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Hey all!
I have a problem with my PC, and it's very similar to the problem described here. I started experiencing issues about a year ago while running Windows 7. To begin with my computer would lock up completely in Windows, and there was no specific pattern to it. I could play a game for hours without any problems, but after exiting to Windows it could take as few as 5 minutes before it locked up. And since this issue is so random, it could be hours before it locked up. The image got stuck and there was a buzzing electronic sound coming from my headset. After rebooting I checked Windows' event log, but there was nothing of interest there.
I thought this problem was memory related to begin with, so I ran Memtest86 for a few days. No errors were produced. After a while I thought it could be my video card which was a Club3D GeForce GTS 250 Green Edition, so I purchased a Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 (also in preparation for Diablo 3). At the time I played Microsoft Flight, and I noticed that the game would load very slow (about 1-2 minutes to get into the menus after starting the game). At this point I was suspecting that my system drive, a Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB, could be the culprit, but I decided to not swap it out.
Around the time when Diablo 3, the problem became so severe I gave up. I could play Diablo 3 for hours without any issues (it never locked up in game), but while in Windows it would crash. Shortly after the D3 release I was trying to chat with a friend of mine on Skype. I host a website for him on a linux server I own, so I was basically doing some customer support. While doing this I had Skype and PuTTY running, but my computer locked up so many times within minutes of reboot I abandoned my desktop for a few months.
In October/November I decided to have another go at my desktop, so I purchased an Intel SSD 520 and Windows 8 Pro. After installing everything, I discovered that the desktop was still not healthy, but the symptoms had changed. It doesn't lock up anymore, now it randomly reboots, and it happens everywhere. I've had it happen while the system is idle on the login screen, while playing Wordament, and while in BIOS settings. The only change I've made so far is to manually set the RAM voltage to 1.66V (above 1.65V as specified here) and disconnecting all HDD's apart from the SSD. The problem persists.
After the system reboots, it starts up only to boot down within 1-2 seconds. Then it stays off for 1-2 more seconds and boots up again automatically. At this point it boots without problems and stays on until the next time it restarts, which could be anywhere in the scope of 5-20 minutes.
Right now I'm wondering if the problem could be the motherboard, although I've spent way too much money troubleshooting this PC, so before I start wasting more money on a system that won't work, I figured I'd ask around if anyone could help me find the source of this issue. I haven't played around much with the BIOS settings as I'm not familiar with tweaking hardware.
Thanks!
Edit: I just got a BIOS error that the system had problems booting up due to overclocking. I guess my change of DRAM Voltage to 1.66V wasn't well received, so I changed it back to Auto.
I have a problem with my PC, and it's very similar to the problem described here. I started experiencing issues about a year ago while running Windows 7. To begin with my computer would lock up completely in Windows, and there was no specific pattern to it. I could play a game for hours without any problems, but after exiting to Windows it could take as few as 5 minutes before it locked up. And since this issue is so random, it could be hours before it locked up. The image got stuck and there was a buzzing electronic sound coming from my headset. After rebooting I checked Windows' event log, but there was nothing of interest there.
I thought this problem was memory related to begin with, so I ran Memtest86 for a few days. No errors were produced. After a while I thought it could be my video card which was a Club3D GeForce GTS 250 Green Edition, so I purchased a Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 (also in preparation for Diablo 3). At the time I played Microsoft Flight, and I noticed that the game would load very slow (about 1-2 minutes to get into the menus after starting the game). At this point I was suspecting that my system drive, a Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB, could be the culprit, but I decided to not swap it out.
Around the time when Diablo 3, the problem became so severe I gave up. I could play Diablo 3 for hours without any issues (it never locked up in game), but while in Windows it would crash. Shortly after the D3 release I was trying to chat with a friend of mine on Skype. I host a website for him on a linux server I own, so I was basically doing some customer support. While doing this I had Skype and PuTTY running, but my computer locked up so many times within minutes of reboot I abandoned my desktop for a few months.
In October/November I decided to have another go at my desktop, so I purchased an Intel SSD 520 and Windows 8 Pro. After installing everything, I discovered that the desktop was still not healthy, but the symptoms had changed. It doesn't lock up anymore, now it randomly reboots, and it happens everywhere. I've had it happen while the system is idle on the login screen, while playing Wordament, and while in BIOS settings. The only change I've made so far is to manually set the RAM voltage to 1.66V (above 1.65V as specified here) and disconnecting all HDD's apart from the SSD. The problem persists.
After the system reboots, it starts up only to boot down within 1-2 seconds. Then it stays off for 1-2 more seconds and boots up again automatically. At this point it boots without problems and stays on until the next time it restarts, which could be anywhere in the scope of 5-20 minutes.
Right now I'm wondering if the problem could be the motherboard, although I've spent way too much money troubleshooting this PC, so before I start wasting more money on a system that won't work, I figured I'd ask around if anyone could help me find the source of this issue. I haven't played around much with the BIOS settings as I'm not familiar with tweaking hardware.
Thanks!
Edit: I just got a BIOS error that the system had problems booting up due to overclocking. I guess my change of DRAM Voltage to 1.66V wasn't well received, so I changed it back to Auto.
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