Help Me Diagnose My Computer - Tricky Issue!

DAnDan

DAnDan

DAnDan

Soldato
Joined
22 Feb 2008
Posts
4,473
For the past couple of weeks I've had a strange issue with my computer, and I just can't seem to work out what's wrong with it. So I'm turning to you guys, and your internet expertise to try and track this thing down!

Basically at seemingly random times (always around an hour or more after I've turned the computer on though) the computer will crash, but it does it in a weird way. It doesn't just go straight to BSOD, but it slowly becomes unresponsive. Windows that are open will still work, videos will play, and background processes (music, skype calls (including video), downloads) work for a while but then crash too. When it's doing this you can't open anything new, no new windows or anything; even new tabs in chrome won't load.

I've checked everything I can think of, and nothing seems to fix it:

  • Reinstalled windows to make sure it wasn't software based
  • Disconnected all but the main HDD - still crashed
  • Run several disk checkers on the SSD, all pass fine without any bad sectors
  • Ran windows memory checker, and Memtest (from USB boot), both passed just fine
  • Temperatures are all fine, haven't noticed anything even remotely high
  • Overclock seems okay, I put everything back to stock, and even underclocked the memory and the crashes still happened
  • Checked all cables/connections - Everything seems to be well in place

There's probably more that I've checked, but that's all that's coming to mind at the moment.

System specs are:

  • MSI GeForce GTX 580 OC Twin FrozR II
  • Core i7-2700K 3.50GHz
  • Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P Intel Z68 (Socket 1155)
  • XFX 850W Black Edition Modular
  • Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB
  • Samsung SH-B123LBSBP 12x BluRay ROM
  • Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB DDR3 PC3-12800C9

So that leaves me with no more ideas of what to check! Any ideas!?

Internet cookie to whoever figures this out!
 
Last edited:
Hi,

I had lockup / cold boot problems with the near identical board Z68X-UD3P and Kingston HyperX 1600Mhz ram i5 2500k

Sometimes it would just stop dead, frozen screen totally unresponsive, other on boot it would say OC failed even when I didn't have an OC.

Setting the board to the XMP memory settings seemed to help, the ram likes 1.65V but then I still got occasional cold boot resets.

Tried all sorts of OC settings, then stumbled on these, punched them in and it hasn't missed a beat for over 18 months.

Try this for 4500MHz

Vcore = NORMAL
DVID = +.050 (maybe +.060 max...but no more for 4.5GHz)(this setting becomes available when Vcore was set to NORMAL)
QPI/VTT = 1.150
PLL = 1.815
DRAM Voltage = MFG Spec (you may increase voltage just by a little from MFG spec)
Timing = MFG Rated Spec

LLC will be automatically disengaged as no need for it in this mode.
Leave as is for other settings. (default)

Though, you may want to set ENABLED 4 other features: C1E, C3/C6, EIST and Intel Thermal Monitor in CPU Features section if you care about energy saving.
Click to expand...
 
download ssdlife and look to see if the m4 ssd has reached 5400hours or around that

very common freezing issue fixed by flashing the firmware to latest version
 
ExRayTed said:
Try with only one stick of ram at a time
Click to expand...

Will give that a go if the below doesn't work, thanks!

decto said:
Hi,

I had lockup / cold boot problems with the near identical board Z68X-UD3P and Kingston HyperX 1600Mhz ram i5 2500k

Sometimes it would just stop dead, frozen screen totally unresponsive, other on boot it would say OC failed even when I didn't have an OC.

Setting the board to the XMP memory settings seemed to help, the ram likes 1.65V but then I still got occasional cold boot resets.

Tried all sorts of OC settings, then stumbled on these, punched them in and it hasn't missed a beat for over 18 months.
Click to expand...

I was thinking it wasn't to do with clocks or anything, as it's been stable for over a year, and I've not changed anything on it recently. However I'll take a look into this and see :)

brendy said:
Legit copy of windows?
Click to expand...

Yeah 100%, I get them for free through the university.

wazza300 said:
download ssdlife and look to see if the m4 ssd has reached 5400hours or around that

very common freezing issue fixed by flashing the firmware to latest version
Click to expand...

Just took a look, I'm at over 5400 hours! Updated to the newest firmware, lets see if that fixes the issue! :D
 
wazza300 said:
you'll find it was the ssd/firmware that was giving you jip;)
Click to expand...

Yep it seems that way so far!

Annoyed at myself for not working that out, I even remember reading about the firmware bug a while ago when it first made the rounds, but it just didn't come to mind now!

Ah well, thanks to the internet it seems to be fixed! :)
 
wazza300 said:
download ssdlife and look to see if the m4 ssd has reached 5400hours or around that

very common freezing issue fixed by flashing the firmware to latest version
Click to expand...

wazza300 said:
you'll find it was the ssd/firmware that was giving you jip;)
Click to expand...

So it looks like this has fixed it! Had no issues with the computer since updating the drive's firmware.

Thank you to everyone who offered ideas, and a big internet cookie to you Wazza! :cool:
 
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