New Build Need Help/Tech Support

[Bardolph]

Ok, this might end up being long winded. I apologize in advanced and I thank whoever has the time to stick through and read my whole post. Any help at all would be appreciated. I would prefer not to be flamed, as I am human and I make mistakes, and if I have done so I just want to know what would be the best course to correct them.

Couple weeks ago I purchased the parts for my new rig, they are as follows:

Athlon Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition @ 3.2ghz (Deneb)
4GB DDR3 1600 G.SKILL RIPJAW
MSI 870A-G54 Mobo
Zalman 9500A HSF (underpowered for this build I came to realize, but did the job and then some)
XFX HD 5850 1GB
CoolerMaster GX Series 650W PSU
Thermaltake Case
4x 120mm Fans
24X SAMSUNG DVD-RW
1TB 7200 RPM WD HD

Video is run through HDMI to a 42” LG TV

Ok, so let me begin by saying that I have built a lot of systems in my day, both for myself and for my friends, and others. I am what I would call an experienced system builder, and have not had bad luck with many of the systems I have built. Again, this post may be a little long winded so I apologize in advanced.

So, first thing, I built the system, everything went great. Aside from a driver issue with Win7 x64 Ultimate and my carry-over WiFi card, the system appeared to be running flawlessly. I'm a TF2 and WoW player, so I immediately loaded up TF2 to play a quick game with my friends once the game was done downloading. Immediately, I notice something wrong, but ignore it thinking it's probably a driver issue. I was getting fragmentation and momentary, split second, full screen overlay of grey bars. Research showed that this, at one point, was a common problem with old ATI drivers, installed new ones, problem persisted, didn't think much of it as I didn't have a chance to play it that much for the first few days. Second day I went to play, the computer crashed directly to a "Grey Screen of Death"(I will refer to this as the GSOD). Forced reboot was only option, started playing again a little later, same thing happened. Again, I assumed this was a driver issue as it was widely reported that this had been a problem for old reference boards which I assumed I had gotten, and more or less had planned to RMA the card if the problem persisted. Thankfully for me (in some ways), fate took over and decided that the card should just die. It picked a bad time, however, as I had just finished setting up my rig for a LAN with a couple buddies. As soon as I started TF2, crash to GSOD, force reboot, computer wouldn't POST. Deduced it was the graphics card thanks to a friend letting me borrow one of his, ran out to Fry's bought the same card from Diamond this time, popped it in, had no problems whatsoever, healthy from the beginning.

Lets fast forward, as I had almost uninterrupted use of the machine without any hindrances. I decided that while my HSF was doing an adequate job at stock voltages and clock speeds for the system, I wanted to bring the temp down a little so that I could try my hand at overclocking it just a touch sometime down the road (I had originally planned to buy a different HSF but decided to wait until I was ready/needed to buy one so that I can overclock). Get the fans installed; boot to make sure I have the airflow the right airflow momentarily. This is where, I believe, I had made my fatal error, but I am not sure. I notice almost INSTANTLY that I have made a grave error and an error I don't believe I've ever made in the past, I have not only left my graphics card unplugged from the PCI-E power (which I have done in the past without any consequence), but I have left my CPU HSF controller unplugged and the fan is not spinning. The computer stayed powered for possibly 2 seconds, and then I immediately force a power down to plug the fan in. I get everything plugged in, sort some cables around, make it optimal for airflow, and then boot her up.

The computer boots fine, is running great. I decide to run Prime95 to get an idea for what the temperatures on chip will be with the addition of better airflow, the computer was previously running at around 59c under 100% load which seemed extremely high, with the fans I had hit 100% load at around 49c, I was pretty happy with a change of 10 degrees. Ran Prime95 for about an hour, it apparently hit 51 while I was away, but when I came back it had dropped back to teetering between 48 and 49.

So, after this hour, I decide well shit, it's time to enjoy the fruit of my labor and play some TF2. I get in, game seems to be running great, I alt tab 5 minutes in to check what the temp is at, a solid 37c, I am ecstatic and continue to play. About 5 minutes later, I encounter the dreaded GSOD. Thinking "Ok, well, this happened once with this new video card already(once), and it seems to have been fine" I reboot, and get right back to playing. Again, 10 minutes in, same problem. This time, i reboot, begin to play and check the GPU temp about 7 minutes in, steady 53c from the CCC overdrive gauge. I am still concerned, but continue to play. Crash again, almost exactly 10 minutes in. I'm trying to discern where the error is coming from and (the name of the actual app is escaping me) but when I enter "Error Reporting" it comes up with it every time in Win7 and it has warnings and errors about power failures that have occured. I backup most of my stuff to be safe.

