I recently swapped my 3770 for a 3770K with another forum member. Swap was easy, and PC booted up no issues, but I've not used it for a while due to real life commitments. However, today I've started having some serious instability problems. Sat down to play some Planetside 2 and the PC decides it wants to restart with zero warning at random. The first time it happened I got an ASUS Surge Protection notice on the restart, otherwise it simply just restarts in to Windows. What can I do regarding troubleshooting? Any particular programme for monitoring voltages and temps? In fact, what is normal for this CPU? I'm not running an overclock. EDIT: Event Viewer is showing 3 critical events in the last hour. Specifically: Event ID: 41, Source:Kernel-Power, Log: System EDIT 2: Just had another idling at desktop, again power surge notification
For overall computer temperatures I quite like hwmonitor: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
The event ID 41 is an unexpected shutdown. Real temp Gt is what I use to monitor temperatures. That would be my first port of call. Some things that I would try would be to run the pc out of the case with only the cpu and ram and OS disk to make sure that there is no short circuit anywhere. Give the board a blow down with some air as well in case there is something lodged where it shouldn't be Also the power supply could be another contender.
CPU cooler is a H80. I'm going to pull the system apart tomorrow and run it outside of the case as suggested, and then see what happens.
Ran Prime95 for about 2 minutes before the system crashed on me. CPU was at 100%, temperatures stable at a maximum of 58C, so I don't think this is a cooling issue. Hoping this isn't the PSU - though if it is, Corsair's AX units are pretty well guaranteed.
Might be worth reseating any connections you might have disturbed Cei, 8 pin CPU power connector e.t.c
CPU pins? Yeah, I'll have a looksee. Can't see any bent pins. Have re-installed the CPU with a fresh application of MX-4 thermal compound and will see how it goes, along with re-seating the motherboard power cables. Next step is a strip-down :/ EDIT: Crashed half way through Heaven bench. Temps were no problem. No power surge notification. Upon restarting, it then cycled four times before successfully booting. Does the lack of power surge message indicate it probably isn't the PSU? Still crashing when just in Chrome on desktop as well.
Test cpu before you bother shipping a pricey psu around. Also bios etc all upto date and been cleared/reset? Had a pita issue with a poxy FX system recently where the bios thought it would make up its own vcore values on the fly which led to issues very similar to yours.
Could well be a duff CPU, i would hope not :/, could of been clocked to hell and back. Worth seeing if you can get hold of a cpu to try.
If your system was 100% stable before you changed the CPU, and now its not then its likely the cpu at fault. you should check the cpu itself for bent or missing pins. Check for any sign of damage, Cracks ect. cpu would not reset unless it hit 100c for the record. Most people run the chip mensioned at 90c + when overclocking hard anyway. Not really sure how it could be anything but a CPU issue as if the system was 100% Stable before the change then logic suggests the cpu is at fault. The only thing id make sure is your bios settings are reset to default after you installed this cpu as some bios tend to use wierd defaults. I would also consider updating the bios that you have as well as that would basically remove it from the list of things it could be.
Hmm. I know that it's probably in no way related but my Asus board throws a spazzy sometimes. It won't boot even with a really lame overclock applied. I don't know what causes it or what fixes it but my PC will be as unstable as yours. Eventually it 'settles down' and I'm OK to overclock again. I would do as advised ; clear your cmos. I would then, however, go to "Load optimised defaults" and try from there..
Hm, I only have a 4670K available, which obviously won't fit. Would a cheap Intel (ie: Pentium S1155) do the same job, or do I need to find another i5/i7? Alternative would be to send it to somebody else who is willing to put it in their rig. BIOS has been recent and cleared to default. The only change I then make is to set the DRAM speed to 1600Mhz as it defaults to 1333Mhz. Everything else is left on Auto, with no over clock. I'll photograph the CPU when I pull the system apart tomorrow night, but I had a look yesterday and there was nothing out of the ordinary. My ASUS board was 100% stable on the non-K CPU for months and months, having never ever played up in any way. I'm not trying to overclock either - but I'll try the loading optimised defaults.