Z87-A build, crashes and BSOD

[Potato1215]

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

TL;DR : Suspecting Z87-A MOBO causing various program crashes. Memtest86 found no errors, BIOS up to date, temperatures fine, all drivers up to date.

What I tried to solve the problem:

Memtest86
Updating drivers
Updating BIOS
Changing BIOS settings for RAM
sfc /scannow (cmd)
chkdsk /r (cmd)


A month ago I finished my build:

http://valid.x86.fr/xuf0ma
PSU: EVGA SUPERNOVA 750 G2 80 PLUS GOLD CERTIFIED 750W POWER SUPPLY
Fans: 8x 120mm fans. Cooling not a problem.
This is the memory I bought :
http://www.corsair.com/en-ca/vengeancer-16gb-dual-chann...

I was cautious about potential static damage and worked on motherboard's box and also every time I had to touch PC components I touched the metal case to make sure all static is removed.
Before using my PC i installed all the drivers provided on motherboard's CD.
Started experiencing blue screens the next days, searched around on google a bit and thought it was memory. Ran memtest86 with both RAM sticks in slot 2 & 4. No errors, tried 1 & 3. Still nothing. I went back to using PC, updated GPU drivers. Played some games, after some time CS:GO was impossible to boot, I had to verify the game every time. Experienced random blue screens while playing Witcher 3.

Went to see what setting the RAM was running in the BIOS. The RAM was set to work at 1333 MHz, so I manually set it to 1600Mhz and increased the voltage a bit to 1.55V, as I heard it might add some stability.

As I was certain it was memory, I tested both RAM sticks on slot 1 and let the test run for 4 hours, none had any error. Past few days I've had 7-zip crash, random game crashes, even MS paint crashed. At this point almost anything I use for an extended period of time without restarting will crash eventually.

I've checked reviews on Newegg, where I bought it, and 25% of users report malfunctions, breaking and simply stopping working.

Suggestions?

I found a similar thread of someone experiencing the same issue: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2705194/msi-mpow...

Voltages:

CPU core : 1.088V
CPU system Agent : 0.848V
CPU Input : 1.840V
DRAM : 1.589V
PCH core : 1.059V
PCH vlx : 1.500V
3.3V : +3.312V
5V : +5.040V
12V : +12.384V

CPU Temp : 36°C
Motherboard Temp : 27°C

I tried "sfc /scannow" a couple days ago and it seems it fixed something. Tried it again today and found additional errors.

CHKDSK /R also found corrupted files, it was 'Recovering orphaned files" after i restarted the PC.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

it was 'Recovering orphaned files" after i restarted the PC.

Sounds like it may just be FS corruption because of Windows not being shut down properly. Even though NTFS is journalled. :/

Heads up, there's a good chance you have a drive failure.

 

[Mandrake4565]

Is it a new Windows 7 install or did you use a HD/SSD that was running on another Pc? Have you tried doing a clean re install of the Os?

 

[Potato1215]

Is it a new Windows 7 install or did you use a HD/SSD that was running on another Pc? Have you tried doing a clean re install of the Os?

All new SSD and HD with clean install dating a month ago.

- - - Updated - - -

Sounds like it may just be FS corruption because of Windows not being shut down properly. Even though NTFS is journalled. :/

Heads up, there's a good chance you have a drive failure.

What do you recomend to pin down the problem?

 

[Robert17]

Have you tried to boot up with your Win7 CD and selected 'Repair' ? Additionally, do you have a spare hard drive that you can install your OS onto? Even though your hard drive(s) are new, you could have gotten the bad lotto drive.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

All new SSD and HD with clean install dating a month ago.





What do you recomend to pin down the problem?

The Parted Magic Linux distro works like a charm for the tools it has to check drives. I also have a lot of drives, in case one fails.

I would check the SMART and then wipe it.

 

[Potato1215]

The Parted Magic Linux distro works like a charm for the tools it has to check drives. I also have a lot of drives, in case one fails.

I would check the SMART and then wipe it.

I'll try that PartedMagic, but my system is installed on my SSD, the drive is only for storage, you want me to wipe the SSD?

 

[Potato1215]

After all this testing I decided to only use one RAM stick at a time, the first I used for a week with no crashes, then replaced with the seconds and got a BSOD within an hour. I requested an RMA from corsair, sent the DRAM, received the new ones and I've been using my PC for two weeks without crashing. It was faulty RAM after all. MEMtest86 is a great tool but it doesn't always show if you have bad RAM.

 

[Mandrake4565]

Glad you sorted it out. I will say a lot of times when I'm having memory issues I need to run memtest for at least 4 passes. Not sure if that was accomplished in 4 hours but at least you have it fixed.

 

[wingman99]

Glad you have it fixed, did you try windows memory test?