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Tremendous Windows 7 Boot problems


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#1
Colorado7

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Dear users of this tech forum,

I am having great difficulties with my desktop computer lately. Even though I am a pretty tech savvy guy I have had huge problems which I haven't been able to fix lately. First of all, I've had this GPU problem with my Nvidia GTX 570. I posted the following on the Nvidia forums about a week ago, but the problem has been here for a few months.

The past 2-3 months I have had huge issues with my Geforce GTX 570 GPU. Sometimes when I play video games, mostly Dota 2 but also games like CS:GO and Rome 2 Total War, the screen will start getting artifacts after about 15-45 minutes within playing a game. Then the artifacts will spread out like crazy, and it is impossible for me to play on. But only a few seconds later, the PC will crash and lose connection with the monitor, so the monitor says no input. Then I will manually have to turn the PC off and on, and on reboot the computer will show artifacts during the loading screens, but return to normal once it reaches the desktop. Sometimes it will show a bluescreen instead of the lost monitor signal when it crashes, and it will automatically reboot. However, If I am really fast clicking CTRL ALT DEL and exit the game I am playing, I may be able to recover the computer from crashing and the artifacts will stop. But doing this the GPU clock and memory clock will fall about 60 %, illustrated by EVGA Precision X. This is also seen if I try to re-launch the game I was playing, it will have huge FPS lag. Usually I run Dota 2 with 100 FPS (but I use Vsync to keep it stable at 60), but after a recovery from an imminent crash I will just have 20-30 fps in Dota 2 and it is unplayable.

This computer has run perfectly up until these recent months. The artifact and crash thing happens randomly and sometimes it can happen several times a day for a week, while other times I can play for maybe 2 weeks without any interference. However it seems to occur more frequently if it already happened shortly, so its almost like it is in intervals. This may or may not be how it actually is, but it seems this way to me for some reason. I have tried and ready many guides and forum posts on this website, and others, but I have yet to get it to stop working. As of right now, this is what I have tried:

* Revert back to older drivers, including the 'savior' of all drivers for many, 314.22
* Set Power Management Mode to 'Prefer Maximum Performance'
* Physically remove dust from the GPU and CPU fan, as well as the cabinet altogether
* Increasing the voltage from 963 (min) to 1013 (max) in EVGA Precision X
* Overclocking the GPU (it has never been overclocked before, not even once)
* Monitoring heat and setting GPU fan at 85 % (max) constantly instead of auto
* Uninstall all Realtek drivers (as suggested by NVIDIA)

I have not tried the following, but ruled it out
* PSU not powerful enough? Same equipment used on this computer for 2 years with no problems until recently
* Memtest, check that RAM is OK? I have tried to remove 1 Ram unit and then swapping it with the other to test them this way, and computer worked fine (until game crashed)
* Overheating? Even with auto-fan the max heat I would get was 70 Celsius for the GPU during hardcore gaming, and then fan was not even max. When I toggled max fan I would get around 50-60 Celsius on the GPU.

The Artifacts and crashing occurs ONLY when I play newer games. It does not occur if I am just in desktop. However, as others have pointed out, I do believe there is a connection between flash use and computer artifacts and crashing. For instance if I have Chrome open with a lot of flash-based websites like Youtube, Facebook, Internet Radio and the likes combined with playing video games, it seems to me that the computer crashes much more often than if I just play the video game with everything else shut down. However, if I am not gaming the computer has not crashed even with 5-6 flash websites open.


Now I oredered a new GPU, R9 280X Toxic. It just arrived today and I was just about to try it out when this happened ....
Once I booted the computer after coming home today it would not boot properly, as it had crashed last night when I was playing video games, so I had to do a hard shut down that night to turn the computer off. Now the computer would simply not boot Windows 7 Ultimate Edition, even if I tried to start Windows normally or go to System Restore Options (I do believe that's what its called). So regardless of which option I choose it will go into System Restore Options. However, none of the options work in System Restore, it does not find any previous images of my desktop, nor can i use any of the tools available except command prompt.

Before I go on I should probably tell you what sort of computer I am running. It is a computer I built myself back in November 2011, so about exactly 2 years ago. All the parts were ordered from newegg and nothing has been changed in terms of parts since I built the computer. I am running RAID0 with 2 HDD.
RAM: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820145345
PSU: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817171053
HDD#1: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822148767
HDD#2: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822148701
MB: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813131647
CPU: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819103849
GPU: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814500215
DVD: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827151233

Apart from the random freezes and crashes with the GPU during video games as quoted from the NVIDIA forums above, I have not had any problems whatsoever until the boot problem as of today.

