Newly bought PC - Nothing but problems...

[arksos]

This is the PC i got delivered on the 09/08/10 -


Case PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7-870 Quad Core (2.93GHz, 8MB Cache)

Motherboard ASUS® P7H57D-V EVO: FULL ATX, TRUE USB 3.0 & SATA 6.0GB/s

Memory (RAM) 4GB CORSAIR XMS3 DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 2GB KIT)

Graphics Card 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11

Memory - 1st Hard Disk 120GB OCZ VERTEX 2 SATA II 2.5" SSD (upto 285MB/sR| 275MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk 1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 10x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW

Memory Card Reader INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)

Power Supply & Case Cooling CORSAIR 850W PSU (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET

Processor Cooling TITAN FENRIR EXTREME DIRECT TOUCH COPPER CPU COOLER

Sound Card Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Gamer

Network Facilities ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

USB Options 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS
STANDARD

Modem NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence

Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE

Anti-Virus - NOD32 Antivirus and firewall - self installed.

Since then i have installed STEAM and the below games -

Empire Total War
Napoleon Total War
Left4Dead
Left4Dead 2
Victoria
Victoria 2
Just Cause 2

The Below games do not use STEAM

Lord of the Rings Online
EVE Online

All installed and start working fine and with no problem.

I have also installed itunes and all programs install and work fine.

I use Opera and Internet explorer. No problems with any of the browsers.

I have a Virgin media 20mb connection and use it wireless.


Since starting the computer and installing all the relevant games i have had nothing but problems.

I have documented using the Event Viewer software, over 22 Critical Events resulting in Blue screen and requiring the PC be restarted.

Thats 22 in 10 days. These errors come out of the blue and always when i am using one of the above games, sometimes after 10 minutes, sometimes after 60. I have yet to play more then 1 1/2 hours without a blue screen or crash.

All of the critical errors have been;

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
Date: 09/08/2010 23:55:14
Event ID: 41
Task Category: (63)
Level: Critical
Keywords: (2)
User: SYSTEM
Computer: Chris-PC
Description:
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power" Guid="{331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}" />
<EventID>41</EventID>
<Version>2</Version>
<Level>1</Level>
<Task>63</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000002</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2010-08-09T22:55:14.508824600Z" />
<EventRecordID>4073</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="8" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Chris-PC</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="BugcheckCode">0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter1">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter2">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter3">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter4">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="SleepInProgress">false</Data>
<Data Name="PowerButtonTimestamp">0</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

I have looked online, removed and replaced RAM, Xphics card and checked all connections and plugs and found nothing obvious. I have then started the PC again and got the same problems.

I have installed the latest xphics card drivers, updates for win7 and all other things i can think to update and still no solution.

Now on the Event Viewer software i have looked at the Administrative Events and seen that i have 675 over the same period.

Certain events come before or after one of the critical events.

The first critical error was proceeded by the below errors/faults;

XML View -

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-DistributedCOM" Guid="{1B562E86-B7AA-4131-BADC-B6F3A001407E}" EventSourceName="DCOM" />
<EventID Qualifiers="49152">10010</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2010-08-09T22:52:12.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>4059</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="0" ThreadID="0" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Chris-PC</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
- <EventData>
<Data Name="param1">{B1DBD568-80B2-43FA-AE07-76FB23AA4650}</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

and then the record of the crash/restart.

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
<Provider Name="EventLog" />
<EventID Qualifiers="32768">6008</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2010-08-09T22:55:20.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>4069</EventRecordID>
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Chris-PC</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
- <EventData>
<Data>11:48:23 PM</Data>
<Data>‎8/‎9/‎2010</Data>
<Data />
<Data />
<Data>494</Data>
<Data />
<Data />
<Binary>DA07080001000900170030001700A101DA07080001000900160030001700A101600900003C000000010000006009000000000000B00400000100000000000000</Binary>
</EventData>
</Event>

I have no idea why this occurred and cannot remember what i was doing with the PC.

The next critical error was proceeded by;

Warning -

Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller is disconnected from network.

