kcella

I recently rebuilt my entire system from scratch with the exception of the chasis and monitors. My old system's hard drive crashed and it was severly out of date (a P3 system). Here are the specs on my current system:

Enermax Mid-Tower Chasis
Hiper Type-R 880W Power Supply
ASUS Striker II Extreme
Intel DualCore 3GHz
4 GB OCZ PC3 12800 DDR3 RAM
ASUS 9600 GT 512 MB Graphics Card
2 Western Digital RE3 SATA 1TB Hard Drives in a RAID1 configuration
HP LaserJet 3052
Lite-On SATA DVD/CD Burner
Sony 1.44MB Floppy
Microsoft USB Wireless Optical Mouse
Microsoft PS2 104-Key Natural Elite Keyboard
2 Dell 2001FP 1200x1600 Flat Panel Monitors
Windows Vista 64 bit

After putting together the hardware, I tested that I could get into a POST screen. This was working fine, so I then setup the RAID array and installed Vista. I did not connect any peripherals except the keyboard, mouse and one monitor USB uplink for its USB hub. I installed some basic software (McAfee VirusScan, Malware Bytes, Trillian, Quicken Home 2009, MS Office and network printer) and let the system stay idle for a few days and had no issues. It went into and out of standby mode with no problem.There was one time I noticed the PC reboot itself. It was while I was sleeping, so i do not know if it was random or from automatic updates. I know random reboots can be indicitive of overheating which is why I mention it now. It had an uptime of a couple days after that incident.

Then I started catchig up on Quicken data entry which took a few hours. The morning of that next day it was responding fine. Not until I came home from work was the screen frozen on the screen saver. I shut it down and waited for a minute or two. Turning it back on gave me nothing but fans and hard drive spinning. No video or POST. I tried powering down and back up again a few times with no response. Then I disconnected the power and all inputs. Reconnecting and tried again, still nothing. Finally I took it out of its cabinet, pulled out data and power cables for the hard drives.It then gave me a POST screen. I then reconnected one hard drive at a time and was able to get back into Vista. Only after 30 seconds did it freeze up again. Activity from the keyboard and mouse did nothing. Then it was back on the same cycle with no response. I had to wait a few hours before getting POST screen again. Since then I have not tried leaving it on.

I've re-applied the thermal paste according to the instructions at www.articsilver.com in the hopes that the amounts was either too much or too little. I've run memory tests, CPU tests and peripheral test with the Ultimate Boot CD. I also have a PSU tester which checks out. The computer now seems to be freezing up more often. It has done it as earlier as POST splash screen, while in BIOS and directly afer POST. I've played around with using one memory stick at a time with random results. Sometimes it seems stable, but then its right back to not starting and/or freezing early in boot process. Plus the memory tested out and OCZ website claims the RAM works with my board.

My first thought was overheating, but I monitored the tempurate and voltages through BIOS for as long as I could until it froze and did not notice anything out of the ordinary. I also have three case fans, the retail CPU heatsink and fan, and a hard drive cage fan.

The part that bother me the most is why was it seemingly stable for a few days and now seems to be getting worse? What else could be causing this behaviour? Like I mentioned in the first part of this post, just about every part is brand new. Thoughts, suggestions or comments?

grimx133

You don't mention it, but did you install the chipset drivers and all that from your motherboard disc? That's the very first thing to go in once the OS is installed.

kcella

Yes, installed the motherboard drivers. Although through all the testing and trial and error with different harware configurations my RAID array got corrupt. I had to formt and start from scratch. I have not been able to get far enough to re-install Vista. It freezes much sooner. It does not seem to be a software problem.

wrench97

What are the Temps and voltages reported in the Bios.

kcella

Voltages

Vcore 1.28
CPU PLL 1.52
CPU VTT 1,12
Memory 1.66
NB Core 1.32
SB Core 1.48
DDR3 Termination 0.81
3.V 3.32
5 V 4.99
12 V 12.03


Tempuratures (Celsius)

CPU 32
M/B 25
NB 39
SB 38

Since my last post the system was stable long enough for me to re-install Vista. I installed the M/B drivers, then when it went to restart for the Windows Updates it started its strange behaviour. While loading Vista the first time it rebooted during Vista spash screen, the second time it got a BSOD, third time it froze and last time it got into windows for about 5 minutes and then froze.

wrench97

If this is the Ram you have?> http://www.ocztechnology.com/product...xtreme_edition

The voltage at 1.66 is too low try 1.9-2.0v

wrench97

If this is the Ram you have?> http://www.ocztechnology.com/product...xtreme_edition

The voltage at 1.66 is too low try 1.9-2.0v

kcella

Nope, I have http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_ddr3_pc3_12800_gold_edition

kcella

I'm done. I set memory settings to those from manufacturer and it still locks up in Vista. I'm bringing it to a local repair shop, maybe they can at least tell me what piece of hardware I have to return. I was going to send pics of my BIOS settings, but it freezes before I can even finish. Thanks for all the help.

wrench97

I think your going to find it's a Ram problem those Nvidia boards are very finicky about ram the ram your using is optimized for the Intel P35 chipset, If you check the OCX Configuration utility they do not list any DDR3 sticks for Nvidia chipsets.
http://conf.ocztechnology.com/index.php?c=1&classid=108

Corsair and Crucial both recommend lower voltage models then you have.
http://www.corsair.com/configurator/...aspx?id=488952

http://www.crucial.com/store/listpar...20II%20Extreme