please, I desperately need help - getting constant errors with my new build

2

2hightech

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Joined
Nov 12, 2009
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Hello all, I'm hoping for someone knowledgeable to help me here as I am at a loss.

So I built the following 2 weeks ago (all new components):

Windows 7 Home Premium
G.SKILL Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) PC3 12800 Model F3-1600C8D-8GAB
AMD A4-3400 Llano 2.7GHz AD3400OJHXBOX
ASRock A55M-HVS FM1 AMD A55 (Hudson D2) HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
RAIDMAX Altas ATX-295WBP w/500watt PS
ASUS 24X DVD Burner DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM
Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 2TB 5900 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

I am using the onboard APU via HDMI out to an Acer 23.6" G245HD monitor, as well as to a 73" mitsubishi using HDMI.

System booted up first try, loaded up Windows, and updated everything to SP1. The only software I installed was Microsoft Security Essentials, WinRAR, Reader, VLC player, and that's about it. I did not install the bloatware that came with the mobo, just the drivers.

The very first time I surfed the web I began having CONSTANT freezing with the error "display driver stopped responding and has recovered". The error occurs maybe once every ten seconds, starts happening almost non-stop, and shortly the driver cannot respond and it bluescreens and restarts.

This error only occurs when I surf. It doesn't matter what I surf, or how long I surf for. All I have to do is open a browser! It is NOT heat related. It literally happens the instant I open a browser or a D3D game.

It begins immediately after starting a browser (IE, Chrome, and Firefox all have the same behavior) although I swear I see it happen more often with Firefox. However, aside from the surfing errors I am able to watch videos for hours, even at 1080p, as well as play games which don't require D3D (such as Hoyle puzzle games). However, any game which uses D3D causes this error as well.

I searched this error and followed all the suggestions I could find:

I updated the motherboard BIOS from 1.00 to 1.30 (latest version).
I made sure the onboard graphics are the default in BIOS, and I tried different shared RAM settings.
I made sure the voltages to CPU, RAM, and NB are within acceptable limits (all steady within 2% of proper voltage).
I re-seated the RAM, several times, and tried running the system with one stick, then the other, trying both slots etc.
I updated all drivers to the latest versions, and I used the drivers from AMD, not from the MB install disk or windows update.
I then uninstalled the video drivers, used a driver cleaner, and reinstalled.
I then tried rolling back the video drivers to earlier versions and no matter what driver I used the error continues.
I tried a different power supply.
I tried different monitor cables - VGA, HDMI-to-DVI-D, etc... no difference.
I tested the RAM using Windows diagnostic and it found no errors.
I installed the hotfix from MS which is supposed to alter the timeout period and alleviate this error - no change.
I have done a clean Windows 7 install to a freshly formatted HDD 4 times now(!) using different SATA cables and ports.

etc etc etc

So during all this testing, I notice something strange: the system operates PERFECTLY when using default VGA drivers! No errors, no freezing, and surfing is fine! But then my resolution is limited to 1400x1050, as well as having the limitations of the VGA driver. The strange behavior and error ONLY occurs when using AMD or NVidia drivers.

NVidia drivers? Wait, what??

Ok... so last week I figured the issue must lie with the onboard graphics, so I broke down and bought an EVGA 01G-P3-1556-RX GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card ... made sure BIOS initializes the PCIe slot first... and yes, I used a driver cleaner after uninstalling the AMD graphics drivers before installing the NVidia card... and used the latest drivers from NVidia's website (306.97)...

and NO CHANGE.

Same error. Same behavior. I feel like I want to scream or cry at this point.

Forgive the long post...but...help? Please? Is my mobo faulty? Am I faulty? What am I missing? Thanks in advance!
 
Last edited:
2hightech said:
Ok... so last week I figured the issue must lie with the onboard graphics, so I broke down and bought an EVGA 01G-P3-1556-RX GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card ...

and NO CHANGE.

Same error. Same behavior. I feel like I want to scream or cry at this point.
Click to expand...

This response won't be helpful but I just wanted to say I feel your pain. Your problem does seem crazy. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be along shortly. Hang in there.
 
Did you try disabling onboard video thru bios, and run only with the discreet nvidia?
 
I reset the CMOS 3 separate times between installs of Windows just to be safe.

The option to disable the onboard video isn't an option; instead you select which video device is initialized... same result I am sure, but yes I switched the BIOS settings between the onboard and add-in card.

