Something is wrong with my PC please help

[apav]

Hi everyone,
So I built my computer in 2011, and everything is the same except for the graphics and sound card. I have my i5 2500k overclocked to 4.5 at around 1.344v (that is the lowest it is stable at), and very very rarely have I ever gotten a crash and then the American Megatrends screen pops up on reboot telling me that my overclocking has failed. And by very rarely I mean it has only happened 3 times since 2012, and each time all I had to do was reboot my computer a second time and it works completely fine. But this is something different I think. I'll describe them in order.

My first time I realized something was wrong, I was watching youtube videos, when all of a sudden my desktop switches from Windows Aero to basic, then I start to hear a weird squealing noise coming from my PC. Almost like coil whine but more high pitched, like a dentist drill but not as loud. And the pitch fluctuated. Really eerie sound. The computer didn't crash, but I got scared and restarted it, but when it turned back on I got no video. Keyboard and mouse lit up, nothing onscreen. As soon as I pressed the power button it turned right off (which indicates that it wasn't booting into Windows). I left it on for a few minutes and the video still wouldn't come back on. So I turned it off, flipped the power switch on the power supply to off, waited a couple of minutes, flipped it back on, turned on the computer, and it booted normally (with the startup repair screen, I selected boot to windows normally and it did). This has happened maybe 2 or 3 other times of just being on the desktop. The next time it happened I was just sitting at the desktop, and when I heard the sound, I let the computer be to see what happens. Eventually the sound stopped after 2 minutes, and no crash.

However I am still getting crashes (just not involving that weird noise). They're the reason why I made this post, I've experienced 2 in the past few days! These crashes are different from the overclock failed crashes. Most of the time they happen during gaming. Both the computer and sound freeze. When I reboot after the crash, I get nothing on the screen even after waiting a while. The really weird thing is that I get a lot of static hissing through my speakers during this time when it is on but not booting, like before, I had to manually turn off the switch on the power supply, and then back on again after a few moments. It was there that I noticed a blinking red light coming from inside my case somewhere. The light was coming out the back of my case so I didn't catch where exactly it was coming from. And when it successfully boots, there is no screen that the overclock failed.

Also, this could be related, so I am mentioning it. Although it hasn't done it lately (in like 6 months), after a while of gaming my PSU used to make very loud buzzing sounds. Even after shutting the computer down, the buzzing coming from my PSU was just as loud. Flipping the switch on the PSU is what "fixed it" temporarily, it made the sound much more quiet, but you had to leave it that way for a little while for the sound to dissipate completely. I cleaned it out and nothing changed, so I don't think dust was an issue. It just stopped on its own months back, and I haven't heard it since.

 

 

I'd just like to point out again, despite these issues I've stated, my computer is always back running like nothing happened if I flip the PSU switch off then on. There's no lingering damage from what I've seen, just the chance that it might happen again. It happens very infrequently, maybe once every few months, but lately the crashes are more frequent. I'm thinking about RMA'ing my PSU and GPU just to be on the safe side. What do you guys think?

 

Specs:

i5 2500k @ 4.5GHz with Cooler Master 212 EVO 
ASUS P8Z68-V 
16GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz
EVGA GTX 780 SC w/ ACX cooler 

Corsair HX850
Samsung 830 256GB SSD + Samsung 1TB 7200 rpm 
Sound Blaster ZxR Sound Card
Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit

Thank you very much!

[brownninja97]

Main threats with things like this are either the psu or the motherboard and maybe the hdd. Firstly the easy part, check all caps on the board, any swells, leaks or eruptions and the board is a gonna, you can resolder the caps on but whatever caused the cap to break with occur again, then check the hdd, try another hdd, lastly check the psu, sometimes psus have a cap fault where it will power for a while then gives up. I hope this helps.

[SpyRosL]

My best guess would be power supply failure.If you have any other lying around try it with that one.

[apav]

Main threats with things like this are either the psu or the motherboard and maybe the hdd. Firstly the easy part, check all caps on the board, any swells, leaks or eruptions and the board is a gonna, you can resolder the caps on but whatever caused the cap to break with occur again, then check the hdd, try another hdd, lastly check the psu, sometimes psus have a cap fault where it will power for a while then gives up. I hope this helps.

