BSODs and freezing - Windows 7 x64

What are the full specs of the system?

The rma form should only need the serial number from the motherboard that'll be on the bar code sticker on the board.
 
ASUS P8H77M-LE Motherboard
Intel I5 3470 4x 3.2GHz Processor
Nvidia GTX 650 Ti (It got replaced to this so I can't remember the exact one, I think Evga)
RAM is 4GB 1330MHz 1.5V
Seagate 500GB HDD
Ace switching power supply 700 Watt

I can't think of anything else, need anything more specific.

I tried to fill in the form but it requires a lot of things including revision numbers which I've never heard of...
 
The revision # and the serial number will be on the same bar code sticker, Revision numbers are usually on the top line after the model # and look like this<rev 3.1>

Have you checked the temps and voltages on the system?
Use Hardware monitor expand all the trees and give a screen shot after doing something intense HWM will show us the high, low and current readings.
Hardware Monitor

I would also run seatools just to rule out the hard drive since re-installations seem to fix it for a time.
How to perform a Seagate's Seatools Test | Tech Support Forum
 
I will post hwmonitor in a minute. As for Seatools I ran it again on Windows and in DOS, it passes fine.

I'll give ASUS a call tomorrow and see what they say.
It always looks like hardware but reinstallations fix it for a while which is strange.
 
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Here's a picture of the results, you can see my amazing cropping with Microsoft Paint :lolg:
 
Temps look okay like they have before. If you hung/froze on POST then it's certainly a bad board given the other symptoms.

If it's not a bad board I'll eat my hat.
 
It's hung after I've reinstalled yeah.
It seems very inconsistant, it doesn't happen that often either which I find strange.

Knowing this alien machine you might need quite a few hats to eat.
Is there a way to test a motherboard?
Well, AFAIK you can't but what do you maunfacturers I.E. ASUS do when you send it back?

I'm guessing they put their own parts in and see if it crashes.

The problem is that it hasn't crashed in a while so I feel if I send it off and they find nothing with 48 hours etc I get it back with a nice delivery bill.
 
The temps are fine, it's 12v and 5v voltage readings I was looking for but it appears they are not monitored have a look in the bios on the hardware health page for them. I agree it's probably a bad board but flaky voltage regulation can do strange things.
 
They probably have a bare-bones testing environment.. i.e they only install their own tested/proven working CPU, RAM, etc... only the necessary parts to POST. They probably also don't run the board in a case and instead on a piece of anti-static, cardboard, wood, whatever.

The problem is that it hasn't crashed in a while so I feel if I send it off and they find nothing with 48 hours etc I get it back with a nice delivery bill.
Click to expand...

This is why calling as opposed to filling out forms, etc, is good. You can explain to them that's it's rather inconsistent but you've done all sorts of diagnostics. They'll probably want you to run the board outside of the case to rule out a grounding issue or something before sending it in, I've heard they do that from time to time.
 
I was in the BIOS looking for the revision eariler and I actually decided to take a screenshot of the main page.

Temperature:

CPU = 37C
MB = 32C

Volatage:

CPU = 0.976V
3.3V = 3.392V
5V = 5V
12V - 11.904V

And then fan speed...

I'm not familiar with what the voltages mean to be honest, care to enlighten me?

Thanks a lot Patrick, I'll give them a call tomorrow, I've wrote the UK number down.
 
The 5v/12v are most important, especially the 12v. You want those voltages to be either at, a little below, or a little above.

The 12v rail is the lifeline of all modern day systems as it powers the main components such as your CPU/GPU.

The 5v rail powers USB, PS/2, PCI headers, storage devices, etc.

When the voltage is super low on one of these, (9/10v instead of 12 - 2/3v instead of 5v) your PSU is faulty as it's not supplying enough power to your components, and you'll get crashes, freezes (mostly), etc.
 
Voltage specs are +/- 5% of the rated rail, top quality power supplies will have over/under voltage protection circuits and shut themselves down if the voltage goes beyond or below the specs to protect the PC components.
  • Rail Min Max
  • 3.3v 3.135v-3.465v
  • 5v 4.75v-5.25v
  • 12v 11.4v-12.6v

One thing hard to measure without a oscilloscope is ripple or fluctuation, ripple is what will reek havoc on electronics.
 
Yeah I'll call ASUS in the morning, I was busy on Friday and didn't get back until 18:00 so I couldn't call them and today I actually forgot about them.

Anyway, my PC just decided to randomly restart, I looked in the event viewer and I see a WHEA-Logger eevnt which states

A corrected hardware error has occurred

Reported by component: Processor Core
Error Source: Corrected Machine Check
Error Type: Internal parity error
Processor ID:0

Well AFAIK my CPU seems to be fine, still suggest motherboard?
I do...
 
Interesting, CPU would be possible as well, but I really feel it's motherboard.

Regards,

Patrick
 
Well given it froze on the BIOS splash screen before I would say it's the motherboard.
I'll see what they can do when I give them a ring.
 
It doesn't really explain the drive disappearing and everything crashing prior to the point where I had to wait and shut down my computer for the drive to be picked up.
Well, as far as I know.
 
As I've been saying this whole time, I agree the root cause is the motherboard but I wouldn't also immediately rule out the CPU as not being a problem either. I'd take one at a time, with the first being replacing the motherboard via Asus RMA and then seeing what happens from then on.

Regards,

Patrick
 

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