Graphics Card Issues

[Thatcrashingguy]

Hello,
A few months ago I purchased a new ASUS Radeon R7 240 to replace my older ATI Radeon HD 3650. I installed the card without any problems. 6 Days later I started to receive crashes and various other unpleasant random restarts. These BSOD's seemed to be linked to the display drivers, so I uninstalled all of the drivers, took out the card, and re-installed everything. Another 6 days passed and it came back. This repeated several times. I was frustrated, so I removed the card and purchased an EVGA GeForce GT 730. I Installed all the latest drivers, used Driver Sweeper to remove all other drivers, made sure the card was in fine, and started to go about my daily work. The first day was great, and I thought the problem was resolved. The next day I booted up machine and it was working flawlessly, until I started to play a few games. The computer now crashes just like it did with my previous card. This time I decided to test the RAM and see if it was bad. I used Windows Memory Diagnostic and it came up with no errors. I was going to use memtest86 but I am having difficulty with it rejecting my media. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[Darkbreeze]

I'd start by getting a decent power supply. CX units are poor quality, and yours is dropping to 11.75v under load, which is pretty borderline if not outright unacceptable. Under sustained loads, it may be dropping further than that or just plain tripping and resetting. I'd replace it and see if that doesn't cure the issue. You can get a much better unit for under fifty bucks.

I'd try to stick with something that's tier 1 or 2 as listed here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html


One of the Antec VP-450 or EA-450 models might not be a bad choice either if you can't get a higher tiered unit. Seasonic, XFX, Super Flower and some of the EVGA and other Antec units are also good choices. Use the tier list as a rough guide.

 

[Thatcrashingguy]

I'd start by getting a decent power supply. CX units are poor quality, and yours is dropping to 11.75v under load, which is pretty borderline if not outright unacceptable. Under sustained loads, it may be dropping further than that or just plain tripping and resetting. I'd replace it and see if that doesn't cure the issue. You can get a much better unit for under fifty bucks.

I'd try to stick with something that's tier 1 or 2 as listed here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html


One of the Antec VP-450 or EA-450 models might not be a bad choice either if you can't get a higher tiered unit. Seasonic, XFX, Super Flower and some of the EVGA and other Antec units are also good choices. Use the tier list as a rough guide.

So basically, my PSU is crap(go figure). And it is possibly what is causing the crashes?

 

[Darkbreeze]

It is probable, but not a certainty. Honestly, ALMOST every case I see where somebody is having an issue that isn't clearly a driver or thermally related, and they have a Corsair PSU, ends up being the PSU. Not every case, but a lot. There could always be another issue, but your voltage readings are low, and I'd start there.

 

[Thatcrashingguy]

It is probable, but not a certainty. Honestly, ALMOST every case I see where somebody is having an issue that isn't clearly a driver or thermally related, and they have a Corsair PSU, ends up being the PSU. Not every case, but a lot. There could always be another issue, but your voltage readings are low, and I'd start there.

I'm going somewhere tomorrow anyway so I might as well pick one up. I'm going to use your suggestion for the Antec VP-450. I'll let you know if it works.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Sounds like a winner. If you get a model that doesn't have PFC, (Active power factor correction) be sure the little red switch on the back is set to 110 or 220v, depending on what your power grid in your country uses.

 

[Thatcrashingguy]

Just received a BSoD. Got this from Whocrashed

crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: Unknown (0xFFFFC000013E9740)
Bugcheck code: 0x50 (0xFFFFC000013E9740, 0x0, 0xFFFFF80043553769, 0x2)
Error: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
Bug check description: This indicates that invalid system memory has been referenced.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error.
Google query: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

 

[Darkbreeze]

That's a pretty standard crash dump and could be any number of things. Poor quality or failing power supplies can mimic just about any hardware or system failure and it's just about impossible to tell the difference if the PSU creates the hardware issue that triggers the crash dump.

Did you replace the PSU already?

 

[Thatcrashingguy]

That's a pretty standard crash dump and could be any number of things. Poor quality or failing power supplies can mimic just about any hardware or system failure and it's just about impossible to tell the difference if the PSU creates the hardware issue that triggers the crash dump.

Did you replace the PSU already?

No, I did not replace the PSU, I was going to replace it but I got side tracked with yard work.

 

[Thatcrashingguy]

Hi, I installed the new PSU. Here is what I got from HWinfo64 while running Furmark.

 

[Thatcrashingguy]

Well I got another BSOD after I installed the new PSU here is what I got:
On Thu 9/3/2015 10:29:41 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\090315-20718-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x14CC20)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF8002A6BA583, 0x0, 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.



On Thu 9/3/2015 10:29:41 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlmp.exe (nt!KeBugCheckEx+0x0)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF8002A6BA583, 0x0, 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.

EDIT: I am going to see if I can get Memtest to work so I cant check the RAM.

