[TedTLogan]

I know a little about computers but have not owned one since xp. I very recently traded in my ps3 blu rays games and laptop to buy a second hand pc to play GW2 (guild wars 2). I have since spent 3 full days trying to get the pc to work. Most of what i'll be asking in this post will be speculation with the limited knowledge i have and im hoping someone could clear a few things up for me or even solve the problem im having! This would really help as the second hand shop i got it from doesnt have another pc like this in stock and i cant get my stuff back. Honestly im not too bothered i never used it anyway and i could warranty it for something else i just really want to play GW2!

The last 3 days have been agony as everything seems fine including in stress tests but when i play games it freezes every 5 minutes then starts working again. Here is a video i posted on youtube of the problem happening. Notice the text disappearing, it starts to slow up, sound starts to go, then freeze completely. If watch till the end of video you see that it all comes back again then this repeats every 5 min or so.



Here is my spec

AMD phenom II x6 1055t 2.8GHz
Nvidia GTX 460 2gb
3 x 2gb ddr3 1333mhz ram
asrock m3a ucc motherboard
windows 7

Here is a run down of things I have tried to no avail. Also it was a fresh install of windows.

- underclocking the cpu
- overclocking the cpu
- changing different settings on the cpu to see if it makes a difference like "turbo" setting or "cool and quiet" setting basically any setting i could that didn't look too important or i didnt understand
- turning off cores of my cpu
- turning of each individual core to see if any weren't working
- taking out each individual stick of ram
- trying ram on different bus
- reinstalling drivers for gpu
- trying multiple beta drivers for gpu
- underclocking the gpu
- replacing gpu same problem persists (it was replaced with another identical gtx 460)
- running game from different HDD
- trying a different psu
- stress test the cpu was fine for 1 hour
- stress test gpu again fine for 45min
- mem test passed
- changing the multiplier on my ram (someone suggested it might not be in sync with my cpu)
- and finally reinstalling windows for the second time in 3 days but still same problem persists

The pc runs fine for browsing and general use and games are silky smooth with high graphics setting until about 5 mins in then it crashes. If i play a HD video this causes the same bug but after a longer period of time than GW2 and it gets resolved quicker. Also if i play SC2 (star craft 2) it crashes quicker which i believe is more gpu heavy than GW2. This makes me think it is a compatibility issue between the gpu and the motherboard maybe and to try a different card? Its hard to tell though because i have run a resource monitor while it bugs and the cpu will be at %100 but the gpu seemed much less stressed. Is it something to do with my cpu? Also most of the forums ive read point me towards the cpu or ram when this bug happens.

Something else i found interesting was i turned off a setting in the bios called thermal throttle which stops the cpu overheating by capping the cpu speed. When i did this i no longer recieved the same crash instead i recieved this error message

"the instruction at 0x000000007727357B referenced memory at 0x0000000072A9000C. The required data was not placed into memory because of an I/O error status of 0x000000e."

any ideas? I googled it but nothing i read seemed to be the same problem im having before the error

also it blue screened once and i downloaded blue screen viewer to try to tell me what the problem was. After looking i thought maybe its a corrupt system file but a reinstall of windows did nothing

this is what the two red highlighted dump files said


==================================================
Dump File : 091112-27125-01.dmp
Crash Time : 11/09/2012 20:29:24
Bug Check String : KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR
Bug Check Code : 0x0000007a
Parameter 1 : fffff6fc`40007158
Parameter 2 : ffffffff`c00000c0
Parameter 3 : 00000000`b06a5860
Parameter 4 : fffff880`00e2b000
Caused By Driver : volmgrx.sys
Caused By Address : volmgrx.sys+1000
File Description :
Product Name :
Company :
File Version :
Processor : x64
Crash Address : ntoskrnl.exe+7f1c0
Stack Address 1 :
Stack Address 2 :
Stack Address 3 :
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\Minidump\091112-27125-01.dmp
Processors Count : 4
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7601
Dump File Size : 266,320
==================================================


==================================================
Filename : ntoskrnl.exe
Address In Stack : ntoskrnl.exe+ec542
From Address : fffff800`02c07000
To Address : fffff800`031ef000
Size : 0x005e8000
Time Stamp : 0x4fa390f3
Time String : 04/05/2012 09:18:59
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
File Description : NT Kernel & System
File Version : 6.1.7601.17835 (win7sp1_gdr.120503-2030)
Company : Microsoft Corporation
Full Path : C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
==================================================

thanks for reading looking foward to some fresh ideas!

