Trouble with either Mobo or GPU please help!

[tarzantz]

I built a new system about a month and since I built it I have had trouble with random restarts, blue screens, and ati video driver crashes and recovers. I have run Memtest 86+ and the ram came through with no errors (running it at 800mhz). I have replaced the PSU that came with the Case with the 750TX thinking it was the PSU but that has not fixed any problems. I have reinstalled the system 4 times and used XP, Win7 32 bit and win 7 64 bit. The problems have shown up in all of them.

Is there any way to check the Mobo or Video Card without replacing them? Or any other thoughts about where to go from here?

Thanks!

RAIDMAX SMILODON Extreme Black ATX-612WEBP 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case With 500W Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811156098

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006&Tpk=tx750

GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128387

SAPPHIRE 100245HDMI Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102824

AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz Socket AM2+ 95W Dual-Core black edition Processor Model AD775ZWCGHBOX - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103300

OCZ Fatal1ty Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2F10664GK - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227364

Western Digital Caviar SE WD3200AAJS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098

 

[Twoboxer]

You haven't mentioned anything about the cooler you are using and your temperatures. Using RealTemp or CoreTemp, could you report your temps after bootup and 10 min at idle? Then run Prime95 (find the menu option to report rounding errors, and make sure it is checked ON) for an hour if you can, watching your temps as you go along?

You've already replaced psu, so I'm gonna leave that for last.

The other quick and easy thing to check is memory - yes, I know you ran memtest lol. Sometimes running with one stick, and/or increasing memory voltage a tad solves problems like this. So if it fails in Prime95, try those.

 

[tarzantz]

So I ran CoreTemp and it would only report on Core 0 but for the 10 min startup and idle it started at 27C (I had it on prior to restart) and then leveled out to 20C and stayed there for the 10 minutes.
Prime 95 ran for an hour without problems with temps hovering around 42-43C.
I also ran memtest with both sticks and then ran it twice more with both sticks singly. No errors.

Any other ideas :/
Thanks again!

 

[Twoboxer]

OK

1) your cpu is running really cool - maybe too cool. It can't run cooler than ambient (20C = 68F) without an exotic cooling system, so what's the temperature in your room? And what's that 1 core thing? Need an AMD guy in here to help out with that lol.

2) system (and memory) ran for an hour under Prime95. Normally problems would show up, though an overnight test might discover an extreme case. (How many threads did Prime95 run? Does Windows (eg Task Manager) show more than 1 core?)

Can you get a look at your gpu's temp and system +5V and +12V using CPUID HardwareMonitor?

 

[tarzantz]

Thats a good point, checking again the air coming out the back of the case feels cool with the ambient temp in the room 74 and CoreTemp displaying 74. This is pretty much at idle however. I do have a large case with 2 80mm fans blowing onto the MB and two 120's for airflow. The exhaust has never felt more than lukewarm even under load.

In the coretemp display it shows 2 cores and 2 threads at the top but only reports on CPU #0. Not sure about that. Prime 95 and task manager also show two cores with no problem. I am running windows 7 64 bit, could that be part of the issue with only seeing 1 core in coretemp?

Here is what HW monitor says:

Thanks again!

ITE IT87 hardware monitor

Voltage sensor 0 1.04 Volts [0x41] (CPU VCORE)
Voltage sensor 1 1.97 Volts [0x7B] (VIN1)
Voltage sensor 2 3.33 Volts [0xD0] (+3.3V)
Voltage sensor 3 5.08 Volts [0xBD] (+5V)
Voltage sensor 4 12.35 Volts [0xC1] (+12V)
Voltage sensor 5 -7.74 Volts [0x79] (-12V)
Voltage sensor 7 3.58 Volts [0x85] (+5V VCCH)
Voltage sensor 8 3.23 Volts [0xCA] (VBAT)
Temperature sensor 0 40°C (104°F) [0x28] (TMPIN0)
Temperature sensor 1 36°C (96°F) [0x24] (TMPIN1)
Temperature sensor 2 40°C (104°F) [0x28] (TMPIN2)
Fan sensor 0 2273 RPM [0x129] (FANIN0)

AMD Athlon 7750 Black Edition hardware monitor

Temperature sensor 0 23°C (73°F) [0xB8] (Core #0)
Temperature sensor 1 23°C (73°F) [0xB8] (Core #1)

ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series hardware monitor

Voltage sensor 0 1.12 Volts [0x1] (GPU Core)
Temperature sensor 0 41°C (105°F) [0x29] (GPU Core)
Fan sensor 0 2261 RPM [0x8D5] (GPU)

Processors Information
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Processor 1 (ID = 0)
Number of cores 2 (max 4)
Number of threads 2 (max 2)
Name AMD Athlon 7750 Black Edition
Codename Kuma
Specification AMD Athlon(tm) 7750 Dual-Core Processor
Package Socket AM2+ (940)
CPUID F.2.3
Extended CPUID 10.2
Brand ID 6
Core Stepping DR-B3
Technology 65 nm
Core Speed 2700.2 MHz (13.5 x 200.0 MHz)
HT Link speed 1800.1 MHz
Instructions sets MMX (+), 3DNow! (+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A, x86-64
L1 Data cache 2 x 64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache 2 x 64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache 2 x 512 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L3 cache 2 MBytes, 32-way set associative, 64-byte line size
FID/VID Control yes
min FID 5.0x
Features XD, VT
Package Type 0x1
Model 77
String 1 0x1
String 2 0x3
Page 0x0
Attached device PCI device at bus 0, device 24, function 0
Attached device PCI device at bus 0, device 24, function 1
Attached device PCI device at bus 0, device 24, function 2
Attached device PCI device at bus 0, device 24, function 3
Attached device PCI device at bus 0, device 24, function 4

 

[Twoboxer]

No problem, wish I knew more about AMD lol. Because all your numbers there look good except Vcore of 1.04 . . . that sounds too low to be good lol. But as I said, I just don't know. Normal Vcore seems to be 1.32V, maybe that's a step-down under no load. I trust Hardware Monitor on an Intel chip, but I don't know if/when its flaky on AMD.

So lets see where we are. You've used 2 psus, and done multiple clean installs of several OS versions. The symptoms remain throughout. We have run Prime for an hour, temps look good, doesn't seem to be cpu heat-related or mem related.

All that's left seems to be 1 underpowered and 1 bad psu, or what you came in asking about - Vid Card or Mobo.

I think its best if you make a new thread titled something AMD-catchy like "AMD PC Shutdowns", post substantially what you posted before, and adding you reply above:

"So I ran CoreTemp and it would only report on Core 0 but for the 10 min startup and idle it started at 27C (I had it on prior to restart) and then leveled out to 20C and stayed there for the 10 minutes.
Prime 95 ran for an hour without problems with temps hovering around 42-43C.
I also ran memtest with both sticks and then ran it twice more with both sticks singly. No errors."

Also add the Hardware Monitor data (but not the Processor Data). And let's hope some ADM-pro takes the bait lol. I'll be watching. Sorry I couldn't do more.

 

[tarzantz]

Thanks for all your help. I broke down and begged a loan of a Geforce 8600 from a friend and swaped it into my machine. I have been doing all kinds of things to get it to crash (games, prime95, sleep and back, 3dmark) and so far its solid as a rock. So I am thinking it might be the Video card. I'll RMA this one and hopefully thats the problem.

Thanks for all your help, I'll let you know if thats what it turns out to be.

 

[Twoboxer]

GREAT!! Please do let us know. It'll help the next guy lol.