New system freezing

[Kotoa]

Hello, I recently built the following system:

Asus m4a785td-m Evo Mobo
Phenom II 965 125W 3.4GHz CPU
Corsair Dominator 1600mhz 2x2GB RAM
Coolermaster M series 600W PSU
XFX 5870 1GB GFX
1TB Samsung spinpoint F3 HDD
Windows 7 64-bit

It worked without a problem for about a week, then started freezing on rare occasions, and gradually they got more and more frequent. Now I can barely do anything which doesn't cause the pc to freeze. It doesn't even give me the courtousy of a BSoD, the image just freezes, and if there was a sound playing at the time it would play a very short (last few ms) sound continuously. Windows event viewer shows nothing helpful,
Critical: "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."
Error: "The previous system shutdown at 17:35:26 on ‎07/‎02/‎2010 was unexpected."

I've tried swapping the RAM out for another set of 2X2GB of the same type of ram (Bought two sets of 2x2GB sticks but my aftermarket cpu cooler was too big to fit them all in), updated all drivers, updated bios, reformatted, ran the windows memory test (which came up clean), tried running on onboard graphics (4200) instead of the 5870, but the problem persists.

The best way of recreating the freeze is to run the windows experience index test, where it will almost always freeze at "Tuning Windows media decoding"

The temperatures are fine, cpu idles at 24-26 degree's, gfx at about the same, and under load the cpu doesn't exceed 40 degree's.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[Kotoa]

Sorry about the double post, I forgot to mention that when it freezes, nothing works, not even the mouse, or num lock toggling, and requires a hard reboot.

[Burrell]

I had this EXACT same problem, it is a driver problem!

http://uk.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=QHbvGVB1mXmmD8qQ

And download all the latest drivers, reboot and BAM it should work.

(BTW did you check your pc is win 7 compatible?

Burrell

[Kotoa]

Thank you for the reply Burrell, I appreciate it. However I have already downloaded and installed the latest drivers, and they haven't helped. :/

And no, I didn't check if it was compatable, but I assumed that as all the parts are pretty new they would all be compatable.

[Burrell]

Ok, but I am still positive it is a driver issue.

Have a look through Device manager and see if you can see anything with a yellow flag next to it, if you do, post it.

Burrell

[Kotoa]

All drivers are up to date, and I don't think it could be a driver issue, as it was working without a problem for a week first. :/

[spirittoo]

From what I have experience when the system freezes it's usually a driver issue or a hardware issue ... recheck the hardware and test what you can ...

[Kotoa]

I've checked all the hardware I can at this time, only have one AM3 system. (and two sets of 1600mhz ram)

But some research on the asus forum, and it seems alot of people are having stability issues with 1600mhz ram (on this mobo), so I guess I'll just have to wait for a new bios/buy new RAM/mobo.

[collinsl]

This may sound drastic but we need to strip the system down to the bare bones and rebuild one component at a time from there.

Remove everything from the computer apart from:

Power supply
Motherboard
1 stick of RAM (choose one at random)
Hard drive with OS on it

Then using the onboard graphics, test to see if the problem happens again. If not, put components back in one by one until it happens again.

If you find the component causing the problems, take it out and continue putting components back in 1 at a time - another one might be causing the same problems

If it does occur once you have stripped it down, rotate the RAM sticks and see if it happens again.

If you end up going through all the RAM sticks and it continues happening, post back.

[Kotoa]

Collinsl, thank you for the suggestion, however I have already done this, but to 1 stick of ram, which still occasionally froze, so I took it out, and put 2 other sticks in, I didn't have time to go through all the sticks one by one, and test stability over time.

[collinsl]

Originally Posted by Kotoa

Collinsl, thank you for the suggestion, however I have already done this, but to 1 stick of ram, which still occasionally froze, so I took it out, and put 2 other sticks in, I didn't have time to go through all the sticks one by one, and test stability over time.

In that case you likely have a bad motherboard. I recommend sending it back for a swap out.

[Kotoa]

Well looking at the motherboard's forum it seems alot of people have been having issues with 1600mhz ram, so I guess I'm out of luck without waiting for bios/buying new RAM/mobo.

[Fred_G]

Kotoa, I would contact Corsair and see if they can recommend any changes in your RAM settings.

[Mimsy]

Originally Posted by Fred_G

Kotoa, I would contact Corsair and see if they can recommend any changes in your RAM settings.

Seconded. They have a support forum with knowledgeable users and with support staff that can give you in-depth help on getting the memory configured right.

[Kotoa]

I have done a couple of days ago, waiting for them to reply, thanks for all these suggestions. ^^