[SOLVED] Unstable PC - Blue Screens. please advise

[mana1111]

System details:

CPU: Intel Core i5 4670K 3.4Ghz (3.8Ghz Turbo) LGA1150 Tray
CPU cooler: Arctic Freezer i30 CO
Board: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H for 1150
Case & PSU: Fractal Design Define R4 + FSP RAIDER 650W
RAM: Crucial 8GB X 2 DDR3 1600Mhz 1.5V CL11 -RAM
GPU: ASUS STRIX GTX970 DC20OC 4GD5
HDD: WD Blue 1TB SATA 6GB/S
SSD: Plextor PX-128M5S Sata3 Marvell+24nm M5
SSD: SAMSUMG 850 EVO 250GB SATA3

Note: I had been overclocking the CPU to 4.2 Ghz since mid 2016.

So it all started a few months ago when I was having on occasions a variety of BSOD which I could handle since they were not so often.
Lately the frequency of this was much higher reaching to a point of having multiple blue screens a day during gaming so I have checked all my drivers and monitored the PC components temperatures where nothing out of order was seen. The issue reached to a peak yesterday as i got "MACHINE CHECK EXCEPTION" while being AFK. knowing the seriousness of this specific stop code related to hardware probably the CPU or MB I have researched and decided to check my hardware.

I visually inspected the PC, all fans were working, all connections were proper and the board seems legit as no boiled capacitors or fault resistors were observed.
I tested afterwards my CPU using "Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool" resulting in a "pass" of each test until "CPU LOAD" test. At this point the PC froze and I had to manually shut down my PC. I retested the CPU resulting in the test FAIL at the "PRIME NUMBER" test module. I tried it several times and each time the process got failed.
I then restored my BIOS settings to default and after resetting my PC could not boot properly to a point that neither keyboard/mouse nor screen did not light up.

Thinking this had to be something related to the Bios reset I did clear the CMOS and removed all hardware but the following: 1 RAM, SSD of OS and basic keyboard/mouse.
After multiple tries I got back into Bios and load my previous Profile changing now only CPU clock speed back to original 3.4Ghz. I then installed my GPU back.

At this point the PC won't boot, it constantly gets itself into a loop of "restarts" where sometimes the keyboard lights up and sometimes the Gigabyte logo shows up but for a real brief moment. Getting into bios is not possible. I tried multiple RAM modules in multiple slots, I tried to replace SATA ports for the OS SSD, I tried a few keyboards in several USB ports and the dedicated keyboard/mouse port.

Is it my CPU who is completely dead or is it something else who might cause this issue? Is there anything one can suggest me to do to resolve the issue?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[vapour]

Don't panic, some parts are breaking down for sure and I doubt it is the CPU.
Prevent static and unplug everything including psu cables.
Plug in CPU first and PSU. Try booting. See what beep code you could hear, manual says you can plug in speaker in front, you may get something like this: https://store.cwc-group.com/casp.html
Then ram, see if it boots normally. Then your storage, you should be fine booting with IGPU.
beep codes: https://www.gigabyte.com/Support/FAQ/816

 

[mana1111]

Don't panic, some parts are breaking down for sure and I doubt it is the CPU.
Prevent static and unplug everything including psu cables.
Plug in CPU first and PSU. Try booting. See what beep code you could hear, manual says you can plug in speaker in front, you may get something like this: https://store.cwc-group.com/casp.html
Then ram, see if it boots normally. Then your storage, you should be fine booting with IGPU.
beep codes: https://www.gigabyte.com/Support/FAQ/816

Is there any other option to monitor this codes other than a speaker? I do not have access to that today.

 

[vapour]

what do you see when you put in only CPU and ram then? You can still try and get the speaker later.

 

[mana1111]

what do you see when you put in only CPU and ram then? You can still try and get the speaker later.

Thanks mate for your help!

I guess it's linked to the RAM.
I got 2 X 8GB set of same batch and an additional identical older single 8GB RAM from different batch
Decided to test all on same RAM slot, only the oldest RAM worked and my system was booted noramly. (BTW This time my CPU passed the Intel test), when I tried to boot with the the other RAMs it failed.

Now that's weird and get me real frustrated... As I put back the oldest RAM in (The one that worked literaly 2 minutes ago) my system failed to boot. However as I installed it on the second RAM slot my system booted as normal.

I made sure that it was installed properly to the board.

What do you guys think is going on here?

 

[vapour]

where two slots did you put in?
usually you need to put them in specific slots to use dual channel.

 

[mana1111]

where two slots did you put in?
usually you need to put them in specific slots to use dual channel.

RAM slote positions: CPU location --> (1) (2) (3) (4) RAM slots.
For years my old single stick was on (4) slot,
Then when I upgraded I put both new sticks on (3) and (2),
it worked fine once I did a memory test and had error so I removed the old single sticks and put the other 2 in (3) and (4) slots.

That was until yesterday when I had the "MACHINE CHECK EXCEPTION" blue screen. and now as I said before I tried rotating between my sticks on (4) slot, temporary succesfully booting with my old single stick.
Then moving it to (3) slot, as for now it is stable for few restarts of the PC.

(1) is semi blocked due to the CPU cooler.

Thanks for your help mate.

 

[vapour]

use 1/3 or 2/4 to put only the new dual sticks.
I will not do 3 rams, the system is very likely not set up that wa.

 

[mana1111]

use 1/3 or 2/4 to put only the new dual sticks.
I will not do 3 rams, the system is very likely not set up that wa.

2,4 Worked like a charm. I'll monitor the system for stability in the coming time.
Just a note, How the heck was my PC stable for years and all of a suddon got into havoc?

Thanks a lot for your help, really appreciating

 

[vapour]

I guess you got lucky when the triple ram setup was working... Anyway, cheers!

 

[mana1111]

The system is not stable yet again. As I tried today to turn it on the PC got into a reset loop while powering up, same as happened already.

Maybe the problem isn't related to the RAM after all?

 

[mana1111]

use 1/3 or 2/4 to put only the new dual sticks.
I will not do 3 rams, the system is very likely not set up that wa.

I don't get what's wrong. I'm trying multiple single sticks on multiple RAM slots and if my system load to windows succesfully it isn't stable and won't boot after restart. Any idea what could be the reason? Maybe the RAM isn't the issue after all? and if so what could that be?

 

[vapour]

If not ram, could be motherboard. If single ram is stable, I guess you just keep using that...
Unplug GPU and use IGPU, see if this helps.

 

[mana1111]

If not ram, could be motherboard. If single ram is stable, I guess you just keep using that...
Unplug GPU and use IGPU, see if this helps.

So I've tried another 8 pin cord from my PSU to the GPU and booting seems to be stable now. However blue screens still seems to occur. Memory, CPU and temps checks seems fine so maybe it wasn't related to the RAM after all, I did disabled overclocking though setting the clock to original 3.4 Ghz. I'm building a new system in a week anyways but I want this system to still work so my brother could use it. I Will watch booting stability for the coming days.

Would appreciate assistance regarding the blue screens. Thanks for your help.

 

[liamwhalley20]

were you using a pcie connector from the psu on the 8 pin for the cpu or an eps 8 pin?

 

[mana1111]

were you using a pcie connector from the psu on the 8 pin for the cpu or an eps 8 pin?

Hi, thanks for your reply.
I got two eps 8 pins cords from PSU soI just switched the one that was connected to the GPU with the other.