Hi all,
First post here and its a bit of a lengthy one... Sorry! I'll try and keep it short
Last HTPC motherboard blew some capacitors recently, and as it was a 5 year old machine, I thought it was time to do it properly...
New setup:
Case: Fractal Design Define R2
PSU: CoolerMaster 600W Silent Pro Modular PSU - 50A Single Rail 9x SATA 2x PCI-E
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H55-UD3H
Processor: Intel Core i3 530 2.93GHz
CPU Cooler: ZALMAN CNPS10X Performa Socket LGA1156 (amongst other socket types supported - I made sure this was supported for the i3 530)
Memory: Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz XMS3 Memory Kit CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.6V
DVD drive: One from old machine
HDD: a 2.5" 7200RPM drive from my old MacBook Pro (this HDD was in my PS3 for about 6 months after upgrading my MBP one)
Internal cooling: Mixture of 3x 120mm and 3x 140mm Fractal Design Silent Series fans
The story is this (cutting it down heavily)…
Using the integrated GFX processor, I put it all together, using only 1x HDD (after making the mistake years ago of deleting the wrong partition and losing all my college work ), powered it up, it ran for about 2 mins, until it got to the "Starting Windows" bit of the first time you launch the Windows 7 set up process. It then showed the graphics as though the gfx memory had overheated, like it was very digitally fuzzy (difficult to describe this properly - will try and post a picture at some point).
I tried an external GFX card (from my old mediacenter), which seemed to work. It got to the point of extracting the windows files portion of the set up process, and the machine reset itself (like if you had hit the reset button on the case). It reset itself a couple more times whilst trying to kick off installation again. I checked the processor temp = 17 deg C… So this wasn't overheating…
I RMA'd the motherboard, and they said it was faulty. So they sent me a new motherboard. After getting the new MB, not using the external GFX card, i started building the machine.
Same thing occurred.
I saw a review of the memory (posted after I had ordered it), saying that the guy needed to pump 1.7v through the memory to achieve full system stability. I know the i3 processor is only rated to 1.65v for memory, so I tried bumping it up to 1.6v. No difference. Always seems to fall over at extracting files.
I've made sure I have a decent (but not thick) layer of thermal paste on the processor. I've tried with 1 stick of memory, then the other. Same thing happens.
One thing Ive noticed is that once the machine resets itself, afterward when I try and get back into the Windows setup process using the bootable DVD, it goes fuzzy (as described earlier) the moment it hits the "Starting windows" screen, and doesn't get as far as the windows install process.
I RMA'd the Processor/Memory/Motherboard (again), got it all back saying that all of them were stress tested, and that it all worked fine no problems, and that they'd even tested all my bits together, but still no problems seen.
Not sure if they used a prebuilt OS drive or not. The technician on the phone said to try a different DVD drive as it could be the way the DVD drive passes the information into memory that is causing the failure - as it works fine at their end (cant remember exact words he used).
I don't see the DVD drive being the issue, but to humour them, I have built a bootable USB flash drive with the windows 7 image, so I can call back tomorrow and say "You said try a different DVD drive… I took it one stage further and eliminated the DVD drive altogether…"
One thing I haven't tried is running it out of the case to see if theres a short, however I don't think there is… As it probably would either not boot, or fail at exactly the same point each time instead of after resetting itself on the extracting files portion of set up, then showing as being all fuzzy (described earlier) after it restarts…
Something keeps telling me its a CPU issue, because of the fact that it seems to start having problems when load is put on the CPU... But I cant seem to prove this… I ran Prime95 from the "Ultimate Windows Boot CD", and MemTest… During both tests, the machine reset itself...
I don't want to give up with this - as I specced it beautifully to handle 1080p and its the quietest machine I've ever had…
Im at my wits end with this machine - which stupidly is the only machine I've actually planned the build of properly, and been meticulous at doing things properly. All fans rubber bung mounted, rubber strips on the CPU cooler so the fan doesn't make noise, etc etc etc… And yet this is the first machine I've had this amount of problems with…
So Im getting close to the point, of wanting to send everything back, and buy a pre built system, if they will even take everything back… They have said it all works, so not sure what to do now...
Does anyone have any other ideas what could be causing this?
Thanks for reading!
