Random crashes/BSODs/restarts

[R1ST0]

Hey!

 

Me and my friend have been trying solve the problems that started after his hardware upgrade.

 

Specs after upgrade:

Asus Z87-K

Intel Core i5 4670K

Corsair Dominator 1600MHz 4x2GB

Gigabyte Geforce GTX570

Samsung 2TB 5400rpm

Samsung 750GB 7200rpm

Corsair TX 650W

 

His perspective:

"The other day I decided that I should upgrade my computer, by getting an Asus Z87-K and a 4670K (I had an Asus M4A79XTD EVO and an AMD Phenom X4 965).

Little did I know that it would be one of the biggest mistakes I've made when it comes to my computer.

Since I replaced my old motherboard and CPU, I have reinstalled my windows 8, and then it began. Random crashes/restarts, without any crashreports according to WhoCrashed."

 

I'll take it all in order of events.

 

• Replace the components - no issues installing them.
• Fresh re-install of windows 8 - still no problem.
• Crashed at desktop - assumed it was just Windows 8 being Windows 8. 
• Try to play Arma 3 Beta - worked fine the first time, but closed it after a few minutes. The second time however, it crashed and rebooted(no bluscreen) 
• Removed a stick of RAM - I removed it because of my H60 tubing was pressing slightly on one of the memory heatspreaders.
• Just screwing around on the internet for a few hours - it worked just fine.
• Started arma 3 - crashed and rebooted(no bluescreen).
• Stress test the RAM with memtest - 2x2GB, different 2x2GB, 4x2GB - no issues. 
• Stress test CPU, GPU, RAM - no problems there. 
• Random Crash - when i was running Razer Comms, wich seems quite odd. 
• Reinstall windows 8
• Install all the drivers( chipset, GPU etc.) 
• I change the setting so it doesn't restart immediately when crashing
• Stress test CPU, GPU, RAM - no crash or BSOD.
• Arma 3 Beta - Crasched after just a few minutes.
• Windows update -   BSOD - WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR
• Google tells me it might be a failing HDD
• HDD test - 1 warning on my primary drive(750GB)
• Started to split the 2TB HDD into to partitions. Left it running for about 8 hours - no crash
• Removed the damaged HDD
• Install Windows 8 on the 2TB HDD
• Still crashing - starting to lose my mind
• Install Windows 7 - shouldn't be as crappy as Win 8, right? 
• Stress test - Everything looks great
• Arma 3 Beta - crasch after aproximately 20 minutes.
• Blur - no crash, ~2h
• Stress test - HDD(CrystaldiskMark), RAM(~90% used with Prime95), CPU(100% load with Prime95), GPU(100% load with MSI Kombustor) - no crash
• Arma 3 Beta- crashed after about 30min

 

I'm assuming Arma 3 has a part of the system crashing but that doesn't explain the crashes while idle/youtube/forums. If it's the temps or some malfunction that causes crashes under heavy load it should have crashed during the stress tests.

 

A friend of mine bought another 4670K and an Asus Z87-K(from the same retailer), he re-installed Windows 8 and has had no problems since. 

 

Any advise or help of any kind is highly appreciated. Or my friend might severly hurt himself or someone else.

[X1XNobleX1X]

One question, what is your CPU overclocked at? Is it even overclocked at all?

Edited July 7, 2013 by X1XNobleX1X

[R1ST0]

One question, what is your CPU overclocked at? Is it even overclocked at all?

I enabled "performance mode" in the AI Suite the first installation after the upgrade it was something around 3.8-4.2GHz. After that I haven't done anything except change the RAM to 1600MHz. 

[X1XNobleX1X]

I enabled "performance mode" in the AI Suite the first installation after the upgrade it was something around 3.8-4.2GHz. After that I haven't done anything except change the RAM to 1600MHz.

Hmmm, the same problem happened to me. I was overclocking the CPU from 4.4 to 4.6, nearly every game crashed for me and would also crash at the desktop.

[Eric1024]

Okay, try going back into the BIOS and disabling performance mode for now. Also, go look in the windows event logs and look for fatal errors, sometimes the event log can be helpful in diagnosing these kind of problems. Then look for SMART errors being reported by the hard drives. If no smart errors are being reported then install a utility called parted magic on a freshly formatted usb stick using a program called unetbootin, then boot from that stick, just run everything with default settings (it's from a usb stick so it does take some time to boot), and run the disk health utility on the desktop. Run the extended health check (should take a few hours) and see if it spits out any errors. Then report back to us.

 

This kind of stuff sucks, I wish you luck  :)

[Leonard]

Is your windows 8 a legit copy or torrented? If it is torrented it could be made on a PC that had corrupted files of from a version that was patched and this is the reason why you are having problems updating it and it is crashing. If the HDD was failing i doubt you would be able to stress test with out a problem.

 

FIX

Get a legit version of windows 8

 

Also you can try clearing your CMOS and reducing your RAM speed to 1333mhz, then do your update again and see how that goes.

[bottenfield125]

I would recommend not using the preset settings in the BIOS, i have had crashes on every platform ive tried it with, it was supposed to be better on the new boards but i have yet to try them, they always give me blue screens when i do, manually try and overclock instead or just run it stock for no a tinker with it later when you actually need to overclock to squeeze out performance 

[bottenfield125]

also try and use the BIOS for tuning, might be the software. 

[R1ST0]

Thanks for all the answers.

I checked the bios again and the overclock was still there so I removed it. 

 

With no OC it was idleing around 50C which I thought was a bit on the high side.

So I checked the temps during a Metro Last Light benchmark and the CPU was about 100 degrees C and then it crashed. I can't think of anything else other than the temps that caused it to crash, because 100C is the limit before it shuts off to prevent damage, right?.

I removed the H60 and saw that the thermal paste was not evenly spread. It was mounted with the tubes towards the top of the motherboard and not towards the RAM, because of interference. Can you mount a H60 either way? Or did I just do something else wrong the first time I installed it?

 

It's now installed on a temporary test bench(a motherboard box) with the tubes coming out on the right side and the temps are good.

 

It has Windows 7 x64 installed and no OC, it idles around 30C and it hasn't crashed, yet. But this doesn't explain the first crashes when the H60 wasn't mounted the wrong way. Or maybe that was just Windows 8? 

[YouDontNowNothing]

Does not use STABILIZER or LINE FILTER in PC if you are using (makes your pc restart when you are in game).
Update your Bios.

Run MemTest86 in your memories to see if everthing is OK.
 

When you have problem with HD, normally does not occur blue screen.

Can be malfunction of your processator, take another if you have to test.

 

Retrive all configurations to default (take off all overclock).

 

See ya!