System Lockups

[krandor]

Hello everyone, first time here and I was hoping you could help.

I recently purchased the MSI gtx275 1.7GB video card and installed it. When I booted the computer up again I started having problems with my system locking up at random intervals.

After 3 days trying to get my system stable I tried reinstalling my old card but I was still locking up. I tested my RAM and it came out clean, ran virus scans and they did not show anything. I Tested my lines to make sure I had not knocked anything loose while installing the cards. I turned on the voltage monitors on Everest and they seem to show stable voltages so it looks like it is most likely my CPU or MB... Not sure how I could check on them though since it is the only system in the house capable of using either one.

I would REALLY prefer to replace only one of them rather than both, so is there any way I can check on that?

For reference I am running 4GB 1333Mhz corsair memory, a q9550 cpu, no oc, an 850w PSU
an EVGA 790i MB, a 1TB western digital hard drive, and a 250GB seagate for extra storage.

I have Vista 64 loaded on the 1TB drive, and XP 32bit on the seagate. I did try booting up the other drive and it immediately had the same issue.

Anyways, I hope you can help. Thank you.

 

[Ste]

Have you tried simple solutions like

Updating drivers
Updating windows
Reducing amount of running processes through msconfig
Virus and malware scans (Spybot, Malwarebytes and hijackthis)
CCleaner and Disk Defraging

Or even a windows reinstall?

 

[krandor]

I have tried most of that, I have not tried a fresh install because of the second windows install on a separate drive and separate windows version having the same problem while booting up.

To clarify, the lockups happen anywhere from during start-up, to 5 or 6 hours later.

 

[Ste]

Do all of it before doing a reinstall.

Other than that you can try some cheap RAM, just in case it is that.

Flashing BIOS perhaps.