[scoobnut]

I hope someone can help with this.

 

My son recently built his "dream pc" only his dream is now a nightmare.

 

Random crashes, freezing during boot up, Lan suddenly stops working, graphics driver updates cause crashing. This is his first build but my forth and all parts came from Amazon.uk.

 

Here's what he's got...

 

Intel 4670k 3.4 gig processor.

 

Gigabyte G1 Sniper Z87 motherboard.

 

Crucial ballistix1600 ram (8GIG)

 

Nvidia windforce 770 graphics card (2GIG)

 

2 x western digital hard drives (2 + 4 TB)

 

Crucial 240 SSD.

 

Corsair 850 modular Power unit

 

Genuine Windows 7 home premium 64bit.

 

Its so random that we can't even say why what or when except freezing during bootup seems common. Its been re - formatted 6 times in the nearly three months he's had it. Who crashed reports a driver conflict but can't say what.

 

Checked ram and its good.

 

Tried running verify driver which caused the thing to crash and yet another wipe and clean install.

 

Installing windows is difficult as it cannot install drivers during installation as it can't find the Lan. We have to install Lan driver from set up disc or flash then either let the pc install drivers from disc or online (either way will cause instability)

 

Honestly...I suspected a driver issue but now I'm not so sure so thought I would ask you guys.

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

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Zip up and post some of the minidumps here, I'd like to see what they point to as a failure cause.

 

How often do the problems occur?

Do they occur if you boot to Safe Mode with Networking?

Try removing half the ram and run for a while. If the problem still occurs, swap the ram and test some more.

A memory test like Memtext86 is good but not nearly as stressful as running Windows.

 

Do you have another video card you could try in place of the Nvidia windforce 770?

 

Are you overclocking? If so, stop and see what happens.

[Ztruker]

Zip up and post some of the minidumps here, I'd like to see what they point to as a failure cause.

 

How often do the problems occur?

Do they occur if you boot to Safe Mode with Networking?

Try removing half the ram and run for a while. If the problem still occurs, swap the ram and test some more.

A memory test like Memtext86 is good but not nearly as stressful as running Windows.

 

Do you have another video card you could try in place of the Nvidia windforce 770?

 

Are you overclocking? If so, stop and see what happens.

[scoobnut]

Hi there and thank you for your help.
 
Its not overclocked and we tried running it on a Nivdia 460gt and the problem persisted. 
 
At the moment he's got no internet (Lan failed again) so its a system restore to see if it sorts it. If not he's going to reformat.
 
We'll do as you suggested with the ram and let you know. 
 
He can play games like Dark souls for hours with no problems  but has randomly crashed at other times. The main problem is during boot up as it will suddenly hang and he has to restart the system perhaps two or three times before it actually starts. Just now it blue screened twice during boot and then once after he got on. Getting the dumps and bringing them to me he found the pc had crashed when he went back. Losing Lan is common and he also has a problem with sound suddenly hitting high volume and distorting which searching Google is apparently common with this motherboard.
 
Here's the dumps you asked for.

Attached Files

•  Dumps.zip   1.11MB   165 downloads

[phillpower2]

    scoobnut

 

Is the Ram 1 X 8GB stick or 2 X 4GB sticks, post a link to the specific Ram if you can please

Can you also tell us which slot/s that the Ram is populating on the MB.

Have you tried removing the add on video card and using the MBs video port, if yes was the issue the same.

What type of Windows 7 media is being used for the installation and from where was it obtained.

 

As an asides scoobnut, the MB gets terrible reviews in the US at Newegg, see here

 

3 out of 4 dumps viewed mention memory management and the fourth indirectly with EXCEPTION_CODE: (NTSTATUS) 0xc0000005 - The instruction at "0x%08lx" referenced memory at "0x%08lx". The memory could not be "%s".

[scoobnut]

This is the ram he has using slots 1 and 2 as his MB manual states. http://www.amazon.co...3?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Must admit using the onboard graphics didn't come to mind. When he's finished testing the ram and if nothing shows up we'll try that next. 

 

Windows 7 home premium 64bit (genuine) from overclockers.uk which worked fine in my pc. Gave it to him when I got my new pc.

 

It's odd the poor reviews as he researched the parts for weeks before buying and the Sniper got great reviews in the UK, ignoring the sound issue.

 

Not sure if this helps but he tried Linex once and he never had a single crash, of course he couldn't install most of his drivers as they weren't compatible.

[Ztruker]

The dumps are all over the place. I looked at 10 of them across the date spread and they pointed to:

 

DisplayFusion
WerFault.exe
dwm.exe
lsass.exe
ntkrnlpa.exe

 

Try removing half the memory then run for awhile and see if it fails. If yes, swap the installed/removed ram and test again. It would not be the first time new ram was defective.

[iammykyl]

Gday.   Some thoughts.

From the specs.

2 x western digital hard drives (2 + 4 TB)

Was AHCI selected?

Are they in a RAID 0?

Were they formates GPT, or MBR attempted?

[phillpower2]

This is the ram he has using slots 1 and 2 as his MB manual states. http://www.amazon.co...3?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Must admit using the onboard graphics didn't come to mind. When he's finished testing the ram and if nothing shows up we'll try that next. 

 

Windows 7 home premium 64bit (genuine) from overclockers.uk which worked fine in my pc. Gave it to him when I got my new pc.

 

It's odd the poor reviews as he researched the parts for weeks before buying and the Sniper got great reviews in the UK, ignoring the sound issue.

 

Not sure if this helps but he tried Linex once and he never had a single crash, of course he couldn't install most of his drivers as they weren't compatible.

 

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.

 

BTW, keep in mind that the add on video card also uses memory in the form of VRam.

 

In addition;

Uninstall Bit Defender using the procedure here

Download and install Avast (free) from here

[scoobnut]

The computer crashed again before we had even attempted to test the ram. 

 

System restore and safe mode were unavailable so we had to re-install windows (yet again). 

 

Removed the first stick of ram. 

 

You say to remove bit defender, why. Only using it as my AVG refused to install after the second clean windows install. 

 

AHCI, GPT,  MBR? ...sorry but my knowledge is still in the learning phase (the last PC I built was a basic duel core).

 

Both his HDD's are independent and are used for storage only as he uses the SSD for Windows. Tried running windows from a HDD but that made no difference.  

 

Going to give the first stick another day or so then switch to the second, if they run fine we'll remove the Graphics card and run on on-board as suggested. 

 

Will keep you posted.

[iammykyl]

 

 

AHCI, GPT,  MBR? ...sorry but my knowledge is still in the learning phase 

We can see that info, if you do the following.

Click start, click Run, > copy the bolded text and paste in the box, diskmgmt.msc > click OK, a window will open > go full screen, then take a screenshot and upload with your next reply. 

 

When you installed the OS to the SSD, did you disconnect the 2 HDDs?

[phillpower2]

In addition to what iammykyl has suggested above;

 

Is Safe Mode with Networking available now.

 

Bitdefender can be problematic whereas Avast (free) and MSE (free) both have a proven track record for both protection and stability, if it doesn't resolve the issue you can always reverse the procedure.

 

Can I ask, did you also try installing AVG (yuk) with the present Windows installation.

[donetao]

AVG(Yuk)!

[sukiblr]

Could be he has installed multiple AV versions i have seen systems slow down or crash because of this.. or could be the mobo is not compatible...which mobo is this? Biostar or Asus?