I tried to insert the Windows 7 install CD and I booted from it ... And it gave me 3 Windows Setup [EMS Enabled] and x64 Recovery [EMS Enabled], or Memory Test. Trying both the first ones gives me error 0xc00000e9, basically saying there is a problem with some hardware on my computer. Now I mentioned I was running RAID0, so I was guessing one of the hard drives had failed. Therefore I turned RAID0 off in the bios and in the RAID menu, and turned it back to ACHI so both my HDD's were independent, and I was hoping I would discover 1 faulty HDD and then just reinstall Windows 7 on the other. However this did not work, as with both HDD's running AHCI the Windows 7 disk still gave me error code 0xc00000e9. I then turned off the computer and tested each HDD separately by completely removing all cords to one HDD first, and then the other HDD second. Alas, I still got the same error code. The only other SATA unit I had connected was the DVD unit, but it was used to read the Windows 7 DVD and even if it was faulty, it probably would let me boot still, so I am ruling this out. Before you ask, I do not have any flash drives or anything else in the USB slots. It is just the keyboard, mouse, wireless adapter and my headphones which are connected to the USB, which they have been for 2 years without any problems.

What is strange to me, apart from all this mess, is the fact that in bios and in RAID control I could see both HDDs connected and it seemed everything was fine, even as I was experiementing with running AHCI and 1 and 1 HDD at a time.

At this point I am pretty desperate and clueless on what to do, so all help is very much appreciated. Thank you in advance for taking the courtesy out of your day to reading this, and please let me know any suggestions.
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#2
iammykyl

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Gday Colorado7, Posted Image/

I have not tried the following, but ruled it out
* PSU not powerful enough? Same equipment used on this computer for 2 years with no problems until recently


I would never just rule out the PSU, even a new one. Yours is 450w,2 years old, recommended 600w for your system, (I know, always over the top) but it could be getting tired, volts could be under on any output. Have you monitored the voltage?
I would try a known working PSU or get yours tested, under load, at a local computer repair shot, many will do it for free or a nominal fee.
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#3
Colorado7

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Gday Colorado7, Posted Image/

I have not tried the following, but ruled it out
* PSU not powerful enough? Same equipment used on this computer for 2 years with no problems until recently


I would never just rule out the PSU, even a new one. Yours is 450w,2 years old, recommended 600w for your system, (I know, always over the top) but it could be getting tired, volts could be under on any output. Have you monitored the voltage?
I would try a known working PSU or get yours tested, under load, at a local computer repair shot, many will do it for free or a nominal fee.

Hello iammykyl,

The PSU is actually 750 W and not 450 W. Should be more than enough even though it is 2 years old, dont you think?
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#4
iammykyl

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Gday.
Yes 750w is powerful enough but what brand? your link came up the GX 450w
Have you used a couple of programs to monitor the voltages? You can find them in the BIOS but the rig is in idle state.
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#5
Colorado7

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Morning.
It is a Corsair 750W, I must have given the wrong link. Anyway, I did some further testing in the mean time. I tried to format 1 of my laptop HDDs and install Windows 7 on it without doing any further installations or whatever. It booted fine on my laptop, so I was ready to test it on my desktop. However it would not boot properly, I could see the Windows 7 loading screen but then I would get super fast blue screen and my desktop would just reboot. And then it would load Windows 7 again, and crash and restart in a continuous loop. When I tried inserting the Windows 7 DVD I used to install to the latop HDD, it gave me the same 3 options it gave to my original HDDs yesterday. 1) Windows Setup (EHS enabled), 2) x64 Recovery (EHS enabled) and 3) Memory Test. When trying either option 1 or 2, it would still give me the exact problem I had yesterday, it gave me error message 0xc00000e9. This was the same as yesterday, but with my original HDDs. This leads me to believe the problem might be with the motherboard, or the processor.

Oh, and also, I tried to format both my desktop HDDs yesterday in bios, I forgot what the option was called. THen I tested each HDD separately, but still no luck.

Anyway, what do you think? How should I proceed from here. Im ruling out the hard drives, they should work fine (although I cant actually test them in another desktop or in one of my laptops).
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#6
Colorado7

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Another quick update.
I checkted the temperatures and the voltages in the BIOS quickly.
CPU 27 Celsius.
GPU 25 Celsius.
Vcore 1.284V
3.3, 5 and 12 volts monited were also shown. All values were correct within .1 of each value.

Im ruling out the PSU. As I said in my previous post, I believe it might me by CPU or my motherboard!
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#7
Colorado7

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Bump
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#8
iammykyl

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Gday.

All values were correct within .1 of each value.


1 what? please clarify.
PSU Voltage Tolerances > http://pcsupport.abo...e-tolerance.htm
Reviewed the topic,

Post #1,

I then turned off the computer and tested each HDD separately by completely removing all cords to one HDD first, and then the other HDD second.


