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Unusual issue with computer

T

Tanky15

Contributor
Joined
Jun 15, 2013
Posts
32
Hi guys,

My desktop PC is randomly crashing. The fault starts with the sound from the speaker turning into a, 'Dalek' sound followed by the pages been viewed becoming slow and unresponsive, keyboard ceases to function, and sometimes the mouse, (but not always) resulting in me having to do a hard reset as the windows button wont open to enable me to use shutdown. This is totally random so can occur any time from start up, cold or hot, under load i.e. gaming or just listening to music and browsing the internet. It has been driving me crazy trying to find the cause. I am now wondering if it could be a mother board issue on the audio section or perhaps USB as the speakers, keyboard and mouse are all connected through USB? I really have no idea and hope you may be able to help pin point it. (Please see list of tried remedies below)

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 -bit

AMD FX-8320 - CPU

8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz - RAM

ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0 (CPUSocket)- Motherboard

931GB Seagate ST1000DM003-9YN162 ATA Device (SATA) -STORAGE
931GB Western Digital WDC WD10EARS-22Y5B1 ATA Device (SATA) - STORAGE - OS Installed on this drive

Corsair GS 800 - PSU

TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-222AB ATA Device

AMD High Definition Audio Device

List of tried remedies:

Clean Installed Windows x 3 (Have an SSD and thought it may be faulty but since disconnecting it the fault still occurs)

Changed Mouse and Keyboard

Run Memtest-no memory issues reported - Removed air cleaned and re seated just to make sure

Removed cleaned and reseated Graphics card- (Tried older card, fault still occurred)

Used Iobit Driver booster to update drivers

Disk scan/check - both OK

Run SFC:

SFCFix version 2.4.3.0 by niemiro.Start time: 2015-03-08 11:49:42.406
Microsoft Windows 7 - amd64
Not using a script file.


AutoAnalysis::
SUMMARY: No corruptions were detected.
AutoAnalysis:: directive completed successfully.


Successfully processed all directives.
SFCFix version 2.4.3.0 by niemiro has completed.
Currently storing 0 datablocks.
Finish time: 2015-03-08 11:51:20.440
----------------------EOF-----------------------


The motherboard, PSU, RAM, and CPU are around 18 months old. You may note that I haven't yet got service pack 1 installed, this is due to just reloading windows for the third time. However the fault appears if it is on or not. Is there any program that can check the motherboard stability?

Any help would be appreciated

Tanky
 
Used Iobit Driver booster to update drivers
Click to expand...

Not a good solution, garbage software that installs broken drivers. They also steal intellectual property, by the way - https://forums.malwarebytes.org/ind...it-steals-malwarebytes-intellectual-property/

Have any of these Windows installs you've done not had it installed + you installed drivers from the manufacturer websites? If so, then good. If not, reinstall Windows and get your drivers from the manufacturers websites.

Is there any program that can check the motherboard stability?
Click to expand...

No.

Do you experience any bug checks, or are your crashes purely freezes and resets?
 
Thank you for the quick response Patrick. I was not aware of the Iobit issue, thank you for the heads up. The issue I'm having occurred before and after any Iobit driver updates so that probably rules them out. Can you expand on, "do you experience any bug checks"? Not sure what is meant. The problem always seem to emulate with the sound disruption followed by the slowing down of loading pages or the video clips go into slow motion then keyboard issue, as described earlier. It is very strange. As I have re installed windows many times I'm tending to think it is a hardware issue rather than a driver one.
 
Ah, thank you for clearing that up. I've not had any blue screen or BSOD. The event viewer seem to be little help also as it only told me that the pc had shut down unexpectedly
 
Just as a test I have deliberately not used any sound whilst I have had the PC on today (about 7 hours so far) and no issue as yet. I forgot to add to my first post under list of remedies, that I have replaced the speakers with a new set, so again I'm thinking if the sound is the cause of the issue then perhaps it is something to do with the USB sockets or Motherboard. Is there anyway of testing the USB's? I should mention there is no issues (!) shown in device manager
 
For what it's worth, I am betting this to be a motherboard issue. I was waiting simply on whether or not you were getting BSODs.

Is there anyway of testing the USB's?
Click to expand...

Not particularly, no.
 
I have drawn the same conclusion. Interestingly I watched a youtube 'how to' video this evening and needed the sound on. It wasn't long before the issue appeared again. I was fairly sure there was nothing else it could be but needed someone else to look over what the issue was and what I'd tried already just in case I had missed something. I'm ordering a new Motherboard as I type this.

Thanks for your input
 
Just thinking out loud -

For USB, try a totally different pair. If using rear USB ports, try the front. Or spread them around so you are not going through the same USB controller.

Did the new set of speakers connect via USB too? Can you try standard audio ports instead of USB?

Try running with one stick of RAM at a time. While software based memory testers like MemTest86 are great, none are conclusive. If they report the RAM is bad, it is bad. But they can report no problems but the RAM still fails in real-world scenarios, or when paired with other sticks. Note to conclusively test your RAM, you need to use sophisticated and very expensive test equipment, like this $4,000 Eureka Express DDR3 DIMM Memory Module Tester.

I always want to ensure I am feeding my system good, clean, stable power when troubleshooting hardware problems - especially "strange" hardware problems. So I would swap in a known good spare PSU - this is ESPECIALLY true when I suspect motherboard issues.
 
Hi Digerati, The new speakers do use USB however thinking about it the old ones used the jack plug so probably wasted my time replacing them. I wonder if it it did turn out to be the USB ports if I would still need to change the motherboard to correct it?

I don't have another PSU to try unfortunately so am now reduced to replacing the more expensive parts in order to find the issue. I have ordered a new motherboard and am hopeful it will solve the problem. If not I will try the one stick of Ram idea and then if necessary replace the PSU.

Thank you for your input
 
I wonder if it it did turn out to be the USB ports if I would still need to change the motherboard to correct it?
Click to expand...
IF the problem is the USB ports or controllers, since the USB ports are directly connected to the USB hubs/controllers integrated with the motherboard, then yes, it would be a bad motherboard - IF reinstalling/updating the drivers did not correct it. You might visit the motherboard's website to see if there are updated drivers for your board.

I don't have another PSU to try unfortunately so am now reduced to replacing the more expensive parts in order to find the issue. I have ordered a new motherboard and am hopeful it will solve the problem. If not I will try the one stick of Ram idea and then if necessary replace the PSU.
Click to expand...
That's backwards and could end up costing you a LOT more in the end. EVERYTHING (CPU, RAM, FSB/chipset, sound, graphics and more) depends on good, clean stable power to operate properly. You don't replace the engine in your car without first making sure it's getting good, clean fuel and a reliable battery/spark.

And note too if the new motherboard is a different model, then in terms of software licensing (including Windows) a new motherboard is considered a new computer. And if your current Windows license is an OEM/System Builders license (as the vast majority are) it will require a new Windows license too. Not to mention, potentially a different CPU and maybe even different RAM.

I note Rosewill, once shunned for poor quality power supplies, now makes some of the best, including their highly efficient Rosewill Valens Series 500W 80 PLUS Gold for just $60. Or this excellent XFX TS Series 550W 80 PLUS Gold, also for just $60. And yes, 500W is more than enough for your system - even with a power hungry graphics card.
 
I received the new board and fitted it, so far no issues. Am in the process of reloading programs and setting it up the way I like it. It looks like it was the motherboard. I will let you know if different
thanks for your input and advice
best regards
 

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