Jump to content

I need help... Im confused.


Recommended Posts

For a while now Ive been having problems with my computer. At first all it would freeze up and I would have to reboot it this was annoying but I figured it was a driver issue, so I updated all my drivers and everything was good for a little while but then it started doing it again (note this isnt the main problem Im facing I just feel that its related, although Im not sure). A short while after it started happening again I came home from work one day only to find that my pc didnt want to boot up properly.... what I mean is that when I booted my computer it would only register one of my three monitors and the resolution was messed up and I couldnt view my taskbar or anything other than the shrunken wallpaper.... so I went to restart my computer but when I booted it the second time I couldnt even see the login screen although I could still type in my password and when I did so it would load into windows but once again the resolution was messed up and what not.... so I shut my computer down and cleared the cmos (this was the only thing I could think of doing) after doing this windows loaded properly again although my computer seemed to be lagging a lot. I say lagging because i dont know how else to describe it, it says Im using 5%cpu ussage and 4gb out of 16gb of ram, so I know the cpu isnt overloading yet everything I do has a serious delay.

 

I have defragged all my hard drives, Ive ran error scans on them and what not and they have all come back saying that my hard drives are fine. So Ive come the conclusion that its either my cpu, motherboard or graphics cards (possibly ram but I dont think so).

 

Can anyone help me at all here? Am I right in assuming its one of those parts? My computer pasts post (obviously), I just don't know what else it could be. I should probably note that I thought it would be a good idea to install all the windows updates that windows has been bugging me to do for a while now (I turned off automatic updates...)

 

Sorry for the wall of text ><

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'd also say run a stress test and see

^ +1

Run Memtest and then Prime95 or OCCT if Memtest passes. If all those pass put it through a couple rounds of Heaven, Vantage or 3DMark. Point here is to try and determine if a serious stress test can reproduce the error. Hardware specs would be nice and give us a little more to go on.

 

Motherboard

CPU

Memory

Video Card (and how many)

Power Supply (very important)

 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I ran MemTest for about 20min and everything came back fine from that. I'm about to go out so Ill leave prime95 running whilst Im gone. If when I get back my computer has crashed from it then I will run memtest again for a hour or more to see if it crashes from that if not, otherwise Ill start running 3d mark... my specs are as follow, CPU: Intel core i7 930 2.9ghz (I had it overclocked to 3.8ghz without touching the ram frequencies or any of the voltages but a few months ago the hot swap bay connectors in my case (corsair obsidian) broke and they shorted one of my hard drives and in the commotion I reinstalled windows and for some reason it reverted my overclock back to 2.9ghz so I don't know if something happened to my cpu when this happened or not)

 

Motherboard: EVGA classified x58 1st gen

Ram: 12gb Corsair Dominator CMG4GX3M2A2000C8 2000mhz 8-8-8-24

Video cards: 2 x EVGA 480gtx's not in sli

Powersupply: Enermax Revolution85+ 1200watt (its a overkill but I was young and foolish once upon a time... now Im older and still foolish) (A little while ago I had to get the powersupply replaced because it kept tripping the surge shutoff thing (cant remember the proper name at this point and can't find the manual for the correct name) so one again I don't know if that caused any problems in my computer because everything else seemed to be working fine after I got it replaced)

 

 

I seem to be using brackets a lot in this thread... as well as ellipsis'

Edited by Sworn_Vendetta

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

make sure you run Test #5 in memtest..... just running the as default random test may not uncover any errors...

 

sadly im only using the free version of memtest and can only run one kind of test... as for prime95 it yielded no issuses either. ALTHOUGH!!! I think I found the problem, everytime I try to run 3DMark Vantage on any level (i.e performance, extreme, e.t.c) it will start doing the whole, checking system thing and then my computer just freezes after a short while and i have to reboot it. So I think it might be the video card/s. Once again though I am unsure if its 3DMark causing the problem or if it really is my video card/s. Well Ill look at my 3DMark settings and give it one more go. If the results change Ill post about it if not then Ill just wait for a response from someone who is smarter than me (that means anyone who responds to me :P)...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

You have to run Memtest test#5.

From your point of description, it surely looks like RAM problem.

About the version of memtest etc, google will always help you to get proper version & your solution. ;)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

You have to run Memtest test#5.

From your point of description, it surely looks like RAM problem.

About the version of memtest etc, google will always help you to get proper version & your solution. ;)

 

So I found memtest86+ and booted it off my flash drive I couldnt run test#5 so I just let it do its own thing and it seemed to run through like 7 or 8 tests (I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to it I was busy reading Narnia the silver chair)... ran the test for an hour and it said I had 160, 512errors to 1pass.... I figured this isnt good at all

 

heres and image of it so you can see it... note I took this picture after it had restarted the test which I didnt realise it would do. Also sorry for poor quality

post-65537-0-22344300-1339665512_thumb.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Nope, that's not good. And one word of advice for future pc endeavors. Before installing Windows always revert your BIOS back to default or optimized default settings - manually. Set the appropriate boot order, save, reboot and then install Windows (many of us even run Memtest for a few hours before proceeding with an install).

