Go figure. No wonder it just sits there. So, I'll update again when I get this fixed.

One of the reasons everyone just goes with Intel

 

[mrpuppt]

In examining my processor I noticed several of the pins were bent. Go figure. No wonder it just sits there. So, I'll update again when I get this fixed.

One of the reasons everyone just goes with Intel

So Intel doesn't have pins that can be bent? I've never used Intel... my budget hasn't allowed it. I guess now I'll start saving so I can.

 

[mrpuppt]

Final update (hopefully):

Processor has been replaced, due to a number of bent pins. So all is good on the hardware front. Thank you for your time and patience on this issue.