 

[Thatcrashingguy]

Well, I tried using Memtest but it will not boot. I am sure that the RAM is the problem though.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Which memtest version are you trying to use? Try the other if it doesn't want to work. Memtest86 and Memtest86+ are somewhat different, and have different developers.

Memtest86: http://www.memtest86.com/download.htm


Memtest86+: http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Also, don't take this the wrong way, you'd be surprised what some people try to do, but you can't just put the compressed file on a disk or flash drive and expect it to boot. You need to extract the ISO from the compressed (zip, rar, cab, tar.gz, etc.) file and put that on your media.

 

[Thatcrashingguy]

I was using memtest86. I know you cant put compressed files on a disk or USB. I have extracted the files and put them on a USB, but it will not boot. I will see if Memtest86+ works
EDIT: Im having the same problem trying to get Memtest86+ to work.
I am probably doing it wrong, so if you could have a tutorial for how to get Memtest to boot on a USB that would be great

 

[Darkbreeze]

Have you gone into the bios and set the USB drive as the primary boot device?

 

[Thatcrashingguy]

Yes, I have done that

 

[Darkbreeze]

Are you trying to use a front or rear USB port, and are you trying to use a black USB 2.0 or blue USB 3.0 port to boot from. A lot of systems, especially older ones that are gen1 USB 3.0, don't like to boot from or recognize the USB 3.0 ports until windows has loaded. The only other thing I can suggest is to create DVD or CD media by downloading the appropriate ISO from Memtest and try it that way.

 

[Thatcrashingguy]

Im using a rear, my front USB ports are not connected. I am using a black USB 2.0 port. If Memtest cant work, I will replace the RAM anyways as the modules are quite a few (9) years old.

 

[Darkbreeze]

It probably can't hurt, but I'm unconvinced they are the issue without some firm data indicating there's a problem. Memory and CPU errors are usually hard errors, happening regularly, and consistently, not going away and coming back in a few days. But it's certainly possible to have a memory chip that's intermittently faulting. What are your full hardware specs?

 

[Thatcrashingguy]

It probably can't hurt, but I'm unconvinced they are the issue without some firm data indicating there's a problem. Memory and CPU errors are usually hard errors, happening regularly, and consistently, not going away and coming back in a few days. But it's certainly possible to have a memory chip that's intermittently faulting. What are your full hardware specs?

My specs are:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 @ 2.66GHz
Memory: 4GB DDR2 @ 667MHz
Graphics Card: Nvidia Geforce GT 730 2GB DDR3
Motherboard: Intel Motherboard D946GZIS
Hard Disk Drive: WD 10EZEX-08M2NA0 @ 7200RPM 1TB
PSU: Antec VP-450
I know its old, and its not very powerful.
NOTE: After I changed the PSU It no longer randomly restarts. It does BSoD sometimes though.

 

[Darkbreeze]

It could be much worse, believe me. Back up any important files to another location (DVD disks, external or flash drives, secondary drives, wherever you can back up important files and folders to just in case there is a problem with the drive, unless you already have backups.) and run Seatools for windows on your hard drive. Run the short drive self test and the long generic.

I'd tell you to back up your original OEM restoration partition, but since you've already done a clean install of windows 10 that's probably gone anyhow.

 

[Thatcrashingguy]

Ya I will do that. The reason I think the memory is the problem is because it is the only thing (other than the motherboard) that I have replaced.

 

[Thatcrashingguy]

Ran the big test on Seagate and passed.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, that's good. Did you mean the memory HAS or HAS NOT been replaced? If it was replaced, did your problems begin shortly or immediately after replacing it?

 

[Thatcrashingguy]

I have not replaced the memory at all. I meant to say I have replaced every component except the memory and motherboard. Heres a run down:
CPU: 5 months old
Memory: 9 years old
Motherboard: 9 years old
Graphics Card:4 weeks old
PSU:4 days old
HDD:8 Months old
EDIT: Right after I posted this my PC Randomly restarted once again. I thought it was fixed, but I guess it isn't.

 

[Darkbreeze]

While not every 9 year old component is assured to be failing, it certainly becomes more prominently possible at that age. Memory tends to last longer than motherboards, so I'd probably be inclined to believe, if it IS a hardware issue at this point, that it's the motherboard rather than the RAM, but it could be either one really, or neither. I really doubt the memory would cause a random restart in most cases, generally it would just cause errors, but it certainly CAN cause just about anything if one of the modules is failing entirely.

This might be a good time to upgrade. You'll have a hard time finding a motherboard or DDR2 memory that isn't used, and is priced at anything reasonable for hardware that old at this point in time. I'd think a new CPU, motherboard and RAM would be a much better option than replacing major components that are as old as yours are. I don't know what your financial situation is like, but this might be a good option without going overboard and you'll gain considerable performance.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($166.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($76.50 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($41.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $285.44
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-06 13:23 EDT-0400