Troubleshooting a troublesome PC

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Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 18, 2005
Messages
181
So i have this PC around here that i pieced together a while back. It was de-commissioned for a while before i picked it back up to troubleshoot it.

So i started with a clean OS install. I noticed right away on a fresh OS whenever I right clicked on am image and hit 'Preview' it would completely lock up the PC - not blue screen just a hard-lock. Weird. I eventually replaced the GTX280 video card for a cheaper nvidia 9400gt. This fixed my 'Preview' crash bug. Now, i have general stability issues. Memtest says all things good but i have lots of other random crashes. The Microsoft Office suite of products absolutely loves to crash - probably 5-10 times a day.

So what do i do? Faulty motherboard? Bad RAM? I'm ready to convert this thing into a boat anchor.
 
 
Sounds like a software issue.

To rule out any hardware, run memtest again, as long as you can (DL the latest version, since there's a new one out, IIRC). Run Prime95 Blend Test as long as you can, and also run Furmark as long as you can. If all of those check out, try another OS ISO, and make sure you have the latest windows updates and the latest drivers. Report back with results.
 
enginurd said:
Sounds like a software issue.

To rule out any hardware, run memtest again, as long as you can (DL the latest version, since there's a new one out, IIRC). Run Prime95 Blend Test as long as you can, and also run Furmark as long as you can. If all of those check out, try another OS ISO, and make sure you have the latest windows updates and the latest drivers. Report back with results.
Click to expand...

Well everything seemed to check out ok.

  • Ran memtest again and everything checks out ok
  • Ran prime95 for a few hours no problems there
  • Ran furmark for a bit and no problems there
  • Updated motherboard BIOS
  • Verified all drivers up to date.
I'm gonna run it for another week - if i have anymore problems i'll have to do a re-install from a new ISO as you suggested. Thanks for the tips!
 
Just a followup on this. I tried all the tests under the sun and couldn't identify a troublesome piece of hardware. On a hunch i decided to replace the motherboard with an identical replacement. Ever since the replacement the machine has been perfect. Very happy! No more crashing or instability.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions and help! :cool:
 
Glad you got it worked out. Yah, mobo problems are hard to figure out. :(
 
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