Constant freezing/crashing AMD Phenom II X6

Hi Guys,

I'm new here and signed up just now to tap into the wealth of knowledge on these forums and hopefully get a fix for a problem I'm having with my home built PC.

I have searched the forums for a while and found a couple of threads which seem to be similar to the issue I'm having but obviously with it being a home build the specs are slightly different and I haven't managed to find an answer as yet.

Basically as you can see from the title I have fairly recently bought a AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 125w processor along with a Asus M4A88T-M motherboard and 2x4gb sticks of Crucial 1333mhz (PC3 10600) memory which according to Crucial is "guaranteed" to work with my board. I bought a 1TB Samsung HDD and a case with 500w psu already inside (looking at it now I have just noticed it says Pentium P4 on the PSU, is this up to the job or could it be the reason for the problems outlined below???).
Everything was great when I first got it and I was real happy as the whole thing cost me £300 so I thought I'd done pretty well for what I had gotten. Anyway about 6 or 8 weeks after I had set it up I went from Win 7 32 bit to Win 7 64 bit and shortly after I started to get problems with random crashing/BSOD/freezing (could be related could be pure coincidence I'm not sure) my first thought was to upgrade the then 4gb of Corsair memory to the 8gb of Crucial I now have as I thought blue screening and restarting was probably a memory issue but I am still getting the same symptoms now even after the memory swap. The random crash/freeze/BSOD is usually acompanied by strange coloured lines on the screen almost like interference and isn't only subject to the OS I have had this happen when browsing in the bios!!

I have read quite a lot on similar kinds of problems and heard that the memory controller on the CPU isn't the greatest also lots of people talk of manually setting up the voltage and memory timings in the bios but I'm not sure I know enough about my setup to know exactly what they should be or to fine tune enough to know when to increase one thing and decrease another so I am hoping some of you guys would be able to steer me in the right direction and maybe pin this down to a faulty part or possibly just tweaking manual settings. All my setting in the bios are currently on auto and nothing is overclocked just the basic out of the box set up.

Sorry for waffling on but I hope I have given enough useful information to start some troubleshooting if not then please let me know.

What are the amp ratings per voltage for your power supply as shown on this power supply.

Under the voltage part it says

230v

+3.3v
28A

+5.0v
30A

+12v1
14A

crafoo said:

Under the voltage part it says

230v

+3.3v
28A

+5.0v
30A

+12v1
14A

Click to expand...

If that is accurate and there is not also at least a +12V2 and or +12V3, then I wonder that the board runs at all.

From the way you posted it seemed that you had what you thought were ram issues, you did not test the ram but instead added 'even more' ram which was an additional load. Not good if you are just about out of power supply power.

Looking at the power/volt ratings you list for that power supply it seems 5 or 6 year old technology. Times have changed and power supplies have changed to have much higher +12V ratings since the +12V is now used to power the cpu instead of the +5V.

You might be doing yourself a favor to get some decent power. When you push the ON button the first thing to come into play is the power supply. Have an iffy power supply can be the "beginning" of issues.

Look at the +12v1/14A number, the last line of the PSU label. Your 12v rail only puts out 14 amps. That is not even close to what you need to power your system. Are you using the on-board video or a separate video card?

Bottom line: Don't use your computer any more until you get a beefier PSU. If you continue to use it with that PSU you run a high risk of damaging components, if you haven't already, that is.

If you only have one +12v rail that puts out only 14 amps then your power supply is falsely rated at 500W. A true 500W PSU will have one or more +12v rails putting out total of at least 40A. What brand is this PSU?

A quality PSU is critical to a stable, reliable system. Maybe some of the folks on the forum from the UK can advise you as to a replacement unit. The brands available to you there differ significantly from what's available to us here in North America.

RGone said:

If that is accurate and there is not also at least a +12V2 and or +12V3, then I wonder that the board runs at all.

