Looking for help with my failing build in London.

[yadnom1973]

I built a PC about 9 months ago and what was fun soon changed to frustration as it started crashing to a black screen leaving no trace I can find of what coursed it. I follow a Linus build of the Ultimate Editing Workstation as I was new to this and I changed a few components such as a better water based cooler and slightly different motherboard but checked compatibility first, or though I had.
I have stopped the crashing temporarily over the year by doing clean installs, half a dozen at least and the same amount of BIOS flashing. I have changed the memory timings many times and turned XMP on and off and then lowered them completely, I have swapped memory around then finally just thrown half of the memory away. I have swapped PCIe slots for the GPU even replaced the thermal paste on the cooler. I have tinkered and fiddled as much as I know how.
But it has started crashing again and what at the beginning of the year was a frustration is now a misery. I have had to struggle to work on this PC all year but now I am going away in January and must do something about it. This was the first Windows PC I have ever used having always been on Mac's before so I am new to this but I have run every test I can find without a workbench. Now I must start replacing parts and hoping this works but I fear just being trapped in this place where if I can’t find the fault then I'll never know if it's working or if it'll stop working on me in the morning and I need a reliable workstation. If I can’t fix it I may just have to replace the whole PC which will hurt financially a lot. So before I do I need to find someone who will give it a try. It's not an issue you can repeat, you can wait weeks without it crashing then it won’t boot up for a day and crashes every 5 minutes so it's not something I can demonstrate on demand. The only reliable thing is that it will start crashing again one day.
There are lots of people around here who fix PC and you can call then so I did and this guy came but when he saw he couldn't just do a clean install of Windows and get paid he left and now I think a lot of them are like this, or maybe I just got unlucky I don't know I have never use a PC repair guy before ether.
So this is the woeful tale I have written up on so many forums looking for help. I feel like that guy in The Missing wandering around drunk with the picture of his son, except I’m staggering about forums with a picture of my broken computer.
Does anyone know anywhere or anyone in London who may be able to help?
i7 4930K
Asus P9X79 WS…..Linus said the P9X79E WS
Corsair AX860i
Corsair H100i
Crucial 240GB SSD for OS and Programs
2 x 3TB HDD in RAID0 on the on-board Marvell controller for the media drive
1 x 4TB HDD a mirror back up of Media on the RAID and backup of system image and such
32GB of Kingston HyperX Beast RAM 2400MHz now 16GB running much slower….Linus said the Corsair Dominator Platinum 2133MHz 64GB.
Pailt GTX780 super Jetstream.

 

[trents]

Please do these things:

Download and run a free program called "WhoCrashed". Post back and attach WhoCrashed report of the minidump crash info. It will often point to the reason for the crash. Windows keeps records of the events that lead up to a BSOD event in little files called minidumps. To attach a file with the built in forum tool, click on Go Advanced at the bottom of any new post window and then click on the paperclip tool that is found in the advanced post window. This will load the file browser/uplink tool and the rest will be obvious.

Download and install these three free programs:
1. CPU-z
2. HWMonitor (non pro versoion)
3. Prime95

Open HWMonitor on the desktop and then run a 20 minute Prime95 blend test to stress the CPU, motherboard and RAM. At the end of the test, please attach an image of HWMonitor so we can look at temps and voltages experienced during the stress test. If it blue screens during the test let us know that and what were the maximum "package" and "CPU" temps.

Also, please run the CPU-z program and attach images of these three tabs: "CPU", "Memory" and "SPD". Crop and save the images with Snipping Tool found in Windows Accessories before you attach them. Perhaps this should be the first thing you do.

The problems you have could be caused by a variety of things: 1. incorrect bios settigns, 2. bad motherboard, 3. bad memory stick, 4. overheating or 5. Something simple like a buggy video card driver

What is the make and model of your case?

Is the system located inside an entertainment system or other confined area where it doesn't have access to fresh air?

Do you have the Asus AI suite installed?

 

[yadnom1973]

This is a crash dump file from some time ago but it's all the same problem, this must of survived on a memory stick as I lost everything last time. The current Crash Dump files from WhoCrashed are also attached as you asked

I could not attach the .htm i kept getting the invalid file warning when trying to use the window opened by the paper clip. I don't really know what a .htm file is so I just too pictures too.


