Motherboard instability

[MwB]

-SOLVED- (?) Motherboard instability: PC freeze, no BSOD, fans etc. still runnin

Motherboard instability: freezing no BSOD and monotone buzz
-SOLVED- (?) solution marked in red at the last four steps.

Good day everybody

I get random freezing; mouse, keyboard, screen stuck without BSOD and with the fans and everything still running. The speakers deliver a monotone buzz at the moment of freezing. This freezing happens with, or without stress on the system.
My Eventlog only shows something about winit, which after further research is none-related. My specs are as followed:

--Own built--

Antec EA 500D
ASUS P5Q Turbo, BIOS 0602
Intel 2Quad Q8200 (not overclocked)
ATI Readon HD 5870-recent change-
4 GB DDR2 Kingston RAM |DRAM Frequency 414 MhZ| |1,86 Voltage|
SAMSUNG HD502HI ATA
Tweaked Windows 7 x64

This is what I chronologically have done so far:

-Bare boned Windows 7, all possible services are off (example: indexing) + Disabling all possible services on Autorunss
-Disabled Hibernating and ULPS
-Deleted Microsoft Security Centre (HINT: big trouble-causer)
-SFC Scan -no problems-
-CHKDSC -no problems-
-Registry cleaned and defragmentated by Auslogics
-Drive cleaned and defragmentated
-All required updates of all hardware
-PCpit full checks -no problems-
-BIOS = Updated
-Set my HDD to AHCI
-Disabled all unused (or double) hardware
-Disabled and fully removed unrequired windows features
-Disabled unrequired visual styles
-Disabled Page-Filing
-Disabled Ready-Boot
-Prime95 -no problems-
-RAM voltage raised to 1.86 and 835mhz instead of AUTO
-Ran Memtest for 17 hours -no problems-
-Changed memtimers few rotations up
-Disabled Realtek Soundcard in BIOS
-Disabled CE1 support from intel
-Disabeld speedstep
-Changed SATA cables
-Changed temp. paste from processor and cleaned PC
-Updated 'lost' hardware drivers with DriverGenius, and also removed old unused drivers
-Take out 2GB and repositionise the 4GB memory in different slots
-Discovered two ATA channels were not able to start, had to disable them
-Checked disc with CrystalDisk, 'Current Pending Sector Count' occurred.
-Deleted old drivers + disabled non-connected drivers, as following:
____1) eHome Infrared Reciever (USBICR) =not connected=
____2) C-Media USB Headphone set
____3) AMD High Definition Audio Device
____4) Microsoft Usbccid SmartCard Reader (WUDF) =not connected=
-Updated one USB port with INF Chipset driver Update Tool (intel.com/support)
-Raised voltage on Front North Bridge (FNB) to 1.12 (standard 1.10)
-Raised voltage on Front South Bridge (FSB) to 1.20 (standard 1.10)

After doing all on this list: still random freezing. Never a Minidump nor a BSOD (YES, writing minidump is enabled, the PC just freezes without a dump)
My PC is working like a train, I can still play new games on 1920x1080 without any lagg, and multitasking goes incredibly smooth for a 4 year old gear.

The last four steps prevented my PC from crashing for at least 1 week now, due to the fact that the problem may only be delayed by these action I have put a (?) in the back. If my PC keeps running for another few weeks I shall put this topic as solved and hopefully a lot of PC owners can be prevented from months of frustration due to this unknown cause of crashing. I want to thank those who have replied to this topic

 

[Kaspa]

How's your gpu temperatures? Any dust in the heat-sinks? I had a dying 8800GT causing some symptoms like that. Turned out that the thermal paste has dried right out.

As a side note, opening multiple CPU-Zs will enable you to display all the tabs in one screenshot.

 

[MwB]

How's your gpu temperatures? Any dust in the heat-sinks? I had a dying 8800GT causing some symptoms like that. Turned out that the thermal paste has dried right out.

As a side note, opening multiple CPU-Zs will enable you to display all the tabs in one screenshot.

Haven't thought of my GPU yet actually, I just downloaded 'GPU Temp' to see...

59 °C idle does not seem good to me, especially since both sides of the PC case are removed for the moment. What must I do?

I'll remind myself the CPUZ screen thing for the next time.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

Time for a teardown. Time to reseat all cards and RAM. Also dust the board.

 

[Kaspa]

Hopefully this thread will catch the eye of a far more experienced member.

Can I get you to post idle and load temps for both cpu and gpu? The more info we have about your system the easier it may be to find your PCs problem.

My thoughts... 59°C seems only a bit above normal and may not be the problem. Some HD4870s idle at ~70°C.

This is a youtube video showing some guy cleaning his HD4870. Take extreme care if you go down that road.
Here's a good read about setting custom fan profiles on a HD4870. Once again, extreme care to be taken. Do your research.

 

[MwB]

My thoughts... 59°C seems only a bit above normal and may not be the problem. Some HD4870s idle at ~70°C.

This is a youtube video showing some guy cleaning his HD4870. Take extreme care if you go down that road.
Here's a good read about setting custom fan profiles on a HD4870. Once again, extreme care to be taken. Do your research.

Thanks for the vids and the advise so far

Here are the rest of my temps, in the following image.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Tear the computer down.

Pull the RAM out, pull the GPU out, reseat the CPU and use new thermal paste on the CPU heatsink.

Those temps are very uneven across your CPU, hence my suggestion for the reseat and new paste.

 

[MwB]

Tear the computer down.

Pull the RAM out, pull the GPU out, reseat the CPU and use new thermal paste on the CPU heatsink.

Those temps are very uneven across your CPU, hence my suggestion for the reseat and new paste.

I guess I am left with no other option. RJARRRPCGP also suggested the same. My CPU is not placed in my PC by me and therefor with reseating the CPU I do not have any experience. I'll find my way though, thanks for the advise.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Don't force anything and it'll be fine

 

[Kaspa]

Good luck with your venture into hardware.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

I guess I am left with no other option. RJARRRPCGP also suggested the same. My CPU is not placed in my PC by me and therefor with reseating the CPU I do not have any experience. I'll find my way though, thanks for the advise.

I had to do that with my Asus P5QL Pro board, because it was randomly and frequently freezing, even when there wasn't faulty hardware.

I took out all the cards and RAM, got the dust off the board with a paint brush and cleared the CMOS.

 

[Bobnova]

What power supply do you have? Make/model/wattage/year?

 

[Kaspa]

Antec EA 500D

 

[Bobnova]

Figured that was a case, oops.

 

[MwB]

Tear the computer down.

Pull the RAM out, pull the GPU out, reseat the CPU and use new thermal paste on the CPU heatsink.

Those temps are very uneven across your CPU, hence my suggestion for the reseat and new paste.

I have done this, and I could not give updates since I was busy with moving back from Spain to Holland and start new school etc. Unfortunately replacing the paste and cleaning the gear has not done the trick for me.

 

[MwB]

I think I have managed a solution

I'm kicking this up, in the hope I may help others from months of frustration on freezing PC's due to unknown causes. This phenomenom seems to even occure on the most recent systems.