[SOLVED] Tearing my hair. Vista and W7 crashes all the time.

superjens · 05-13-2009, 02:41 PM

Hello fellows. Ever since I built this computer, I've been having problems running vista.

Let me start from the beginning. Last spring, I ordered and put together the computer I'm writing on right now.

Gigabyte Ga-p35-DS3R rev 2.1
Mushkin 2*2GB ddram2
Gigabyte 8800 GT
Intel Q6600 G0 stepping (not overclocked)
Samsung spinpoint 500 GB SATA
Samsung DVD/CD burner SATA

When the build was done with some help from my friends i proceeded to install Vista 64. However I started getting problems already during the install. It would seemingly random crash just about anytime. Sometimes it would crash just in the beginning when the "Starting Windows" logo came. Sometimes it wouldn't crash until i reached the partitioning. And once after about 15 tries i managed to get through the installation.

However the crashes persisted at desktop.

Description of the crash:

No error messages at all. The screen just goes black and it starts looking for a signal by switching from analogue to digital input. I've been trying to wait it out and testing some things but the only thing you can do is to restart.

After some attempts to resolve the problem, I took one of my old XP disks and installed that and forgot about the whole thing until recently when the w7 RC was released. I bought a new HD (Samsung spinpoint 1TB) to dual boot it with my XP install but it's excactly the same problem again...

What I've tried

I've tested all the rams with memtest86 and the hdds with chkdsk
I've been looking at the temperatures which seem to be ok. CPU is about 50*C and about 60*C when running some sweat.
I've been testing different settings in bios. I don't really know if I've been trying the right things though.
One funny thing: The problem does not arise in Safe Mode!. That made me think that the drivers were at fault. However i've been trying both the default microsoft drivers and the latest drivers recommended by my hardware makers.
I've tried making a clean install from XP onto another partition with the same problem.
I've tried burning the w7 disk several times and with slow speed. (The Vista disk was out of the box so should be ok"
I was going the update the bios yesterday but reading the bios file failed. So i'm a bit scared to try it again to not make the problem worse

I'm at a total loss. Ive tried googling every keyword I can think of but noone seems to have the same problem as I do!

Any help would be appreciated!

/Superjens

**manic** · 05-13-2009, 06:58 PM

What power supply are you running, wattage and brand.
50c at idle is to hot....

superjens · 05-14-2009, 12:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by manic

What power supply are you running, wattage and brand.
50c at idle is to hot....

The PSU is a Antec Earthwatts 500w.

You think the temperature really can be a problem? I did the mounting all according to the book... And I've never had any problems in XP!

PS. Forgot to mention that when it "crashes", all the fans are still running. And the leds on the motherboard lights up.

dai · 05-14-2009, 01:10 AM

see if you can borrow a 550w quality or better to try in it

no bsod error message usually relates to power or heat

redo the paste on the cpu with some arctic silver

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_s...structions.htm

superjens · 05-14-2009, 04:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dai

see if you can borrow a 550w quality or better to try in it

no bsod error message usually relates to power or heat

redo the paste on the cpu with some arctic silver

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_s...structions.htm

I used the arctic silver paste when i mounted the cooler. However I find it unlikely that heat is the problem as I've been running XP without any problems for a year. 2 minutes into the install shouldn't be enough time to accumulate such heat should it?

I'll ask among my friends if anyone's got a PSU to lend me.

superjens · 05-19-2009, 11:40 AM

SOLVED: I updated bios to the latest beta and the problem was gone...

05-13-2009, 02:41 PM	#1 (permalink)
superjens Registered User Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 4 OS: xp64	[SOLVED] Tearing my hair. Vista and W7 crashes all the time. Hello fellows. Ever since I built this computer, I've been having problems running vista. Let me start from the beginning. Last spring, I ordered and put together the computer I'm writing on right now. Gigabyte Ga-p35-DS3R rev 2.1 Mushkin 22GB ddram2 Gigabyte 8800 GT Intel Q6600 G0 stepping (not overclocked) Samsung spinpoint 500 GB SATA Samsung DVD/CD burner SATA When the build was done with some help from my friends i proceeded to install Vista 64. However I started getting problems already during the install. It would seemingly random crash just about anytime. Sometimes it would crash just in the beginning when the "Starting Windows" logo came. Sometimes it wouldn't crash until i reached the partitioning. And once after about 15 tries i managed to get through the installation. However the crashes persisted at desktop. Description of the crash: No error messages at all. The screen just goes black and it starts looking for a signal by switching from analogue to digital input. I've been trying to wait it out and testing some things but the only thing you can do is to restart. After some attempts to resolve the problem, I took one of my old XP disks and installed that and forgot about the whole thing until recently when the w7 RC was released. I bought a new HD (Samsung spinpoint 1TB) to dual boot it with my XP install but it's excactly the same problem again... What I've tried I've tested all the rams with memtest86 and the hdds with chkdsk I've been looking at the temperatures which seem to be ok. CPU is about 50C and about 60C when running some sweat. I've been testing different settings in bios. I don't really know if I've been trying the right things though. One funny thing: The problem does not arise in Safe Mode!*. That made me think that the drivers were at fault. However i've been trying both the default microsoft drivers and the latest drivers recommended by my hardware makers. I've tried making a clean install from XP onto another partition with the same problem. I've tried burning the w7 disk several times and with slow speed. (The Vista disk was out of the box so should be ok" I was going the update the bios yesterday but reading the bios file failed. So i'm a bit scared to try it again to not make the problem worse I'm at a total loss. Ive tried googling every keyword I can think of but noone seems to have the same problem as I do! Any help would be appreciated! /Superjens

05-13-2009, 06:58 PM	#2 (permalink)
manic Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Florida Posts: 5,246 OS: xp	Re: Tearing my hair. Vista and W7 crashes all the time. What power supply are you running, wattage and brand. 50c at idle is to hot.... __________________

05-14-2009, 01:10 AM	#4 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,687 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	Re: Tearing my hair. Vista and W7 crashes all the time. see if you can borrow a 550w quality or better to try in it no bsod error message usually relates to power or heat redo the paste on the cpu with some arctic silver http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_s...structions.htm __________________

05-19-2009, 11:40 AM	#6 (permalink)
superjens Registered User Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 4 OS: xp64	Re: Tearing my hair. Vista and W7 crashes all the time. SOLVED: I updated bios to the latest beta and the problem was gone...