Whats faulty MOBO/CPU/HardDisk .... Pretends to hang

Mohit Valecha

Honorable
Dec 7, 2013
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10,540
Config- Amd 8320/ Asus M5a97L.... with 6gigs of ram, sapphire 1gb ddr5 7770, 1.5tb wd black around 4 year old hdd.

Problem- In the beginning
Eventually my computer if left idle hangs
Screen remained ON but keyboard mouse don't work
it wont go to power saving mode or turn off display
Also once I received an error hard drive not found or cant read it

since I changed my wireless keyboard mouse combo so I formatted system and reinstalled all mobo drivers etc.
Now
computer still hangs but keyboard mouse works
pointer moves on scree but no functions work like closing IE/Chrome or any click wont reflect anything its hang with a moving pointer.

What are the possible causes of this? Pls explain a lill details because I like reasons for the answers.
 
Solution
Hi there Mohit Valecha,

I would also say that you need to try booting up your system with only one RAM stick and see whether the issue persist. Such freezes could be caused by faulty RAM.
Another thing you can do is to test the drive with WD's Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool and see whether the HDD will pass both short and extended tests. In case there is something wrong with it, you need to back up the data stored on it.
- It will not hurt to update your GPU drivers.

WD's DLG tool: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=Y6kv3o

Cheers,
D_Know_WD
Hello,

There can be a few issues with your system:

- what antivirus/antimalware software are you using? If the system is running OK in Safe Mode, the most likely situation is a nasty piece of malware (of course, it's not the case if you fully formatted the HDD, not just the C: );

- 6GB RAM: it's not advisable to mix different capacity modules, or use 3 RAM modules; nonetheless, try to use only one DIMM at a time in the first RAM slot, do a RAM test (either with the Windows utility when accessing Safe Mode, or installing MemTest);

- what PSU (make/model) do you use? Check voltages in BIOS and Windows;

- do a HDD test, either with the WD DataLifeGuard software, or with HDTune (swap the HDD SATA cable with the one from the DVD). Check also the power SATA cable from the HDD;

- what are the CPU/GPU temperatures in idle/load?
 

ok
- I was using Microsoft security essentials and regularly I scan it with Norton on new installs so no signof malware or virus except for activators and keygens in zip.

-yeah that's true but that's not the cause for the problem it may not increase performance but it can not cause this as I m using it from past 1.5 years

PSU its zebronics 500W
pls enlighten what to check because I too think this might be reason if voltage goes down on mobo or up but then it would stop entirely why would mouse nd keyboard work???

-Hdd is 98% good with hdsentinal
windows rating is 7.9 for all except hdd is 5.8

cpu gpu in idle is 32C and 34C respectively never above 35C except in summer it reaches 38-39Max(Thanx to coolermaster)

Still no Solution....🙁


Also one new problem
now after hang wen i restart i have bsod atikmpag.sys error windows8.1

 
Hi there Mohit Valecha,

I would also say that you need to try booting up your system with only one RAM stick and see whether the issue persist. Such freezes could be caused by faulty RAM.
Another thing you can do is to test the drive with WD's Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool and see whether the HDD will pass both short and extended tests. In case there is something wrong with it, you need to back up the data stored on it.
- It will not hurt to update your GPU drivers.

WD's DLG tool: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=Y6kv3o

Cheers,
D_Know_WD
 
Solution


- if you don't use legit software, no antivirus/antimalware will help you... ;

- if the system was working correctly until recently, then I guess the RAM is OK; testing the RAM it's not going to hurt though;

- if your PSU is this: http://zebronics.com/products/platinum-series/zeb-500w, then it's a very BAD one: you could not count on its full 500W rating, more like 350W; also, the +12V / 22Amps rating is too small for an FX and HD7770, you will need at least 30Amps REAL rating (nowadays, the +12V rail is the most important and should provide at least 2/3 from the total power rating of a given PSU). You can check the voltages in Monitor tab from BIOS, post here the results for +3.3V, +5V, +12V. In Windows, you must install HWMonitor or HWInfo. The keyboard / mouse / USB devices all use the +5V rail, not the +12V rail, and your PSU, having an old topology, have no issues with +5V and +3,3V rails;

- use HDTune, it will show you if there are some areas with low transfer rate / high latency;

- temperatures seems OK; the most important values are the load ones, but I guess you will not be able to fully load the CPU and/or the GPU with your actual PSU.

That BSOD, linked to atikmpag.sys file, indicates a GPU driver error; as suggested by D_Know_WD, reinstall the GPU, using the latest drivers from either the Sapphire or AMD website (uninstall the old drivers first, you may need to use the DDU utility).