Random BSOD + Crashes on Custom Built PC

[Ringwraith]

Hey,

I am continually receiving random BSOD while playing games, along with crashes. They are completely random, sometimes it happens after 2 mins, sometimes I can play for almost an hour. It happens with EVERY game. I was beginning to think it was my onboard sound for a while, but I have been reading online and am seeing my issues seem to be similar with those have PSU problems. Now, I have a 750W PSU, which should be enough for my rig, but I will post it below (I just built it, cost me a nice $1800)

Zotac 790i Ultra (Supreme)
EVGA Geforce 275
4GB Patriot RAM Newegg.com - Patriot Viper 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PVS34G2000LLKN - Desktop Memory
Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83Ghz
Corsair 750W
Tuniq Tower 120 Heatsink (big boy)
Vista Home Premium x64
All packed in the beautiful Cooler Master Cosmos 1000 RC (Lots of room and 4 built in fans)

the IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL BSOD error message has come up a few times, and a few other random stop messages that haven't repeated.

If any of you have an idea what the problem might be, I would greatly appreciate it, as I don't want to have to spend more money on something that isn't 100% sure to fix it.

Thanks,
Ring

 

[Hefemeister]

In this situation the first two thing that come to mind are these:

1) bad ram. Check with memtest. Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool
2) bad driver. Check event viewer to see if their are any errors associated with a specific driver. Make sure you have the most current drivers specifically your gpu driver.

 

[Ringwraith]

I did the memtest, and nothing came up as an error (I let it run overnight.) My GPU drivers are always up to date, along with all my other hardware. Another thing I noticed is when I play cod4, the colours turn all funky at times. When I disable my onboard sound, cod4 won't even start (iw3mp error). Ive got a Creative Labs Xtrememusic 7.1 card lined up for $50. Should I try that? Thanks for your help.

 

[Slaymate]

Are you overclocking the cpu or the gpu?

You could try bumping the nforce SPP voltage up a notch.

 

[Ringwraith]

I don't overclock as I am happy with the results my pc is giving me (minus the bsod and crashes). Ill try upping the voltage and see if that does anything. Thanks

 

[Ringwraith]

Ok. I increased the voltage and everything seemed to be running fine. Cod4 ran for a few games without and bsod or crashes, and World in Conflict went through at least 2 or 3 levels fine, when normally it crashes every 10 minutes or so.
After about an hour, it crashed, but the display adaptor recovered. I then start it up again, and within a few minutes, my computer restarts. No BSOD or crash, just a black screen for a few seconds and then it restarted, like someone pushing the reset button. Could that have been from the voltage being too high? It was at 1.40V at auto, and I moved it up to 1.45V. Any thoughts?

 

[Hefemeister]

Get real temp and check your temperatures. Sounds like a overheating issue. Make sure all fans are running and the inside of your case is nice and dust free.

 

[Ringwraith]

I'm getting real temp now, but does nvidia system monitor work just as good? And yes, all fans are working and the case is dust free cuz it has only been in operation for just over a month. However, the cables are pretty messy in there. Should I take some time and re-route them?

 

[Ringwraith]

Alright. It was definitely overheating. I took it out of the hole where I squeezed it in to (the case is massive!) and took the side panel off. Games aren't crashing anymore and everything seems stable. I'll just have to put it in a more open area, use some better thermal paste, and re-route the wires and it should be all good. Thanks a lot for your help.

 

[Hefemeister]

You can also use riva tuner to turn up your fan speed on your gpu as well. It will be loud but will help.