New-ish i7 build dying after 6 months - help!

singh_uk

singh_uk

singh_uk

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28 Aug 2006
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119
Hello

About 6 or 7 months ago I built a system with

i7 920 @ 4ghz
patriot viper 6gb ddr3 ram
gigabyte x58a-ud3r
intel 80gb ssd
asus 5870
corsair 750hx
windows 7 64 pro

the system has been fine up till now, i was away for 1 month and upon returning there were random lockups in windows when left on its own for 5-10 mins. i ran prime and it failed after 5-10mins so increased vcore to 1.25v, only to have the same problems. dropped vcore and clocks to 3.8, still having the same problem.

now the pc will randomly restart itself even during web browsing - when attempting to reset the bios to stock, even the bios locked up and needed restarting! it also hung once at post screen. Now the cpu is at stock clocks and the system still randomly locks up and restarts in windows, and when running prime. it crashed after 8 minutes of furmark also, but since it could crash after 8 minutes of doing nothing it doesnt tell me much.

i ran memtest86 yesterday and it was fine (although in the last day the system has been getting worse, perhaps now that may even fail)


Any idea what the problem could be? I dont have extra equipment to swap components around with, so I have no idea what the problem could be. I am leaning towards PSU or motherboard (in other systems in the past I have had problems with these)....perhaps CPU...but how can I be sure so I can RMA the right part?

Thanks in advance to all the knowledgable people here
 
Well in order to RMA the correct part you must eliminate:

Memory –

Use memtest86+ to verify the memory is operative. Try using one memory stick at a time and try the single sticks in different slots. If one stick of memory fails in all slots, then its almost certainly a RAM problem. If the working RAM stick works in one slot but not another, then this is certainly going to be a memory controller problem. This could be CPU or Motherboard depending on the platform.

Check that the memory is set to the correct setting i.e. VDIMM and latency timings. Check the manufacturers website for details.

If your memory looks ok, then you may need to check your PSU:

PSU -

http://www.huddysworld.co.uk/index.p...ware&Itemid=72

Event Manager -

If you can boot into your system via safe mode, then take a good look at the system dump and Event Manager for clues. Event manager is often overlooked and under estimated.
 
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CPU's degrade over time. As to most components PSU's included. But your system does seem to be a tad too new for that to be a factor.

Certainly you can do things to determine what the problem area might be.

Memtest86 has been mentioned.

What I would suggest you do is default settings for your system and run your CPU stability test of choice. Prime is perfect for this. If you system passes at default bios settings then it is not your CPU, nor your motherboad or PSU.

That does not mean your ram is the problem, it just means at default - how the items will be tested if a RMA is entered into - are working perfectly and as they should.

When you overclock stuff, regardless of how stable it was three months ago or two days ago unless you purchased a pre-built overclocked system the vendor will test at default. So be aware of that and try and isolate what aspect of your overclock was failing. It might provide you the clue as to what is needed.

Look the problem could be as simple as a bunch of dust making your CPU cooler less efficient. Or it could be a wire on a connector that has come a bit loose and is causing the problems. It could be so many different things not just those two.
 
I have a similar spec to you, I bought the CPU/RAM/MOBO as a bundle here on OC. The motherboard has caused me trouble, freezes, bsods and just weird things. I don't think it's very good.
 
The problem went away for a while after I reset the BIOS to stock - seemed stable in prime, stress test, etc.

After not using the system for a few days I returned and the problem of random restarts and lockups is back! Even in the BIOS

Using memtest, prime, furmark, whatever isnt helpful because they may pass on one day or fail on another. Temperatures are fine, PSU voltages (from the bios) seem fine. I am really stumped

Should I just RMA motherboard, CPU, PSU and RAM? It's all less than a year old.
 
You should try and narrow the problem down.

If you RMA all those part they'll just be returned to you if not faulty and you'll probably incur postage and testing charges.
 
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