Computer problem (look, it's another tech support thread!)

[Dispozition]

Ok...So, normally I'm pretty good with computers and can get them back on their feet after just about anything, but this one has me stumped.

Put a new mobo and cpu into a computer that was working perfectly fine. After about 2 weeks, the computer begins to freeze at odd moments for no reason at all, and now it's refusing to boot, but does so in a manner that suggests it's freezing after bios. Currently it's sitting on the windows 7 boot screen doing absolutely nothing, frozen.

I gave it a fresh windows 7 install from another computer (since the one the hdd is in won't boot from disc either), and the OS booted fine in the other comp, but when moved back to the original one, still has the same problem.

I can't pin down what the problem is. The hard drives are old, but aren't the problem since they still boot. The mother board and processor are both brand new, so they can't be the problem. Bios working suggests that too. The ram is reliable and I can't see it being the problem (correct me if I'm wrong. I have spare ram I can use to test), and the GPU surely can't cause booting to not work. Plus before the freezes it was working perfectly.

If anyone can offer help, it'd be greatly appreciated since the computer in question is my gaming computer, and hence I want to be giving it a lot of work soon since it's coming up to the holidays.

[Archonic Energy]

stuff.

do you have a spare hard disk?
if so try another OS and see what happens.

the fact that it passes POST probably means it's Software related, if you can recover any important files then re-install 7 and see what happens...

[Dispozition]

Have already recovered files and attempted to reinstall, the reinstall did nothing.
I have a spare HDD and I'll try XP on it, but I'm not too convinced it'll work.

[Generic Archer]

if it hadn't been running for 2 weeks I'd suggest the mobo or the processor.
Did you use heat paste? If it ran hot for a prolonged period it may have fried something, but they usually auto shut down to prevent that.

Does the motherboard have any lights or anything...

otherwise try an older OS and run Samurise or something to check out what the temperature and clock speed are doing.

Dane

[Dispozition]

Mobo is running lights and everything 100%, I would suspect it if it didn't run bios, but I can sit in bios for 20 minutes and not have a freeze, but as soon as I try and boot, it will.

Nothing is fried, heatpaste was on the cpu when I got it, gpu is still working fine and all, and since no auto-shutdowns ever occured it seems unlikely. All the temp and clock speeds are fine from before the freezing started...

I guess XP is the only way to go...Now, hopefully it won't screw over all my other boots like last time...Goddamn stupid old OS...

Thanks for the help so far. I'll try XP in the morning and if that doesn't work, come crawling back to you guys :P
I might try switching out my ram and possibly my GPU for newer ones I have and see if that maybe makes it work, although I doubt it.

[Archonic Energy]

if XP works on it you just try "repairing" the 7 install with the disc.

[Don Julio Anejo]

1. Have you done any overclocking at all on the computer? If you have, reset your bios. This is usually the main reason of random hang ups.
2. Is your power supply insufficient for your components? Usually goes hand in hand with overclocking, but could just be caused by new components (e.g. a 350W won't cut it for anything remotely modern).
3. This one probably isn't the cause since you put in a new motherboard recently, but... Is there too much dust in the case?
4. Does the CPU fan work? Check in your BIOS if it spins or doesn't. If it doesn't it would also cause something like this (i.e. you can get into BIOS but not much else).
5. All in all, it doesn't sound like a software issue - a complete reinstall should have taken care of that given that it worked originally. But first try to take care of the stuff above, shouldn't take more than 15 minutes. Only then try to reinstall Windows on a different hard drive.

Edit: Dispozition, the post that you typed while I was typing this one takes care of about half the stuff, but.. Try another hard drive with Windows 7 first before you go back to XP.

[Zeb The Troll]

I had a similar thing happen to me not too long ago, only it didn't involve an OS upgrade. Basically, my computer was behaving exactly like yours. It turned out to be a bad power supply. If you've got a new mobo and a new processor but not a new power supply, that could be where you're running into trouble.

