This computer will be the death of me.

[Pwnch]

Greetings and welcome to my hell. The past 10 months of my life have been solving behind this damn rig trying to solve its never ending/changing problem.



First of all, here are my specs (you'll probably need them)
EVGA nForce 780i SLI FTW ATX
Core 2 Quad 2.83GHz Q9550
EVGA GeForce GTX 285 2G
Crucial 2GB DDR2 PC2-6400 x 4
Corsair TX750w
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB
LIAN LI Lancool PC-K7B Mid Tower
ViewSonic VX2433wm

Let's get to the bottom of this. So my problem.... Random lock ups

I built this rig back in May of 2009, it has always had this problem... until i put of small house fan in the side of my open case. It worked, but ever since getting sick of having cold feet and a loud fan right next to me, I started asking for advice from knowledgeable sources, they all said, its the video card. So I RMAd it after talking with tech support who agreed. No difference. Still worked with the fan on the case. Still froze without it. No overclocking, no underclocking, and no messing with settings.

So then I was told that it might be my northbridge over heating, or my CPU.. I checked realtemp on my CPUs to see if they were overheating.. Ran them without the fan, while playing WoW and Bad Company 2. Normal temps of about 55c-45c-47c-47c.. still froze. Did the same thing with the fan, and no lock ups. All fine, slightly cooler temps but not drastic. Got sick of it and RMAd my mobo... Guess what? Nothing changed. same temps, problems, except this time I couldn't even play a game WITH the fan running. Locked up almost immediately when I started playing or a few minutes in without the fan. Inevitable lock up even with the fan....

But that is nothing. Since I built this computer I have replaced nearly every component in the order of OS, HD, +1 house fan, GPU, Monitor, Mobo, RAM, and the CPU... Same problem persists through all replacements and testing... I have a feeling it may be some random BIOS setting that I'm missing.

I've tried just about anything and everything. This is no ordinary issue. The only permanent solution I found was the house fan. And now that doesn't work, even with all of my new components.

Also, right before I replaced my GPU, I started getting some artifacting (which lead me to believe it was the GPU).. It wasn't serious artifacting, It only appeared where shading was. Even in the BIOS, if you looked close enough, you could see it. Random pink flickering in the shaded areas on the windows 7 log in screen, around windows, in my shamans chain heals, fire in wow, looking at the sun in MW2, etc... installed new drivers to no avail... Then I bought my monitor. The problem seemed to be fixed with the artifacting, or so I thought..... But noooope, I started noticing it in the same areas, just more concentrated and less noticeable and only happened when I moved the camera or the piece of shading was moving across the screen. It wasn't on the loading screen or BIOS, and still only remains in games.

After replacing my mobo, the artifacting moved to my desktop where it really defines/enhances the ghosting on my monitor by making pink lines and such.behind letters while theyre moving, really noticeable when moving around a sticky note, it appears behind the line where the tones of color come flush.

Sooo sick of trouble shooting this rig. I'll be trolling this thread until my issue is solved, so ask questions, give advice.

Thanks

 

[Drew@PSU]

The only thing i can think of is maybe you have a short in the case somewhere, on the underside of the mobo maybe? Have you tried building it on a piece of cardboard completely outside of the case yet? That should eliminate any shorts you may have. Also, check to be sure that there are only 9 motherboard standoffs screwed into the case. Which case is it btw, lol.

That may not be helpful, but that's all I got tonight, I'll see if sleeping on it doesn't help. Best of luck,
Drew

 

[joshhua5]

Er maybe check for a blown capacitor

 

[Pwnch]

No blown capacitors that I can see.

The case is a LIAN LI Lancool PC-K7B Mid Tower. What would a short look like? I just mounted my new mobo about a week ago and made sure all the standoffs and grounding holes were installed correctly.

I'm also hearing that my 780 maybe the issue, considering it is not a very stable chipset. Also heard it may be my PSU.. going to RMA that next. lol

 

[burningcpu]

I'm not a troubleshooting expert, but if everything your PSU is attached to is flaking out...

Do you have access to another PSU to test out?

 

[OnDborder]

Welcome to the Forum! http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=491697 Pwnch

Do you have a digitalmultimeter?
You can test your psu while having a load on the system.
This will give you a clue on the psu as the problem.

 

[don256us]

+1 for the Power supply (PSU). It's the only thing you haven't replaced. PSU testers are fine but they only test without load. While I just ordered another PSU tester for myself, It will not tell you what it does under load. Your specs would seem to place a 750 watt PSU fairly well.

 

[tinymouse2]

Get a wire or two and put them so their touching a piece of metal on your case and connect the other end to a radiator. This will make sure it's grounding properly.

The fact that it doesn't crash when it has a fan on it makes it sound like an overheating problem.

When it's running touch the northbridge heatsink. Does it feel hot? As in over 50 degrees or so. Do the same with the CPU heatsink.

 

[CompuTamer]

Hmmm... doesn't the PSU usually cause reboots?
Either way though, that's odd. The PSU really is the only thing left to replace...

 

[bboyfobulous]

i have the evga 780i board as well (non FTW though) and used to have the same problem. I up'ed the voltages to the motherboard and voila! fixed. But i overclock my system. I know the stock settings are a little underpowered for what it really needs to run well. Try messing with the voltage settings and see what happens.

 

[Pwnch]

Any suggestions on how much to up my voltages? and under what BIOs setting?

 

[Pwnch]

Tinymouse2.

I have touched it, and it is somewhat hot after it crashes. I cant tell exactly what temperature.

 

[tinymouse2]

Tinymouse2.

I have touched it, and it is somewhat hot after it crashes. I cant tell exactly what temperature.

Somewhat hot? Can you hold your fingers on it for more than 30 seconds? If not then it's to hot
Your CPU should be at about 50-60 degrees, still just about able to touch. The northbridge (IMO) shouldn't exceed 50 degrees so if you can't hold onto it then it's to hot.

 

[Pwnch]

It is not that hot. My CPU temps are about 55 when crashing.

 

[tinymouse2]

Well I'm at a loss at what it could be
Sorry I can't help anymore.

 

[Pwnch]

Odd.

I replaced my monitor with my new viewsonic because i wanted a new one, and it stopped the artifacting. Now that the artifacting is on the viewsonic. It isnt on the old samsung.. odd indeed. burnt out DVI cable? or over voltage on video card or something? why would it artifact on 1 vs the other..

i ran dual monitors and the samsung has no artifacting, but the view sonic does, tried both inputs and both separately. same results

 

[Pwnch]

When i stated that it wasnt too hot to touch. That was only after I was running it with the house fan in my case.

I just let it freeze without the fan and when I touched the SPP heatsync, it nearly burned me... This is my RMA replacement, its brand new...

 

[tinymouse2]

When i stated that it wasnt too hot to touch. That was only after I was running it with the house fan in my case.

I just let it freeze without the fan and when I touched the SPP heatsync, it nearly burned me... This is my RMA replacement, its brand new...

That's not a good sign... I smell an RMA form floating around.

 

[Pwnch]

This is the RMA replacement

 

[tinymouse2]

Another replacement then. Something has to be broken somewhere, you can get unlucky twice.