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TedTLogan
Can I ask what type of Windows 7 disk you are using, how many passes of Memtest did you do and did you test two sticks of Ram at a time as you should.

Couple of suggestions for you;
Try a clean boot http://support.micro.../929135#method1
Run SFC http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833
Restore the MB to the factory defaults in the BIOS or by removing the CMOS battery, see attachment below;
Run Video Memory Stress Test http://www.technibbl...ry-stress-test/
Do a physical test of the Ram, see guide below;

How to physically test your Ram.

The following checks require the computer case to be opened so take the following safety precautions 1st, disconnect the power cord from the wall socket and take anti static precautions before touching anything inside, you can do this by touching a bare metal part of the case.

Have a pencil and notepad to hand.
Remove each stick of Ram and blow out the memory slots.
Insert the first stick of Ram in memory slot one, reconnect the power and in the case of a desktop computer the video to screen cable.
Power up the computer and see how it goes.
Make a note of the results.
Repeat the procedure until the first stick of Ram has been tested in each memory slot and the results written down.
Remove the first stick of Ram and put it to one side on top of a piece of paper with the number one on it for identification purposes.
Repeat the procedure with all Ram until each stick has been tested in all slots, the results written down and the sticks identified numerically.
Please note that some MBs (motherboards) will not boot unless there is Ram in slot one so please check your motherboard manual.
I note that you have swapped the HDD and this is why I am suggesting that the following is done last out of the above;

Go to Start and then to Run
Type in Chkdsk /r Note the space between k and /
Click Enter ...It will probably ask if you want to do this on the next reboot...click Y

If the window doesn't shutdown on its own then reboot the system manually. On reboot the system will start the chkdsk operation
This one will take longer then chkdsk /f

Note... there are 5 stages...
It may appear to hang at a certain percent for a hour or more or even back up and go over the same area...this is normal...
DO NOT SHUT YOUR COMPUTER DOWN WHILE CHKDSK IS RUNNING OR YOU CAN HAVE SEVERE PROBLEMS
This can take several hours to complete.
When completed it will boot the system back into windows.

Let us know how each test goes please.

[phillpower2]

TedTLogan
Can I ask what type of Windows 7 disk you are using, how many passes of Memtest did you do and did you test two sticks of Ram at a time as you should.

Couple of suggestions for you;
Try a clean boot http://support.micro.../929135#method1
Run SFC http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833
Restore the MB to the factory defaults in the BIOS or by removing the CMOS battery, see attachment below;
Run Video Memory Stress Test http://www.technibbl...ry-stress-test/
Do a physical test of the Ram, see guide below;

How to physically test your Ram.

The following checks require the computer case to be opened so take the following safety precautions 1st, disconnect the power cord from the wall socket and take anti static precautions before touching anything inside, you can do this by touching a bare metal part of the case.

Have a pencil and notepad to hand.
Remove each stick of Ram and blow out the memory slots.
Insert the first stick of Ram in memory slot one, reconnect the power and in the case of a desktop computer the video to screen cable.
Power up the computer and see how it goes.
Make a note of the results.
Repeat the procedure until the first stick of Ram has been tested in each memory slot and the results written down.
Remove the first stick of Ram and put it to one side on top of a piece of paper with the number one on it for identification purposes.
Repeat the procedure with all Ram until each stick has been tested in all slots, the results written down and the sticks identified numerically.
Please note that some MBs (motherboards) will not boot unless there is Ram in slot one so please check your motherboard manual.
I note that you have swapped the HDD and this is why I am suggesting that the following is done last out of the above;

Go to Start and then to Run
Type in Chkdsk /r Note the space between k and /
Click Enter ...It will probably ask if you want to do this on the next reboot...click Y

If the window doesn't shutdown on its own then reboot the system manually. On reboot the system will start the chkdsk operation
This one will take longer then chkdsk /f

Note... there are 5 stages...
It may appear to hang at a certain percent for a hour or more or even back up and go over the same area...this is normal...
DO NOT SHUT YOUR COMPUTER DOWN WHILE CHKDSK IS RUNNING OR YOU CAN HAVE SEVERE PROBLEMS
This can take several hours to complete.
When completed it will boot the system back into windows.

Let us know how each test goes please.