Random BSODing for no reason.

[grebgonebad]

Hey everyone!

I'll get to the point, my PC for the last few weeks has been playing up worse than a stripper in a very revealing dress. I haven't actually shut my PC down myself for around a week now, and it's really starting to take over my usual, calm self. =P

Basically, everytime I turn on my PC, it will work fine for a period of time. Can be a couple of hours, can be 10 minutes. But it will always gon to the BSOD screen with a random BSOD. It's almost always different. I think ive counted around 15 different ones so far. And 9 times out of 10, my PC will then freeze at the BSOD screen, forcing me to hold down the power button. (Cant use my reset button, im using it as a quick BIOS access switch). Other times, if I try to manually shut down the PC properly, it will BSOD while its shutting down! And it doesnt matter what Im doing at the time of the BSOD, whether im playing a game, have multiple programs running or am just playing bloody solitair, it will randomply BSOD. I really cant express the randomness of these events.

I do not know how to access my dump's, I will be honest, as ive never had to before. So if you require them ask me and I will look up how to do it. If theres anytthing else you need please just ask.

To see my system specs just hover over my avatar and hey presto.

My OS is Windows 8

PLEASE HELP!

 

[sam_p_lay]

That sucks mate. Have you tried swapping out RAM sticks?

 

[sam_p_lay]

Also, have you been stable at those overclocks for a good while? Would be good to narrow down what changed as the instability started.

 

[karlsanada13]

Hmmmm...are you using stock clocks for your CPU? HAve you tried using one gpu only? One ram?

 

[grebgonebad]

I have nothing overclocked at the minute. The first thing I did when I noticed this happening was to revert back to base clocks on CPU/GPU's. The RAM is at its base clock already.

The overclocks have been stable, however, since day one about 6 months ago now. Never had a problem with temps or stability.

Like I say, these BSOD's are just so utterly random. Lol.

I have not tried swapping out DIMM's yet, as I purchased new RAM around 2 months ago now, and it was fine to begin with. I shall try swapping them out though when I get back from work. One thing about the RAM, do you think it would be worth trying to run the RAM @ 1600mhz and see if that helps? Maybe 1866 is a push, even though my mobo, CPU and RAM all support it?

 

[karlsanada13]

Well you can try. If temperature is fine and you're still going BSOD. Try removing your GPU and use your onboard igp.

 

[sam_p_lay]

If your RAM clocks have never been changed there's probably no issue there. I'd remove all sticks and try them one at a time. You may need to spend a whole evening with each to be certain the stick is fine before moving on to the next. Also try the sticks in different slots. The single GPU recommendation is also a good idea. Obviously one thing at a time though

 

[grebgonebad]

One problem with removing both GPU's, theres no VGA, DVI or HDMI connections of any sort on my mobo. Its mostly just USB's on the I/O. So I need at least 1 GPU installed. I shall try each one induvidually though.

One thing I forgot to mention, Seeing as this new RAM of mine is faster than my old RAM, whihc ran at 1333mhz, I have been paying attention to the temperature of the RAM. I havent been doing this very technically though, I've simply been touching the heatsinks on the RAM, and they have felt quite warm. IS this normal?

 

[grebgonebad]

If your RAM clocks have never been changed there's probably no issue there. I'd remove all sticks and try them one at a time. You may need to spend a whole evening with each to be certain the stick is fine before moving on to the next. Also try the sticks in different slots. The single GPU recommendation is also a good idea. Obviously one thing at a time though

Yeah, maybe I'll set memtest to run an all nighter or something for the next 4 nights. =)

 

[karlsanada13]

What do you mean by warm? xD Mine is warm too but given our temperature ranges from 27C-32C everyday.

 

[grebgonebad]

Well, by warm I mean I can physically feel the metal is warm. I live in the UK and we normally have crap weather. It has been quite toasty recently though, (Like 22-25 degrees). Could this be the cause?

 

[sam_p_lay]

Haha well that's certainly thorough! ;-) I think memory is the most likely culprit for this kind of thing. If it doesn't help you could look at flashing your SSD's firmware. As far as I know they're the only SF2281-based drives with custom firmware, and should be much more reliable than say a Vertex 3. But you never know!

 

[ddpruitt]

You may also want to take a look at your PSU. I've had PSUs that start going bad and force BSODs. Usually the voltage drops momentarily and causes an error, you have to run an external logging device to see it happen.

 

[grebgonebad]

Haha well that's certainly thorough! ;-) I think memory is the most likely culprit for this kind of thing. If it doesn't help you could look at flashing your SSD's firmware. As far as I know they're the only SF2281-based drives with custom firmware, and should be much more reliable than say a Vertex 3. But you never know!

I'll look more into memory errors as soon as I get back, but I really cant imagine it being a problem. Like I say, I've only had the RAM for a couple of months. But maybe it is faulty, I dont know. =)

I recently used the Intel SSD updating program to check my SSD's firmware, and this hasnt solved the problem. I dont know whether theres anything else I can do with regards to this?

 

[grebgonebad]

You may also want to take a look at your PSU. I've had PSUs that start going bad and force BSODs. Usually the voltage drops momentarily and causes an error, you have to run an external logging device to see it happen.

Thanks for the advice!

I actually have an extremly reliable PSU, a Corsair AX850 with an 80+ gold rating, so I cant see this being a problem. But I shall certainly look into it thanks!

 

[grebgonebad]

Hi all, just a quick update. Sorry for the lateness!

When I got home I decided to drop my memory clock from 1866 to 1333 just to see if this did anything, and so far, after a couple days of extensive use, I have not had a single BSOD. I'm sure why dropping the clock worked, but it did!

My question is now, even though both my CPU and Motherboard both supports 1866mhz memory, why was it causing these intermittent BSOD's? I suppose it could still be faulty RAM? Or is there another reason? Could increasing my memory voltage slightly increase stability?

 

[sam_p_lay]

Maybe! I'm not sure what the correct voltage would be for your's. I think my DDR3 1600 is meant to be 1.65v. Sometimes the BIOS defaults don't set this correctly for you.

 

[grebgonebad]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I havent really messed with RAM settings much before, maybe I'll take a look when I get home. I'll check that the timings are right as well while Im at it, like you say the BIOS might not set them properly. :-/

Cheers for the help!

 

[sam_p_lay]

No worries mate