Computer keeps crashing - help needed urgently!

Benh89

Benh89

Benh89

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Joined
7 Dec 2010
Posts
49
Location
Cornwall
Hi guys,

A computer that I built for my Dad has been crashing a lot recently. The computer is used within his business and it's really important that I try and fix it, only I'm in Bristol and he's 3 1/2 hours away in Cornwall. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Firstly, setup is as follows: i5 2500K, Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P, 16GB 1600MHz Corsair Vengeance (Low Profile), GTX 460 1GB, 64GB Crucial M4, 2 x 1TB Samsung HDD's, 1 x 3TB Seagate HDD, Windows 7 Pro.

So I'm at university now, but before I left I re-formatted his computer and re-installed everything from scratch in order to use Intel Smart Response and make a few changes to the way backups were made. I also flashed the bios to the latest UEFI version. It all seemed to be working perfectly. Sata mode was "RAID" and I followed the setup instructions to a T. SRT setup was as follows: one of the 1TB Samsung HDD's was being accelerated by the 64GB Crucial M4.

Recently however, it's been crashing a lot (everyday perhaps) and one time the smart response array failed. Luckily no data was lost so I simply re-enabled SRT and everything seemed to be working once again.

Today though, the computer crashed and this time we can't get back into Windows. After getting my Dad to check the bios, it seems the settings have been reset or altered somehow. SATA Mode was now "IDE" and various boot priority options seemed odd. For example, one of the boot priority options (according to my Dad) seemed to be related to Epson Stylus storage or something (I can't remember the exact wording). This PC is used with various Epson printers btw.

So I set about helping him rebuild the bios settings that I had set initially, but it still won't boot into Windows. It's very difficult to direct him around the bios when talking over the phone and I can't see his screen. Before I was using Windows Remote Assistance, but obviously this isn't possible for working on the bios.

We tried setting each 1 TB drive in turn as the device to boot from, and disabled all other boot options, but it still failed to find the Windows boot files.

Have I missed something or is it simply not possible to get it working without starting over? If I were at home this is what I would be doing at this point, but I'm at university and cannot simply go home. Would any data be lost from the C drive given that the bios mode changed from RAID to IDE?

Help please!!!
 
You might be able to find some screenshots on google images of the bios that might help with talking him through things. Sometimes when my pc shuts down incorrectly it resets the bios to no overclock settings but generally keeps most of the bios settings.

What type of raid did use, still not sure on that and was the raid set up in the bios or in windows?
 
Disaster averted. Turns out the problem lay with the SRT setup. Once the bios was setup correctly, we went into the RAID setup menu (CTRL+I during boot) and removed the acceleration feature. A sync was performed first (as recommended) to ensure no data loss.

Thanks @groen for taking the time to post.
 
Sorry to dig this up again, but...

I need help again guys.

The computer listed above is at it again. The setup is a little different now though. In October I went home to try and fix this pc - Windows and programs on the ssd, user generated files on one of the 1Tb Samsung hdds. Simple. I allocated up to 4Gb on the ssd for a page file, and let the system manage the remaining drives, so that shouldn't be an issue. This was the setup in the past (when the pc was working properly) and Windows never increased the page file past 1Gb.

Now the pc is crashing again. According to my Dad, it gets a BSOD every few minutes, so it's pretty much useless to him. He is literally calling multiple times a day for help. Today, I helped him run Memtest, but it didn't show any errors, so in my mind, I'm ruling out RAM as the cause. We had a real problem getting the pc to boot from the usb drive containing Memtest. With it plugged in, upon start-up, it would freeze at the bios logo screen. We would then restart the computer and it would go through 3-4 cycles of switching itself on and off, before crashing at the Bios logo screen again. We only managed to get into Memtest after we power cycled the pc (turn off and unplug for 10 seconds).

The bios settings often change/reset when it crashes, so I tell him to load the profile I created. Now however, it seems that it won't load the settings from the profile and thus will not boot because the settings are incorrect.

Several weeks ago, I contacted Gigabyte about the problem and asked if there was any way to flash back to legacy bios from UEFI. They said no, but I could return the board under warranty for testing. While this is probably what I will do, I don't get home until Sunday 16th December and this is causing a lot of downtime. Then he'll have to wait for a repair/replacement and I'll have to re-install everything... again. If I say he could be without this computer for a week or more he'll flip.

Does this sound like a physical problem with the motherboard or a problem with the bios? Would re-flashing the same bios file help (I'll probably give it a try anyway)? Bear in mind these problems started shortly after I flashed from legacy to UEFI. Could it be a processor issue? If so, what are the typical signs of a processor fault?

He says he's going to buy Macs instead because "they don't get problems".

Can anyone shed any light on this before I tell him there's nothing more I can do apart from send the board to Gigabyte?

Cheers.
 
Which firmware is the M4 on?

There's a 5200 hour bug on older firmwares.


Personally, I found my board (same board) really bad with the UEFI bios, I reverted back to the F12 bios after about 3 months of wrestling with it. Now it's perfectly stable.

Edit, mine is the 'GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3'

This tool should work fine though for reverting the BIOS.



http://bleddyn.co.uk/forums/ocuk/gigabyte/efi2awd.zip



I found it on this page..

http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/28441-gigabyte-latest-beta-bios.html


Find your board here..

http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/list.aspx?s=42&jid=2&p=2&v=24

Get the latest 'F' bios



Use the USB boot tool, 'rufus' to create a freedos bootdisk, then place the unzipped files from that file above on to the USB stick. add the latest F bios to it, then type in what it says in the readme file.
 
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Its a long shot but maybe trying upgrading the SSD firmware, I've had problems with those crucial drives and a lot of the ones I've seen have shipped with old versions.
 
The M4 has the 010G firmware. After a quick check, it turns out that they've released another firmware, 040H. I'll upgrade to this version asap and report back. However, I still think the problem is the motherboard. I might give that method of downgrading the bios a try, but it will surely void the warranty if it fails.

Thanks for the replies so far.
 
See if there are any files in c:\windows\minidump - if there are zip them up and post them here (/email them to me).

Sounds like a hardware issue but you never know.
 
Download 'whocrashed' onto the PC and let it diagnose the BSOD dump file. This will point you in the right direction as to whats causing the crash.
 
@Pho - Thanks. I'll get my Dad to check tomorrow if he decides to go to into work.

@tribz - Thanks also. Will get this done tomorrow if poss. Otherwise Monday.
 
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