[OptimusPrim]

Hey,

This is my first post so dont get angry if i make any noob errors

I recently built my own pc and spent alot of money/time researching and building it. I have had a few problems during the boot sequence and also during the start-up of windows.
The problems that SOMETIMES happen are:

1)Black screen after the welcome to windows screen
2)After windows loads the processor % goes way up and the computer freezes
3)iexplore.exe can sometimes stop working (I use firefox) this causes the whole desktop to go blank apart from the background.

I have tried malwarebytes and bullguard to scan for any problems and nothing has come up.

Any ideas if this my be a hardware installation problem or a software problem??

As i said above these are porblems that only occur some of the time which is whats confusing me

Thanks in advance,
Optimus

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Hi OptimusPrim, Welcome to Geekstogo! Sorry for the delay, your problems seem troublesome, I read this topic the other day but I was waaaaay to busy and tired to reply.

Can you please provide me with detailed specs of your PC? I need to confirm that the components you are using are compatible and are supported by one another. Model number for the motherboard please.

My initial thoughts are suspecting a bad hard drive. So lets test that first.

How to test your hard drive:

• Go HERE
• In part 2, click the link for your brand of
  hard drive, (i.e. Western Digital, Seagate, etc.)
• Depending on the brand, you will create bootable floppy disk, or bootable CD.
• If the download is an .iso file type, I recommend
  using BurnCDCC to burn the .iso file to a CD.
• Once BurnCDCC is installed, open the program, browse to
  the .iso file, and open it to the program.
• Click start/burn, you will be prompted to insert your CD, Click OK.
• Once burned, set the BIOS boot priority to CD ROM first, Hard Drive second
• Insert CD, and save and exit the BIOS usually by pressing F10
• Follow onscreen instructions to perform an Extended Test

Please Note: Toshiba does not offer a hard drive diagnostic utility, you are out of luck.

Let me know how it goes.

Edited by Ferrari, 10 April 2010 - 09:52 AM.

[Ferrari]

Hi OptimusPrim, Welcome to Geekstogo! Sorry for the delay, your problems seem troublesome, I read this topic the other day but I was waaaaay to busy and tired to reply.

Can you please provide me with detailed specs of your PC? I need to confirm that the components you are using are compatible and are supported by one another. Model number for the motherboard please.

My initial thoughts are suspecting a bad hard drive. So lets test that first.

How to test your hard drive:

• Go HERE
• In part 2, click the link for your brand of
  hard drive, (i.e. Western Digital, Seagate, etc.)
• Depending on the brand, you will create bootable floppy disk, or bootable CD.
• If the download is an .iso file type, I recommend
  using BurnCDCC to burn the .iso file to a CD.
• Once BurnCDCC is installed, open the program, browse to
  the .iso file, and open it to the program.
• Click start/burn, you will be prompted to insert your CD, Click OK.
• Once burned, set the BIOS boot priority to CD ROM first, Hard Drive second
• Insert CD, and save and exit the BIOS usually by pressing F10
• Follow onscreen instructions to perform an Extended Test

Please Note: Toshiba does not offer a hard drive diagnostic utility, you are out of luck.

Let me know how it goes.

Edited by Ferrari, 10 April 2010 - 09:52 AM.

[rshaffer61]

Hey guys just sticking my 2 pennies worth here.
Has this been happening since the beginning since you said this is a new build?
Unless you have a doinked OS installation I would think the issue is hardware.
Ferrari is very good at assisting and I believe he is on the right track with checking HD first. Memory would be my next step there buddy.

[OptimusPrim]

Hey,

Thanks so much for your quick replys i will try this tomorrow first thing and get back to you asap.

My system specs are:

Mobo - Max Asus Rampage II Extreme Intel X58 (90-MIB6L0-G0EAY00Z)
RAM - Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC3-12800C9
HD - Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA-II (WD5001AALS)

If you need anything else let me know.

Regards,
Optimus

[OptimusPrim]

Hi Guys,

Ok...
A quick update on the status of the HD.
I burnt the cd and ran the test for my HD and got back this:

---DRQ Timeout---

I checked on the WD website and this is what i got back:

"Timeout from checking Data ReQuest Timeout (DRQ) bit. The drive has not responded back in the time allotted. This may be due to a defect with the drive or a bad connection. Check cable & retest. Replace the drive if the error repeats."

Since playing around with where my HD connects to my MoBo i have not had any problems but when i run the test i still get this error.
Is this the end for my HD?
If so I was thinking of replacing it with a SSD drive for my OS and getting another HD for media!
Do you think this is a good idea?

Thanks again for taking the time to help

Regards,
Optimus

[Ferrari]

Yeah, I would say the HD is having problems and should be replaced. Especially when Western Digital's site says to replace it when you get this error.

An SSD for your Main and a HDD for storage is a great way to go.

I'd recommend you back up all your data as soon as possible because your current drive could go out at any moment.