I've had issues with my PC for a while now. Starting having lockups and bluescreens a few weeks ago. Nvidia driver was crashing etc. I removed the overclock from my PC and the problems went away, which was odd, but never thought much about it Anyway, PC has been fine, then, last night, it wouldn't boot, when it did, it was only for a few minutes before it bluescreened and re-booted, no overclock or anything applied. So started testing the RAM with memtest86 from an Ubuntu 9.10 disc, loads of errors coming up. So, I then tested each stick individually, no errors at all!!! This is what I do not understand, how can there be errors when both sticks are in, but not when they are on their own, has to be one of them causing the issue surely?! I did also try different slots for the RAM, same problems I've got a few more things to try this weekend, reset BIOS to defaults, check RAM voltages and timings are set correctly (changed these from mobo defaults when I was overclocking), so should be correct. Will post back in a few days, but just wanted to post in case this was something known maybe?! Cheers all
bump bit more info on this. Have ruled out the RAM, but my 2 sticks on another PC, it boots and works fine, going to run mem test to confirm The memory I took out of the other PC, I then tried in mine. It will still only boot with 1gb (1 stick) of RAM in. Hangs or BSOD at various points with 2 sticks in. I am assuming it is mobo or CPU, this PC has been running fine for 2 years now, so does work with 2gbs of RAM in BUT, this problem started with driver issues on my graphics card, kept hanging and Windows would pop a message up saying it had recovered from a driver problem, all pointing at my 8800GTX being the issue, managed to solve this at the time by removing my overclock, as I said above Maybe I answered my own question here, will have to try and find someone with a graphics card I can swap with and do some testing, will update when I find more!
Try installing the latest bios for your mobo. Do this with a flash stick in the bios, Not in windows. Also use driver sweeper to remove any old gpu drivers and then do a fresh install of the gpu driver Simon
thanks for the replies Not sure about overvolting, thing is, this PC has been running flawlessly for 2 years with this voltage, so giving it more juice shouldn't be required?! Did a driver re-install when these problems first started, can give that driver sweeper a go as well. I am pretty confident it isn't a Windows issue, it crashes, BSOD or freezes at various stages of boot, before the OS comes into the picture. Have also got the latest BIOS as of December 2009. Get the odd CMOS/BIOS error message, first screen that appears, for example: rv516 102-a92402-20 bios 600e/400n channel ab Very odd, not much else I can test now, grateful of any further suggestions
OK, tried a different PSU last night, same issues. Also un-plugged all cards, HDDs and optical drives, still locked up while I was in the BIOS. I need to check, but I think I have a C2Duo in another PC, had forgotten about that. So will swap those over at the weekend. I guess that will then tell me if it is mobo or CPU. If its mobo then it's new PC time If its CPU, then I can buy a new E6600 for about £50/£60 Does any one know of any bootable utils that run CPU diagnostics? A bit like the Dell diagnostics that ship on Dell PCs. Was working on a PC in work today and had the thought. Shame you can't run their utils on non-Dell PCs Thanks all
UBCD has a boatload of utils for just about everything. Vital bit of kit for any diagnosis. Whenever I build a computer for a friend I always give them a copy of UBCD, so if I have to do some tech support over the phone they can use that. Makes it so much easier.
landy have already swapped the RAM out completely, same issue. I have actually ran memtest from an Ubuntu live cd, gets errors when there are 2 gigs in, but these must be introduced elsewhere, deffo not the RAM Krikkit funnily enough, I downloaded the latest UBCD last week, was messing with fixing an MBR in work. Haven't really looked through the full list of utils it has though. Thanks for the reminder though (I seem to forget about useful stuff I have downloaded in the past!), will give that a wizz at the weekend
It has various prime utils and stuff, it's better for RAM testing than CPU. If I were a betting man I'd say you've got a dying mobo. That depends what voltages you were using on your overclock though, were you using a 45nm part?
I had just pushed the FSB up a bit. I have a C2D E6600 in an Asus P5n32-E, got it to about 3.10 GHz The only voltage I changed was the RAM and that was only to put it at what it should be, 2.1V, didn't over-volt anything Also set memory timings to 5-5-5-15, as they should have been Had this overclock for about 3 months before there started to be any issues Anyway, yesterday, I swapped out the CPU with the one in my media PC. Exactly the same issues as before and I confirmed that it worked OK when I took 1 of the RAM sticks out. So, as I have swapped out every component, looks like it has to be the MOBO, no idea what caused the damage, or if it was just "one of those things". I'm sure I will be back for component advice soon enough, going to wait until all this DX11 stuff has settled down I think. Thanks for all the help on this one guys
