Strange problems with new PC (GPU?)

[collettnj]

I recently upgraded from an E8500 based system to an i7 920 system, and have had quite a few problems since putting it together.

Specs:

i7 920 D0
Asus P6TD Deluxe
6GB Corsair Dominator CAS 7
EVGA GTX 280 (The factory 'Superclocked' version)
625W Enermax modu82+
2 x 74GB WD Raptor
1 x 750GB WD Caviar
Sony DVD RW Drive

GPU, PSU and hard drives brought over from last build, everything else is new.

All running in a HAF 932 with stock fans.

The 750GB Caviar is partitioned: 250GB for windows + games, 150GB for FRAPS, 300GB for storage

The build was straight forward, and it turned on fine, no hitches in the BIOS/express gate stuff.

I installed Windows 7 RC on the 250GB WD Caviar partition to start with, and everything seemed flawless, no errors whatsoever. The first game I installed was Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance, as I was curious as to how well it would perform on the i7 (which was very well, incidentally). This ran fine, with no issues.

I then installed Crysis, which was where I started having problems. It took a few tries to get it to even open (a mixture of black screens, black screens with taskbar, graphics corruption in menus etc), and when it did open, I noticed the GPU was squealing while the game was loading and on the menu screens. I'm aware that squealing can be a problem when FPS are very high, so I turned on vsync which cured this largely.

The game just wouldn't run properly however - it'd crash whenever I tried saving settings, and would be very temperamental when opening it. I tried reinstalling it, but that didn't help at all. It was fully patched.

I then tried GTA:IV, but was greeted with similar squealing during the loading screens and subsequently the menu. Again, vsync fixed this. GTA:IV worked for an hour or so, but then started crashing, and a couple of times when it crashed and necessitated my ending the process in Task Manager, Windows itself was very slow (dragging explorer windows around was very laggy etc).

I had NEVER noticed the GPU squealing in any application when I had it installed in my last build, though the case had some very loud fans which might have drowned it out, though i'm skeptical about that.

I then gave up with Windows 7, hoping that it would be some bug in the RC (though that seems unlikely given the great reception it's had), and tried installing Windows XP Pro. Installing XP was a nightmare - it installed fine on the 250GB partition, but after the point where the PC reboots during the install for the first time, I was greeted with 'A disk read error occured. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart'. I took this as a corrupted install, so formatted the partition and installed again, but had the same message.

I never had this message while installing the same XP on the same partition with my last build.

I then tried installing on one of the raptors, which worked fine, and that's what I'm running on at the moment.

I haven't tried Supreme Commander yet, but gameplay in GTA:IV gets more and more jumpy as time goes on, eventually requiring me to restart the game (after an hour or so) to get it to be playable again. I also had this specific problem on my last build with this GPU.

Crysis runs fine for the most part, the menus don't crash, though the squealing is still there with vsync off.

Company of Heroes runs fine, as does AOE3.

Sorry for the long essay, and thanks for hanging in this far! My main questions are these:

1. What could have been causing this in Windows 7? Do you think it was a hardware or a software problem? I thought that it might be a 64bit issue, as I've never run a 64bit OS before and don't know much about them, other than that it will recognise more than 3.25GB of memory
   
2. Could the GPU be faulty? What programs would test the GPU over a period of hours to check for stability? (GPU equivalent of Prime95?)
   
3. Could it be the motherboard?

I have Windows 7 on preorder for 22nd October and would like to install it then, hopefully in full working order!

Some notes:

• I have no doubt whatsoever that the squealing is coming from the GPU - the PSU is silent (apart from fan noise, which is negligible)
  
• I should say that I've been running the i7 920 at 3.8GHz, with ~1.18V Vcore. It's quite happy in Prime95 for a few hours and the hottest core doesn't go above 59 degrees. I did, however, return it to stock to see if the problems still occured, which they did, so I hope it's not the overclock. I really can't believe it is.
  
