New build, running great, but randomly locks up

[Meanl3r]

Hi,

I just put my first build together today. I started putting it together 2 weeks ago, but was sent a defective CPU, so didn't get far. Got the replacement in today and everything got up and running fine. I installed Win7 onto a new SSD for a boot drive and used the HDD that I cannibalized from my dead laptop. I bought a fresh OEM copy of Win7. The install went fine, as well as my initial checks(Memory test, Windows Exp Rating, drivers and all of the 83 windows upodates). So after getting the basics set up. I installed my frequently used programs and began settling in. But probably about an hour into process of getting settled, my computer froze. I waited for a while, at first I thought my mouse and keyboard had gone unresponsive, but I noticed a system tray icon that was frozen in motion. So I waited a few minutes, tried ctr-alt-del, but eventually had to just hold the power button to get it to reset. This same thing has been happening for the past few hours since. 5 times now. It doesn't seem to be when anything major is going on. At one point it froze when a friend logged on to steam, and the alert came up and got about half way down before it froze. I'm pretty new to building, so I don't really know exactly where to start as far as troubleshooting this. I have the most up to date everything. Do I need to look for older drivers for something? Here is my build:

i3-2120
8GB RAM
Radeon HD 7850
Windows 7 64-bit

storage:
60GB Corsair Force 3(boot)
500GB Western Digital Scorpion Blue

 

[DarkNinja22]

Applied thermal paste to cpu etc? check your temps. Sounds like possible over heating.

 

[unksol]

can't be running great if it locks up LOL.

first check for any firmware updates. pretty sure corsair uses sandforce controllers and they have had tons of problems causing lockups and instability.

Download memtest86+ and burn it to a CD and let it run for a couple hours to check for memory problems.

run prime 95 to check CPU stability and watch the temps.

 

[smorizio]

also what power supply do you have..if it a cheap one it could be sending a lot of ac ripple causing your issue.
download opened hardware monitor and watch the power supply voltage.

 

[Meanl3r]

I used the stock thermal past that come on the bottom of the HSF. It isn't over heating. At least not by what my temps are saying. I will try the firmware updates, then get memtest86+, then Prime95. The psu is a Seasonic 750W Gold 80+. Thanks for the advice.

 

[smorizio]

look at the mb qal report for ram and the ram vendor online ram guild to see if the ram you have has been tested in your mb.
you could have a stick of bad ram or the timing off. most ram and newer mb will read the ram spd info and set the ram speed up as 1066 or 1333. you need to change it to xmp profile to get the max speed. if you think it a bad stick of ram remove one stick and see if the errors stop.

 

[Meanl3r]

I am not exactly sure what you mean by the mb quality report. I am using an Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3 and Corsair Vengeance 2x4gb. Looking at HWinFO64, the memory is doing something a little funny. Perhaps it is normal, but the clock speeds for my 2 cores stays consistent at 1648Mhz, but then spikes randomly up to max(I think it says 3999MHz, but it only happens every few minutes and only for less than a second, then back to normal). Anyone know if this is a sign of anything? I am downloading MemTest now.

 

[smorizio]

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8Z68VGEN3/#download
make sure your mb bios is up to date there a few bug fixes. if your mb has the usb flashback button use that or a usb stick and go into the bios and update it that way.
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8Z68VGEN3/#MSL
this is a list of ra mthe mb vendor tested that will work on your mb. sometimes it not update so you have to check corsairs web page to see that the model of the dimms have been tested. there are still older 1.65 dimms for amd and older mb out there. the new x68 and z77 ram is rated at 1.5v. what your seeing on the cpu speed jump is your os and intel speed step. when your not doing anything or just web surfing the cpu speed will drop to it slowest speed to save power. then when you move your mouce or open a new web page the cpu speed will bounce back to max speed. you can change those setting to where the cpu will not sleep and all 4 cores are active 100 percent of the time.