GB Z77x-UD5H Freezing

[Overclocker16]

Just built a system for my buddy:

 

GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H

Intel Core i5-3570K

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2x4gb)

PC P&C Silencer Mk II 750w

Windows 8

 

There is a 1gb Seagate hdd as well. Nothing major otherwise, the normal keyboard / mouse etc.

 

However, we are having an issue where windows will boot but within a few seconds to a couple minutes it will freeze. I have been up and down google for the last 2 days trying things it says, but nothing is working. BIOS version is F14, which came with it and as far as I can tell is the latest version.

 

I have been trying to install the drivers off the Gigabyte disk, however the system usually doesn't stay on long enough to allow me to install anything. I have gotten a few, but it quickly freezed and had to force reboot it.

 

Is there anything that anyone knows how to get this thing fixed? I'd rather not have to tell him we have to send the motherboard back and get a new / different one. But if that is what needs to be done, we will.

 

Also, I have taken out the video card and ran just on board graphics, no change to anything. RAM I have tried 1 stick, different slots, etc. Removed everything except cd rom, hdd and mobo + cpu / ram. Nothing seems to clear anything.

[d6bmg]

To make sure it is not due to RAM, you should put one ram module in the slot and run memtest for about 30 minutes.

Otherwise, freezing without any BSOD is a classical case of bad PSU (!)

[ccokeman]

What cooling are you using on the CPU?

[Overclocker16]

What cooling are you using on the CPU?

 

Just stock. I would figure RAM or PSU if it would crash any time. But it only freezes within Windows 8 as far as I can tell. Installed Win8 with no problems, but once inside windows, IE froze almost immediately. Reboot and it lasts for about another minute if we're lucky.

 

As far as BSOD's, there have been plenty with Windows8. Not generally enough time before it reboots, but it's usually something about File System and a couple other ones. Googling pretty much says to reinstall Windows, which is where I have been but when it reboots the first time after installing, it comes up with an error about installation and to install Windows I have to reboot, hit OK and it's a never ending loop.

[SpikeSoprano]

if you have a linux os boot disk load it off the cd drive and run it for a bit, this will tell you if it might be the w8 or the hd that is bad, you can also run some tests from this disk.

[ccokeman]

Just stock. I would figure RAM or PSU if it would crash any time. But it only freezes within Windows 8 as far as I can tell. Installed Win8 with no problems, but once inside windows, IE froze almost immediately. Reboot and it lasts for about another minute if we're lucky.

 

As far as BSOD's, there have been plenty with Windows8. Not generally enough time before it reboots, but it's usually something about File System and a couple other ones. Googling pretty much says to reinstall Windows, which is where I have been but when it reboots the first time after installing, it comes up with an error about installation and to install Windows I have to reboot, hit OK and it's a never ending loop.

 

Ok reason I ask is that over tightening the heat sink can cause different issues.

[Waco]

It might be worth trying Windows 7 to rule out 8 being the issue.

[Overclocker16]

It might be worth trying Windows 7 to rule out 8 being the issue.

 

Well figured it out guys. The PCI wireless card causes a crash and I'm pretty sure 1 stick of RAM is bad. 1 stick in slot 1 without the without the wireless card in, the system works perfect. He's been playing games having a blast finally playing at the highest detail. Looks like I gotta go through newegg and send back the wireless card (which I figured out there will be enough room, probably just get a 1x PCIE wireless card) and a set of new RAM should make the system work great.

 

So, bad RAM with bad wireless card makes a big change in things.

 

I'll update after the new stuff comes in when we can get with Newegg to swap out the parts.

 

Also, I cleared CMOS and set optimized defaults, base clock to 101.00 and mem voltage to 1.550v. Haven't tried to back off those yet to see if it still works without the bad RAM and wireless NIC, but it's stable and going great now.