Need help analysing hardware issue

[blade8a]

Hi everyone,

System starts having all kinda issues but still able to work well sometimes, BSOD with different errors, sometimes blank screen after power on, no harddisk activity at all, hangs at bios screen, sometimes whole screen graphics becomes distorted halfway during use and hang. Reset or powering on again doesn't resolve it either but sometimes it can work for whole day without problem, please help. ... I can't figure out where the problem is ...

I've already changed PSU, ram and harddisk but problem still occurs.

As indicated below is my present system hardware parts in use

Asus M4A77TD Pro
AMD phenom II X4 965 black edition 3.4GHz
Western digital Caviar blue 1TB sata harddisk
Western digital Caviar green 640GB sata harddisk
2x DDR3 1600 MHz 2GB kingston hyper X ram
2x DDR3 1600 MHz 4 GB kingston hyper x ram
( Total ram : 12 GB)
Creative sound blaster Audigy 4 soundcard
Sapphire Radeon HD 5750 graphics card
PSU : Coolermaster 550W 80+ bronze
1 x DVD writer drive
Notua CPU heatsink cooler(Dual Fan)
Cooler master casing with 2 12x12 fan

One possibility - could it be the wattage of the PSU is not sufficient to support this system?

 

[xkiller213]

lol you tried everything except the GPU... suspect it might be faulty... "whole screen graphics becomes distorted"

 

[blade8a]

By the way, I did not overclock the system, should I change the PSU to a higher power rating,graphics card or both?Any advice?

 

[xkiller213]

no need, your system should use ~300-450W on full load...

 

[Override2Zion]

Either MOBO or GPU then, don't think its your PSU. Should be sufficient to power your configuration.

 

[fungamer]

try:

1) reset bios
2) single ram and different slots
3) up vcore a notch

 

[blade8a]

try:

1) reset bios
2) single ram and different slots
3) up vcore a notch

Bios has been updated to the more stable version and tried out the latest bios too.

Ram tested out on different slots too.

Will try to increase Vcore and see if it's better, thanks.

 

[blade8a]

Either MOBO or GPU then, don't think its your PSU. Should be sufficient to power your configuration.

Hi, any recommendation if I were to change mainboard and graphics card? Can the AMD cpu still be used? or needs to be replaced too?

 

[blade8a]

Any recommendation for mainboard replacement?

or should i change both CPU and mainboard?

 

[Devilsire]

too bad yr mobo no IGU to test if its yr 5750.

anyway just saying, i have experienced all sorts of weird random bsod, distorted graphics & freezes etc... after a 1-1 mobo RMA exchange, all's well now.

 

[bhtan83]

Hi everyone,

System starts having all kinda issues but still able to work well sometimes, BSOD with different errors, sometimes blank screen after power on, no harddisk activity at all, hangs at bios screen, sometimes whole screen graphics becomes distorted halfway during use and hang. Reset or powering on again doesn't resolve it either but sometimes it can work for whole day without problem, please help. ... I can't figure out where the problem is ...

I've already changed PSU, ram and harddisk but problem still occurs.

As indicated below is my present system hardware parts in use

Asus M4A77TD Pro
AMD phenom II X4 965 black edition 3.4GHz
Western digital Caviar blue 1TB sata harddisk
Western digital Caviar green 640GB sata harddisk
2x DDR3 1600 MHz 2GB kingston hyper X ram
2x DDR3 1600 MHz 4 GB kingston hyper x ram
( Total ram : 12 GB)
Creative sound blaster Audigy 4 soundcard
Sapphire Radeon HD 5750 graphics card
PSU : Coolermaster 550W 80+ bronze
1 x DVD writer drive
Notua CPU heatsink cooler(Dual Fan)
Cooler master casing with 2 12x12 fan

One possibility - could it be the wattage of the PSU is not sufficient to support this system?

how is the distortion like? static or on certain textures?

if it is statics its due to artifacts caused by the ram on the gpu.

upgrade the gpu and u'll be fine. 450w is more than enough to power ur pc, dun even need 550w.

 

[fungamer]

Bios has been updated to the more stable version and tried out the latest bios too.

Ram tested out on different slots too.

Will try to increase Vcore and see if it's better, thanks.

try using a single piece ram to run up system for the moment. if fail, try different piece.

try plug out any secondary hardware too or strip down to test from scratch, do check all the connections too, plug out and in even tho it looks secure

 

[blade8a]

how is the distortion like? static or on certain textures?

if it is statics its due to artifacts caused by the ram on the gpu.

upgrade the gpu and u'll be fine. 450w is more than enough to power ur pc, dun even need 550w.

Full screen graphics got stretched into many horizontally lines,

managed to borrow one graphics card and test, able to boot up, gonna try replacing GPU first

 

[blade8a]

too bad yr mobo no IGU to test if its yr 5750.

anyway just saying, i have experienced all sorts of weird random bsod, distorted graphics & freezes etc... after a 1-1 mobo RMA exchange, all's well now.

Tried out a different GPU, graphics card is confirmed faulty, mainboard is suspected to be faulty also, considering whether to change mainboard, cpu and gpu .

 

[JasK]

Tried out a different GPU, graphics card is confirmed faulty, mainboard is suspected to be faulty also, considering whether to change mainboard, cpu and gpu .

using the borrowed gpu, do stress test on system, you aren't wrong to suspect mobo too but you need to ascertain it before spending on a mobo or possible a bundle. if further test works ok, you can spend more on a better gpu.

 

[blade8a]

using the borrowed gpu, do stress test on system, you aren't wrong to suspect mobo too but you need to ascertain it before spending on a mobo or possible a bundle. if further test works ok, you can spend more on a better gpu.

Any recommendation for the software used to do the stress test?

I didn't know there's a way to test for mainboard or cpu defects , it's something new to me. Thanks.

 

[Lethal]

try using prime95 to stress test ur cpu

 

[ASUS@SG]

Dear blade8a,

Try to cut down hardware component first.

1. Remove 3 ram and only leave 1 stick
2. Remove GPU and replace with spare GPU with driver installed
3. Remove PSU and replace another set of PSU to test
4. Remove Sound card

software to test:

IntelburnTest: Stress level set Maximum with 5 Cycle
Furmark: set Anti-aliasing Max and run Burn-in test

 

[JasK]

Any recommendation for the software used to do the stress test?

I didn't know there's a way to test for mainboard or cpu defects , it's something new to me. Thanks.

as some brothers also advise on what to do, for stress tests, consider these

Furmark/Heaven Benchmark (gpu stress test)
Prime95/IntelBurnTest/LinX ( cpu stress test)
Memtest (memory stress test)
hyper pi (cpu/mem)

use cpuz/gpuz/hwinfo for monitering/detection

all components should be detected, pc properly cooled ventilated

 

[blade8a]

Thanks everyone for the info

I am gonna do the test tonight, you guys are really helpful

I might be able to save a lot if I can find out which hardware is defective and replace that one instead of whole system