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Tacgnol

n00b
Joined
Jan 16, 2009
Messages
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Hi, I'm a new member to the board who was referred to the site by a computer tech friend of mine. I was told you guys were the most likely to know what ails my new computer :)

So, i recently bought the parts to and built a computer. The specs are:
Antec 900 case
EVGA nVidia GTX 260 896mb video card
EVGA 750i SLI FTW motherboard
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Random DVD drive (samsung)
I originally bought a rosewill 750W power supply...junked that and bought a 700W Rocketfish.
2x2GB OCZ reaper memory (DDR2)
CPU INTEL|C2Q Q9400 2.66G 775 45N R
Vista Home Premium (I wish i used XP though)
I put arctic silver 5 on my processor (the correct way)

The issue has been random lockups. Random to the point where it sometimes even locks up during the initial splash (before you can even opt to go into bios). It hasn't frozen that early on in a while, but it happened before I recently RMA'd my mobo, memory and replaced my power supply. That being said, it still gets the freezing it used to..just hasn't happened during the splash since then. I have noticed it happens MORE often when I'm running a higher-end game like Call of Duty 4 or Company of Heroes, although they should be a piece of cake to my computer. However, I'm led to believe that these demands on the system are not the cause of the issue.

With the memory, motherboard and RAM replaced, I have but to replace the Hard Drive as a finishing touch. Barring the possibility that it is indeed the hard drive, what else may cause these issues? I GREATLY appreciate any help you guys can render. If you want me to upload pictures of the computer to help, I can. If anybody lives in the Philadelphia area that wants to make a few bucks, I'd be happy to bring it to you to fix (provided of course you can fix it :) )

Again, thanks for any help you guys can give
 
What do you have your memory speed/timings/voltage set at? You can eliminate the hard drive as being a problem by going to WD's site and downloading their diagnostics software.
 
Replace the power supply. That Rocketfish 700W PSU is a total POS PSU that's actually a 400W PSU in disguise. Even it isn't a cause for your problem, ditch it anyway. Not a smart nor good idea to keep using that Rocketfish. As a replacement, I recommend the BFG LS-550 or the Corsair 650TX for $80 and $100 respectively from newegg.com.

It could be your GPU: Run a GPU stress test app like Furmark or ATI Tool's Artifact scanner to see if the lockups occur then.
 
voltages and speeds are at the recommended values from OCZ.

THANKS for the ideas with the diagnostic tool and furmark stress test... I'll try them out :)

As for the power supply, I've already bought two (rocketfish AND rosewill) and apparently they both suck. But i dont exactly want to sink more money into them. If it turns out the PSU is a problem, i'll replace it, but not until :(
 
You could get a PCP&C 750 from amazon for $65. I wouldn't risk the nice processor and card with a sketchy PSU. When a PSU goes bad it usually takes lots of other stuff with it.

good luck
 
BikePilot said:
You could get a PCP&C 750 from amazon for $65 After MIR. I wouldn't risk the nice processor and card with a sketchy PSU. When a PSU goes bad it usually takes lots of other stuff with it.

good luck
Click to expand...

fixed. rebates are never guaranteed. but i agree... $99.99 up front... smokin, red-hot deal... literally.
 
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