Prime Stable yet Random Crashes

Martynt74

Martynt74

Martynt74

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20 Feb 2004
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Hondon de las Nieves, Spain
I built my stepson a pc about 6 months ago using the following

I3 540 (Stock Cooler)
Asus P7H55
Sapphire 5830 (ithink)
WD Caviar Blue 500gb HD
Windows 7 HP
450W Powercool PSU

It was all working fine yet about a month ago it started to crash and reset itself. I suspected overheating or a dodgy PSU. It was failing to boot into Windows so i re-installed Windows and all went fine. I then ran Prime overnight and kept an eye on temperatures and voltages. Temps hit around 68C max but i didnt consider these to be high enough to cause problems.

Voltages seemed to be fairly stable aswell and didn't wobble more than 10%.

I'm not sure if its just a software thing that he keeps installing and causing the breaks (he's 14 so probably installs loads of crap/downloads)

Anyone got any suggestions?
 
I would run the latest memtest form a bootable ISO overnight - link - to either rule out/in the memory (the tyoe of problem your having can is often memory related).

Also, reset the CMOS and load optimised defaults and then configure the memory settings manually, the save and exit. (ideally run memtest after this).

If the memory is OK - sometimes a quick CMOS reset and BIOS re-setup can cure random issues.
 
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If you are getting voltage fluctuations as big as 10% that could be your problem. Generally, voltages are required to be within 5%.

Good PSU's will generally perform within 2-3%.
 
Agreed i know its cheap and could easily be the cause of the problems. I just thought that since Prime for about 48hrs doesnt cause it to crash its unlikely to be a PSU issue.

As a note i've also disabled Windows to reset on crashes so it will BSOD and hopefully give an idea of the cause. Although its not crashed since i set that on Sunday!
 
Marvt74 said:
Agreed i know its cheap and could easily be the cause of the problems. I just thought that since Prime for about 48hrs doesnt cause it to crash its unlikely to be a PSU issue.
Click to expand...

Unfortuantaly, being prime stable doesn't guarantee a stable system for everyday usage.

I missed the 10% fluctuations in my first post - as alreadys mentioned 5% is the tolerence.

I would still run the memory tests - but these may be compromised if your PSU isn't supplying a steady voltgage, but if it manages 6hrs of memtest you could at least rule out the memory and swap out the PSU knowing that it's most likely the root of all your problems.
 
Ok well I changed the PSU to a 550w Antec PSU.

All seemed to be fine again and the. Problems started again. Currently running memtest so will see how that goes.

One thing I've noticed is that when I took the gfx card out and connected the hdmi to the onboard gfx then the colours were a bit corrupt. Blacks showing as green etc. could it be the motherboard causing the resets?
 
Well i ran memtest overnight and its currently flying through the Intel Burn test (set to maximum ram and stress level.

I've left the number of threads on Auto as wasn't too sure on that one.

Its annoying as any "Stress Tests" seem to run through fine but then during general use it just seems to crash randomly.
 
Well it spent all night running memtest. Then it took a fair few hours running the intel burn test with 4 threads using the CPU at 100% and ~90% of the memory. Think it did 100 tests of that and all was fine.

Then tried watching something on 4od and it crashed!
 
Try running furmark - monitor temps etc.

Are all the drivers up to date - gfx, chipset, sound, controllers, hdd etc?

If nothing presents itself and considering the steps you've already taken, you may have to strip down the rig and run a skeleton setup - and then add a single component at a time until it buckles.
 
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Interestingly I ran furmark and it went after a couple minutes.

Annoyingly the onboard seems bust because white is showing as a bit pink and black is green. Perhaps if the old psu was faulty it took both with it.

All drivers are up to date as I used drivereasy to check everything.
 
Unfortunately not. All I could try is the gfx card in another pc. Although that's my home server and I don't really want to mess with it!
 
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