From the way you posted it seemed that you had what you thought were ram issues, you did not test the ram but instead added 'even more' ram which was an additional load. Not good if you are just about out of power supply power.

Looking at the power/volt ratings you list for that power supply it seems 5 or 6 year old technology. Times have changed and power supplies have changed to have much higher +12V ratings since the +12V is now used to power the cpu instead of the +5V.

You might be doing yourself a favor to get some decent power. When you push the ON button the first thing to come into play is the power supply. Have an iffy power supply can be the "beginning" of issues.

Click to expand...

I will have another look when I get home and post a picture of the PSU so you guys can tell exactly what's what. But from what you have said it sounds like it may not be man enough for the job, but I don't understand why sometimes (although very rarely) it can run for hours with no issues at all??

trents said:

Look at the +12v1/14A number, the last line of the PSU label. Your 12v rail only puts out 14 amps. That is not even close to what you need to power your system. Are you using the on-board video or a separate video card?

Bottom line: Don't use your computer any more until you get a beefier PSU. If you continue to use it with that PSU you run a high risk of damaging components, if you haven't already, that is.

If you only have one +12v rail that puts out only 14 amps then your power supply is falsely rated at 500W. A true 500W PSU will have one or more +12v rails putting out total of at least 40A. What brand is this PSU?

A quality PSU is critical to a stable, reliable system. Maybe some of the folks on the forum from the UK can advise you as to a replacement unit. The brands available to you there differ significantly from what's available to us here in North America.

Click to expand...

Appreciate the help guys, the PSU if I remember rightly is a CIT branded one, it came with the case so it's not the best I know that. I'm only using the onboard kit.

This is the PSU, the picture isn't great but hopefully good enough to see the info needed.

Others may have other ideas but this is what I believe as pictured below.

RGone said:

Others may have other ideas but this is what I believe as pictured below.

Click to expand...

Not that I am doubting what you are telling me because I do believe what you are saying is right and it certainly does seem like the PSU doesn't stack up to what is required but why do you think I sometimes (although very rarely) manage to get 8 hours plus usage without any issues? Is the PSU operating right on it's limit do you think?

I will nip to my local store and see if I can pick up a more suitable PSU I think.

**Edit**

Would this be more in line with what I would need?

Storm 800w psu with 120mm fan
Silent fan operation with noise level <23dBA
+12V technology; Version 2.0 psu
24 Pin; 4 pin +12V; 1 x 6 pin Pci-e; 2 x SATA; 4 x 4 pin power; 1 x floppy connector
Rear on/off power down switch
Over voltage and circuit protection +3.3, +5V, +12V
CE/FCC UL approved
EMI Filter built in
Colour retail boxed
For Socket 775, Am2 and all backward CPU's
ROHS Compliant
Dimensions W 150 H86 D 140mm
+3.3V 39A; +5V 50A; +12V 32A; -12V 0.8A; +5vsb 2.0A

Looks like the PSU is the problem. Electrical fluctuation can be strange sometimes it'll be stable for a short period sometimes longer. There's no guarantee. Most PSU that comes free with a case is free for a reason. A new PSU is highly recommended.

Cigarsmoker said:

Looks like the PSU is the problem. Electrical fluctuation can be strange sometimes it'll be stable for a short period sometimes longer. There's no guarantee. Most PSU that comes free with a case is free for a reason. A new PSU is highly recommended.

Click to expand...

Appreciate your input thankyou, would something similar to the one I listed above be more in line with what I need?

What store is this? I'm assuming it's in the UK? Can you please provide a link?

Cigarsmoker said:

What store is this? I'm assuming it's in the UK? Can you please provide a link?

Click to expand...

http://www.dcs-online.biz/shop/product_info.php/cPath/62/products_id/12878

Yeah it's a uk store fairly local to me

Never heard of Storm. Cheap and high power raises a lot of red flags.

There's not a lot of quality selection from this store. The only reputable brand is Antec and Gigabyte. So go with one of those in the 500W range.

