Need help diagnosing this issue as I'm at my wits' end now. PLEASE.

[GoldenLeaf]

Hey guys,

 

I've been having quite a few issues with my PC lately. I'll post as few of the symptoms below. If anyone can use these to diagnose what could be causing these issues I would greatly appreciate it.

• Games freezing after few mins of gameplay. When alt tabbing out to close frozen game, windows would be acting strangely, with file explorer crashing task manager not opening, causing me to have to hard shutdown. Games run fine when graphics card is taken out.
• Disk checks on boot.
• Failure to recognised brand new SSD until SATA unplugged and plugged back in.
• Flashing screen on boot  - Please see short video https://photos.app.goo.gl/CgAtLPJdg4dZhiX2A

I had originally thought it was my GPU causing the issues, but with the disk checks and SSD not being recognised with GPU not connected I think it is something else. Maybe mobo?

 

Things already checked:

• All temps while under full load. Which are normal.
• Ram tested
• All cables are connected properly.
• Disconnected all drives except boot drive.
• I have a fresh install of Win 8.1 on a brand new SSD and used a new SATA cable.

 

[Bananasplit_00]

my guess is mobo or RAM. my guess is that its failing POST and thats why its flashing. what did you do to test the RAM? memtest86 im guessing, but for how long?

[Brennan Price]

I'm going to have to agree with @Bananasplit_00 on this one, I reckon motherboard or RAM as well due to it being on BIOS post and not as it's booting into windows. 

 

Have you got any means of testing with a different motherboard? Maybe from a friend. 

 

EDIT: I forgot to mention that personally, I think it's the motherboard going, I'd say so due to the fact that it's fine in games (I'm guessing that they're on another drive?) and then when you tab back into windows it breaks on you, maybe it's just a faulty SATA port or something, try using different SATA ports, if not then maybe it's a dud storage controller, if not a dying one. 

 

Still try Bananasplits option first as hopefully, the issue won't be as bad as my suggestion. 

[GoldenLeaf]

Just now, Bananasplit_00 said:

my guess is mobo or RAM. my guess is that its failing POST and thats why its flashing. what did you do to test the RAM? memtest86 im guessing, but for how long?

Hey thanks for your reply, I really am at the end of my knowledge with these issues now. It does boot into windows after that flashing, but did not do this before I had all the other issues. I used the built in windows memory test tool and let it do it's full test. Should I do memtest86 test?

[Bananasplit_00]

1 hour ago, GoldenLeaf said:

Hey thanks for your reply, I really am at the end of my knowledge with these issues now. It does boot into windows after that flashing, but did not do this before I had all the other issues. I used the built in windows memory test tool and let it do it's full test. Should I do memtest86 test?

memtest86 is the best way to make sure your RAM is fine. if you get errors then you know the RAM is likely bad. if you dont get any errors during the first 4 or so runs then run it for 24h or so and check again. i didnt know windows even had a built in memory test but it is probably not as good as memtest86 is

[GoldenLeaf]

2 hours ago, Brennan_Price said:

I'm going to have to agree with @Bananasplit_00 on this one, I reckon motherboard or RAM as well due to it being on BIOS post and not as it's booting into windows. 

 

Have you got any means of testing with a different motherboard? Maybe from a friend. 

 

EDIT: I forgot to mention that personally, I think it's the motherboard going, I'd say so due to the fact that it's fine in games (I'm guessing that they're on another drive?) and then when you tab back into windows it breaks on you, maybe it's just a faulty SATA port or something, try using different SATA ports, if not then maybe it's a dud storage controller, if not a dying one. 

 

Still try Bananasplits option first as hopefully, the issue won't be as bad as my suggestion. 

Thanks for your input dude. Unfortunately, no I don't have a donor mobo. I currently only have the SSD in the PC as I have removed all HDDS to rule them out as causing instability. Both windows and games are installed on the same SSD. Games run fine using onboard graphics, but I get freezing with the GPU installed.

