New PC freezes & powers down at random

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subxero

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I built up a PC for our studio for basic work. It freezes and powers down at random - whether under load or not. I have made sure the CPU is seated well and have checked the RAM with a memtest, bearing in mind that faulty RAM should just cause the PC to freeze and not power off. I installed CoreTemp to check the CPU temps and CoreTemp has the CPU @ 38 Degrees C idle and 65-70 at full load. (Ran benchmark burn-in tests) I then booted into BIOS and checked the stats there and was shocked to see the CPU being registered at 86 degrees C. Boot into Windows (7) and CoreTemp shows +- 38 Degrees again.

During the tests, the machine was fine. Just browsing the internet a few minutes ago and the machine froze again and powered down. Could it be that the board's CPU sensor is faulty? If so, how do I fix that short of returning the board at a not so opportune time? I also recall mention that CPU's run at full state while in BIOS and only enter reduced states once Intel speed stepping takes control in an OS environment < That I am not sure of though !?! Any suggestions would be most welcome.

PC specs: i-5 3570 CPU with stock Intel cooler, 8 GB Corsair RAM, M/b = GIGABYTE GA-B75M-D3H , Graphics Card AMD Gigabyte GV-R777OC-1GD, Power Supply Corsair VS450 450W, Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD.

I have not updated the board's BIOS as yet, but have not seen any updates which mention faulty CPU readings.
 
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I'd suggest that you first remove the graphics card and use onboard video only.

If it is still unstable without the graphics card, then start by running memtest x86 off a Linux Live CD.
 
Ran memtest x86 off the Linux LIVECD twice over the weekend and memtest x86 reported no errors. Out of curiosity, I slotted the two RAM modules into a McPro this morning and downloaded the memtest Unix app. Ran the Unix app through Terminal and within 5 seconds it was spitting out errors. I narrowed it down by running the command (memtest all 2) on each of the two modules separately and found the bad apple. The pro-mac fanbois at work are not letting this one go. A PC rescued by a MacPro... The PC is happy now.
 
I won't consider the RAM as being faulty when they don't work in Apple hardware!

I've had pretty bad experience with RAM compatibility when it comes to Apple hardware (eg. MacBook Pro / Mac Mini)! Usually like a 4GB DDR3 1333MHz CL9 RAM module would work in a motherboard that supports only up to 1066Mhz without overclocking - but not in the case of Apple. With Apple I had to pick memory modules that was certified as Mac compliant, which was DDR3 1066MHz CL9 modules.

Another odd thing about the Apple hardware was that when I installed the modules alone - like only 1x 4GB, they worked perfectly, but when I installed both modules the Mac didn't want to boot at all. We ended up installing 1x 4GB + 1x 2GB, until I finally resorted to buying Mac compliant memory and then 2x 4GB worked like a bomb!

If letting go of that single RAM module fixed your PC's problems, then good for you :)
 
I tried the same module in another PC too and also get the BSOD. With regards to Macs being fussy with RAM, they are. Macs use RAM with ECC support. The minute you put in non-ECC RAM , the mac will not boot. Most commonly available RAM modules are non-ECC. Even if you do happen to find ECC RAM which is non-Apple RAM, the serial number of the RAM is also an issue, as only modules in a specific serial number range will work on the specific motherboard it is being installed on.

The way around that is to delete AppleTyMCEDriver.kext which is what checks for ECC support and implements it. That is all the kext is used for, so OSX runs fine without it. It's useless overkill on Apple's part, but that is Apple. With that kext deleted, you can use pretty much any brand you want in a MAC.

The above I have tested on a MacPro. I am not sure if it applies to macbooks or i-macs, but give it a try sometime.
 
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I would try another PSU fisrt. I had a 6850 in my rig with a 500w psu. Was fine for a week, then all of a sudden while gaming it would just shut off. PSU ended up popping. Put a new psu in and was all well again.
 
Lament said:
I have the exact same problem, i have narrowed it down to the CPU or the PSU.
Click to expand...

That was my first guess. Then I realized the reason the machine shuts down is because, MS in their infinite wisdom, thought it a good idea to set the Windows 7 system default to shutdown on encountering an error.ie. BSOD.

I disabled the setting so I could actually read the error code which was a memory_management ( .....0x0A1 ) error.
 
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