I'll get around to closely looking at the board. Thank you for pointing out what to look for, I really only know how to put a system together not really how to repair hardware damage! And my OS is on my SSD. HDD is fine, no errors or bad sectors according to HDTune.

 

My best guess would be power supply failure.If you have any other lying around try it with that one.

That is mine as well, but the time when it switched from Windows Aero to Basic sounds like a GPU issue. Maybe it did that because it wasn't getting enough power?

[lukesterboy]

I would have said the HDD or possibility the GPU!  But best bet is HDD since that has moving parts in it.

[SpyRosL]

I'll get around to closely looking at the board. Thank you for pointing out what to look for, I really only know how to put a system together not really how to repair hardware damage! And my OS is on my SSD. HDD is fine, no errors or bad sectors according to HDTune.

 

That is mine as well, but the time when it switched from Windows Aero to Basic sounds like a GPU issue. Maybe it did that because it wasn't getting enough power?

Windows aero get disabled when you open games.If you were idle when it happened,idk. It's not a big deal anyways.A windows format is always a good thing if you haven't done it for a long time.

Also,it's worth trying to bump the cpu voltage a little bit.After years, they may need a little bit more voltage.Try 1.355v

[apav]

I would have said the HDD or possibility the GPU!  But best bet is HDD since that has moving parts in it.

 

I don't think so. None of my system files are on my HDD so even if that drive died, I don't think it would cause any freezes or crashes unless I was playing a game on it right when it died or something. But the drive is completely healthy according to a number of tests. I'm really at a loss here with what this could be.

 

 

Windows aero get disabled when you open games.If you were idle when it happened,idk. It's not a big deal anyways.A windows format is always a good thing if you haven't done it for a long time.

Also,it's worth trying to bump the cpu voltage a little bit.After years, they may need a little bit more voltage.Try 1.355v

 

The thing is I was watching a youtube video with no games or fullscreen applications running at the time. And right as the noise started it changed from Aero to Basic. So I'm 99% sure a hardware issue caused it, and caused the other times the squealing noise has happened, and may possibly be causing the other crashes.

[apav]

Welll this is interesting. Something is definitely wrong, I was watching a youtube video and then this happened:

 

It was stuck on collecting memory dump so I had to hold down the power button and reboot. Any idea what this could mean? This is the first blue screen I've had in a long time, before I reinstalled Windows on this computer actually, so it's the first one I've had on this installation. Combine that with all the freezing lately, this is definitely not just a random occurence like it usually is.

 

The only major thing I did to my system the past few days is remove GameGuard off my computer. I uninstalled a Phantasy Star Online BB server I used to play on, but because GameGuard acts like a rootkit, I had to do some deeper cleaning to completely get rid of it. I followed this guide here (it's for a different game but since it's the same software, the files you have to delete are the same):

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=32001078&postcount=44

 

This is probably unrelated, as the BSOD is about a hardware issue, but I just thought I share, because I deleted some files out of System32, WOW64 and the registry all having to do with GameGuard.

[johncarlosbe]

 if your psu check out fine i would test your ram. bad ram has made pc do wired things.

[aarongaming100]

i dont think its the psu im thinking cpu return it to stock speeds and try that

[apav]

i dont think its the psu im thinking cpu return it to stock speeds and try that

I'm thinking your right. Just ran Prime95 on my current overclock, not even 15 minutes in I get a BSOD, specifically error 124. Two years ago when I first tested this overclock I ran it in Prime95 with the same test and it was stable for 24 hours. I haven't changed this overclock since. So either the CPU has degraded and needs more power, or the PSU has degraded and gives out less power. I've never heard of a CPU degrading before (losing it's capability to handle an overclock at lower voltages when it previously was able to handle it), but I saw this thread:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1466408/well-i-think-im-seeing-degradation-of-my-2500k-its-about-time

 

So I guess I'll have to bump up the voltage a little and test again. That makes me sad, now to be able to stay at 4.5 I have to keep it at a higher voltage which generates more heat.