If possible I'd look elsewhere, online is probably cheapest. Again look for something from Antec, XFX, or Corsair. I'd recommend one of these 3:

Antec TP 550W - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-118-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1088

Corsair CX - 500W - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-034-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084

XFX Pro 550W - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-007-XF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1497

+3.3V 39A; +5V 50A; +12V 32A; -12V 0.8A; +5vsb 2.0A

For illustration purposes. The link below is to only a 500 watt power supply. Look at the Amps for the rails. You will notice that the +12V rail is a good single rail. The +12V is rated more than the less used +3.3V and +5V rails as it should be for a power supply that is for use with later motherboards.


+3.3V@25A,+5V@25A,+12V@36A, [email protected],+5VSB @ 2.5A

Using screen capture software capture the CPU-z image at the CPU button; the Memory button and the SPD button. The buttons are across the top of the CPU-z window. The Mainboard button can also be used and will show the bios version in case one wanted to check the motherboard bios being up to date.
NOTE: I never capture the whole monitor but only the CPU-z window at each button so that the dang image is not so...so ginormous.


This is link to HWmonitor and as shown on the screen; you would also check the cpu plus (+) so that the core temps of the cpu would be shown. AMD certainly needs to see the core temps at least the later AMD cpus.


Download site for Prime95 with some "how to's" included. Prime 95 can be used to stress a system and with HWMonitor opened a temp log will be kept to see if temps get out of hand during or at the time of a failure of P95, if such does occur because of an unstable configuration.


Okay I have not been looking for a screen capture tool but wish many would use some with window capture instead of the whole screen. This proggie comes highly recommended. 4 Capture Modes: Window, Region, Scrolling and Full Screen. I normally use Window or Region so the whole dang screen is not captured and makes the image so dang large. I save capture to .jpg so files are smaller in general.

Okay there is some software you surely need to have in your arsenal when searching out help. Let us see the CPU, Memory and SPD captures so we can see how the ram is supposed to be setup.

You can also capture HWMonitor so we can see what the Vcore and Ram voltages are set to.

You also need to ensure the motherboard bios includes support for the six-core processor.

Go with this one: http://www.dcs-online.biz/shop/product_info.php/cPath/62/products_id/12455

That looks like a very decent single rail power supply with pretty good reviews.

After doing a fair amount of shopping around I have found what I think would be a suitable PSU at what I believe is a good price, it's practically the same Corsair PSU as Cigarsmoker suggested in post #14 but it's the 600w version and is the same price as the 500w with free delivery After what you guys have said I'm pretty sure it will be the right PSU for the job but here's the link just in case I missed something.

http://www.corsair.com/power-supply...s-cx600-v2-80plus-certified-power-supply.html

I have been trying to get my PC fired up to show some of the reports you were after but it just isn't staying on for long enough for me to do that and with what someone said earlier in this thread about damaging components I didn't really want to keep trying just incase I do cause any lasting damage (fingers crossed I haven't already)


One more question, should it be the case that the PSU is the problem and everything works fine after I get the new one how much would I be able to expand on that PSU? I may possibly be looking at maxing out the RAM to 16gb and maybe in the future ditching the onboard graphics for something else (nothing massively beefy but entry level/mid range) and a second HDD, would the PSU I am considering be ok for this?

Thanks for all the help so far guys

You will have plenty of expansion room for ram and a video card with that Corsair 600W. As long as your case is a not an slim line or ultra compact thing you should be able to fit it in no problem. The mounting screw holes are a standard configuration on all mid tower full tower cases. Good choice, by the way.

You might want to take a pic for us of your case, especially an interior shot with the side panel off from enough distance to allow us to see not only the interior of the case but the outline of the case itself for some size perspective, just to make sure the Corsair aftermarket PSU you list will fit. By the way, how many case fans do you have and how large are they? I'm asking because it would be helpful to us in helping you to have an idea of how good your ventilation is. Good ventilation is critical to keeping temps down and high temps can cause instability like you have described.