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I feel this may be a simple problem, yet I am going to give a very detailed summary. Due to not being able to find help anywhere else.
I bought a PC from Vigorgaming.com and it worked quite well for a while. Soon enough the following problems occured.
1. I am an avid WoW player who raids weekly. In most of these raids after a given period my computer will freeze and if sound is currently coming from my speakers it will start to loop. The screen will either go black, or drop into a million little square blocks of the last image scrambled.
2. Tying into problem #1, I will have to hard boot my computer. Here is the kicker! It will start to power up again, literally 5 seconds in (with nothing on the monitor) it will SHUT OFF. With out me touching it, it will power back on for about 5 more seconds. Then off again…/rinse /repeat
- The only way to fix this is to turn off the master switch on the power supply, take out one stick of ram, power back on.
- Mostly it happens with both sticks of RAM in, rarely it will have the same problem with just a single stick. (in which I have to put in the second in order to reboot)My first thought awhile ago was the Video card...so I replaced it (problem continued) and a few other things. Here is a list of what was replaced and is now currently in my tower.
-ALL NEW-
ATI Radeon 4870 vid card
Creative Fatal1ty X-Fi soundcard
Two sticks of 2GB Corsair RAM
Gigabyte Motherboard
Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W Power supply
Asus Triton 78 CPU heatsink/coolerThe things I have NOT replaced...and am now fed up enough to do so are the follow:
-Two 250GB hardrives
-Intel Duo Core E6750 @ 2.66 GHz ProcessorIf you are still reading this, then here is some additional information that may help.
-I find that temperature can be part of it, i.e. I have an external fan blowing into the side of my open case. Keeping all temperatures below 50C. Yet if I leave that fan off…the same problems happen, just sooner then later.
-It only crashes under moderate to high load.
-I ran Orthos (pushes system to see if it can handle it) for 12 hrs with 0 problems. I then opened up two temperature programs and then began Orthos again. It crashed after 26 seconds. (then started the auto restart crap)
-Some times I can run days or weeks without any problems, others I can go 2 min.Please post with any questions about my system and I will gladly find the information.
You have stated that it makes a difference when you remove a stick of RAM.
RAM defects / faults can make your pc behave in the most curious ways sometimes.
I would run memtest overnight (the longer you let it run the more indepth the scan) with one stick of RAM in then run a second overnight scan with the other (one at a time if you have more then 2).
I found it is easiest to download the bootable ISO, burn and let your pc boot from it.
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I have had the exact same problem with two completely different sets of ram. Two diff companies, same problem presists.
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Did you test the RAM with memtest86 or memtest86+ to confirm it's good? Did you manually configure the RAM settings in the BIOS or are the settings on AUTO? I believe your Corsair is supposed to run at 1.9v? If the settings are on AUTO, it *may* be defaulting to 1.8v.
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This is a shot in the dark for me. I'm sure jam is able to say whether this may be a cause.
If you haven't set RAM timings / OC'ed your pc is there a chance that you have a faulty RAM slot on the motherboard?
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I ran Memtest86+, 2 passes clear.
The ram states it is 2.1V, and is running as such. One thing I did notice was during the Memtest, it read as 5-7-7-22, yet on the RAM stick itself says 5-5-5-15. I have no clue what these numbers represent. Can this be an issue? Also, should I try to change the voltage to the ram?
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Also, can anyone tell me WHAT would cause a computer to chain restart only 5 seconds in? What controls this mechanism?
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How where you able to run memtest if you system supposedly restarts all the time? 5-7-7-22 is "looser" than 5-5-5-15 so if anything, it lessens the chance of the RAM being a problem. Make sure to manually set the RAM voltage at 2.1v...do not use AUTO. Also, if you're not overclocking & you're running the CPU at 1333MHz FSB, the RAM should be set to run at 667MHz, regardless of it's default speed.
When you installed the Asus HSF, did you use a thermal pad or paste? If you used paste, you should have put a thin line down the center of the CPU & it has to be oriented correctly. Use these instructions as a guide:
http://www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/app...
Extreme overkill on the power supply. It's a good unit but considering your specs, you could have easily gotten away with a decent 500-600W unit with a single high amperage +12v rail & saved over $300.
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In my BIOS, I have the option to turn my voltages to Manual or Auto. When turned off of Auto, I go to the RAM and the only option is to increase it over "normal", it does NOT state what it currently is set to. It does allow me to increase it by incremints of .05V.
The problem is prior to the intallation of the new Heatsink.
I am just reposting this because I think if we can figure this out, we can figure out the rest.
"Also, can anyone tell me WHAT would cause a computer to chain restart only 5 seconds in? What controls this mechanism?"Also, i know the powersupply is overkill, but once i fix these problems I want to upgrade a few other things that will require a large jump in power. ie Crossfire and liquid cooling. But thats well in the future.
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I agree with btk1w1 100% that RAM slots can be a problem. A few years ago, I had the same exact problems with a laptop. It would freeze. If an MP3 or something was playing, the sound would stutter when it froze, the picture would sometimes become distorted, sometimes it wouldn't boot, sometimes 1 or 2 days would go by without a problem, other times it would freeze all the time. Memtest came up with no errors. After trying my best to figure out what was wrong for 2 months, I got desperate. When the laptop was on, I opened the RAM cover, and just pressed on the RAM stick so that it would go down under my light pressure (I don't recommend doing this). Guess what happened when I did that? The laptop froze again. I changed the stick to slot B and the laptop still works today. I don't know for sure if it'll work, but maybe you should try one of the sticks in the second slot instead of the first. Some motherboards won't boot with that configuration, but I've seen some do it. It's a shot in the dark.
Power supplies can also cause those problems, but since you've got a good brand with alot of power, I doubt it in this case, although I could be wrong.
Letting Memtest run through 2 passes is not enough. I diagnosed a bad RAM stick before, but I had to run Memtest for over 13 hours before it was detected.
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 ATI RADEON X300SE .. need...
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Gaming PC out of this?
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