[Vaillant]

Ok, first off, system specs are in my signature.

So, here goes. I've recently been experienceing BSOD's,and now much more recently BIOS POST problems.
System was overclocked, and I ran stress tests to prove stability.

So our air conditionning unit is broken right now, so I pushed up my case fans to medium instead of low, and immediately my problems started. the very next day, my sound driver went corrupt and the system was BSODing all the time. I re-imaged the PC with a ghost image (image is proven stable, everything works like a charm. And if you doubt me, I work as level 1 tech support in the canadian federal government as a coop term, so I know my stuff. I can firmly say its a hardware problem)

After re-imaging the system, it appeared to run smoothly for 2 weeks, untill once again, BSODs arrise. And after recieving 2 BSODs, the BIOS had trouble POSTing. one, continuous beep. The beep code, unless my source is mistaken, says that there is faulty RAM.

I removed my first stick and moved up the other. In addition, I unplugged all devices except human interface. And lowered the fans back to low.

Given my PSU is a 485watt, and the heat, and all the high-end components in my machine, I cannot be sure wether its a RAM or PSU problem. I believe that if the problem lies with either one of them, its either that my PSU isnt powerfull enough for my rig, or that the RAM stick went bad. In which case, I dont understand why I ran smoothly for another 2 weeks, and why the BIOS POST problem was only intermittant.

Please advise : is my PSU powerfull enough. Can it be faulty ram. Any known issues with this kind of setup ?

Thank you.

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From yore description it sounds 2 me like the PSU to me. When you raised the speed of the fans it started to make the trouble.
It is possible that the it is ware and tear of the PSU. J
Just taking out the RAM won't help diagnose the ram to do that u need to take out all ram sticks and run memtest for about 2 hr on each stick to tell if one faulty.

[vally]

From yore description it sounds 2 me like the PSU to me. When you raised the speed of the fans it started to make the trouble.
It is possible that the it is ware and tear of the PSU. J
Just taking out the RAM won't help diagnose the ram to do that u need to take out all ram sticks and run memtest for about 2 hr on each stick to tell if one faulty.

[Vaillant]

Yes, I'm aware of that, but thx vally. I've gone through a further number of steps scince I posted this last night. I flashed the bios to the newest version, I re-inserted the 2nd stick of ram back into its original place successfully. Ran orthos blend test all night (8hours) successfully. Now running orthos in large ttf mode (its to really get at the RAM harder)

my RAM appears good, but I'll still go one-up and do memtest tonight.

[vally]

Good luck;

Curious question, when u made the image of yore pc till what level did u install the software. I mean there is the basics win,office,AV but u add programs pretty "often" what about favorites ....

[Vaillant]

My backup scheme goes as follows :

I create "base" images every so often once I've dealt with a big problem that came up or alot of software changes were made, and differencial backups every, or every Other week.

So to answer your question, yes all my software is installed. I load up this base image, and I'm almost entirely good to go.

But prior to declaring it a base image, I run tests, and I try to make it f--- up as much as I can, I work out all the dings and bumps in the system.

This image was working just fine at the time it was made... so contrary to what you're implying, that its the image thats doing something bad, it isnt... I would stake my cat on it.

[vally]

I was not implying at all that the image was the problem.
Actually I was thinking of makeing one myself for basicly the same use. In thae past I only kept the basic image. I was sceptic about how "good" it is to "update" it.

Seeing your problem I think it would b a good idea concedering that I formated my work pc a few weeks ago cause of a problem and shure enough I think I may have f---- it up.

[Vaillant]

oh, okay lol
yeah for sure, I used to do like you too, untill I had to restore from my original image a month ago, cause of unrelated problems, after setting myself all up again, I got this idea. I kept the original image, and have my new base image now.