My New Comp w/ Some Trouble

I recently built a new computer because my old one really couldn't hack through Starcraft 2. Here's what I put in it:

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA
Processor: Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield
RAM: OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800
Video Card: GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5
Power Supply: Corsair CMPSU-750

I have a Western Digital 500GB hard drive and a Samsung optical drive as well.

I'm looking for thoughts about this build as I was under the impression this would be a top of the line computer. Currently, it posts without any trouble, but getting Windows 7 to start up is a daily challenge.

I first had difficulty installing Windows (it would hang at the point where it shows the Windows logo after the first reboot), but I was able to get some help and it worked for a while. Now it's doing the same thing whenever I try to start it.

I have a Mechanical Engineering background, so I'm not afraid of working on it, I just don't know what I need to look at/for. The original guy that helped me said he thought my CD drive was shorting in some way, but I completely unplugged it last night and it didn't help.

Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

 

Similar to my setup. I have had a terrible experience with OCZ ram. That would be my first guess. Memtest +86 will help you decide that. Another is the default CPU timing speed. The Gigabyte motherboard defaults to an indicated one step above rated processor speed. This isn't always a problem but can be, depending. If your Bios version is FA, there is an upgrade to FB at the Gigabyte support site.

I suspect the RAM. I've had 4 different RMA's with OCZ RAM. The conventional wisdom is to use a different brand. And there is a strong public move to condemn OCZ, faulting OCZ for the alleged bad DIMM slot in the -UD3R motherboard.

But an I7 processor is capable of manipulating the bit stream of the Intel branded RAM, and this is not available in generic XMP RAM. Which can increase the usable RAM speed above any rated Mhz or latency, etc. Several areas of the CPU process in 128 and 256 bit, hence the bit stream of the RAM can be a big difference.

OCZ is the only RAM maker that is licensed to sell Intel branded RAM, though it seems they are not very good at it. I have a box sitting here to RMA some RAM right now. This RMA is some RAM that was previously RMAed.

I can't resist an opportunity to post my thoughts.

RAM and RMA. Coincidence in the lettering? I think not.

Gigabyte GA X58-UD3R Bios FB
Intel I7 980X
GSkill Ripjaws 1600 x12 GBts
OCZ 1600 x6 GBts
ATI 5870 Graphics
Creative XiFi audio

and my mouse is blue!

 

Good ideas about the Memtest and the upgrade.

You might also try booting to UBCD - it has some good startup troubleshooters. A live Linux distro would provide further tools. Plus, booting to a disk will help check out your optical.

32-bit or 64-bit, and service pack #?

 

I did run the standard windows memory test, but it didn't come back with anything. Since I can't boot into windows, I can't tell you my service pack, but I'm running a 64 bit system and I always run windows update.

How would I go about confirming that it's a RAM issue? Would I have to buy some more RAM, plug it in and boot with that, and then send back the OCZ RAM stating it doesn't work? Unfortunately for me, I am beyond my 30 day return date so I'm not sure what my options are for swapping out or returning the RAM.

As a side note, what actually matters when it comes to RAM. My MB says it takes 1333, but the guy at Microcenter said if I bought the 1600 it wouldn't have any problems even without overclocking. Anyone mind explaining some RAM to me?

Thanks

 

Memtest +86 is a booted utility. You burn it to CD, or a thumb drive and boot it. If a bank or 2 of the RAM shows bad, exchange the RAM to different slots. If the errors follow the RAM, it is RAM. This observation will be very good should you need to go to OCZ support and initiate a RMA Trouble Ticket.

The RAM speed in an I7 is not as big a deal as in other machines. 1333 will clock to somewhere around 2100 if you choose to overclock. If you are not running hugely intensive applications, the speed is academic.

I justified my build because I am doing intense DirectX work, sometimes I have 5 applications chained together and go into and out of them. 3D video in particular.

It's always a good idea when doing a computer build to have a few extra pieces to fall back on. Everything from screws to graphics cards. Troubleshooting a build takes a little more than just the bare bones parts used to complete the assembly.

One way to see it is that every component in the build is much more complicated than the average home appliance. Failure rates are in proportion to the complexities. And integrated, asynchronous circuits can be a real bugger to troubleshoot. That is why God made Dell, Systemax, and others.

 

Besides the Memtest, if you've got multiple sticks of RAM you can swap slots, try with different combinations of modules, etc.

 

Yes. Swapping the strips without Memtest will do the same thing, but using memtest is more technical. And in XMP RAM, it doesn't entirely, absolutely rule out the controller chip interacting with the RAM. Neither does memtest. I like the one post about integrated, asynchronous circuits being a bugger to troubleshoot.

OCZ RAM works in sets. You will not convince OCZ it is their RAM using less than matched sets.

 

I've swapped the RAM in and out with no effect. Pulled them all out, read in my MB manual which slot I should use for a single chip and inserted them one at a time trying to get Windows up -> No Luck.

I'm pretty frustrated with my $1200 paper weight at this point. I might give reinstalling Windows 7 a shot, but last time I did this, the installation wouldn't finish.

If I were to bring this in somewhere to have it fixed, where would I go? I've used Microcenter in the past, but this seems to be a tricky problem as they thought they fixed it last time.