Thank you for taking the time to help me, I really appreciate it. No it's just in a normal case, it's a Silverstone TJ04B-E. I will happily do all you have asked though I should say I have done all of this before so I have all of these programs you advise already installed. This PC will run Prime95 fine. I had it running P95 for hours with a good OC and it was stable. I always watch my temps closely and stopped all testing if anything spiked over 90 but this PC has always run hot. The system is free standing with good ventilation. It has the stock fans plus 3 more I installed. It has the water cooler running and I have the Corsair software to control the fans, though I find it a bit buggy but I have got down and watched every individual fan to be sure they are all doing what they are told. I have curves put in to each of the fans that are very steep as noise is not an issue. I have tried all sorts of push pull combinations, replaced the fans with better ones and even replaced the paste with a better one. At stock speeds I've had it running P95 all night and it's never crashed. It’s hot but very stable and in normal daily life the hottest it gets is around 70 during intensive rendering process. I have though run all the tests you asked and have attach them as you asked. By the way BSOD I think means Blue screen and I don’t have these I have the black ones if that helps at all.
This works as an editing and grading station and it has never crashed during any street tests or rendering apart from the few times when I was dialling in the OC in the first few weeks after the build. I have HWmonitor running in the background as soon as I had the first crash. The crashes are not related to high temperature and the crashes happen when I'm browsing the net and such. I can leave the PC rendering all night with the thing going as fast as it can and it'll be fine then it'll crash the next day when I'm writing an e mail.
It could be incorrect BIOS but I have flashed the BIOS many times and I presumed that resets the BIOS? Dose this reset everything in the BIOS? Now, for the last 7 months or so I have everything running at stock. With the memory I have tried combinations of manually putting in the memory timings, XMP profiles and just the lowest possible speed that the BIOS first set's it too. The problem has persisted through all of this. Now I have only half my memory installed running on the lower of the two profiles it has.
It could be a bad motherboard but how do I test this?
The Video driver is an interesting one, this has come up before a few times and some of the dump files like the old one I included possibly point to this. But this problem has been around for a year almost and the drivers update regularly. Though I never understood how to update them manually when I check they always say it’s all up to date. Yes I do have the Asus AI suit installed. I

 

[ATMINSIDE]

My first suggestion will be to uninstall AI Suite.

Second suggestion is a clean reinstall of drivers.
Go here http://www.geforce.com/drivers
Download the proper one for your GPU and OS, then run the installer. When it the check box for "clean installation" is there, pick it.

 

[yadnom1973]

I don't trust the Ai ether but I remembered that it's the fan expert app that controls my fans. I can not get it to see all my fans but it sees some and it sees the PSU cooler fan. Corsair Link is so buggy and can not see some of my fans. Between them both they just about run all the fans but there is still one fan that keeps stopping. I would love an app to control the fans but cant find one anywhere. It seem crazy that both of these dedicated app don't work and I cant find another one anywhere on line. I will uninstall Ai though if you think it's best.
I will then do the driver thing and do all clean installs.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

For testing purposes try removing AI Suite and Corsair Link. Software controls like that can be buggy and cause the issues you're seeing.

 

[yadnom1973]

I tried the link to the Driver page. It gave me these options: Series, I guess mine is a 700 as it's a GTX780, then GeForce GTX780, then Windows 8.1 64-bit, then All and I got a list of drivers by date. I noticed I have GeForce Experience installed from this page already and it auto detects my card and installs drivers and updates regularly. Should I uninstall this and try it all manually with the one from the top of the list? Also I can remember doing all this the last time someone looked at the crash dumps. in fact now I'm here I can remember doing it the time before as well and the same with AI suit, the pc crashes with it or with out it.

 

[yadnom1973]

Can course them not to see the fans or course the crashing? If I remove both how will the fan's work?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Yes, do it manually with the most recent driver on the page.

The fans (with the exception of the CPU cooler fans) will run wide-open all the time.

 

[yadnom1973]

Ok I did the clean reinstall of the drivers which I've not done before but I do do it when I do clean installs of windows and I've done that a few times but I have never had the PC running without the Ai suit or Corsair Link. I did say noise was no problem but having every fan at full belt all the time may be a little much. The two fans at the bottom , the one in the PSU and the one I installed are no longer moving though and I kind of need the one I installed to bring cool air into the bottom of the case. Is there no way to control these fans without those apps.?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Plug the intake fan in to the PSU directly with an adapter.
The PSU fan will cut on when the thermal sensor sees a need.

