Failing Win 7 Boot Up Issue - Suspect Hardware

GodMac

GodMac

GodMac

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Hi all, need some advice please. I have the below spec in my sig, P5Q Deluxe (BIOS ver 1201) with Intel Q6600 OC'd to 3.02mhz and Invidia 280GTX 1Gb OC'd (BFG). 8gb Reeper mem. I've had on occassion of the last couple of weeks what I can only describe as a graphic glitch and my whole system locks, I have to hard reset. While playing in games I've had a loud click type sound and the glitch is like the whole screen freezes and the graphics go multi colour and nothing on screen is identifyable.

The passed couple of times this has happened I've hard reset and its gone back in ok. But now as Windows 7 Ultimate starts up I get the spinning sphere's at the beginning then they merge into the MS Window and 2 secs later the system freezes.

I done the following steps and nothing has fixed it. I'm suspecting a CPU fault as the drivers load in windows, or maybe a mobo fault.

What I have done:

  • Repair system start up - No issues found of 5 attempted runs.
  • Booted into windows repair and ran an MBR fix with bootsec /nt60 c: and also bootsec /nt60 SYS. Neither resolve boot issue.
  • Recovered to 2 previous restored points.
  • Removed memory and re-installed in 2gb modules in different slots.
  • Windows repair memory test - All passed ok on 8gb RAM.
  • Removed Grfx card and cleaned and reseated.
  • Full Image restore - still not resolved issue
Any help would be much appreciated.
 
Does anyone know of a hardware diagnostic tool I can boot up from DOS that will do a deep hardware test including RAM, CPU, Mobo (North and South Bridge) to test the hardware under stress? That way I'm sure I'll pin point a core or mobo or even a grfx card issue?
 
Thanks honosuseri, I have just taken the Geforce 8800 GTX out of my sons PC and installed that and still the same problem. Just to make sure I put my 280 GTX in my sons PC and it booted up fine, so I think we can rule out the GPU. The next steps aren't going to be so easy......Unless you know of a diagnostic toolset that I can boot from CD and run CPU and Mobo tests? Even just a CPU thorough test would either pin point the mobo if all OK unless the fault lies within the mobo components to the CPU. I don't have a spare mobo or CPU so I'm a little stumped unless I buy a cheap E5700 775 dual core for £45 just to try out. All my components are still in a 3 yr warrantly i.e. CPU and I think the mobo.

Do you know of a bootable tool to diag check the CPU or mobo?
 
Cheers guys. I've downloaded Hiren Boot CD 14.1 and will give that a try tonight in stress testing the CPU, grfx and Mem (just in case).

I have also got BackTrack 5 on USB which I'll boot up to completely elliminate the HDD just in case there is a bad sector on the HDD that is causing any issue. This will elliminate the Win OS entirely. I'll report back later. Thanks All.
 
Ok guys, update on my issue from work last night.

I setup BackTrack on my USB and rebooted from USB and all went into Ubuntu and I could browse the net and view the disc info without any problems. So I thought is this is case of a band sector on the disc causing corruption on Windows load. So I downloaded the HDD test program from Samsung to individually test each disk. Installed it on a CD and ran it. It came back with a firmeware corruption on the drive. So I rebooted with Hiren Boot CD and ran another couple of heath checkers from the CD which didn't detect anything. I then ran Samsung HDD checker from the Hiren Boot CD. This always you to individually check each Samsung disk. I did this and all passed ok, apart from I on did 2% of the surface scan as it took 10 mins to check 1% of the disk because they are 1Tb HDD.

So I thought I would try putting in a couple of old Western Digital's I had so put them in. They wouldn't come up as a configured RAID pair which I know they were set up as so whilst trying to configure them the BIOS automatically erased again, which has happened on several occassions. So I decided to put my original discs back in and configured the BIOS as normal again.

Rebooted and Windows 7 started up without error!

So did all my updates for AV and such left the system running for a couple of hours and shut down fully. Went in this morning and it started up no problem at all.

So unless there is an intermitant failing component or a corrution that has now cleared I am stumped!

Little concerned why the BIOS keeps erasing though. I'm going to get a new battery for the system just in case.

Anyone got any ideas?
 
Thanks Nevram, I only went into COD MW2 just to make sure the stats updated from the cloud and it all went in OK. I'm going to download 3DMark to give the CPU and Grfx card a real test. But I hate these issues that you can't find the route cause.

But a valuable lesson learned, do thorough hardware checking before doing a data restore. I'm glad it worked but I have lost a month of work I did with VMware and my test rig instances which I now have to download all the software and install again!
 
Your right, its like I'm going to be running my rig with crossed fingers!!! If it does go again though I'll look at replacing the Mobo as I can't see that the CPU would repair itself as its not been touched in any way.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions guys, much appreciated.
 
I think I would go for an i7 if I had to upgrade. I've already got an IBIS OCZ 240Gb SSD. Just looking for a reason to install it and the time to do it and transfer the image over.
 
OK guys, the saga continues! Last night I got home to find my son had gone into Team Fortress 2 and after 2 minutes of playing to system hung again.

So I downloaded 3DMark06 and installed. Now as its the free version it only allows grfx up to 1024x768 so I ran it at that. As its going through the first test it reach 4500 in the timing clock (far right) and the hole system froze. So I came out, restarted the system and dl'd Core Temps. Installed CT and ran 3DMark06 again. Same again, system crash around the same point (but not exactly). Rebooted and Core Temps showed all 4 processors at 48+/-2.