[Dispozition]

Don
1. None on this motherboard, settings didn't carry from the old one anyway. The GPU is overclocked, but in OS, not bios.
2. 1000W PSU, never had trouble with power before, can't see it doing so now.
3. Cleaned the case out when I put the mobo in. It is kinda dusty, but not so much that there are dust bunnies like there used to be on some of the case fans.
4. The case is open right now and it very much works. All the fans are spinning, in fact.
5. That's the thing I can't work out. It seemingly can't be software, but nothing points towards hardware either. It's really confusing the screws out of me.

I'll try my spare hdd with win7 to see if that works, but I'm not entirely certain it will. If need be, I have a newer hdd that I can use as well, but I'd prefer not too, since that involves at least 6x the effort to take out than the ones I'm using.

Archonic
I would love to, but as I said, I can't boot from disc either. So, I'm really not sure what's going on.

Zeb
The PSU I have is, as I said, 1000W and not very old. No more than 2 years old if that. Every single review I've seen of it has said it's one of the most reliable power supplies they've ever had, so I'm not sure what's up with it if it has broken.
Once again, I have another one, new, that I can use, but I'd essentially have to take my other computer apart to get at it because of the case design...Something I'd rather not do as I'll run into back problems, cut fingers, swearing, and a good 3 hours of my time lost v.v

EDIT: Another thing that may be important, when it freezes, my USB ports stop working. I can only tell this because my keyboard is one with LED lights and stuff, as is my mouse. Both die when the comp freezes and don't start working again like after Bios and that. Not sure if that's important or not.

[SMEE]

Sorry, but that smells as bad power supply.
Even good ones can go kaput in two years. You should have it checked.
Odds are it's giving weird voltages at the 5V and 12V lines.

[Dispozition]

Ok, so two say bad PSU...Two I trust with computers too D:

I'll be doing some ripping computers apart tomorrow then...Goddamn.

[Don Julio Anejo]

Three for bad PSU. That's about the only thing that can cause it. Even a hard drive shouldn't behave like this (it's more likely to give you random errors or tell you Windows can't start up or just weird data corruption and inaccessible files).

[korifugi]

Egads! Now I'm doing work away from work!

The second I read the OP I thought either PSU or HDD - and it seems like there are a few people in agreement.

Even though the PSU is specced for the job - if it is having issues then this'll show when more power is required, such as spinning the drives up, which may well be what you are seeing.

HDD could also be stuffed though (unlikely though with what you're seeing) - If this is the case then you'll work fine from a fresh installation and then you'll have issues booting shortly after (could be minutes - could be days).

Sounds to me that the PSU is going/gone - do you have a spare to check with?

[SMEE]

EDIT: Another thing that may be important, when it freezes, my USB ports stop working. I can only tell this because my keyboard is one with LED lights and stuff, as is my mouse. Both die when the comp freezes and don't start working again like after Bios and that. Not sure if that's important or not.

Well, those devices drawn power from the USB ports to work. If they die, means that the USB port is no longer being powered up, which also leads us to the PSU.
So, yeah. Check it. Try with a spare one if you have.

[Dispozition]

Ok, so I have my spare PSU in my computer now. 550W, brand new...or 500W, something similar. I'm not running any non-essential system fans so as to reduce load. Only things recieving power are mobo, cpu fan, gpu, disc drive, and two hard drives. It's still doing it.

Absolutely no change in behavoir. USB ports retain power now, but other than that, the same. I know this PSU is working because it was just powering a computer with almost the exact same set up, but newer gear.

I tried changing RAM, no difference. I've now tried the PSU, no difference. Now I'm really at a loss for what could be happening. Any more advice?

[Don Julio Anejo]

Can you keep everything as it was (including the hard drive you had in your original post if you didn't format it already) but put in your old mobo/CPU? If that helps, voila, it's a a motherboard or CPU issue. If it doesn't help, the only thing left to do is install a different Windows (or just plug in a hard drive from another computer and see if it boots up, you should still be able to get to at least safe mode although in most cases it should take you straight to Windows itself).

If that doesn't help... I'm at a loss as to what to do next. Google?

