Stability issues

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Dan(omite)
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Stability issues

Post by Dan(omite) »

Alright, my computer has been giving me trouble for a couple weeks now and I think I know what the problem is, but wanted to get your guys' input as well.

First off, my computer:

Mobo: ASUS M4A79XTD EVO
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965
Ram: G Skill Ripjaw DDR3 1333 (was running 8 gig)
PSU: Corsair TX650

Now, the problems I've been having:
A couple sundays ago I was on my computer when it just froze, no BSOD, just frozen screen. Had to hard reset it. When I went to boot it back up, it wouldn't even POST. I let it sit for a while, came back to it, and it booted up. Ran fine for a while, but then it'd start either BSOD, freezing, or just rebooting. I checked caps, made sure there was no dust, checked mobo screws, etc and everything looked fine. I pulled out one stick of ram and it would boot with no problems. Switched with the other stick and it booted fine too. Put both back in and it booted up. Ran like this for a few days but would still get some random crashes. Sometimes I could game for 45 minutes with no problem and as soon as I'd close the game, it'd freeze or BSOD. I ran memtest with each stick by itself in multiple ram slots with no errors. I ran memtest for about 6 passes with both sticks in and got no errors. The last few days it was so bad that it wouldn't even really boot to windows; it usually froze right as it got to windows. The really weird thing is almost every single time I'd reboot it, it would either fail to POST at all or it would freeze while loading up the BIOS. Every single time, I'll let it sit for a while and I can come back and it will at least POST.

I put in brand new ram and it still gave me the same problems (would POST but would crash soon after). The only solution I've been able to come up with so far is running a single stick of ram. Doing that gives me no crashes, no freezing, no BSOD. I've been able to play multiple games for hours today with no issues (again, I can do this with either stick of ram--they did come in a set and worked for a couple years, so its not a compatibility thing). I reflashed the BIOS last night (was already running the most current one). So far I haven't tried putting the other stick back in, but that'll be my next thing. I am not overclocking at all and had no issues with my system previously. I doubt it's a driver or software thing since it's affecting the computer posting. I can pretty much rule out ram since it did the same thing with brand new stuff. My assumption is that it's the motherboard crapping out on me. What are your guys thoughts? Outside of getting a new board, anything I can do to get it to be stable running the full 8 gigs? (Sure it works with 4 gigs but I don't want to sacrifice performance.) I've seen some people say that upping the ram voltage sometimes helps, but that's usually in OC systems, while I'm running stock.

In a perfect world I'd just get a new board, cpu and ram. However with having a baby on the way, convincing the wife to let me spend a few hundred dollars is pretty much out of the question lol
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Stephen
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Re: Stability issues

Post by Stephen »

unplug and reseat all power cables
run system with minimal things plugged in (keyboard mouse ethernet monitor)

check bios for frequencies of cpu and ram to make sure there correct ratings

put both sticks in run ram at lower clock speed then rated

when you checked caps what signs did you look for

apply fresh thermal paste on cpu

how old is windows installtion
run check disk bad sectors can freeze and blue screen but wouldnt really explain the non post but also could be seperate issues going on.


few things to try

one of my machines wont post sometimes if im swapping changing ram or rebooting to much, the motherboard is kinda flaky (spilled coolant on it before)

to get it to post i unplug power push power button few times to drain caps, then remove battery hit power again few then reassemble
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Tahko
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Re: Stability issues

Post by Tahko »

Sorry for bump but any news on this Dano?

I've been having a similar problem although the only differences are our specs and the fact my RAM test did show some errors.
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Stephen
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Re: Stability issues

Post by Stephen »

What speeds are your ram running at tahko amd can be bitchy with ram speeds
Run at 1333 and test each stick by itself
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Dan(omite)
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Re: Stability issues

Post by Dan(omite) »

For mine, I basically concluded that one of the ram channels on the mobo is shot. If I put the two sticks on the same channel (as in running them in single channel mode) it is pretty much completely stable. System might crash once every couple weeks now, but they're usually software issues (haven't done a full system wipe in a couple years). I'm still planning on upgrading most the system in due time.
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