Newbuild startup problems

ricsksname

ricsksname

ricsksname

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1 May 2011
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15
Hey guys, just finished building my new PC. All went together very easily and quickly. But now I'm having a bloody annoying problem.

I installed windows, started to install drivers without issue, but after a few restarts the computer started getting stuck on the windows start-up screen, or the welcome screen. Occasionally I might get to the desktop, but probably only about 1 in 5 times.

I can provide hardware details if this will help when I get home from work. Is this a familiar issue?
 
If you can list full specs that would help.

Also are you overclocked? Run mem test to check your memory for any possible errors.
 
Getting stuck (the windows icons moving around), or frozen (graphics stalled)? Do you get the startup sound playing? Can be anything, but starting in safe mode should at least work.

Could be a software issue. Worth looking at the event log in the administrative tools. Can be a failed update. Should be able to start in safe mode (with network if you want to get stuff off the internet). Could be a dodgy program at startup (malware).

Could be a hardware issue. Possibly sound (my machine had unstable sound not so long ago that would stop all sound output and lock programs).

Look into the device manager for any driver or hardware conflicts.
 
It's getting stuck, nothing actually freezes. I can hear the CPU just stop working and thats how it stays.

No clock speeds have been changed yet. Everything is as purchased.

Hardware specs:

Case: Fractal Design Define R3 Midi Tower Case - Titanium Grey

Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 650W V2 High Performance Power Supply

Motherboard: Asus P67 Sabertooth Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION **

Processor: Intel Core i7-2600 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor

Graphics Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560Ti SUPER OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM

Optical Drive: Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM

CPU Fan: Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler
 
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I briefly had another crack at this last night. The computer booted up fine about 5 or 6 times, then the problems arose again.

Could it be that my CPU cooler is having an impact on this? This is the first time I have used thermal paste, and I managed a pretty messy job of it. The CPU is very quickly running at about 45c, which seems high to me. Hopefully this isn't the issue. It would be a right pain in the arse to remount that thing!
 
Try pressing F8 as the rig boots. choose safe mode, if you can consitantly boot into safe mode it's most likely a driver issue. A reinstall of windows would be my suggestion especially as it's a new build so you cant have that much data on there.
 
Ok, the computer will not boot reliably in safe mode either. It's as if the CPU is just stalling for 10-15 seconds every few minutes. Even on the desktop. This must be interfering with start up, too.
 
Still no luck here. The drivers don't seem be affecting anything. Sometimes the computer will turn itself off/on about 3 times when I restart it. I'm installing the W7 client from a USB stick. Could a corrupt client perhaps be causing these problems?
 
Well, I thought I'd solved the problem just by ignoring the drivers that came on the mobo disk, downloading them instead. The computer no longer stalls at startup.

So I download a game to try out the new rig and what happens? As soon as I try to change any graphics settings, the game crashes entirely. Think I'm starting to remember why I swore never to build my own PC again!
 
It was suggested that you run a mem test...have u done this?

You could also try manually settings the RAM timings incase the bios made a hash of it. Might be worth checking if there is a new BIOS update too. See if it adds any features or fixes problems...if it seems worth the effort.....do it.
 
I did run a mem test, it showed no errors.

I'll try updating the bios now, but it's looking like I may need another reformat to do it, anything I now try to install crashes before it even begins.
 
It's generally inadvisable to update the bios through the OS especially if it's not stable. I would well imagine your mobo can be updated throught the bios itself. Have a flick through the manual first.

It maybe worth trying a reinstall of windows seing as the RAM looks ok. Could well be a driver issue or corrupt files on the HDD.
 
Thanks for the continuing help, guys.

I've updated the bios to the latest version with no improvement. I'm now back on my old box downloading a new windows client to try. Failing that I really am stumped. I've re-installed windows numerous times and the same issues keep arising.

Could it be that the SATA port I have connected the HDD to could make a difference? It's connected to one of the grey sata 6g ports (SATA6G_E1/E2). Though I thought this would be correct.

I'm starting to wonder if there is a hardware problem with my HDD, as RiskyRix mentioned.
 
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