Question Crashing/freezing during startup but can run for hours or days afterwards. I don't know how to fix.

[royalarcher]

Whenever i start my pc, it will crash before it even reaches the windows login screen every day when i start it up for the first time. these usually involve freezing on the bios screen (and just freezing there without restarting) when starting up or similar freeze on the windows user sign in page. i also sometimes have random crashes when i am just sitting on my home screen or on chrome. i can play games for hours and have no crashes but then i will be doing nothing and it will happen. In some of the crashes it will also play a buzzing sound before crashing or freezing.
In the event viewer the errors at the correct time of the crashes are:
event id: 41 kernel-power
161 volmgr
1000 application error
1002 application hang
10001 distributedCOM
10016 distributedCOM
Tell me if you need more details about any of these.
my friends think that my power supply is broken but im not sure. The fans spin on the psu.
my pc is a i5 4690k, gtx 1070, gigabyte motherboard and a raidmax 600w power supply.
I have tried pushing in loose cables, reseating ram and running memtest86: 0 errors, and installing new windows, uninstalling graphics drivers then reinstalling them, crystaldiskinfo says the hard drives are ok
i really have no idea where to go next and i dont want to start replacing stuff without even knowing what the problem is. i also dont think it is hardware because i can play for days without crashes but then other days i cannot even turn my pc on.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Raidmax is one of the worst brands, with some of the worst power supply models, that there is. They MIGHT have had one model, I heard of such a thing, that wasn't absolutely horrific quality, but unless you have THAT exact model, which is about as likely as winning the lottery, then that would be the best place to start since even if it's not the problem (And it VERY likely IS) it should be replaced with a higher quality reliable unit anyhow.

What is the EXACT model of your Raidmax power supply and how long has it been in service?

There are some other things that should probably be done as well, as listed below.

Here are the first steps to take when trying to solve these kinds of hardware problems. If you have already tried these steps, all of them, exactly as outlined, we can move along to more advanced solutions.


If there are any you have NOT done, it would be advisable to do so if for no other reason than to be able to say you've already done it and eliminate that possibility.



First,

make sure your motherboard has the MOST recent BIOS version installed. If it does not, then update. This solves a high number of issues even in cases where the release that is newer than yours makes no mention of improving graphics card or other hardware compatibility. They do not list every change they have made when they post a new BIOS release.


Second,

go to the product page for your motherboard on the manufacturer website. Download and install the latest driver versions for the chipset, storage controllers, audio and network adapters. Do not skip installing a newer driver just because you think it is not relevant to the problem you are having. The drivers for one device can often affect ALL other devices and a questionable driver release can cause instability in the OS itself. They don't release new drivers just for fun. If there is a new driver release for a component, there is a good reason for it. The same goes for BIOS updates.


IF you have other hardware installed or attached to the system that are not a part of the systems covered by the motherboard drivers, then go to the support page for THAT component and check to see if there are newer drivers available for that as well. If there are, install them.


Third,

Make sure your memory is running at the correct advertised speed in the BIOS. This may require that you set the memory to run at the XMP profile settings. Also, make sure you have the memory installed in the correct slots and that they are running in dual channel which you can check by installing CPU-Z and checking the Memory tab. For all modern motherboards that are dual channel memory architectures, from the last ten years at least, if you have two sticks installed they should be in the A2 (Called DDR4_1 on some boards) or B2 (Called DDR4_2 on some boards) which are ALWAYS the SECOND and FOURTH slots over from the CPU socket, counting TOWARDS the edge of the motherboard EXCEPT on boards that only have two memory slots total (or boards with six or more memory slots that have quad or higher channel memory designs.) In that case, if you have two modules it's not rocket science, but if you have only one, then install it in the A1 or DDR4_1 slot.


The last thing we want to look at,

for now anyhow, is the graphics card drivers. Regardless of whether you "already installed the newest drivers" for your graphics card or not, it is OFTEN a good idea to do a CLEAN install of the graphics card drivers. Just installing over the old drivers OR trying to use what Nvidia and AMD consider a clean install is not good enough and does not usually give the same result as using the Display Driver Uninstaller utility. This has a very high success rate and is always worth a shot.


If you have had both Nvidia and AMD cards installed at any point on that operating system then you will want to run the DDU twice. Once for the old card drivers (ie, Nvidia or AMD) and again for the currently installed graphics card drivers (ie, AMD or Nvidia). So if you had an Nvidia card at some point in the past, run it first for Nvidia and then after that is complete, run it again for AMD if you currently have an AMD card installed.

Here are the full instructions on running the Display driver uninstaller and CLEAN installing new drivers.


Graphics card CLEAN install tutorial using the DDU​

 

[royalarcher]

Raidmax is one of the worst brands, with some of the worst power supply models, that there is. They MIGHT have had one model, I heard of such a thing, that wasn't absolutely horrific quality, but unless you have THAT exact model, which is about as likely as winning the lottery, then that would be the best place to start since even if it's not the problem (And it VERY likely IS) it should be replaced with a higher quality reliable unit anyhow.

