PC Crashing - Graphics Dying?

Vulcan

Vulcan

Vulcan

Soldato
Joined
15 Jan 2004
Posts
10,208
I'm trying to figure out what is crashing my computer.

It doesn't crash to blue screen, but just freezes to the point where I have to reboot. Occasionally it will freeze for 5 seconds, come back, but the cursor will be stuck on whatever cursor I was using when it froze, for example the pointer, or selector icon. At this point I usually try logging off but as soon as it does log off, the screen goes blank and I have to restart.

So far it's only doing it when I'm on the desktop, it's never crashed whilst playing games.

I'm guessing it could either be:

- Dying graphics card
- Graphics drivers (However I have uninstalled and re-installed my graphic drivers multiple times.)
- Power issue

My System:

Asrock Z68 Ext3 Gen3 - Latest BIOS
i5 3570k @ 4.2
Corsair Vegence
Gigabyte GTX 460
Corsair HX 520W power
Windows 7 SP1
 
in CPU-Z, pull up the SPD tab that shows XMP profiles. That'll tell you RAM timings and voltage.

Go in the BIOS and make sure the timings and voltage match whichever profile you want to be running at... e.g. 1333 or 1600 probably.

If you still have problems, or that's already correct:

Try to eliminate dodgy ram sticks by removing all-but-1 stick.
 
Did you do a clean install of windows when you replaced the CPU and motherboard, my bet would be its that causing the issue, possibly something left from your old motherboard that's causing issues, I'd always reinstall windows when changing a motherboard as it's such a big hardware change.
 
Made sure the RAM was correct in the BIOS, also set the CPU stuff to auto to remove the overclock, did a very quick memory test, but didn't remove any of the sticks, and it's still happening.

wildman_33 - No I didn't perform a clean install, I was hoping I wouldn't have to.
 
Try the onboard GPU (and pull the card temporarily)? If you the problem continues with the onboard you've at least ruled out a GPU issue.

Process of elimination, but would be a pretty easy place to start.
 
Trying the onboard gpu would be a good shout but I really think its because you have changed your motherboard and not done a clean install. What was your old motherboard/CPU. The only way I could see it not being that would be if the old board used a similar chipset. It doesn't take too long to do a clean install anyway these days. Just back up all your programs games music etc and put in windows disk, format OS drive and install windows and then put all your old stuff back on.
 
Formatted and haven't had a crash since, so you're right, it was a driver conflict from not formatting. Glad it's not the hardware.

Many thanks.
 
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