Computer crashes repeatedly.

Recently my computer has started acting quite strange. During normal/idle use it is perfectly stable. However when I start multitasking, playing games + watching streams it immediately crashes. No blue screen, no minidump, no errors in event viewer other than the system shutdown was unexpected. I have it enabled to create a dump on crash as well as to hang on blue screen instead of rebooting. Neither of those actually happen.

I have completely wiped my hard drive, and re-installed Win 7 and all drivers, yet the problem persists. Which lead me to believe it was hardware related. I have re-seated everything in my computer, tried causing the crash with individual sticks of ram in and was able to. Not quite sure anymore, everything in my computer is under warranty and can be easily RMA'd but I want to narrow it down so I'm not just mailing parts back and forth. Any/all help is greatly appreciated.


Computer Specs
Motherboard- GA-Z77X-UD3H (gigabyte)
CPU- i5 3570k Ivy
RAM- GSkill 8 gb DDR3
HDD- 1TB WD Black
PSU- Corsair HX750W

Edit: It's not overheating, case is completely clean, no dust and all fans are spinning. HWmonitor shows all temps are cool with only the southbridge being a little warm (which is normal for the board)

 

Hi my friend , welcome to MG's :major

You can try this tool

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/hard_disk_sentinel.html

to check the health of your system :wave

 

Installed HD Sentinel and it shows performance at 100% (Excellent) and Health at 100% (Excellent). Setting it for Extended Self Test, will edit this post when it finishes. Thanks for your quick reply and advice.

 

You can go to
Start - Run msinfo32 - Ok

to expand Components menu - opting for Disks menu to inform about your hdd model , even you can download this cd

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

burning it with

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/imgburn.html

to test your Ram ( 5 hours at least for each stick ) even to test your Hdd :wave

 

If it shuts down when you are playing games or streaming videos, both GPU intensive activities, you need to look at your graphics card. Shutting down can be caused by heat and although you said the temps are fine, have you looked at the temp of the graphics card under a load?

 

falconattack- I did the extended test with HD sentinel, it finished saying there were no problems. I will download the bootCD and test the RAM today.

plodr-Yes, I monitored the temps of my GPU during a Furmark burn and they never reached anything critical, also my computer didn't crash during the test. I also keep an eye on HWmonitor when gaming and the only warm part of my computer is the Southbridge which is a common thing with this board.

I'll reply back once the ram test finishes, will take a while to finish. Please keep the questions and suggestions coming, they are greatly appreciated.

 

falconattack,

We can't reference Hiren's Boot CD any more beyond version 10 which MGs actually posted a link to. But, MGs now considers Hiren's Boot CD as warez because of Acronis and other software that's illegally included.

 

You have tests to test most of the system but the cpu which would be the thing I tested first.

Do you have a temperature monitoring program? If not-

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/speedfan.html

Then run a cpu load test, intel Burn will push your computer more than even prime 95 but I like to run prime for a couple of hours then run Intel Burn at maximum stress, I've seen temps 10-15C hotter on the cpu than prime.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/prime95.html

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/intelburntest.html

Any CPU that passes an Intel burn test I consider 'ultra' stable.

 

I suggest a voltage check as well, first in the BIOS - log down all details, then from HWiNFO64 - set it for sensors only, leave it rest for ~ 10 minutes then work it hard for 15-20; take some screenshots of the results, you'll need several, it's a long window. Add the BIOS temps here along with the screenshots.

It's Summer in the Northern Hemisphere, have you tried running it with the side off and a household fan pointing in there?

 

Reporting back. I ran memtest on my ram individually for a few hours each. One stick came back perfect the other memtest found about 25 errors. As of now I'm not putting the error showing stick back in.


Continuing on.