 

I always run Memtest overnight or for 6-8 hours if running the full test sequence (or until I see failures). Unless you specify a specific test number to run, you really need to let it run for an extended period of time to hammer deep into the memory subsystem.

 

You don't want to hear this, but now you are going to have to isolate which one (or more than one) memory module might be bad. Make sure you have the latest BIOS revision for your motherboard. Do a full CMOS clear, including pulling the motherboard battery. Remove all but one memory module and put it in the dimm slot specified for single stick, single channel operation. Boot into BIOS and load default values, then manually set your four primary memory timings and memory voltage per manufacturer specs. Save, exit and boot into Memtest and run test #5 for 20-30 minutes. If that passes, you can either add another stick and test two modules, or swap the known good module with another one and retest. Wash, rinse repeat etc. until you find out which module(s) are bad.

 

One thing I did notice on your Memtest screen shot is that your memory isn't tweaked to the proper settings. Memtest reports you are running at DDR3 1061Mhz with timings of 8-8-8-19. But in your specs. you list your memory as Corsair 12Gb DDR3 2000 memory. Maybe even before testing individual memory sticks you should consider running just 6Gb and start from there. I'm assuming that you're memory is factory spec'd to run at 1.65v but I'll bet that your BIOS has vdimm set to 1.5v - you should double check that. If you choose to go this route, uninstall all but 6Gb of memory. Make sure it's installed in the correct DIMM slots. Perform BIOS check and clear as I noted earlier. This time when you get into BIOS load the XMP profile. Boot and run Memtest.

 

My best guess, it that when running 12Gb of memory you need to be shooting for a final memory frequency somewhere between DDR3 1600 and 1800Mhz at 1.65v using timings of 8-8-8-24 with a 2T command rate.

 

It would probably be really helpful if you posted up all of your BIOS settings shown in the Frequency/Voltage control portion of your BIOS.

 

You can find the option for choosing the XMP profile in your bios here > Frequency/Voltage Control > Memory SPD > Select XMP Profile 1

Edited by wevsspot
  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

 

You don't want to hear this, but now you are going to have to isolate which one (or more than one) memory module might be bad.

 

 

This is ALWAYS fun. You know you have a error but on which stick ?!?.. This is where 12gb of memory sucks.

 

The best way to do this is to run each stick for a few hours at a time.

 

But maybe i missed this as well but, it could also me a slot on your MB. :-/

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Nope, that's not good. And one word of advice for future pc endeavors. Before installing Windows always revert your BIOS back to default or optimized default settings - manually. Set the appropriate boot order, save, reboot and then install Windows (many of us even run Memtest for a few hours before proceeding with an install).

 

I always run Memtest overnight or for 6-8 hours if running the full test sequence (or until I see failures). Unless you specify a specific test number to run, you really need to let it run for an extended period of time to hammer deep into the memory subsystem.

 

You don't want to hear this, but now you are going to have to isolate which one (or more than one) memory module might be bad. Make sure you have the latest BIOS revision for your motherboard. Do a full CMOS clear, including pulling the motherboard battery. Remove all but one memory module and put it in the dimm slot specified for single stick, single channel operation. Boot into BIOS and load default values, then manually set your four primary memory timings and memory voltage per manufacturer specs. Save, exit and boot into Memtest and run test #5 for 20-30 minutes. If that passes, you can either add another stick and test two modules, or swap the known good module with another one and retest. Wash, rinse repeat etc. until you find out which module(s) are bad.

 

One thing I did notice on your Memtest screen shot is that your memory isn't tweaked to the proper settings. Memtest reports you are running at DDR3 1061Mhz with timings of 8-8-8-19. But in your specs. you list your memory as Corsair 12Gb DDR3 2000 memory. Maybe even before testing individual memory sticks you should consider running just 6Gb and start from there. I'm assuming that you're memory is factory spec'd to run at 1.65v but I'll bet that your BIOS has vdimm set to 1.5v - you should double check that. If you choose to go this route, uninstall all but 6Gb of memory. Make sure it's installed in the correct DIMM slots. Perform BIOS check and clear as I noted earlier. This time when you get into BIOS load the XMP profile. Boot and run Memtest.

 

My best guess, it that when running 12Gb of memory you need to be shooting for a final memory frequency somewhere between DDR3 1600 and 1800Mhz at 1.65v using timings of 8-8-8-24 with a 2T command rate.

 

It would probably be really helpful if you posted up all of your BIOS settings shown in the Frequency/Voltage control portion of your BIOS.

 

You can find the option for choosing the XMP profile in your bios here > Frequency/Voltage Control > Memory SPD > Select XMP Profile 1

 

 

This is ALWAYS fun. You know you have a error but on which stick ?!?.. This is where 12gb of memory sucks.

 

The best way to do this is to run each stick for a few hours at a time.

 

But maybe i missed this as well but, it could also me a slot on your MB. :-/

 

Well my computer has been running fine since yesterday... but I don't trust it, I feel this could be the calm before the storm so I guess Ill spend most my day running tests to work out which of my sticks of ram are plotting against me

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...