 

[Theocnoob]

Plug the intake fan in to the PSU directly with an adapter.
The PSU fan will cut on when the thermal sensor sees a need.

^The adapter in question. These are 99 cents online at a lot of places.

 

[yadnom1973]

The PSU fan dose a fine job of cooling the PSU I'm sure but the other fan is part of the fan system as a whole moving air through the case so I don't wont it to be linked to the PSU thermal sensor. And the PSU fan is doing nothing right now not moving at all and the CPU was running at 100% and all 15gb of ram in use for the last 10 minuet with all the other fans(apart from the one at the bottom and the PSU fan) going as fast as they can. I bought a Cintiq screen to draw on about 4 months ago. I've wanted to start working on one of these Cintiq for years and am very pleased to have it but I cant use it on this PC, it has never worked properly. I just tried plugging it in again to record what is wrong, the resolutions were wrong and I opened up Painter 3 and drew a picture. It started to lag more and more then stopped working and the fans started going crazy so after 5 mins of trying to draw I pulled up the Task Manager to see what was going on and the CPU was at 100% constant and the memory at 15GB of the 16 fitted, constant too. I have noticed a lot of memory being used sometimes when I could not really account for it. Do you think this is something that could course the crashing

 

[trents]

I was having an intermittent "black screen" on my system a while back. Just like you, it would never do it under load. Usually would happen when I was surfing the net or sometimes when computer was idle in the middle of the night. I ran WhoCrashed and it suggested that the video driver was the culprit and indeed it was. Before installing new video drivers I hope you used one of those free utilities to do a complete wipe of all old video driver files rather than just a normal delete.

Another thing you could try, especially if you are out of town for a while is to boot the computer in Safe mode and leave it there for extended periods. If the crashes disappear in Safe Mode then you can be sure it is a driver causing the issue since Safe Mode bypasses the loading of protected mode drivers.

 

[yadnom1973]

I don't know what utility's you mean but I will see if I can find one it sounds very similar to one of the problems I've been having. I have to sign of for the night but if anyone has any bright ideas please jot them down I'm up for anything right now.

 

[dyckah]

DDU is Display Driver Uninstaller, thats probably the utility he is talking about.

 

[trents]

Google this: Device driver cleaner utilities. There are lots of options. Some free. Some not.

 

[yadnom1973]

this morning it will no longer boot up. I turn it on and it starts up all the fans go the lights come on, the keyboard lights up. The fans go strong for a few seconds them calm down and it ticks over but nothing comes on the screen, just black no Asus nothing. So I push the power to shut it down and try again but it's just the same. I unplug everything then have been trying again over and over but nothing at all just a black screen.

But on the bright side I understood what you meat about the adapter at last, seems like a good idea.

 

[trents]

My friend, it's beginning to look like you have a bad motherboard.

Yesterday I related to you that I had experienced a similar phenomenon of intermittent crashes that turned out to be a video driver issue. I also had a similar problem about a year and a half ago with another system, that is intermittent crashes at odd times. Usually when the computer was idle. It was very occasional at first but then became more frequent and finally it wouldn't boot at all. I took the motherboard out of the case and turned it over and t he problem was then obvious. One of the soldered traces between a RAM slot and the CPU socket was burned in two. Apparently, that trace had gotten weakened over time (perhaps from the flexing of removing and installing RAM repeatedly over time) and finally shorted out. What I'm saying is that this type of behavior can be hardware related as well.

If I were a betting man my money would be on the motherboard. And if you choose to explore this route, realize that a lot of us have found Asus to be very uncooperative with regard to RMA submissions. A lot of us just don't bother with it anymore and go right for buying a new replacement board. Although they are not an RMA friendly company they still make the best enthusiast motherboards.

And concerning fan speed control, you might look into a manual controller such as the Sunbeam Rheobus Extreme or similar. Not quite as convenient but very precise and reliable.

 

[yadnom1973]

I am not bothered any more about the RMA really I would be over the moon to know it was the motherboard because I could buy one, rebuild the system and have a working PC. So mush of this year has been around this broken PC I just don't know how to find out what's broken. If I was to buy a new board and re building it and then it did the same I would throw it out the window and then probably throw myself out with it.