Thanks for the help and understanding :)
 
Do you have a spare video card you can use instead of the onboard APU and see if the error occurs with that?
 
I'm currently running the GeForce 550Ti instead of the onboard video, if that's what you mean? I don't have another card, no.

So.. wow! Holy crap - disabling the hardware acceleration in Firefox worked a treat! Awesome to be able to surf for the first time with this system - THANK YOU!!

I also installed a different game to test, a newer game than what I tried before, and it ran for the few minutes I played without a hitch! Yay!

As far as why would disabling hardware acceleration in Firefox result in a D3D game becoming playable? I feel the crashes I reported in games earlier were the result of my having Firefox open in the moments before running the game. I had only tried running the one game one time... so blame my haphazard testing methodology now.

However, it's not perfect - I caused the freezing and error again, and I can replicate it on command in any website... it occurs when I am watching a flash video and move the slider to a new time... as soon as the video starts to buffer the error occurs. Strange.

For now I am immensely pleased, and I now feel confident this is a software issue, and hopefully I can iron it out further with some trial and error. If all else fails I will order a new mobo soon.

Thanks for the help! :D
 
I highly recommend replacing your PSU ASAP as that Raidmax is a total piece of shit. It may not be the cause of your current issues now but it will more than likely be an issue later on. For all we know, that PSU may have already damaged your hardware. I recommend this replacement PSU:
$45 - Corsair 430CX V2 430W PSU
 
2hightech said:
I'm currently running the GeForce 550Ti instead of the onboard video, if that's what you mean? I don't have another card, no.

So.. wow! Holy crap - disabling the hardware acceleration in Firefox worked a treat! Awesome to be able to surf for the first time with this system - THANK YOU!!

I also installed a different game to test, a newer game than what I tried before, and it ran for the few minutes I played without a hitch! Yay!

As far as why would disabling hardware acceleration in Firefox result in a D3D game becoming playable? I feel the crashes I reported in games earlier were the result of my having Firefox open in the moments before running the game. I had only tried running the one game one time... so blame my haphazard testing methodology now.

However, it's not perfect - I caused the freezing and error again, and I can replicate it on command in any website... it occurs when I am watching a flash video and move the slider to a new time... as soon as the video starts to buffer the error occurs. Strange.

For now I am immensely pleased, and I now feel confident this is a software issue, and hopefully I can iron it out further with some trial and error. If all else fails I will order a new mobo soon.

Thanks for the help! :D
Click to expand...
Yeah, disabling hardware acceleration in the browser only masked the symptoms; the problem is still there. There are a couple of possibilities.

1). Something is very wrong with the chipset drivers you're using. To eliminate this possibility, I'd reinstall Windows, (Hey, already did it four times -- what's one more? By the way, I hope you haven't been activating each time you reintall...) and then install everything for your motherboard from the driver disc that came with the motherboard. Including the crapware. This will eliminate any possible claim of driver and software problems -- the shipping drivers would be at least nominally stable.

2). Defective hardware. I'm kind of at a loss for what would affect both integrated and discrete video parts. Uncommon as it may be, the the PCI-Express controller on the CPU itself may be defective. I'm not quite sure how to isolate that.... Try hammering the GPU -- both integrated and discrete -- with various 3D apps, tests, and benchmarks. Run multiple concurrently. Try OpenGL and hardware-accelerated MPEG4/H264. Also, test GPU compute. I'll admit, I'm kind of throwing things at the wall to see what pattern emerges. Basically, if it looks like heavy PCI-Express data transfers are crapping out on integrated graphics, I have to think it's the controller.

Its also vaguely possible that an incompatibility between the memory and the rest of the hardware could be presenting in a strangely specific way. Hit it with a few passes of memtest86. Try with individual sticks of RAM.

I don't think it's the PSU, though I'll agree that replacing it with a unit that's less crap can only be a good thing. The symptoms seem too specific for that to be at issue.
 
Thank you so much for the input on the power supply, Danny, as I admit it is worrisome to me that I am using such a low-quality unit at present. However, I agree that it does not seem like the cause of the issue, but I do need the peace of mind a quality psu would bring so I will order that Corsair as soon as I can. Thanks for the recommendation!

The pc still gives the error and freezes up as of last night during normal usage. Let me see if I can describe the behavior it displayed last night...

