[Fallen_Milkman]

First off, PC Specs:

HEC, Orion HP 585D 585W Power Supply
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3
AMD Phenom™ II X4 965 Quad-Core 3.4GHz
KINGSTON 8GB (4 x 2GB) PC3-8500 DDR3 1066MHz
SAPPHIRE Radeon™ HD 5770 850MHz, 1GB GDDR5
SAMSUNG 1TB SpinPoint F3, SATA 3 Gb/s, 7200-RPM, 32MB Cache


So I get the machine delivered on Friday. That night I slap in my Windows 7 x64 Ultimate cd, load it in, and start installing the drivers that came with the systemboard. Everything is going great. I installed Sapphire drivers from the CD. Great. Load some basic software (Office, Nero, Avast AV, Malwarebytes, etc...) nothing fancy. Run it through Windows Updates, everything seems golden.

Figure while I am at it, I'll update the graphics card drivers to the latest (10.12). Reboot after and it seems to run ok. I go to load up World of Warcraft and at about 1% the system hangs. No BSOD, just hangs. I reset the box and try again, same thing.

I figure it may have been the graphics driver so I remove it and put on 10.10. This seems ok, the game install completes but the system freezes right after. I pull the video driver and associated software off and reboot. Try to install from the CD, system locks up. Reboot, system locks up on the desktop after a short time.

During all this I did get one BSOD with a 1E stop code, no driver listed. Any time I try to install the video driver (from the CD or version I downloaded) the system just freezes.

I am also noticing the system taking a long time to POST between some of the reboots. Sometime it comes right up, others I have to leave it off for a minute. So last night before bed I threw in Memtest to check the RAM. This morning before work I checked it and after 9 hours there were 0 errors. I let it go while i am at work today and will check in on it again when I get home.

While at work i downloaded all the updated drivers for the systemboard. i figure when i get home I'll format and try again to see if it helps.

Anyone have other suggestions before i wipe this clean and start over?

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Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option), and make the CD bootable.

NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, unfortunately, you're out of luck, because Toshiba doesn't provide any diagnostic tool.

Thanks to Broni for the instructions

[rshaffer61]

Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option), and make the CD bootable.

NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, unfortunately, you're out of luck, because Toshiba doesn't provide any diagnostic tool.

Thanks to Broni for the instructions

[Fallen_Milkman]

Thanks for the reply. I downloaded the Disk utilities for Samsung disks and will run them tonight.

Any other suggestions?

[rshaffer61]

Take out the video card and try the onboard.
Does it boot ok then?

[greenman19]

Sounds exactly the same as my problem. Please let me know if you manage to fix it.

[rshaffer61]

Greenman19 does your mobo have built on video?
If so follow my instructions from post 4

[greenman19]

It's a laptop, opening it up would void the warranty.

[rshaffer61]

No way to remove video then. Your topic is not the same as this one as this is a desktop system.

[Fallen_Milkman]

Sorry for the log delay. Was waiting to hear back from the company before posting.

So I tried quite a few things here. Pulled the video card and let it run off the on-board, the system locked up.

I ran Memtest for 19 hours, no issues found. Granted not a full 24 hour run but almost 6 passes.

I ran 3 passes of Samsung's disk diagnostics through, no issues found.

Did a low level format of the drive, reloaded the OS, still locks up.

I disabled all but the primary core on the CPU, still locks up.

Reset the BIOS to default. Went to set the memory settings int he BIOS and it locks up in the BIOS.

At this point I got an RMA and sent the unit back. Few days later I call and they tell me that there was a band RAM stick. I find it odd but I have seen stranger things happen. My new question is.....a system locking up in the BIOS, can this be caused by bad RAM? Or it is more indicative of a systemboard failure?

[rshaffer61]

I would say it is more a mobo problem and not a memory issue.