Their are so many errors/warnings/faults that i cannot document them all here...ill just see if the above makes any sense...it is very late.

I have been at this several days now and am losing the will to live. I'm no PC expert or intermediate and this is why i did not build the PC myself but paid good money on a website.

I wonder if anyone has any ideas whats wrong and if i did it myself or if its a problem with something really obvious?

Ill get back with any updates if i solve it.

 

[Maestro]

It looks to me like its all software related, and your probably not going to get to the bottom of it without re-installing the os. In any case if you re-install the os and the problems dissappear then we know the problem was software. If you re-install the os and the problems remain then its a fair bet that the problems are hardware related.
One bit of advice. After re-installing your os, after installing your drivers, start installing your applications one at a time and then after each use the pc and the particular app/game for a while before installing the next to ensure all is working properly.

 

[Meds]

Hi Arksos,

First of all I'm sorry to hear that you are experiencing problems with your new PC.

I would follows Maetro's suggestion of a OS re-installation along with all drivers, software etc. I know it can be a hassle but it does rule out any posibility of it being a software fault, it could be something as simple as a Windows Update not installing correctly or it could be alot more complicated than that.

However if we start from scratch on the software side and the problems still persist, we can then move in and attempt to track down a hardware fault.

 

[arksos]

Hi all.

Cheers, ill do that. I tried restoring the PC with the restore feature to a 09/08/10 previous version and still got the same problems.

Ill try the OS re-install and then do as you suggest.

 

[Sleinous]

If I could just suggest checking that you still have 4GB of memory being detected on your PC, seems to be problems with teh Corsair lately. I also used to get the BSODs and game crashes when I had my Corsair RAM in (now using Kingston) and this was simply because as soon as the game wa susing more than 4GB of RAM and biting into the last 2GB (I have 6GB) it would lock up. It also would happen at random intervals, on startup etc, as it was trying to access one of the sticks that Windows didnt want to recognise half the time, even though the stick was fully functional. This had something to do with teh ASUS boards and Corsair RAM :/ I could see all this through my Logitech G15 keyboard, on the LCD display, under performance monitor, if I launched something like GTA IV when I was over 60% RAM being used I new I might experience a BSOD, now with my new Kingston, i'm totally fine.

Also yes, it could be windows, but it could also just be Steam. Also PCIe controller, by Realtek? confused.com maybe something to do with your gfx card then? That will also cause BSODs, certainly did on my old laptop before it finally cold-soldered on me..

 

[arksos]

So far so good...

Ok tried somethings of my own and what was suggested and by removing one of the 2 GB ram bits the crashes have stopped...i dont know if this is also due to the system stopping itself overclocking also but for last few days no BSOD....so far

Im a little gutted about the RAM if that is the case, really wanted as much RAM as i could get away with.

 

[Sleinous]

RMA it, also in bios, is it set to XMP profile for memory? so u get the 1600mhz its designed for

 

[PCS]

arksos - try swapping the 2GB modules to see if the crashes start again? Let us know the outcome and we will exchange the RAM for you next day if necessary

 

[arksos]

Ok guys, cheers for the help.

Update is;

I have had no problems since my last post using just the 1 2bg ram. I have then inserted the other one after going into BIOS and switching it to 1600mhz and the problem has not resurfaced.

All games running smooth including;
Mafia 2 and Victoria 2.

Had a epic Mafia 2 session of over 5 hours and the PC handled it with ease and no crashes/lags or BSOD... Whew!

I also think it may have had something to do with the system no longer being overclocked, when i took the 2 GB ram out first time and restarted it stopped the overclocking...i may have a play and see if i can set it up again...never happy lol.

Poss this was the problem all along, though not being familiar with BIOS and how it works im no sure. Would 1600MHZ RAM set to 1300MHZ cause the BSOD and other problems?


Cheers

Arksos

 

[PCS]

Underclocking the RAM doesn't normally cause problems, but it's possible. You ordered Corsair 1600MHz, so that will run at 1600MHz anyway.

Hopefully your problems are fixed, but if they arise again just let us know and we'll do our best to help.