I downloaded some wallpaper, and I was scrolling through them using windows photo viewer. As I scrolled through the photos the pc started to freeze up, but as long as I kept hitting the 'next' button I was able to avoid the error and keep loading photos - but every time this would happen, the photos would not display, just a black screen. If I didn't hit the 'next' button fast enough the pc would freeze and the display driver would crash with the error.

This did not happen constantly, as it did with the browser behavior. It seemed like certain pictures caused it more, but I could find no correlation as to why. It also seemed like the speed at which I browsed through caused it, but again I could not find a pattern.

Other than that, I played a game for about an hour (just a hidden object game, yes I am that lame) and it ran flawlessly, and I also surfed every site I could think of... and other than the errors I got while seeking through flash video, the experience was flawless. I also watched some videos running at 480p, 720p, and 1080p (.avi, .mp4, and .mkv containers) and all play and seek flawlessly.

It is a little maddening this error is so hard to pinpoint!

XenIneX, I love your ideas about testing the GPU and PCIe controller. I will be doing just that today (Friday) and will report back here either late tonight or tomorrow at latest.

My plans:
Memtest86 (as I only tested the RAM using Windows (I know, I know...))
Re-install Windows yet again (clear CMOS, format HDD, clean install) and then install all drivers as you suggested
Begin testing of the CPU, GPU, etc using this setup

Can anyone recommend the software I should use for testing?

I have activated Windows only after this current install (activated last night actually) - should I not have, do you think? Is your concern about doing so because of me potentially changing hardware in the future?

Thanks to everyone who has responded and helped me so much - you guys are the best!
 
Was just reading these forums and just wanted to chime in here. I am by no stretch a tech expert in fact all of you are probably more knowledgeable than I. However I experienced similar symptoms to what you described above in my old build when I had faulty RAM. I know you said you tried reseating the ram and running one at a time etc, how about getting 2 old sticks of ram you know work and putting them in there. Or like you said run memtest
 
Probably a stretch, but you wouldn't happen to have a friend or three that may have an extra FM1 motherboard around, would you?

I had similar problems (though I got BSODs after about 30 second of it being locked, which it sounds like you aren't) on an i7 920 build a few years ago, and I didn't do anywhere near the amount of troubleshooting you did -- I hadn't even isolated it to specifcally what caused it, but it only ever locked up when I was either gaming or browsing, never just idle. Ran a few passes of memtest, swapped gpu's, was at the limit of return policy at Micro Center so I took a shot and exchanged the motherboard and I was good to go.

Not saying that's the problem, but if you can try it by borrowing from a friend and not having to spend more money I'd give it a go.
 
2hightech said:
I downloaded some wallpaper, and I was scrolling through them using windows photo viewer. As I scrolled through the photos the pc started to freeze up, but as long as I kept hitting the 'next' button I was able to avoid the error and keep loading photos - but every time this would happen, the photos would not display, just a black screen. If I didn't hit the 'next' button fast enough the pc would freeze and the display driver would crash with the error.

This did not happen constantly, as it did with the browser behavior. It seemed like certain pictures caused it more, but I could find no correlation as to why. It also seemed like the speed at which I browsed through caused it, but again I could not find a pattern.
Click to expand...
The pattern I see there is that faster image browsing == higher data transfer rate. I think that's Windows trying to use hardware compositing and failing on the image transfer to GPU memory. Try it with Aero Glass disabled and it'll probably work. It'll still be broken, but it'll work.


Other than that, I played a game for about an hour (just a hidden object game, yes I am that lame) and it ran flawlessly, and I also surfed every site I could think of... and other than the errors I got while seeking through flash video, the experience was flawless. I also watched some videos running at 480p, 720p, and 1080p (.avi, .mp4, and .mkv containers) and all play and seek flawlessly.
Click to expand...
But what codec was it using? You mention MKV, which means you probably installed a codec pack, and so I'm going to guess that FFDShow has taken over most video decoding. See what happens if you shift decoding priority over to FFDShow DXVA or back to the original system MPEG4 and H264 codecs. Or try XBMC with DXVA2 decoding enabled.


It is a little maddening this error is so hard to pinpoint!

XenIneX, I love your ideas about testing the GPU and PCIe controller. I will be doing just that today (Friday) and will report back here either late tonight or tomorrow at latest.

