Crashing error, possibly due to OS and hardware compatabilities.

[helshanks]

I recently upgraded my computer, here is what I got:


* Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EARS 1TB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

* Patriot G Series ‘Sector 5' Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model PGV34G1333ELK

* ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO AM3 AMD 785G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard -

*AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HDX945FBGIBOX - Retail

THE ERROR: Whenever I start up my computer, it crashes (the power just shuts down, unless it gets far enough to load windows) after about 1-2 min. It happened in the BIOS, which makes me skeptical of if it's the OS. But it I'm running XP Pro SP2. When I took out my old drive (with XP SP2 on it) It doesn't crash. So I tried installing the OS from the disk to the new 1 TB drive. After it formatted, about 1-2 Min into install, it shut down.

Additional info:
* If that 1-2 min managed to get me past windows loading, on the old drive, it would flash the blue screen of death and restart, then shut down again after 1-2 min.
*Tried safe mode, same error
*Re-formatted old drive after a few tried on the new drive, same thing happens after 1-2 min into the install.
*It doesn't crash in BIOS now that I don't have Windows on either drive, which takes me back to thinking it's an OS problem.

 

[MindoverMaster]

I would blame it on your board. Make sure first that your RAM is not the factor, by running memtest.

edit: Welcome to TF!

 

[helshanks]

Okay, so I did more testing, from what I see, you got it right on. There were two most common issues for the plethora of threads I searched through. Dead motherboard and overheating. I had time to check the BIOS and found it was running from high 60 to mid 70s C (reasonable?) So that leaves motherboard or PS, which I don't think it is, because I ran it at the minimum possible and it didn't work.

If anyone else has suggestions, please comment.

 

[MindoverMaster]

The max temp while in BIOS should around 50C

You didn't try re-applying the thermal past on the CPU, did you?

 

[helshanks]

That's true, but that's not hot enough to make it die, is it?

 

[helshanks]

and the CPU came with Thermal Paste already applied. I just applied more and it's running at 40 C. So we'll see what happens.

 

[MindoverMaster]

For a CPU, the max set by BIOS, when it fails to run, is usually 80C

The thermal paste provided by the manufacturer is crap. That's how they save money.