Rikky- I use HWmonitor for temps/volts. I'm going to do the intel burn test and I'll screenshot my hwmonitor after it's ran for a bit.

satrow- I'll upload those screenshots for you to take a look at in a little bit. Yes, it's quite warm here in Florida. Inside my computer room is normally around 75f and my computer temps are around 28c at idle for cpu and 30c at idle for gpu. I'll add some load temps in my next post along with all the screenshots that I can get.

Definitely appreciate all the solid advice I'm receiving here.

 

Sorry for double posting, I can't edit the previous one.

Volts from Bios:
CPU VCore- 1.008v
Dram Volt- 1.5v
+3.3v- 3.344v
+12v- 12.024v
cpu temp- 28c


Also attaching images from HWInfo from the Intel Burn test. I only did it for 25 passes (3 seperate times with different levels of stress always above standard) and it never crashed and always finished the test perfectly fine.

 

I would preliminarily conclude your cpu fine.

I assume you haven't put the memory stick back that had errors, do you think that stick could the problem then? I would now put the faulty stick back in 'alone' and try to replicate memtest errors in another program, you can set Intelburn to use all available memory, also prime 95 in 'blend' mode will achieve similar.

 

No I haven't put the stick of ram back in that had errors. I don't believe it was the problem, as the crashes still occur when I'm gaming. (happens every time I have attempted to play today)

 

Update.

I've done multiple stress tests and all have finished fine. I tried OCCT to do a PSU stress and my computer immediately shut off (exactly like the crashes that occur when gaming). I've attempted it a couple times and everytime the test starts and my computer crashes, no blue screen, no minidmp file, nothing in event viewer.

 

That crash I would instantly call a psu problem, a complete shudown with no software warning and you've ruled everything else out.

At this point I would try a different psu but this isn't always an option, I can't see a reference to your video card could you post the model again please I'd like to know if your psu is under wattage, have you got a wattage estimate? Even with a pretty huge card though you should still be under 750w.

 

If the Corsair HX750W is a non- SeaSonic built model (I don't think Corsair use SeaSonic at all now) then I would assume that it could well be the source of the problem. I would be hunting around for a friend/colleague to help out with a temp. swap of a quality PSU to test further. Be warned though - a faulty PSU can take out other hardware and can lead to loss of/damage to data on drives attached to it!

A good quality 750W should drive any single GPU card easily. The GTX 550 Ti has a TDP in the 115-150W range, iirc, it should be fine on most quality (SeaSonic/XFX) 450-550W supplies.

 

Rikky- Video Card is a Nvidia GTX 550 ti

satrow & Rikky-Yes, I have a 1000w Coolermaster (it's been in use and 100% stable for months) in my spare computer that I can swap over tomorrow when the computer won't be in use. If this doesn't fix it I'll put the Corsair back in and try a different graphics card as well.

Hopefully the PSU swap will fix everything, I just wanted to rule out as much as possible before I started pulling parts and moving them around. I'll report back tomorrow after I've swapped the Coolermaster into my computer and removed the Corsair. Thanks again for everyone who has offered advice/suggestions and I'll update this thread again tomorrow.

 

Update: Sorry for the lack of reply, incredibly busy this past week. I wasn't able to pull the spare power supply from my other computer (it's twist tied and zip tied all to hell for cable management). However I did remove the PSU from my new computer (the one that keeps crashing) and put that PSU into another computer, and the crashes still occur when load is high.

The old computer is much less demanding on power (system is probably 5 years old. Core2duo, p45 motherboard, 4 gigs of ram, gts 250 gpu) and was being powered by a no-name-brand 550w power supply. Quite annoyed that a no-name brand runs perfectly fine and the $150 corsair power supply isn't capable.

 

Are you saying that the PSU from the crashing computer was put into a previously stable machine and that machine is now crashing?

 

satrow- Yes that is what is happening. I have been able to replicate the crashes in 2 separate computers with the current power supply. No other hardware was swapped over, just the power supply. Was the only real way I could isolate it to test.

 

Time to buy a new, quality, PSU of sufficient capacity then.