SOLVED Windows Sometimes Fails to Boot

[Twisted4000]

Sometimes when I turn my computer on, it will fail while booting into Windows and just freeze up. I have to restart the computer to get it to work. The computer always turns on fine and the hardware all works, but it's loading into the OS I'm having issues with every now and then.

It started when I got this Blue Yeti USB microphone and plugged it into my PC, which had weird issues and sometimes needed to be re-plugged in in order to work, and sometimes while booting up I'd get a blue screen. At the same time, I just overclocked my system a bit. Not sure if it was the mic's fault or the overclocking but occasionally it just fails to boot up.

I just turned all my overclocking off, everything back to normal and I want to see if that will fix anything. Does anyone know why it's doing this?

Here's my system's specs:

OS - Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Motherboard - Gigabyte P45T-ES3G
Processor - Intel Core 2 Quad @ 2.4GHz Q6600
Memory - 8GB of DDR3 (G.Skill Ripjaw @ 1066MHz)
Video - EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
Storage - 1x OCZ 128GB SSD (OS)
1x Seagate SATA 750GB HDD @ 7,200rpm,
1x Western Digital IDE 160GB HDD @ 7,200rpm,
910 GB Total
Power Supply - Ultra LSP650 Pro 650w
Optical Drive - DVD Multi Recorder
Rosewill RCR-IC001 40-in-1 Card Reader
Heatsink - Rosewill RCX-Z2

 

[pigpottomus]

Yeah, i think it might be your overclocking. Me,(not too much experienced with oc'ing cpu's) I attempted many times to overclock my cpu, but it would usually fail, making my computer not booting at all, until i reset CMOS or something.

 

[c627627]

See what is starting with Windows using this freeware:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/what_run_in_startup.html

If your system does this when stable, perhaps one of the programs starting with windows boot is the culprit?

 

[Twisted4000]

Alright, I put the clock speeds back to the default settings, and for about 4 days or so it's been fine, so I'm going to assume that it was the overclocking that made it fail to boot. Still not sure why, though...

 

[pigpottomus]

It could just be because there is something in the O'c settings that needs to be put for it to become more stable.

 

[c627627]

I'm going to assume that it was the overclocking that made it fail to boot. Still not sure why, though...

?? Have you not done any stability tests after overclocking?
12h-24h of stress tests are needed to make sure your overclock is stable. Even it if it goes through, that is not a measure of stability. Failing to boot an overclocked system is a red flag for an unstable overclock.




To test the stability of overclocked CPU, download the latest version of Prime95:
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

Double click on PRIME95.EXE to start the program.

Just Stress Testing (if prompted) > OK >

* Options > Torture Test > Blend (if prompted) > OK *

Number of torture test threads to run should be set to the number of CPU cores. However, Prime95 number of Torture Test threads should be 8 for the four core i7 CPU, not 4 like with the older CPUs.

The i7 runs hot. When running the Prime95 Torture Test for the old Athlon XP, alarm bells went off when the temperatures zoomed past 60° Celcius but I understand realistic OC threshold is now raised toward 90° for max stress when it comes to the i7 CPU.


The program should not give any errors.
It may be necessary to run the program 12-24 hours to make sure an overclocked system is stable (no program errors displayed).


If you get errors only after several hours, this is a result of slight instability because the system is running with little or no margin. It's stable enough to boot and to be moderately stressed, but as soon as the system is under enough load to go over that critical point, it may freeze. To be 100% stable, Prime95 should run 12-24 hours without any errors.

The point of testing is to see if you get errors or not thus testing the stability. The meaning of errors themselves is not as important.


Running Prime95 Torture Test for 5 to 30 minutes is enough to get a feeling about general stability. If it seems to be stable, increase the FSB (with 0.025V Vcore increase if needed), or increase the multiplier by 0.5.

Reboot and run Prime95 Torture Test for 5 to 30 minutes and repeat this until the Program displays errors.
It is then time to back down and repeat the Torture Test until there are no errors for at least 12 hours.

It's OK to use the computer while Prime95 Torture Test is running in the background.


For older processors, versions prior to v25 had the option of going to the Advanced section, setting the password to 9876 and then setting Priority to 10. (You weren't able to use your computer while Priority 10 Prime95 Torture Test was running, but it confirmed your system stability.) In version 25, priority options can be set by going to Test > Worker Windows...


3DMark used to test video card stability but now Furmark stresses the video cards much more.