This time I think back to any software changes I had made, and I realize that I installed a copy of Civ5 that tried to install a new DirectX 11, I figure a format is in order as maybe I had gotten a virus or something from this copy I had gotten from a friend. Upon rebooting a couple of times prior to reformatting, I had experienced some odd things. The computer would POST, but then go to a blank black screen when trying to load windows.

I am undeterred, format the drive, and reinstall Windows. It takes a little bit longer (I think) than it did the first time, but I am not concerned. Everything gets setup, seems to be ok, then it does it's forced reboot, and the same problem as described above, after POST, the computer goes straight to black screen. Reboot, this time it's ok or seems ok and I finish the setup, get to Windows, and install some drivers. I get the newest drivers for the video card, and download all the drivers I need for the motherboard, usb, audio etc. I install all of this pain free, except ONE set of drivers. I go to install the onboard audio drivers and instantly once the setup begins to "Install Drivers", blue screen of death. I assume this has something to do with the way HDMI carries audio through it, supporting my then theory that it’s my video card, and plug in a standard DVI monitor to the system.

From this point on the problem gets worse and worse as the night goes on. I am now failing to boot almost every time, at first it gets through the windows loading and then BSOD directly before desktop, and eventually degrades to freezing while hanging at the Windows logo while loading. I finally gave up after trying ot ascertain what my CPU voltage was set at, and the computer would lose video a few seconds into being in the BIOS. I am now beginning to think that I have a dead piece of hardware, and I am not sure which one. I am worried that I have:

1.) Killed my cpu with my retarded boot without my fan controller connected
2.) Killed my mobo somehow, perhaps a combination of what I now know to be a really crappy PSU, and the fans perhaps overloading and jolting the PSU or motherboard
3.) Dead video card, again, although the likelihood of me being unlucky enough to get two defective cards in a row from two different manufacturers seems very very low
3.) My PSU was defective from the beginning, hence my first dead video card and now who knows what other dead parts.
4.) There is a known problem with the ground in my house, and perhaps my surge protector/backup unit is a little too old (running over 3 years now) and couldn't handle what may have been a wicked power surge from a storm we just had. (I was not at home when the storm occurred, but the system was off)
5.) In my haste I fucked something else up.

Unfortunately I did not have the presence of mind (lol mages) to get a screenshot of the error I was getting. I also did not have time before the computer forced a reboot after the initial BSOD after the format, so I cannot provide the error code.

I am looking for is opinions. What sounds like the most likely problem? Which sounds like the most likely dead piece of hardware? I will know a little more after tomorrow when I go to a buddies house who has a system I can swap parts from (I am currently short on tools and parts to use to diagnose).

I know this has been long winded, but I wanted to be thorough as possible to see what people could make of the problem before I start RMA'ing parts I don't need to.

Right now my assertion is that my PSU has been blowing up my hardware, and I will move to replace it after I assess which parts have been damaged.

Anything you can provide would be helpful. I would be happy to provide the answer to any questions you may have to help me better resolve the problem.

[Deleted]

Right now my assertion is that my PSU has been blowing up my hardware, and I will move to replace it after I assess which parts have been damaged

Perhaps. That PSU has recieved a number of poor reviews and AMD BE are not know for their power efficiency once you start OCing.

If you do start RMAing stuff, i'd not use that PSU as part of that build regardless, especially if you plan on OCing again.

[Bardolph]

I actually hadn't started OCing yet. I am still, at this point, running at stock clock speeds.

[vesseblah]

I know this has been long winded, but I wanted to be thorough as possible to see what people could make of the problem before I start RMA'ing parts I don't need to.

Start from http://www.memtest.org/ to rule out faulty RAM as potential source of crashes.

1.) Killed my cpu with my retarded boot without my fan controller connected

Very unlikely. You probably wouldn't be able to boot at all if this would be the case.

2.) Killed my mobo somehow, perhaps a combination of what I now know to be a really crappy PSU, and the fans perhaps overloading and jolting the PSU or motherboard

I'd bet on bad mobo in the first place killed the graphics card, or other way around to be the main problem.

3.) Dead video card, again, although the likelihood of me being unlucky enough to get two defective cards in a row from two different manufacturers seems very very low

I agree it's very unlikely.

3.) My PSU was defective from the beginning, hence my first dead video card and now who knows what other dead parts.

Possible, but would still bet on motherboard. CoolerMaster GX series is known to be mediocre, but it shouldn't break anything at light load yet.

4.) There is a known problem with the ground in my house, and perhaps my surge protector/backup unit is a little too old (running over 3 years now) and couldn't handle what may have been a wicked power surge from a storm we just had. (I was not at home when the storm occurred, but the system was off)

You can see obvious power surge issues most of the time from the motherboard with bare eyes, just look for blackened spots under/around components. This would also apply for all previous points.

[Dizey]

This sounds a lot like a memory issue. Like Vesseblah stated, run Memtest. Make sure your ram is getting its proper voltage as well.