What is the EXACT model of your Raidmax power supply and how long has it been in service?

There are some other things that should probably be done as well, as listed below.

Here are the first steps to take when trying to solve these kinds of hardware problems. If you have already tried these steps, all of them, exactly as outlined, we can move along to more advanced solutions.


If there are any you have NOT done, it would be advisable to do so if for no other reason than to be able to say you've already done it and eliminate that possibility.



First,

make sure your motherboard has the MOST recent BIOS version installed. If it does not, then update. This solves a high number of issues even in cases where the release that is newer than yours makes no mention of improving graphics card or other hardware compatibility. They do not list every change they have made when they post a new BIOS release.


Second,

go to the product page for your motherboard on the manufacturer website. Download and install the latest driver versions for the chipset, storage controllers, audio and network adapters. Do not skip installing a newer driver just because you think it is not relevant to the problem you are having. The drivers for one device can often affect ALL other devices and a questionable driver release can cause instability in the OS itself. They don't release new drivers just for fun. If there is a new driver release for a component, there is a good reason for it. The same goes for BIOS updates.


IF you have other hardware installed or attached to the system that are not a part of the systems covered by the motherboard drivers, then go to the support page for THAT component and check to see if there are newer drivers available for that as well. If there are, install them.


Third,

Make sure your memory is running at the correct advertised speed in the BIOS. This may require that you set the memory to run at the XMP profile settings. Also, make sure you have the memory installed in the correct slots and that they are running in dual channel which you can check by installing CPU-Z and checking the Memory tab. For all modern motherboards that are dual channel memory architectures, from the last ten years at least, if you have two sticks installed they should be in the A2 (Called DDR4_1 on some boards) or B2 (Called DDR4_2 on some boards) which are ALWAYS the SECOND and FOURTH slots over from the CPU socket, counting TOWARDS the edge of the motherboard EXCEPT on boards that only have two memory slots total (or boards with six or more memory slots that have quad or higher channel memory designs.) In that case, if you have two modules it's not rocket science, but if you have only one, then install it in the A1 or DDR4_1 slot.


The last thing we want to look at,

for now anyhow, is the graphics card drivers. Regardless of whether you "already installed the newest drivers" for your graphics card or not, it is OFTEN a good idea to do a CLEAN install of the graphics card drivers. Just installing over the old drivers OR trying to use what Nvidia and AMD consider a clean install is not good enough and does not usually give the same result as using the Display Driver Uninstaller utility. This has a very high success rate and is always worth a shot.


If you have had both Nvidia and AMD cards installed at any point on that operating system then you will want to run the DDU twice. Once for the old card drivers (ie, Nvidia or AMD) and again for the currently installed graphics card drivers (ie, AMD or Nvidia). So if you had an Nvidia card at some point in the past, run it first for Nvidia and then after that is complete, run it again for AMD if you currently have an AMD card installed.

Here are the full instructions on running the Display driver uninstaller and CLEAN installing new drivers.


Graphics card CLEAN install tutorial using the DDU​

I updated the bios because the ones on the website were one day newer (but i think that might just be something to do with timezone difference) but i did it anyway. I also reinstalled graphics drivers using ddu and safe mode. The crashes are still happening but now the pc will stutter and the audio will loop the last sound for a few seconds. Also the screen will go black for a bit then turn back on. I know raidmax is not good but i bought the pc used for a really good deal and i couldnt pass it up. I have had the pc for 3 years and i dont know how long it was used before i bought it. The model is raidmax rx-600AE 80+ gold.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Since there are no reputable reviews of the 600w model in that series, this is from a review of the 500w Raidmax Cobra model and I have no reason at all to believe that a review of the 600w model would be any different than the results of this one. Bottom line, like I said and as usual from a Raidmax product, it stinks. I'd absolutely replace it immediately even if it doesn't fix the problem, before it causes OTHER problems, which it will. A PSU like this will absolutely destroy the capacitors on your motherboard or graphics card and cause a variety of power delivery related issues in general.

The Bottom Line
The Raidmax Cobra Power 500W, unfortunately, follows in the footsteps of the previous Raidmax RX-1000AE and even, perhaps, does worse. From start to finish, the only high point we could find with this unit today was the noise output, but even that gave us concerns as there is no good reason why it should be so quiet.

Other than that, the Cobra Power 500W had poor voltage regulation, out of specification Transient Load Test results, mediocre DC output quality, poor component selection/build quality, and laughable efficiency. If the options were buy this unit or buy a hamster on a wheel to power your PC then you only have only one question. What do hamsters eat?

In the grand scheme of things, there are good units, there are cheap units, and there are good cheap units. This power supply is none of those things and, at $58.92, this unit is 7 cents more expensive than the barely mediocre EVGA 500B while being a worse performing unit.

https://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/03/18/raidmax_cobra_power_500w_supply_review/9