Would Appreciate Some Help - BSODs / strange problems.

[Darkademic]

I bought myself a new PC over Christmas, here's what I have now which may be relevant to the issues I've been having:

• Intel Core i7 920 2.66 GHz Processor
• Asus P6T Motherboard
• 6GB OCZ Reaper PC3-12800 DDR3-1600 Triple Channel RAM
• 1x 150GB Western Digital Velociraptor HD
• 1x 640GB Western Digital Caviar HD
• 1x 800GB Western Digital Caviar HD
• 1x 250GB Western Digital Caviar HD
• 1x 1TB Western Digital MyBook External HD
• ATI HD 4870 Graphics Card w/ Thermaltake DuOrb GPU Cooler
• Corsair TX950 950W Power Supply
• Scythe Mugen 2 CPU Cooler
• Asus Xonar D1 7.1 Sound Card
• Antec 1200 Case
• Razer Death Adder Mouse
• Roccat Valo Keyboard
• Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit

The case, sound card and power supply were all replaced a week ago to rule out issues with those (previously had Thermaltake Tsunami Dream, Asus Xonar D2X and 1000W unbranded PSU).

The first problem happened primarily when playing a game or watching a movie of some kind (particularly on YouTube), but it hasn't happened since changing the PSU, sound card and case. It would only happen maybe once every other day: The system would stutter slightly, and gradually the stuttering would become worse, so sound and video jumped, and the mouse cursor would jump. Eventually the PC would either freeze or BSOD.

Since replacing the above three things the problem has changed to seemingly random BSODs, as well as the computer restarting itself. The error tends to be IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.

This is generally described as a driver issue, so I've updated all my drivers and my BIOS, but the problem remains.

I then tried Prime95, but this caused my computer to freeze within 15 seconds.

I ran memtest86+ yesterday and got 153 errors within 3 minutes, so I assumed my RAM was bad. I tested each stick individually expecting one of them to get errors within a similar time-frame, but they didn't (only ran the tests for about 10 mins each).

I then tried adjusting various voltage settings, as I thought it might be insufficient voltage (even though everything is @ stock). This did allow Prime95 to run quite a bit longer, but the problem remained even when upping the voltage to v1.325 (vcore) and 1.64 (RAM). That's plenty for a 920 @ 2.8GHz and RAM @ 1333MHz so I'm guessing it's not a voltage issue. Trying to overclock seemed to just make matters worse, with quite frequent reboots and power-downs on either booting up or after running Prime95 for about 10 mins.

So last night I decided to run memtest86+ again, but this time it had no errors in nearly 9 hours...

Does that mean I can rule out the RAM?

In that case it's surely a motherboard issue isn't it?

I'm running Prime95 again as I type this (been going for 1 hour 10 mins, which is a lot longer than it's achieved before) and everything seems stable now. I don't understand..

The only thing that's different from my original settings is the RAM speed and timings are slightly increased. By default they were at 1066MHz and 7-7-7-24, but I've upped the speed to 1333MHz and set the timings to 9-9-9-24.

Any suggestions on what to do from here would be massively appreciated.

Thanks


Edit: Oh my temperatures are fine btw (~35C idle, ~60C running Prime95), so it's not a heat issue.

 

[Darkademic]

Update: Computer restarted after about 3 hours in Prime95, strangely just as I tried to close my case.

Just finished running Prime95 for 3 hours, then as soon as I closed it and CPU load/temps came down my PC seemed to lose power, like it was about to restart but nothing happens - had to press the restart button.

That's the second time that's happened after stopping Prime95 .. what could that mean?

 

[nostrum]

Not sure if this will help but Ive been struggling with random BSODs as well that sounds alot like yours.

I used verifier.exe (builtin Windows 7 tool) and after that it will now produce a BSOD flagging the ROCCAT Valo drivers, or more specific ValoFltr.sys.

After uninstalling the Valo drivers I no longer get the BSODs. I also had a keyboard lag problem that is gone now (but Im unable to use the macros due to no drivers).

So now Im waiting for new and better drivers from ROCCAT. Hope it helps.

 

[King107s]

Somethings not right here at all and it sounds like its your mainboard. You should not have to bump your voltages above the 'auto' setting the mainboard puts on there for stock clocks.

You mentioned changing the RAM settings... I suggest that you run the RAM at the manufacture's suggested settings which would be: 1600MHz, 7-7-7-24, @ 1.65V. I also suggest that you set these manually in the BIOS. Set all of the other voltages on auto (including the vcore) and run Memtest & Prime95 Blend again.