I then dl'd HOT CPU Tester Pro (lite) and ran processor tests for 1 hr 15 mins. The cores where at 100% util for all that time and the core temps did not get above 59 degrees.

So the only thing I think it can be is the mobo. Does anyone know of a Asus mobo testing app that I can run to confirm that the mobo is at fault?
 
I've not flashed the BIOS (still running at the original 1201 version) and the 3DMark was run at the OC'd 3.02Mhz. The clocking has been stable for 2 yrs and the grfx card is running at 1600x1280. I've not made any changes to the ather BIOS settings.
 
Using CPUID(Core temps) and Hot CPU I can see that even when under 100% test on all 4 cores the voltage is on at 1.25v. I currently have the CPU voltage set to 1.35v.
 
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I'll do that tonight. Good thing is I checked the mobo warranty and I still have 6 months left on it.
 
Yes the Grfx drivers are upto date and the 8800GTX and the 280GTX in mine and my sons PC use the same NVidia Geforce. I'm leaning towards the Mobo myself as well, maybe an issue with the North Bridge chipset. One last thing I will try is to put the 8800 in my system again and run the 3DMark06 and if the same problem happens its defo not the Grfx card. But I'll do the same in his system as well. And yes I update both systems as he's only 10! But a hacker in the making :)
 
OK all, the saga continues and I thought I'd found the problem.

Friday night I found out my son had played all do on Team Fortress 2 and the system had not crashed.

So I ran 3DMark06 and it crashed after 1 minute. I thought maybe the AV (Norton 360) was bringing a popup up that I can't see. So I disabled it and it still crashed.

I downloaded SiSoft Sandra Professional and ran a diag test and all passed.

I loaded HOT CPU Pro and Core Temps and ran SiSoft Sandra on a benchmark test and the cores ran at 100% all through the tests and the temps never got above 65 degrees.

I ran 3DMark again ad it crashed. Now bear in mind that this is a 280GTX OC'd with 1gb DDR3 RAM and I run all my games at 1680x1280, the free version of only allows 1024x768 resolution. It ran and it craches. So I played COD MW2 Friday night and all worked fine.

Saturday morning I made sure all the latest Win7 and latest grfx drivers loaded and ran 3DMark, it crashed.....:(

So, now not completed conviced it isn't the grfx card I took my son 8800GTX and put it into mine and set up high res, ran 3DMark and it all passed no crashes...Yippee! after all that it's deffinitely the grfx card.

So I took my 280GTX put it back in my system and configured it up, no changes in BIOS between 8800 and the 280 booted up and ran 3DMark to make 100% sure the system would crash again........

Ran 3DMark as before...................it passed!!!!!!

I then ran it 4 more times and it passed every time!!!!!!

So I'm more confused now than ever!!!!!

Only thing I can put it down to is a dirty connector or a dirty track on the grfx card...:(
 
Any suggestions on a mobo swap? I still like the ASUS mobo's and do a lot of gaming. I have RAID0 and 4 x SATAII drives. I also have the IBIS SSD to install. I'll order a new mobo and just RMA the other.
 
I'll look into the i5/i7 series stuff and see if I can flog the other gear off. Shame though I love my Q6600 its been a good cpu. Bye old friend ......sniff.......sniff :(
 
Ok, I've found the problem, its the damn grfx card. I couldn't get the 280GTX to fail then suddenly it started to fail on COD MW2 so I swapped the cards in my sons system and mine and and ran his and it was all fine. Ran COD MW2 on his system with my card in it and after 30 minutes it crashed! Kept trying it and it crashed again. So now I need to RMA the card. Only to find out that BFG went into liquidation and if the warranty is over 2 years I'm stuffed which it is,so the lifetime warranty is not worth diddly!

So I'm going to try baking the card. Yes, its not a Jim Royale reference, its an actual way of backing the card in the oven to melt and reform the solder in case its a dry joint. See below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmzGn...eature=related
 
Guys, just an update on what happened last night. I followed the grfx card baking vid and plugged the card back in. I ran 3Dmark and it worked perfectly. I then ran the card with COD MW2 for 20 mins on highest res and it never crashed once. It has run for some time before it crashed before so I'm going to run it all over the weekend and will give a further update on Monday to let you know if there are any crashes.
 
OK all I said I'd give you and update and here's a possitive one:

Following the idea of the "Baking of the Grfx card" which I was suggested to do I backed it and friday night following the thursday night baking I play COD MW2 for 1.5 hours and no problems. Then on Saturday I played MW2 for a further 3 hours and no problems. Today I set my system a task of tests through 3DMark for 4 consecutiver runs and then played MW2 for 4 hours all afternoon plus 2 hours tonight and not an artifact sniffle, not a crashesedle, not even a pauseadiddley, in fact just pure endless game fun. Not sure the name of the dude who recommended the baking (other than Jim Rolaye) but I consider the grfx card fixed and you can shove you BFG lifetime warranty, thanks OcUK for this great forum. :)
 
Yeh, the BIOS loss is still concerning so as it had the original 1201 BIOS from the time I bought it I've upgraded to the last version on ASUS from 2009 which is ver 2301. If it happens again I'll replace the battery.

BTW, told my mate about the baking and he's given me his ATI 4870 which has artifact problems so I'm going to bake that tonight as well and see how we get on with that.
 
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