First post here and its a bit of a lengthy one... Sorry! I'll try and keep it short
Last HTPC motherboard blew some capacitors recently, and as it was a 5 year old machine, I thought it was time to do it properly...
New setup:
Case: Fractal Design Define R2
PSU: CoolerMaster 600W Silent Pro Modular PSU - 50A Single Rail 9x SATA 2x PCI-E
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H55-UD3H
Processor: Intel Core i3 530 2.93GHz
CPU Cooler: ZALMAN CNPS10X Performa Socket LGA1156 (amongst other socket types supported - I made sure this was supported for the i3 530)
Memory: Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz XMS3 Memory Kit CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.6V
DVD drive: One from old machine
HDD: a 2.5" 7200RPM drive from my old MacBook Pro (this HDD was in my PS3 for about 6 months after upgrading my MBP one)
Internal cooling: Mixture of 3x 120mm and 3x 140mm Fractal Design Silent Series fans
The story is this (cutting it down heavily)…
Using the integrated GFX processor, I put it all together, using only 1x HDD (after making the mistake years ago of deleting the wrong partition and losing all my college work
), powered it up, it ran for about 2 mins, until it got to the "Starting Windows" bit of the first time you launch the Windows 7 set up process. It then showed the graphics as though the gfx memory had overheated, like it was very digitally fuzzy (difficult to describe this properly - will try and post a picture at some point). I tried an external GFX card (from my old mediacenter), which seemed to work. It got to the point of extracting the windows files portion of the set up process, and the machine reset itself (like if you had hit the reset button on the case). It reset itself a couple more times whilst trying to kick off installation again. I checked the processor temp = 17 deg C… So this wasn't overheating…
I RMA'd the motherboard, and they said it was faulty. So they sent me a new motherboard. After getting the new MB, not using the external GFX card, i started building the machine.
Same thing occurred.
I saw a review of the memory (posted after I had ordered it), saying that the guy needed to pump 1.7v through the memory to achieve full system stability. I know the i3 processor is only rated to 1.65v for memory, so I tried bumping it up to 1.6v. No difference. Always seems to fall over at extracting files.
I've made sure I have a decent (but not thick) layer of thermal paste on the processor. I've tried with 1 stick of memory, then the other. Same thing happens.
One thing Ive noticed is that once the machine resets itself, afterward when I try and get back into the Windows setup process using the bootable DVD, it goes fuzzy (as described earlier) the moment it hits the "Starting windows" screen, and doesn't get as far as the windows install process.
I RMA'd the Processor/Memory/Motherboard (again), got it all back saying that all of them were stress tested, and that it all worked fine no problems, and that they'd even tested all my bits together, but still no problems seen.
Not sure if they used a prebuilt OS drive or not. The technician on the phone said to try a different DVD drive as it could be the way the DVD drive passes the information into memory that is causing the failure - as it works fine at their end (cant remember exact words he used).
I don't see the DVD drive being the issue, but to humour them, I have built a bootable USB flash drive with the windows 7 image, so I can call back tomorrow and say "You said try a different DVD drive… I took it one stage further and eliminated the DVD drive altogether…"
One thing I haven't tried is running it out of the case to see if theres a short, however I don't think there is… As it probably would either not boot, or fail at exactly the same point each time instead of after resetting itself on the extracting files portion of set up, then showing as being all fuzzy (described earlier) after it restarts…
Something keeps telling me its a CPU issue, because of the fact that it seems to start having problems when load is put on the CPU... But I cant seem to prove this… I ran Prime95 from the "Ultimate Windows Boot CD", and MemTest… During both tests, the machine reset itself...
I don't want to give up with this - as I specced it beautifully to handle 1080p and its the quietest machine I've ever had…
Im at my wits end with this machine - which stupidly is the only machine I've actually planned the build of properly, and been meticulous at doing things properly. All fans rubber bung mounted, rubber strips on the CPU cooler so the fan doesn't make noise, etc etc etc… And yet this is the first machine I've had this amount of problems with…
So Im getting close to the point, of wanting to send everything back, and buy a pre built system, if they will even take everything back… They have said it all works, so not sure what to do now...
Does anyone have any other ideas what could be causing this?
Thanks for reading!