 

Have you run the RAM at default speed, disabling the extreme profile in the BIOS? Disabling the CPU Turbo feature would be good to.

I gave up on the OCZ RAM, for fear of hashing my Mobo and/or CPU.

But the Turbo CPU feature caused me all kinds of problems. And one set of RAM ran perfectly good at default, 1033 MHz, but crashed every time with the Extreme Profile.

 

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since my last post. Here's the update if you're interested. OTHERWISE SKIP TO THE BOTTOM.

I tested the memory and was able to determine there wasn't anything wrong with it. I then found a friend who was willing to help me out.

Around the holidays, we tried changing about a million things in the bios to get
Windows 7 installed and booting regularly. After days of testing, we finally tried swapping video cards. I don't know what model my friend's card is, but my computer worked like a champ with that card. We researched this and found out that sometimes the fermi cards are like that. I can't find the site anymore because it's been so long, but anyway, that seemed to be the cause of the issue.

I contacted Gigabyte and RMAed my video card and my motherboard. I sent both because we were able to prove, with the use of my friend's computer, that both my mobo and my video card were good, they just don't work together. Anyhow, a month later, Gigabyte sends me a new video card. However, they didn't test the two components together. They just swapped it because it was an RMA. I called to explain, again, that there's an incompatability issue, but they don't do exchanges. I talked to tech support, customer service, and marketing. They even claimed they would look into and call me back, it's been months. Moral of the story: Gigabyte wouldn't help me and I will never buy another of their products. I'm going to attempt to sell my 460 and I bought a Sapphire HD6850. Popped it in and bingo! Windows 7 installed on the first try.


CURRENT ISSUE:

Now I seem to have a different problem. My computer will shutdown without warning randomly when I'm doing installs. So far I have been able to get all my updates and drivers loaded, but it took multiple tries and only doing one at a time.

I originally thought this was a temperature issue, but I'm doubting that now. I grabbed a temp monitor (and it installed thankfully) and I'm seeing my hottest core hit 37C. That doesn't seem too hot to me, but what do I know. I have an 800 watt power supply so I don't think I'm underpowered, but I've seen shutdowns like this due to power issues in the past). Is there any way the motherboard could be causing this? Windows runs fairly smoothly, but there is the occasional hang up where I can't even get the task manager open. Based on my system, I don't think it should ever hang unless there's a problem.

What do y'all think?

 

My next step would be to see if the BIOS is up to date. My Gigabyte Bios has went from ver. FA-FF, six flashes. It is a good idea to clear the CMOS, usually a button to push on the back, reload the defaults and reconfigure. Something makes me think it is BIOS. There is a feature to set the graphics priority to PCIE-16x1 in the BIOS as well.
Many things can effect the way a motherboard acts. RAM can do similar things to what you are experiencing. It is pretty much a policy of mine not to answer posts involving OCZ Ram. After this post, I am outta here.

 

Generally a problem where it powers off randomly without it overheating, is a bad motherboard. (from my experience)

 

This may blow a few minds!
I once had a customer with a spontaneous shutdown problem. It was random.
They would disconnect their computer and take it to a local PC repair shop, where ram was tested and changed several times. The PC would still crash at random times.

Finally the folks (a real nice OLD couple) called me to see if I could fix their computer.
They specified, that if I couldn't fix it, they would not pay me. They had already spent way more money on that PC than it was worth.

So it took me all of five minutes to find the cause of the problem. It was the mouse.
I had learned years before to never disregard something as simple as a keyboard or mouse. Either one, can send scrambled information to the motherboard causing it to crash.

On the other side of the coin, ram can show up as bad, just because either the chips themselves or the edge connector is DIRTY.

I've saved thousands of dollars worth of ram over the years (about 30+) by just washing it. Even ram on a video card can make the whole card appear to be BAD, but just cleaning that video ram, can salvage that card.

I'm still using a video card, in my backup system, that displayed video ram failure, many years ago now. I took out the card and literally Washed, the video ram, on the card, trying to keep away from the rest of the card. After a rinse in Denatured Alcohol and an hour or so in the afternoon sun, I put the card back in the computer and it's run flawlessly ever since.

So I'll never throw out any ram till it's been thoroughly cleaned.

RAM tests also check one address at a time and do not LOAD the ram as it would be loaded when running an OS plus programs. Thus, they can give erroneous readings, showing ram as good when it's really not.

Shadow

PS: I get all my ram and ram for my customers from "Crucial". It carries a lifetime warranty. So far in many years, it's never failed me.

 

Yes. good advice. Some people find using a soft pencil eraser on the contacts works well, too.
Core I7's behave a bit differently, but not like they are on another planet. There is a bit of streaming Ram data to the GPU and Graphics Ram on any of them. I suspect the controller/s could be bad and the Ram is good as well.
New Ram in a new motherboard takes some worry out of the dirt/corrosion issue.
When I got three different sets of RAM from OCZ, all being bad. I guess I was in denial, just like they said, though I have been running 24 Gigs of Ram with no issue at all, almost identical specs to the OCZ.
I have run Q6600, Q9650, and I7-980X with OCZ Ram and had 5 returns. Maybe I/they just like to argue.