Cyrcle

Today my computer has been acting odd. It's been off for about two days and when I turned it on earlier in the day, it booted, and after about 5 to 10 minutes Windows froze while playing a game. I hard booted and now it will not pass the mobo's splash screen.

After some frustration, I went out for the day, left everything unplugged for several hours (maybe about 6 hours). It booted fine then after about 5 to 10 minutes it froze again. It is now not passing the mobo's splash screen yet again.

I cannot access the BIOS, boot menu, nothing. Even putting in a Windows CD isn't working. What could be the problem? I was thinking the processor is overheating somehow, but the computer is clean inside and out, and it's only 4 months old.

Mikki1026

what is the brand of your computer

Cyrcle

It's a custom built.

Cyrcle

Update: Just got in after letting it sit since the original post. Let it sit in BIOS for 5 min and It's only running 30 degrees.

Update 2: Started up Windows and let it sit, nothing wrong. Started up a game, walked away for less than a minute, it looks like it rebooted itself. Let it restart, didn't even get to load windows and rebooted again. Now stuck at the mobo splash screen yet again.

I should have mentioned before, her computer currently has two hard drives, one which has Windows XP Pro 32-bit and another that has 64-bit. It allows her to select which she wants to boot from. I'm unsure if this is causing the problem, but I've tried having one hard drive plugged in and it still won't pass the splash screen so I don't think it's the problem, since it's been like it has (with both versions of Windows) for about two weeks.

Cyrcle

Update 3: Got it working. Reset BIOS to factory defaults. Windows (using 32-bit atm) started up. Let it sit and nothing happened. Checked to see if there were any unusual programs running. Nada. Tried putting a load on the CPU to see what would happen. Unsure of how much it boosted too, but the computer made a beep, went to a BSOD and restarted. It's booting fine currently (32-bit), but still getting the BSOD, which I am unable to read.

Update 4: Windows 64 is no longer booting, automatic BSOD. Backing up important files. Complete. Attempted running games for a test, all games thus far crash before starting. Highest CPU usage spike: ~65%. Computer froze after testing a third game. Rebooted, no boot problems yet.

dai

what
cpu
video card
m/b
power supply
brand
wattage
post what the bios lists for tempretures and voltages

Cyrcle

PSU - PC Power & Cooling S61EPS 610W
Mobo - GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX
CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
GPU - EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB
RAM - CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800

Nothing has been overclocked. Nothing was changed/downloaded to our knowledge between the time it was working fine and now (besides the factory reset of the BIOS).

Haven't tried safe mode.

BIOS temps are reading
system temp - 30-35*C
cpu temp - 28-32*C

dai

turn off the auto reboot so it freezes on the bsod and then post the message in full
control panel/system/advanced/startup and recovery settings
then untick the auto reboot box
check what voltage range your ram has the m/b may default to low and you may need to lift it's voltage
the temps are fine

Cyrcle

Will try. It started up again and won't pass the mobo splash screen now. Had it on early and it went to a BSOD, and even with the reboot on error off, it still rebooted.

Gonna give it ~ 10 minutes of off time to see if it will start up. For some reason that seems to work.

dai

tap f8 when booting and from the boot options menu try
last known good configuration
if no good see if you can access safe mode

Cyrcle

Not sure on voltages and what is what. Newegg reads the memory is supposed to be at 2.1, the voltages in BIOS read

Vcore: 1.316V
DDR18V: 1.872V
+3.3V: 3.344V
+12V: 11.858V

I assume the DDR18V is the memory voltage. Gonna boot up in a second to see if I get another BSOD.

dai

yes that's it i am running the same ram at 2.1v

Cyrcle

Pulled out two gigs of RAM, which was added about two weeks ago. Everything is working fine at the moment. Will post in a bit more to confirm if that is indeed the problem.

(Unsure why it would work for two weeks though)

Cyrcle

Confirmed it's the new sticks of memory causing some instability. I took out the new pair, and left the old in and it boots fine. Replace the old pair with the new it will not boot. Having both in also was causing this problem. Will have to get it RMA'd from Newegg.

Cyrcle

Still having some problems, but hasn't been happening as often. Got the BSOD. Here's what it reads.

"...
The problem seems to be caused by the following file: nv4_disp
...

The device driver got stuck in an infinite loop. This usually indicates problem with the device itself or with the device driver programming hardware incorrectly.

Please check with your hardware device vendor for any driver updates.

Technical Information:

*** STOP: 0x000000EA (0xF9FB9DA8, 0xFA8B4758, 0xF6ACBCBC, 0x00000001)

nv4_disp
Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete.
Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assistance."

dai

in the device manager uninstall the card
reboot tapping f8 and choose vga mode
when windows finishes rebooting
disable a/virus
install your drivers
reboot the computer