[tyckspoon]

Don't assume *anything* works. Go through and swap out any part that you have a substitute for so you can actually rule out things. If you have access to another computer, consider downloading a few bootable diagnostic tools; I know you can get ones that will do a quite thorough job of testing your RAM and your hard drives, and I bet a little searching will find a few good mobo testers as well. Personally I would be more suspicious of new parts, not less- that just means they haven't been broken in yet, so more subtle manufacturing flaws can still show themselves (computer manufacturing is not a 100% controllable thing; it happens. I had a new mobo and hard drive fail on me within a month of each other within about six months of use.)

[Dispozition]

Don't assume *anything* works. Go through and swap out any part that you have a substitute for so you can actually rule out things. If you have access to another computer, consider downloading a few bootable diagnostic tools; I know you can get ones that will do a quite thorough job of testing your RAM and your hard drives, and I bet a little searching will find a few good mobo testers as well. Personally I would be more suspicious of new parts, not less- that just means they haven't been broken in yet, so more subtle manufacturing flaws can still show themselves (computer manufacturing is not a 100% controllable thing; it happens. I had a new mobo and hard drive fail on me within a month of each other within about six months of use.)

Thing is, I doubt they'd boot through. I have no way of booting to anything. I can't boot to cd/dvd drive since it freezes, I can't boot to hard drives, no matter which ones I use, and I don't...waaait. I might have a floppy drive, but I don't have any floppy discs and I'm not actually sure if the mobo has a floppy cable thing...

[Don Julio Anejo]

You can usually boot from a USB keychain drive although I haven't had to do it so I don't know how it'll show up in your bios.

@tyckspoon: from what I gather, Dispo has already done pretty much that, if not intentionally.... PSU, RAM, hard drive... only two things really left are the CPU and Mobo.

PS: and GPU. I know it's probably not the case but try swapping that one too.

[tyckspoon]

Thing is, I doubt they'd boot through. I have no way of booting to anything. I can't boot to cd/dvd drive since it freezes, I can't boot to hard drives, no matter which ones I use, and I don't...waaait. I might have a floppy drive, but I don't have any floppy discs and I'm not actually sure if the mobo has a floppy cable thing...

If it's getting to attempting to load the OS, it's getting through the BIOS. And if it's making it through that ok, then you can get it to boot to a disc. Probably have to go and force the boot order to do the optical drive first, but it should be doable (actually, you may want to try booting it with the hard drive disconnected entirely just to make certain it is posting properly.)

[Dispozition]

Ok...So I tried messing with my ram again, kind of inspired by something that SMEE said. Anyway, looking at the manual, this shouldn't have worked, but it seems that changing the RAM channels has fixed it. The manual says that RAM sould be in slots 1 and 3...I have it in slots 1 and 2...It's working. I have no clue why, and I'm not sure if I should continue. Reckon having them in off slots will break anything?

Also, going to try putting the other two sticks back in, it might be that the newer pair was causing trouble, somehow...

Thanks for all the help though guys! I didn't expect quite so many responses :D

Tyckspoon: I was attempting to boot to disc drive in a few ways. First with boot select, then with bios changing so it was first priority. Neither worked. I also unplugged everything but the disc drive too :P

[tyckspoon]

@^ edit: huh. Interesting. Could be worth trying to boot to USB if you can get a flash drive with an appropriate bootable image (maybe a Unix distro, there's probably one pre-loaded for diagnosing borked PCs..) It's a fairly common ability for a BIOS nowadays, but the option might not show up on the boot list unless you actually have a bootable USB device attached.

Running your RAM in split slots just means it won't be running dual-channel. It's a little bit of a performance hit, but if it makes your system work go with it at least until you can get better information on what's wrong.

[Dispozition]

I thought Dual Channel Ram only worked in Dual channel set up...Huh, ok then. Might be that my computer is having a hissy fit over Dual Channeledness. If it is, I'm going to have fun, since I need all 4gb of it.

Also, it can't boot to USB either, tried that too :P

[Don Julio Anejo]

Try slots 2 and 4 then if it works in 1 and 2. Slot 3 could be broken...

[Dispozition]

It seems that my computer has fixed itself! I have all 4 RAM slots taken up, and nothing is malfuctioning. I'm really not sure what the problem was. It's entirely possible that there was a single loose wire somewhere and I bumped it back in, who knows.

Anyway, thanks all for the help, even if technically I didn't need it :P