Intermittent Boot-up Failures and Refusal to Install Windows 7

[Just Browsing]

Hi folks,

First off: it's good to be back! Some of you may remember me as the newb who asked for help with building his very first PC. Well, all my components are here now and have been for a few weeks, but I sadly haven't been able to enjoy my new PC.

My specs:

- Corsair TX950W 950W PSU
- Sapphire HD5770 GPU
- AMD Phenom II X4 965 CPU (125w C3 stepping - not sure if that's relevant)
- Corsair 4GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3
- Asus AM3 M4A79-T Deluxe Motherboard
- Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB (SATA)
- LG DVD-Burner (SATA)

I have only my most essential components installed (all listed above) and set up externally for troubleshooting purposes.

My problems consist of:

1. There's only a 50% chance that my PC will even pass the "post" stage - no error beeps, but all component fans are active. I'll just be staring at a black screen.

2. Sometimes it will pass the "post" stage and will either freeze at the - forgive my ignorance - screen whereby it is about to load the BIOS and hardware information. I'll just be staring at a flashing underscore and no amount of time will make it pass this stage. My keyboard will also refuse to work entirely as well.

3. Occasionally, I am able to pass both stages and my PC will attempt to load the Windows 7 64bit DVD that I have situated in my DVD drive. It'll pass the initial "loading Windows 7" stage but will spit out a Blue Screen of Death error immediately after it reaches the "Starting Windows" screen and loads a few pixels of the Windows 7 logo. The BSoD page reads: MACHINE_CHECK_EXEPTION - apparently a hardware failure.

Under the advice of my brother-in-law - who is much more tech-savy than I am - I requested a replacement motherboard, which I arrived today. I promptly installed the new one and I'm still receiving the same errors. We've managed to rule out (well, we believe so) the following components now and we believe they are functioning correctly:

1. Motherboard (I'm on my second mobo now and still same probs)
2. Memory (my bro-in-law brought his G.Skill memory round and still the same problems)
3. GPU (we tried his nVidia GPU out and still no difference)

Possible faulty hardware remaining:

1. Power supply
2. CPU
3. Perhaps hard drive or DVD drive?

Both my brother-in-law and I are baffled. He commented that he initially believed it was motherboard-related, primarily because of the fact that I am rarely able to pass the "post" and "BIOS" settings screens. He did make a comment on how the CPU and GPU fan speeds were quite inconsistent - making him believe that it perhaps might be PSU-related.

Basically, I'm at my wits-end and I'm really not fancying being stuck with a £1,200 paperweight (lol) so I thought I would ask you lovely gentlemen for help. I'll be requesting replacement parts later on but, to be honest, I'd rather wait and hear from the experts (you lovely chaps ) before I request any replacements and waste more time.

I'd really, really appreciate any and all help. I'll try out anything you guys suggest. I'm just very, very eager to get this baby working properly and for me and my family to enjoy the new computer. I will say this: Despite it, well, not working; I've really enjoyed getting my hands dirty and building my first computer. It's been a blast. However, truth be told, I'm ready to start enjoying the actual PC itself now and I could use all the advice I can get.

Thank you for reading and I thank you for any and all comments. Cheers!

Steve

[chris_argyle]

I am also not hugely experianced at PC building, but have overcome a similar problem that solved itself when i changed the RAMs settings in the bios to that which the RAM mnufacture recommended. I think the motherboards auto settings were not supplying a high enoguh voltage during boot for me.

If this doesnt help i would wait for a more experianced view than mine!

[Steve]

Memtest, memtest, memtest! Even if your brother's G.Skill and your RAM is fine, as Chris points out voltages or something else could be an issue.

If memtest throws a wobbly then you'll soon know what area to focus on! Dropping down to a single stick often helps if you have trouble with boot and BIOS navigation.

[petrefax]

beleive it or not the last time i had a machine that had intemittent freezing errors it turned out to be a dodgy IDE optical drive causing the problem.

spose all i'm saying is, don't discount anything as the root cause!

don't (as i did) think "that's just an optical drive, it won't be down to that" then spend weeks alrering which sticks of RAM went in which slots for no reason at all