PC constantly crashing / static noise

athrin

Distinguished
Dec 17, 2011
2
0
18,510
Hello all,

I have been having some serious problems with my PC as of late (past 1-2 months). When it crashes all USB peripherals will power off. Images on the monitor will freeze and a high pitch static pink noise will blare out of my speakers. This noise does not loop, but lasts indefinately until I power off my PC.

Now 95% of the time this happens while gaming. (Final fantasy XI and now Star Wars the old Republic) occationally youtube, but its almost always during video.

Can someone help me out and point me in the direction which coment/s might be causing this?

System:
Intel I5-2500k (turbo boost off)
Asus Sabretooth P67 (Rev 3.0) Most current Bios (12/14/2011) - just flashed today- problems persist
CORSAIR Hydro H70 CWCH70 120mm High Performance CPU Cooler
Rosewill BRONZE Series RBR1000-M 1000W
HIS IceQ X Turbo H695QNT2G2M Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9Q-16GBXL
Crucial M4 128 GB SSD
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Notable info-

I upgraded from an XFX 5770 to the 6950 two weeks ago - problem still persists. I have the most recent drivers installed.
My CPU idles at about 31C and 6~7 watts. While gaming it's usually around 41~43 C and 28~30 watts
This is my 2nd MoBo- The first had a bent pin.

I ran SW:TOR beta with an old Radeon 4500 series with every setting on low- Never experience crashes. It seems to me the the higher I pump my system the more it crashes. SW crashed 7-8 times alone today in about 4 hours. On the other token I can run 2 intances of FFXI for all day and it will crash 1-2 times.

If anyone has any ideas what this maybe I'd love to give it a shot. I'm tired of relogging into games waiting a 15 minute queue only to find my character dead....
I also bought the 2500k specifically to OC. It's entirely too unstable to do so.
 
My first guess is that you might have a mobo issue(s), since you are having some USB related issues. The other thing that might be related might be a PSU issue, but that is just a guess at this point. You might want to run Memtest86 if you want to test your RAM out too. Not sure if that is an issue, but if you haven't tested it out yet, it might not be a bad idea to do it.

Things to check:
* Mobo updated (looks like you did this already).
* Check out all drivers for your mobo.
* Try 2 x 4 gb's of RAM for a period of time or at least test it with Memtest86 to verify all sticks are good or at least if all the RAM slots are good too. Might not be any issue your seeing now, but is good to verify this.
* PSU might be an issue, try and use a friends if you can to verify it's operation over a period of time.
 

athrin

Distinguished
Dec 17, 2011
2
0
18,510
OK update. I have tried another PSU. Experienced the same result.
All Mobo Drivers are u-to-date.

I am currently trying to eliminate RAM next as a possibility.

My gut is telling me its the CPU. I don't know why; perhaps because this is the first Intel machine I have built.