So I finished my first build and my computer crashses a lot. It's not just windows, it's everything. I've had flash, games for windows live, steam, chrome, games that i play, and even norton anti virus crash on me. Windows even crashes when installing two important updates. Its not a heat problem, my cpu never gets over 60C on full load. I haven't overclocked it. I've ran multiple RAM tests, they pass every time. I've reinstalled windows, that didn't help. I have no clue what is causing these problems. I've looked all over the internet but decided this would be the best place to get help with my problem. My build is as follows:
MOBO: Ascrock z77 Extreme4
CPU: Intel 3570k
Ram: Crucial Ballistix 8gb(2x4) 1600ddr3
PSU: Thermaltake 750w 80 plus bronze
GPU: MSI Twin Frozr R7850 900MHz
CPU Cooler: thermaltake FRI Advance
Storage: OCZ agility 3 128gb ssd
OS: Windows 7 64 bit home premium
I have no clue whats the problem, since its my first build I hope its not me screwing up something. I'm positive that i did everything right. Any help would be very appreciated.
your cpu shoud not even come clsoe to 60c thats a but high.. check your heatsink see if its loose should be a snug fit that dosent move at all if the temp does get high your computer can turn itself off
Well first to help you solve your problem we need to know what kind of crashes you are getting is it a BSOD is it just a random reboot from the mobo. And i recommend removing norton completely since it is a MAJOR resource hog and will slow your pc down temendously PLUS it throws a lot of false positives it sux to be honest never use it if you could post crash reports we could help you determine what is causing the crashes and help you fix it
well first off when booting windows press F8 and select disable automatic restart on system failure that will allow you to see the BSOD and not just Dump the memory and reboot also when reboot after the reboot it should give u a dialog that says windows just recovered from a serious error on top of that you can also find the mini dmp which is actually the report windows gens when u do BSOD
So i downloaded whocrashed and this is what i got:
On Sat 8/25/2012 10:04:44 PM GMT your computer crashed crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp This was probably caused by the following module: win32k.sys (win32k!memset+0x26E0) Bugcheck code: 0x3B (0xC0000005, 0xFFFFF96000108070, 0xFFFFF8800B5D2DF0, 0x0) Error: SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION file path: C:\Windows\system32\win32k.sys product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System company: Microsoft Corporation description: Multi-User Win32 Driver Bug check description: This indicates that an exception happened while executing a routine that transitions from non-privileged code to privileged code. This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem. The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system which cannot be identified at this time.
and the other type is:
On Sat 8/25/2012 7:33:34 AM GMT your computer crashed crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\082512-14336-01.dmp This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F1C0) Bugcheck code: 0x50 (0xFFFFF8A4101ACD00, 0x0, 0xFFFFF880057CA84F, 0x5) Error: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System company: Microsoft Corporation description: NT Kernel & System Bug check description: This indicates that invalid system memory has been referenced. This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem. The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
There are 6 bsod crashes total, although most just reboot the computer without a bsod.
I actually had the same issue, mine had usually a garbage display or reboot without BSOD.
Did the same tests as you, tested the RAM (Memtest) and passed; reinstalled windows; stressed tested the crap out of my CPU (basically system as whole) and had those garbage display/reboot without BSOD. So I thought it was a CPU or Mobo prob...
But when I decided to test the RAM per stick, that's when I found the cause (or so I think), 1 really bad RAM stick. I even borrowed my friend's set of RAM and ran Prime 95 without any crash whatsoever, when putting my set, not even a min, it crashed upon Prime 95.
When testing the RAM, did you test each one of them or simultaneously? Cos when I tested simultaneously in Memtest, they passed, but caused crashes when tested together (or tested with that one bad RAM) at Prime 95...
From what i can see, both of the BSODs are from driver failure. The random reboots are caused by overheating of the CPU, so try reseating the heatsink and make sure its fastened properly. That should help the random reboots. As for driver failure, im seeing a recurring pattern with AsRock drivers going bad and restarting computers. Reset your CMOS on the motherboard and uninstall all the drivers for the mobo with all USB devices (excluding mouse and keyboard) removed. Use the BIOS to update the drivers, go into windows to check if they installed correctly, then install any missing drivers. Hopefully this will fix the problem completely, but i am seeing people returning that board for a better one. (Faulty parts/Bad design) The rest of the computer seems to be fine though, so maybe just RMA-ing the board as a return is your best bet and getting either an ASUS or MSI board instead.
I just noticed we have the same mobo... so it may be one in a million if it were yet another RAM related problem (but pls do test them one at a time).
Double check the RAM timings in the BIOS and the voltage... some people reported that that mobo doesnt load the XMP profile automatically. So timings might not be set right. And after doing that they reported loss of crashes
What is the marketted voltage for that set of RAM? If it is one of those low voltage ones (<1.5v), some used the G. Skill snipers which were marketted at 1.25v, after raising it to 1.3-1.4v, the crashes also stopped.
Also I took off the heatsink and reapplied thermal paste and the temps are much better. No more reboots withought BSOD. I did notice that two cores get hotter than the other two. Is this usual or should i reapplie thermal paste?
Its not recommended, but you can take off the heat spreader off the physical CPU (Very sharp razor blade will do nice), then you can clean off the thermal paste and glue from the core's assembly. Make sure you do not scratch into the PCB as the tracers are very high. Cut along the very top part of the heat spreader to avoid that. Apply new thermal paste to the core, put the heat spreader back on. mount to socket (use the pressure from the socket arm to firmly lock the spreader in place, make sure it stays straight so you dont have thermal paste from the cooler assembly leaking to the core. Use a non-diamond thermal paste on the core side, and use the diamond type paste above the spreader to achieve the best cooling possible with this repair. all the cores should now be about the same tempurature. give or take 1-2C. if you feel really skillful, you can re-glue the heat spreader back onto the PCB where the core is located, but make sure you keep it correctly oriented or you wont be able to put the cpu back in correctly. this also should drop your temps another 5-8C. This will allow for a bigger overclock too. Re-test and adjust for the new max of your CPU and enjoy.
As for the driver issue, uninstall ALL of the drivers from windows, then do the same with the BIOS. Reset your CMOS. Then install the drivers through the BIOS first, then install them back in windows. All should be working well again.
I think i may have found the issue. When i open up device manager there are two devices which i can't get drivers for no matter what i do. One is Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller and the other is an unkown device. I think its these two things that are causing my problems. Any help would be very appreciated.