manowar
In Runtime
- Messages
- 191
Hi all,
This is a bit of a long winded one, as there is quite a bit of history behind it, but I'll do my best to explain!
Before I begin, my rig:
- Enermax Galaxy 850w PSU
- Quad Core 2.4Ghz CPU
- 4GB OCZ DDR3 PC3-10666 Platinum RAM
- Striker II 790i Ultra SLI Extreme motherboard
- EVGA Geforce 9800 GX2 graphics card
- Xi-Fi Fata1ity sound card
- 3 Seagate Barracuda hard disks (just configed as three standard hard drives)
- OS: Vista 64bit Ultimate.
Months ago, I decided to upgrade my system with a new graphics card, I replaced my Geforce 8800 GTS 640MB with the EVGA 9800 GX2 (a used one from ebay) - to accompany this, I also replaced my OCZ GameXtream 700w with a Quad GPU certified PSU (brand new from ebuyer), the highly acclaimed Enermax Galaxy 850w, this ensured enough power would be available for the components.
However, since installing both of these components, I'm getting random freezes whenever I'm using my PC. It's completely indiscriminate, too. I could be browsing the net, playing a game, in photoshop or simply chatting on MSN, then boom! It freezes...the keyboard/mouse is rendered useless, and if I'm listening to music when it freezes, you can hear the last fraction of the song which seems to play over and over. The only escape route is to hard reset the PC, or press and hold the power button until it powers off.
Ok, it sounds simple, either its the card or the PSU...since the problem occured since I add these components, but I'm not 100% sure. So far here's what I've tried...
1. Reinstalled Vista, I even performed a zero-fill on the hard drive, after everything was reinstalled and up and running again, the problem came back...
2. Cleaned my pc out. I've cleaned the DIMM sockets, the PCIe slots, the graphics card edge connector, the RAM connectors, the fans...everything, still the problem persists.
3. Because the 9800 GX2 card was bought used from ebay, I thought it might be a dodgy card, so I forked out for a brand new graphics card (the same model) and still the problem persists.
4. Ran memtest with all four sticks of RAM on board, returned no errors...although I only ran it for about an hour, and I didn't check each stick individually. May I also add that the RAM is used, but it never gave me a problem prior to installing the new PSU and graphics card.
5. Ran Coretemp: CPU temps range from 20c - 30c. Nothing unusal there.
6. Ran ntune - GPU temps range from about 50c to 70c - I don't think thats too bad for the card, considering its using its stock fan.
7. Adjusted the RAM and Northbridge voltages in BIOS to RAM voltage: 1.80v and Northbridge: 1.40v, which I'm told is good enough. Everything else in BIOS is untouched.
8. Flashed BIOS to latests version.
I'm really running out of ideas, and patience. I really don't know what else to try. I'm starting to wonder if its the PSU...like I said, everything worked fine before the introduction of a new graphics card and PSU. However, I'm ruling out the graphics card as I've just installed a brand new one.
The RAM is used, maybe thats the problem? But it never gave me any problems prior to adding the new PSU/graphics card...
Any ideas/advice would be greatly appreciated. Cheers all.
Jonathan.
This is a bit of a long winded one, as there is quite a bit of history behind it, but I'll do my best to explain!
Before I begin, my rig:
- Enermax Galaxy 850w PSU
- Quad Core 2.4Ghz CPU
- 4GB OCZ DDR3 PC3-10666 Platinum RAM
- Striker II 790i Ultra SLI Extreme motherboard
- EVGA Geforce 9800 GX2 graphics card
- Xi-Fi Fata1ity sound card
- 3 Seagate Barracuda hard disks (just configed as three standard hard drives)
- OS: Vista 64bit Ultimate.
Months ago, I decided to upgrade my system with a new graphics card, I replaced my Geforce 8800 GTS 640MB with the EVGA 9800 GX2 (a used one from ebay) - to accompany this, I also replaced my OCZ GameXtream 700w with a Quad GPU certified PSU (brand new from ebuyer), the highly acclaimed Enermax Galaxy 850w, this ensured enough power would be available for the components.
However, since installing both of these components, I'm getting random freezes whenever I'm using my PC. It's completely indiscriminate, too. I could be browsing the net, playing a game, in photoshop or simply chatting on MSN, then boom! It freezes...the keyboard/mouse is rendered useless, and if I'm listening to music when it freezes, you can hear the last fraction of the song which seems to play over and over. The only escape route is to hard reset the PC, or press and hold the power button until it powers off.
Ok, it sounds simple, either its the card or the PSU...since the problem occured since I add these components, but I'm not 100% sure. So far here's what I've tried...
1. Reinstalled Vista, I even performed a zero-fill on the hard drive, after everything was reinstalled and up and running again, the problem came back...
2. Cleaned my pc out. I've cleaned the DIMM sockets, the PCIe slots, the graphics card edge connector, the RAM connectors, the fans...everything, still the problem persists.
3. Because the 9800 GX2 card was bought used from ebay, I thought it might be a dodgy card, so I forked out for a brand new graphics card (the same model) and still the problem persists.
4. Ran memtest with all four sticks of RAM on board, returned no errors...although I only ran it for about an hour, and I didn't check each stick individually. May I also add that the RAM is used, but it never gave me a problem prior to installing the new PSU and graphics card.
5. Ran Coretemp: CPU temps range from 20c - 30c. Nothing unusal there.
6. Ran ntune - GPU temps range from about 50c to 70c - I don't think thats too bad for the card, considering its using its stock fan.
7. Adjusted the RAM and Northbridge voltages in BIOS to RAM voltage: 1.80v and Northbridge: 1.40v, which I'm told is good enough. Everything else in BIOS is untouched.
8. Flashed BIOS to latests version.
I'm really running out of ideas, and patience. I really don't know what else to try. I'm starting to wonder if its the PSU...like I said, everything worked fine before the introduction of a new graphics card and PSU. However, I'm ruling out the graphics card as I've just installed a brand new one.
The RAM is used, maybe thats the problem? But it never gave me any problems prior to adding the new PSU/graphics card...
Any ideas/advice would be greatly appreciated. Cheers all.
Jonathan.