Did you use a diagnostic tool )run as a bootable disc) > http://pcsupport.abo...p/tophddiag.htm if you just tried to boot windows from one disc, it would not work.
Post #5,

I tried to format 1 of my laptop HDDs and install Windows 7 on it without doing any further installations or whatever. It booted fine on my laptop,


Not sure on this, possible windows would seee the hardware on the laptop and configure generic drivers, when you move the HDD and boot, windows may detect different hardware, drivers not the same, boot failure.
You may be able to test the CPU with this tool, > http://www.intel.com...ls_procdiagtool
or as an ISO > http://www.tcsscreen...s/IPDT_LiveUSB/
Other possibles, Install any CPU that will fit the MB socket, then install Latest Puppy Linux ISO (i.e.: lupu-528.iso)
if successful, looks like a bad PSU. If a failure, looks like a bad MB.
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#9
Colorado7

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Gday.

All values were correct within .1 of each value.


1 what? please clarify.

Apparenyly my motherboard had Voltage meters to test the voltage on the motherboard, because in bios under information I would find what the Voltage should be and the actual voltage. There were 4 voltages levels shown, Vcore (Im not sure what this is) which was 1.284V, 3 Volt was actually 3.1, and 5 was 5.1, and 12 was 12.1.
Thats what I mean when the Voltage levels were very close (within .1 of what they should be).


PSU Voltage Tolerances > http://pcsupport.abo...e-tolerance.htm
Reviewed the topic,

Post #1,

I then turned off the computer and tested each HDD separately by completely removing all cords to one HDD first, and then the other HDD second.


Did you use a diagnostic tool )run as a bootable disc) >

I did not, but I will try the both HDDs independely at another desktop later today at a friends house.

http://pcsupport.abo...p/tophddiag.htm if you just tried to boot windows from one disc, it would not work.
Post #5,

I tried to format 1 of my laptop HDDs and install Windows 7 on it without doing any further installations or whatever. It booted fine on my laptop,


Not sure on this, possible windows would seee the hardware on the laptop and configure generic drivers, when you move the HDD and boot, windows may detect different hardware, drivers not the same, boot failure.

I doubt it, as I turned my computer off immideatly after it booted successfully, leaving no time to install drivers.

You may be able to test the CPU with this tool, > http://www.intel.com...ls_procdiagtool
or as an ISO > http://www.tcsscreen...s/IPDT_LiveUSB/
Other possibles, Install any CPU that will fit the MB socket, then install Latest Puppy Linux ISO (i.e.: lupu-528.iso)

Can I boot those programs from a CD or DVD, or even a flash drive? Dont forget I cant actually boot into windows to test and install anything.

if successful, looks like a bad PSU. If a failure, looks like a bad MB.


Edited by Colorado7, 09 November 2013 - 06:20 AM.

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#10
iammykyl

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Thanks for the update.

I tried to format 1 of my laptop HDDs and install Windows 7 on it without doing any further installations or whatever. It booted fine on my laptop,
Yes, would be OK as windows basic configuration is for the laptop, but,
"as I turned my computer off immideatly after it booted successfully, leaving no time to install drivers. "
It is the drivers and configuration of the windows installation I was referring to. It first detects the BIOS, then detects hardware and configures files to write to HDD. When you move the HDD to a different build, may or may not boot but will be unstable.




Can I boot those programs from a CD or DVD, or even a flash drive? Dont forget I cant actually boot into windows to test and install anything.


Yes, a burned ISO image is a complete package and is not dependant on any OS, best example is the actual windows installation CD.
That's why a suggest testing the CPU, and if it is OK, and the HDD test is OK as well, install Puppy Linux OS to test the MB.
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#11
Colorado7

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Ok, another update.
I havent replied in this thread because I actually ordered some new parts. The parts I ordered was
1) Sapphire Radeon 280x Toxic GPU
2) MSI Z77 Mpower MOBO
3) Intel i5-3750K CPU
4) Cooler Master Hyper 212 CPU Cooler
5) Samsung 840 EVO 250 GB SSD

But the 280x GPU did not fit in my case so I had to use the old GTX 570 GPU.
So, with a brand new mobo, cpu and ssd i went about to install windows 7. It started slowly, and I could choose language input etc before installation and I chose 64bit version of W7. The installation started until I got to "Extracting Files," and after about 5 - 10 minutes I got error code 0x8007017 basically saying a file is corrupted or missing.