 

I am in a slight predicament though as I originally thought it was the GPU and contacted MSI for an RMA which they have agreed to. But now I don't think it's that, but still not 100% sure. What's your opinion? If I send it back it will cost me £20 in shipping and if they offer a replacement GPU it will probably be a newer model as 980tis aren't made any more and I'll have to pay the difference between my cards worth and the new one. This is what MSI have said.

 

I am currently trying memtest86. 2 passes and no errors.

[GoldenLeaf]

31 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

memtest86 is the best way to make sure your RAM is fine. if you get errors then you know the RAM is likely bad. if you dont get any errors during the first 4 or so runs then run it for 24h or so and check again. i didnt know windows even had a built in memory test but it is probably not as good as memtest86 is

I have just done 2 passes and no errors were found. I'll do more later. Thanks I am leaning more towards mobo at this time though.

[Brennan Price]

14 minutes ago, GoldenLeaf said:

Thanks for your input dude. Unfortunately, no I don't have a donor mobo. I currently only have the SSD in the PC as I have removed all HDDS to rule them out as causing instability. Both windows and games are installed on the same SSD. Games run fine using onboard graphics, but I get freezing with the GPU installed.

 

 I am in a slight predicament though as I originally thought it was the GPU and contacted MSI for an RMA which they have agreed to. But now I don't think it's that, but still not 100% sure. What's your opinion? If I send it back it will cost me £20 in shipping and if they offer a replacement GPU it will probably be a newer model as 980tis aren't made any more and I'll have to pay the difference between my cards worth and the new one. This is what MSI have said.

 

I am currently trying memtest86. 2 passes and no errors.

Ah I see, have you tried booting from a different drive with something like a Linux bootable drive instead? Then by playing simply games ya can see what happens. The SSD might be the issue instead so doing this might rule out the possibility of the SSD being an issue. As for the GPU, I'm not entirely sure what to suggest as like you said, £20 in shipping, and then the difference for an equally powerful card. If it is just the GPU that ya get issues with tho, maybe it is power supply as if not enough power is supplied then it can cause windows issues and drives not getting enough power too. As ya say though, I can imagine that if you don't have a donor board to hand then neither will you have a more powerful PSU to try either...

 

As for RAM, try an overnight or 24-hour test with memtest86 as only 2 passes isn't anywhere near enough to say stable I'm afraid. 

[GoldenLeaf]

2 minutes ago, Brennan_Price said:

Ah I see, have you tried booting from a different drive with something like a Linux bootable drive instead? The SSD might be the issue instead so doing this might rule out the possibility of the SSD being an issue. As for the GPU, I'm not entirely sure what to suggest as like you said, £20 in shipping, and then the difference for an equally powerful card. If it is just the GPU that ya get issues with tho, maybe it is power supply as if not enough power is supplied then it can cause windows issues and drives not getting enough power too. As ya say though, I can imagine that if you don't have a donor board to hand then neither will you have a more powerful PSU to try either...

 

As for RAM, try an overnight or 24-hour test with memtest86 as only 2 passes isn't anywhere near enough to say stable I'm afraid. 

I was using a 5 year old SSD for windows, but  a couple of weeks ago I tried to run GTA V and the game froze and all these issues started. The disk check utility ran on boot after GTA V froze and I rebooted and it said my SSD was corrupt. This is why I bought a new SSD (Samsung 860 Evo). I ran some checks on the new SSD when I first installed it so I am pretty sure that is not the issue. As for PSU I bought a new one at the time of getting my 980ti back in 2015 as my previous PSU was not powerful enough and was causing crashes. I have a EVGA 850W G2 which should be able to give enough clean power. Thanks for your suggestions I am seriously leaning towards buying a new mobo, CPU, CPU cooler and new case and then transferring everything else from this rig to the new one. I am just afraid that the problem will still persist though knowing my PC luck...