• I cannot see how temperatures would be a factor, given the fantastic cooling afforded by this case, though I may be wrong about that ofc.

All the components were ordered from scan.co.uk.

Thanks for any help guys, as ever your help is most appreciated

[kYza]

You should try updating your Bios and Graphics card software to the latest drivers and see if that makes a difference.

The noisy GPU fan when running games like Crysis, could be due to it having to work that little bit harder since it is a demanding game.

[sleepyhead]

Grab OCCT from HERE

Install and run the GPU error check test and leave it. Stop the test if you see the error count go above 0. Then we know it is a GPU related problem.

Use EVGA Precision software and clock it down slighty and test again. If the problem goes away, you found your culprit.

[collettnj]

The noisy GPU fan when running games like Crysis, could be due to it having to work that little bit harder since it is a demanding game.

It's definitely not the fan - it's an electrical squealing sound (similar to those i've heard on youtube), and turning the fan speed up/down doesn't affect it at all.

You should try updating your Bios and Graphics card software to the latest drivers and see if that makes a difference.

The drivers are fully up to date, but I might try updating the BIOS if it turns out that the GPU is fine.

Grab OCCT from HERE

Install and run the GPU error check test and leave it. Stop the test if you see the error count go above 0. Then we know it is a GPU related problem.

Use EVGA Precision software and clock it down slighty and test again. If the problem goes away, you found your culprit.

Thanks for that I'll give it a go overnight and post the results here in the morning!

[collettnj]

I've run OCCT overnight (total run time ~11h). There were no errors on the GPU, though it was squealing quietly all night!



There's the OCCT window shortly before I stopped the test this morning. I ran the test with default settings, though my monitor has a resolution of 1920x1200, so I'll give that resolution a test this morning.

What would be the best course of action now?

[Phage]

The squealing is apparently the caps on the GPU board. Plenty of threads all over on the subject. Nothing can be done about it, and I don't think it's related to your other probs. From you overnight test, there's nothing wrong with the GPU itself which leaves software. The drivers for the GPU may not have been great at the time of your RC.
This was a RC and there may be better builds out there with better drivers. I would check to see that all of your components are supported.
However, it sounds like you have a separate and unrelated problem with HDD. It obviously works on the Raptor, so I'd probably run HDtune on the 750Gb drive and see whether it finds anything.

[collettnj]

However, it sounds like you have a separate and unrelated problem with HDD. It obviously works on the Raptor, so I'd probably run HDtune on the 750Gb drive and see whether it finds anything.

Will this necessitate de-partitioning it though? I have a lot of data on it, and no viable way to back it up.

[Phage]

I don't know. The scanning certainly shouldn't.
You could try chkdsk if you're concerned.

[collettnj]

I don't know. The scanning certainly shouldn't.
You could try chkdsk if you're concerned.

Sounds good, in which case I'll do the scan in 30 minutes or so once this OCCT test at 1920x1200 has run its course. I'll report back!

[collettnj]

The 1 hour 1920x1200 OCCT test ran this morning without errors.

As for the disk scan, I did a complete error scan on the 750GB drive (2.5 hours roughly) and it turned out no errors, so what could be causing the disk read error? I also scanned both 74GB Raptors, which also are fine.

Could it be an issue with the motherboard somehow?

[Phage]

I doubt it, because it all works with the Raptor.Unless it's specific to the SATA port the HDD is plugged into. Might be worth trying swapping to a spare port in the board.
Have you tied the specific Samsung utility ? or HDtune ? Might need a closer look than chkdsk.

[collettnj]

I doubt it, because it all works with the Raptor.Unless it's specific to the SATA port the HDD is plugged into. Might be worth trying swapping to a spare port in the board.
Have you tied the specific Samsung utility ? or HDtune ? Might need a closer look than chkdsk.

Sorry, i forgot to say - the scan was done with HDtune, not chkdisk. Will the samsung utility work for western digital hard drives?