My plans:
Memtest86 (as I only tested the RAM using Windows (I know, I know...))
Re-install Windows yet again (clear CMOS, format HDD, clean install) and then install all drivers as you suggested
Begin testing of the CPU, GPU, etc using this setup

Can anyone recommend the software I should use for testing?
Click to expand...
Any 3D games or benchmarks are a start. 3DMark can hammer D3D and GPU compute. For OpenGL, try FurMark or the most recent IDTech-based game you have on hand; or, failing that, Google Earth can be run in OpenGL. Heck, the built in Windows Experience Index might be able to crash it if you run it a couple of times.

I have activated Windows only after this current install (activated last night actually) - should I not have, do you think? Is your concern about doing so because of me potentially changing hardware in the future?
Click to expand...
It's just best to wait until you're sure everything's stable before you activate; keeps Microsoft from getting too obnoxious.
 
XenIneX said:
The pattern I see there is that faster image browsing == higher data transfer rate. I think that's Windows trying to use hardware compositing and failing on the image transfer to GPU memory. Try it with Aero Glass disabled and it'll probably work. It'll still be broken, but it'll work.

But what codec was it using? You mention MKV, which means you probably installed a codec pack, and so I'm going to guess that FFDShow has taken over most video decoding. See what happens if you shift decoding priority over to FFDShow DXVA or back to the original system MPEG4 and H264 codecs. Or try XBMC with DXVA2 decoding enabled.

Any 3D games or benchmarks are a start. 3DMark can hammer D3D and GPU compute. For OpenGL, try FurMark or the most recent IDTech-based game you have on hand; or, failing that, Google Earth can be run in OpenGL. Heck, the built in Windows Experience Index might be able to crash it if you run it a couple of times.

It's just best to wait until you're sure everything's stable before you activate; keeps Microsoft from getting too obnoxious.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for the input! Those are some great ideas, and I will spend this evening doing exactly as you suggest. I will post back here later after I finish, or hopefully, after I find the problem!

I actually have not installed any codec packs, as VLC can handle the .mkv container natively, but as I had thought about trying a codec pack to see if it alleviates the issue, I will fool around with different codecs and see if I can either eliminate the problem, or barring that, at least find the cause behind this.

I will keep the activation in mind should I wind up installing Windows again; it's best not to screw myself over any more by trying to do the right thing!

Seriously, great ideas from you!

lasthero said:
Was just reading these forums and just wanted to chime in here. I am by no stretch a tech expert in fact all of you are probably more knowledgeable than I. However I experienced similar symptoms to what you described above in my old build when I had faulty RAM. I know you said you tried reseating the ram and running one at a time etc, how about getting 2 old sticks of ram you know work and putting them in there. Or like you said run memtest
Click to expand...

I appreciate your thoughts, as I am not very knowledgeable myself. I just got done running Memtest86 three times in a row and all tests were passed 100%, no errors.

Xonim said:
Probably a stretch, but you wouldn't happen to have a friend or three that may have an extra FM1 motherboard around, would you?
Click to expand...

No, I'm afraid I don't know anyone who does. Wish I did!

A HUGE thanks to all of you for taking the time to help me! There's a reason I've browsed these forums for years - awesome people! :D
 
Well, I hate to say it but... I give up.

The error occurs all the time. When I try and run a test, it will sometimes pass and sometimes fail - the error doesn't occur under the same conditions each time, which makes it near impossible to replicate, let alone diagnose. Sometimes the error occurs constantly, and sometimes it doesn't happen for hours, no matter what programs/testing/etc I am running. The error also happens a lot just from right-clicking on a file. Oh, and I stated earlier it happened a lot while browsing photos, but now it doesn't always happen, and when it does it's not always from the same photos in the set.

In other words, there is no rhyme or reason to this error, which makes me believe either the motherboard or cpu (or both) are defective, rather than a software error as I had hoped.

I thank you all for your help, but I guess until I can afford to build a different pc I am back to being stuck using this old laptop I borrowed from my neighbor. I saved for six months to be able to build this cheap piece of crap and I can't get it to work... oh well... thanks for all your help everyone.
 
Yeah -- return it all. It's not unreasonable, since you haven't been able to isolate the problem, despite extensive testing. Use the money to get a prebuilt; it's what a friend of mine did in a similar situation a few years ago. Might seem a little lame, but that way you'll have a proper warranty and be able to avoid future problems like this.
 
I bought the components over 30 days ago; health problems kept me from assembling it until a couple weeks ago, and here I am. Thanks for the input though.
 
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