[SOLVED] Computer is crashing randomly after countless *fixes*

Jan 16, 2019
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I am currently reaching the end of my patience rope with my wife's computer.

It was running good for a while ( 3 years ) with no problem. One day I noticed her Front Fan went out, so I ordered up a new one ( same model ) plugged the machine up, and it started crashing. The crashing was not consistent, sometimes it would stay on for a few seconds, sometimes a few minutes, once a little over an hour. My initial thought was the Power Supply may be faulty. Plugged up my PSU tester and it appeared to be borked, so I replaced it.

New PSU came in, plugged it up and the problem continued. After speaking with my wife ( knowing she wanted to upgrade her computer ), we decided to purchase her a new MOBO and Processor as an upgrade and rule out those being an issue. So I got them in, plugged it all up and the crashing continued to occur.

At this point I was really starting to get frustrated. I ran a Memtest on the system using my UBCD and it ran in the Memtest86 screen for over 6 hours with no crash and the test passed. Happy to see this, I let the machine reboot and got into windows, seconds later it crashed. I happen to have a few extra hard drives, so I put in a new HDD and reformated it with Windows 10, got through the entire install, booted and crashed again.

I'm honestly out of Ideas. I am showing no signs of over heating but cannot seem to boot. I've replaced everything in the computer except the video card and the memory ( video card has been removed during the testing phase to rule it out as the problem )Any ideas/suggestion before I rip my hair out?

Build Specs:
PSU: Cooler Master MPY-7501-ACAAG-US MWE Gold 750 Watt 80 Plus Gold Certified Power Supply
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-H67MA-USB3-B3 LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge Quad-Core 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W BX80623I52500K Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000

MemTest Results:
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Solution
Did you update your chipset driver? All those board drivers are a headache but you need them.
I had a problem with Windows 10 trying to start everything up at once so I went into 'Power Options', to 'Choose what power buttons do' to 'Change settings that are currently unavailable' and unchecked 'fast start'. Windows 10 is phenomenal at confusing the user. I did this on my Ivy Bridge i7 3770k computer. HDD machine.
After this, I went to C: drive, right clicked 'Properties', ran Disk Cleanup. After it was finished (which was a long time), I clicked the 'Tools' tab and ran the Error Checking and Defrag tools.
Hope this helps.

coops1

Honorable
Jul 3, 2013
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It sounds like the only part which you've not replaced is the memory - I'd take all but one stick out, try it in each slot, then try each other stick - maybe you've got a bad stick or slot but memtest isn't picking it up?

It's also be worth unplugging all of the unnecessary peripherals like fans etc. To rule them out.
 
Jan 16, 2019
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Followed suggestion, no luck with any of the memory and tested one in each module, No go. Even unplugged mouse keyboard and front and back fan. Only things still plugged in is hdd, cpu fan and motherboard itself. Computer still stays on while not actively in windows ( bios, ubcd ), but crashes shortly after booting
 

Rexer

Distinguished
Did you update your chipset driver? All those board drivers are a headache but you need them.
I had a problem with Windows 10 trying to start everything up at once so I went into 'Power Options', to 'Choose what power buttons do' to 'Change settings that are currently unavailable' and unchecked 'fast start'. Windows 10 is phenomenal at confusing the user. I did this on my Ivy Bridge i7 3770k computer. HDD machine.
After this, I went to C: drive, right clicked 'Properties', ran Disk Cleanup. After it was finished (which was a long time), I clicked the 'Tools' tab and ran the Error Checking and Defrag tools.
Hope this helps.
 
Solution
Jan 16, 2019
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I did make the changes to the power options and am able to keep the machine on for ~1hr. Decided the new PSU may be faulty, as no changes I have made have seemed to make a difference. Going to take psu out of second machine tonight and see if that fixes the issue.
 
Jan 16, 2019
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Initial problem was a full crash, complete power off. Still experiencing issue, but now I will get the occasional Freeze/Blue screen, followed by a full shut down, and restart by the machine itself. I Sat there for about an hour on friday and watched it startup/crash every 5 min or so trying to see a pattern.
 
Jan 16, 2019
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I did remove the graphics card, it has been out since Friday. I will likely breadboard it tonight and test with my second PSU. There is always a chance the case is shorting out the board somewhere, but I will try that tonight or tomorrow evening.
 
Jan 16, 2019
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This is honestly something I hadn't even really considered. I will have to check the BIO for a update before moving on to testing elseware.

 

Rexer

Distinguished

Yeah, yea. Is good. Bios update is good. PSUs are known to fail, too. Watching.. .

 

Rexer

Distinguished

Hmmm. Speaking of bios updates, I think I'll check mine. Thanks for the hint.
Rexer

 

Rexer

Distinguished
What's your graphics card? I'm wondering if you're having conflicts with an older driver. It could be possible the old driver isn't compatible with newer board. Make sure every time you get an updated video driver, a clean uninstall is done. Often uninstalling old drivers gets fragmented in the registry path. That causes a lot of crashing. Also having the latest gpu driver from online is best.
 
Jan 16, 2019
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Well once the issues started up I removed the graphics card to rule it out as being an issue. I then reformated my HDD multiple times, so I don't think that the issue.

I got in the new PSU ( 2nd one ) last night to rule out a DOA PSU. Still crashed after about 30 minutes. Going to pull it out of the case tonight and see if the case may be shorting out somewhere
 

Rexer

Distinguished



So how did the new PSU work out?
 
Jan 16, 2019
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Sadly it did not, I replaced the PSU and still powering off. I ordered up some additional memory too and still nothing. At this point the only thing I can think of is the MOBO or Processor being DOA.