Now all this was with a new Windows 7 DVD I used to test. Something which completely surprised me was when I put in the old Windows 7 DVD into my dekstop, which I had used to install Windows on my laptop's HDD just fine, it gave me the same error as before. Remember I said in some posts above that it would give me 3 options. I quote myself from some posts ago:

1) Windows Setup (EHS enabled), 2) x64 Recovery (EHS enabled) and 3) Memory Test. When trying either option 1 or 2, it would still give me the exact problem I had yesterday, it gave me error message 0xc00000e9.


Now this 0xc00000e9 is different than what I got from the new Win7 DVD. With the old DVD, I could not enter setup, with the new DVD I can enter setup but it will give me another error when it is actually trying to install Win7. This may seem like a broken DVD tray, but I don't think so. By the way I also tried with the new SATA cables just to make sure that was not the problem. The reason I dont think there is a problem with the DVD tray is because it seems to read the DVDs just fine.

Just to refresh, I am running these old parts:
750 W Corsair PSU - This PSU has run every piece of hardware and it doesnt seem like a PSU problem, but could it be?
2x 4GB Corsair RAM - I ran memtest off of the old Win7 DVD and it ran for 5 hours without any problems, but could it still be faulty? By the way I also ran with 1 and 1 piece of Ram at the time.
Samsung DVD burner - It seems to read all my Win7 DVDs fine, but could it be the cause?

The thing that is really bothering me is the fact that I cant figure out which piece of hardware is causing the problem.

Please help, Im getting desperate.


Edit1: Forgot to say tomorrow I will buy a 4 or 8 GB Ram Flash Drive to try to install Win7 that way, thus bypassing the DVD burner which could be malfunctioning.

Edited by Colorado7, 15 November 2013 - 12:35 PM.

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#12
iammykyl

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Gday.
Thanks for the update. With all that new hardware, I think we should try to eliminate the Optical Drive being faulty first.
"The error 0x80070017 translates to "CRC Error" which means that the files that are being copied from the disk are not making it to the hard drive with the same structure, meaning that the "original" files on the disk are being modified/changed/corrupted while being copied to the "destination" location on your hard drive during the install." Source Microsoft.


Providing the MSI BIOS allows booting from USB? I propose
1. Copying the windows CD to USB, and try a install, With the following hardware, SSD only, RAM, GPU. monitor.
> http://technet.micro...ing-a-usb-stick If OK, looks like the Optical Drive is faulty and I would not use it to install from MB disc.

NB, Just realized the rest is probable unnecessary.
2. using Puppy Linux Live, (or you may prefer something different) 1 copy on a CD, the other on USB.
Try install from USB first, if OK. Change order of boot to Optical Drive.
Use the first steps on the Window install disc to format the SSD.
Try installing Puppy from the CD.
Instructions on Post #28. Bit long I'm afraid as meant for anyone to follow.
> http://www.geekstogo...hd/page__st__15
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#13
Colorado7

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Update:
I got Win7 installed through your suggestion with the USB and creating a bootable USB! Finally. Although it seems the artifacts problem listed in post 1 is not yet gone... Guess Ill have to buy a new GPU
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#14
iammykyl

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Gday.
First bit, great news, second bit!!!!

You said you bought a Radeon 280x Toxic but would not go in the case, you could try it on a bench test. Are you still using the 570?

I would bench the GPU with Valley Benchmark, posted up by Phillpower2. It really is good, enables consistent test with three pre-set modes, or configure your own.
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#15
Colorado7

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Okay, yet another update! After I was succesful installing Win7 from a USB, and sent back the 280x Toxic, I went to a local store and bought a Gigabyte 770 GTX which fit in my case. This system has been running for the last 2 weeks.

But I still have more problems I cant solve. Now the problem is that when I play games my screen will just go grey and I cant see anything. Sometimes I can hear applications running (if I am running games or anything), so the PC is still on and techincally I guess it didn't crash. Theres nothing I can do when my screen turns grey, except hold the power button and then reboot the PC that way. In the event viewer, I can see that the error it gives is Kernel-Power 41. It happens rather frequently, about every third day on average, but when it happens it usually happens many times that day. Usually it happens when I am gaming (Dota 2 or Rome 2 Total War), and it has just crashed 1 time while I was on the desktop whereas it has crahsed like 20 times while gaming.

I have tried the following:
- Update the GPU driver to the latest
- Monited heat (GPU and CPU), both are very low (50 Celsius or lower).
- Run Reg Cure Pro to fix registry.
- Downclock the GPU to the lowest values possible, as I am pretty sure it is factory OC'ed.

Just to mention this quickly - the only old parts from my 'old' computer were the DVD burner, Corsair 750 W PSU and 2x4GB Corsair RAM. That's why I am suspecting one of these three parts to possibly be the issue.

Thanks for still helping me, I would be lost without you iammykyl!

Edited by Colorado7, 27 November 2013 - 06:31 PM.

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