Whats gone wrong in my system

ZZZAC · 28 Sep 2011 at 20:21

Right, at about 8 oclock i got back from a fairly stressful day... i power on my pc, open Google chrome and the whole thing freezes i switch it of by the psu and back on, and then it mentions "overclock failed" although i was running on stock speeds at stock voltage. So, i did the instinctive thing and tryed getting it working... so i am now at a fairly unstable 3333mhz as apose to the stock phenom 720's stock speed, with a vcore of 1.48v.
This is stable under windows, but if i attempt to run prime 95 for a moment it will b e fine then just instantly freeze (no bsod, fans still running everything still on the screen)
My asus motherboard has had countless problems recently (raid drivers not working atall... onboard sound not working.ect)
So what's the more likely problem my phenom BE 720 x3 or my asus motherboard, its driving me mad, not what i really wanted to see when i come home
(was working fine the night before, today its all of a sudden not)

ZZZAC · 28 Sep 2011 at 20:29

now got it running prime, surprisingly the hotest part of my system is my motherboard chip-sets, so i believe the problem relates to several oter stupid problems im having with this board.

ZZZAC · 28 Sep 2011 at 20:34

Plec said:
What's your full spec?

But for now run memtest on your memory.

will do,
ill spec in a moment but my ram hasnt cause me issue yet.... (fingers crossed)
cosair xms3 ddr3 1600mhz is my ram

ZZZAC · 28 Sep 2011 at 20:38

spec
Asus m4a88t-v evo usb3 motherboard
amd phenom 720be x3 cpu
ati saphire 5830 gpu
icute 850watt psu (sounds crappy but read all the voltages and all running correct)

ZZZAC · 28 Sep 2011 at 20:39

Plec said:
note my edit in the above post - check that your memory is running at 1600MHz, 9 9 9 24, command rate 2T and at 1.65V (although it can run at lesser voltages). If it has failed due to memory it may have defaulted to 1333MHz settings - and you need to test it at 1600MHz settings.

may have done but at first i was a 1600mhz when it failed, my motherboard atuo detects voltages and timeing when i set it to 1600mhz and have double check there spot on

ZZZAC · 28 Sep 2011 at 20:44

Plec said:
It's not a great PSU - but if it's functioning on all the limited cylinders it's got it should should be OK. How old is it?

From the rest of your spec the memory is a solid place to start - had the memory's value reset?

yeah all memory values correct psu is only been used about 2 months and my otherboard was second hand

ZZZAC · 28 Sep 2011 at 20:52

Plec said:
Oddly enough the fact that it's so new and you've just started encountering problems make the PSU more suspicious (probably coincidence - but its a generic PSU so will always be a consideration).

As above, have you experienced any other anomalies lately?

yes i have every so often after being stable for a while i get a bsod or a random glitch lockup but with a fiddle of the cpu settings its back to stable.
But i am almost certain its not the psu as it only happens after a long time on a game maxxing the cpu, i am still nearly certain its the motherboard or cpu

ZZZAC · 28 Sep 2011 at 21:02

Plec said:
Quick check:

Is the BIOS upto date and have you added any other hardware/components to the rig since the PSU?

the whole rig has seen about 2 months use but had problems since day 1 that's why i believe its the motherboard, as other than the b grade cpu its the only second hand part. and im sorry but i cant run memtest over night (what memtest shall i use) because of my noisy raptors and cathodes i wont sleep, but i can run it for 6 hours straight if not longer while im at school tommorow.
the strange thing is now its running fine :s

ZZZAC · 28 Sep 2011 at 21:20

Plec said:
You can unplug the HDDs if you want as memtest runs from a bootable ISO (make the DVD drive the first bootable device) - but you may as well run it later tomorrow.

Download the bootable ISO from -here - scroll down the page for downloads.

would it make a difference if i used my windows disk for memtest? as im pretty sure it has memtest on it

ZZZAC · 28 Sep 2011 at 21:43

Plec said:
Yes, as there's a 'slim' possibilty you may have a virus or windows related problem.

Plus, memtest runs from a bootable ISO and as such is a very simple program and wont have any (possibly) dodgy drivers to negotiate while it runs.

no im saying boot it from my windows iso go into windows repair and select memtest not run it through the os. anyway im not going to bother untill it next has a spas... the motherboard is on the list of things to replace soon anyway

ZZZAC · 29 Sep 2011 at 18:38

Orcvader said:
Don't use the memtest in Windows repair. Use the memtest from this site: http://www.memtest.org/

Another ZZZAC thread . You really have been having a lot of problems with this build haven't you?

you could say, but the main thing is its partly working properly most of the time, witch speeds my life up as i don't like waiting for a pentium 4 to struggle with simple tasks like loading web pages.
I knew from the day my 720 arrived my motherboard was so nearly dead :/