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I recently installed a new mobo, processor, and RAM (which are linked in my build below), and I've been periodically getting a BSOD as well as a couple random other issues (some horizontal lines that appear on the screen for a second, then disappear; freezing up for a few seconds, audio stuttering, and the PC making the little noises it makes when a USB device is unplugged and plugged back in). I get these problems doing all sorts of things--playing a game, watching a movie, browsing the internet, and once even while sitting on the desktop doing nothing. Here's what I've already tried: ran Memtest for 11 hours with no errors, verified that RAM timing and voltage are correct, took each stick of RAM out and used machine with just one (problems either way), updated to the latest version of BIOS via EZ Flash method, and I most recently cleared the CMOS. My case has phenomenal air flow, and I've never had heat issues before (nor am I overclocking), but I did also turn up the speed on my biggest case fan just in case that could be the problem.

A friend of mine said it sounds like a driver issue, but I want to be sure I'm uninstalling and reinstalling all the right drivers correctly because I know I'm probably screwing it up somehow. There are way more downloads on the Asus website than there were with my old Gigabyte mobo, and I think it's possible that I'm skipping something I shouldn't. Here's the Asus site (my OS is Win 7 64-bit). After installing the hardware, I installed the following from that site (not necessarily in this order, though):

--Intel Chipset Driver V9.3.0.1019
--Realtek Audio Driver V6.0.1.6526
--Realtek LAN Driver V7.49.927.2011
--USB 3.0 Boost Full Package Version V1.00.05
--Asmedia USB3.0 Controller Driver V1.14.3.0
--Intel AHCI/RAID Driver V10.5.0.1026

Everything seemed to install correctly except the LAN driver, which only gave me a "repair" or "uninstall" option. I've assumed that means Windows had already installed it by the time I tried. After I started having problems, I updated BIOS to P8Z68-V LX BIOS 3801 (the one just released 4/27/12). It installed fine, but I nonetheless screwed up on that b/c I forgot to backup my old BIOS. EZ Flash won't let me "update" to an older version, so if I need to go back I suppose I'll have to try some different and more complicated method.

So does this look like everything I should have gotten, or did I miss something? And is the best way to uninstall drivers to go through Device Manager, or is there a better/easier way? I want to do this right before I try reinstalling everything. Finally, does the order of installation matter? I've always done chipset installation first but didn't have a set order after that. Any suggestions for other things I can do to troubleshoot it? I bought this stuff from a Tigerdirect store about 25 minutes away, so I'm happy to exchange the mobo if it turns out that's the problem. But obviously I don't want to go through the hassle if it was just me being stupid about drivers all along.

Asus P8Z68-V LX
Intel Core i5-2500k
Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600
Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 2GB
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
OCZ GameXStream 700W
Corsair Force Series 3 120GB SSD (boot drive)
640GB Western Digital Caviar Black SATA
Antec Nine Hundred case
24" monitor 1920x1200

Really sounds like a hardware (or firmware) issue of some sort, which could be difficult to narrow down unless you've got other components you can swap in.

For starters, are you running the latest BIOS for that motherboard, and does that SSD have the latest firmware on it?

just brew it! wrote:

Really sounds like a hardware (or firmware) issue of some sort, which could be difficult to narrow down unless you've got other components you can swap in.

For starters, are you running the latest BIOS for that motherboard, and does that SSD have the latest firmware on it?

Yes, I'm on the latest BIOS (released 4/27/12). According to the AS SSD benchmark program, my SSD firmware is version is 1.3. I do see that the latest version is 1.3.3, which was released 10/23/11. Should I go ahead and install that?

When you get BSODs what error is being reported?

You might try running Event Viewer and looking in the System log to see if anything jumps out at you. At the very least you should see what hardware is disappearing and reappearing to generate "he little noises it makes when a USB device is unplugged and plugged back in" but I wouldn't be surprised if there are other, more serious errors showing up there too.

Have you run a utility to check the reported temperatures? Your case may have phenomenal air flow, but if there's a problem with (say) the motherboard heatsink not attached to the chipset, or something askew with the CPU heatsink, that won't matter.

Most temp utilities will also report voltages, which are worth checking also.

When you get BSODs what error is being reported?

You might try running Event Viewer and looking in the System log to see if anything jumps out at you. At the very least you should see what hardware is disappearing and reappearing to generate "he little noises it makes when a USB device is unplugged and plugged back in" but I wouldn't be surprised if there are other, more serious errors showing up there too.

Have you run a utility to check the reported temperatures? Your case may have phenomenal air flow, but if there's a problem with (say) the motherboard heatsink not attached to the chipset, or something askew with the CPU heatsink, that won't matter.

Most temp utilities will also report voltages, which are worth checking also.

I had no idea this Event Viewer thing existed, nor do I really know how to read it. But here's a screenshot of the log for errors labeled "critical." And below I'm pasting the text from the "details" tab. Does this mean anything useful to you? And would it be helpful to post the other, non-critical errors? The BSODs go away so quickly that I've never had a chance to see any error codes. They're up for all of a second at most before it reboots. (I don't even remember those errors back in Feb and early March. Maybe they happened when I wasn't at my computer.) I'll look for a program to check temps next.

- System

- Provider

[ Name] Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
[ Guid] {331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}

EventID 41

Version 2

Level 1

Task 63

Opcode 0

Keywords 0x8000000000000002

- TimeCreated

[ SystemTime] 2012-05-01T14:53:43.935202500Z

EventRecordID 48262

Correlation

- Execution

[ ProcessID] 4
[ ThreadID] 8

Channel System

Computer NAME REDACTED

- Security

[ UserID] S-1-5-18


- EventData

BugcheckCode 80
BugcheckParameter1 0xfffff7fffb891958
BugcheckParameter2 0x8
BugcheckParameter3 0xfffff7fffb891958
BugcheckParameter4 0x2
SleepInProgress false
PowerButtonTimestamp 0

I downloaded Real Temp and then spent several minutes running around in Star Wars: The Old Republic with the following programs running in the background: Internet Explorer, Ventrilo, Steam, Windows Media Center, and Catalyst Control Center. I'd normally never play a game with that many programs usually (at most it'd be the game plus IE, Vent, and maybe CCC; plus Steam if it's a Steam game, obviously). During that time, the max temps recorded for each core were: Core 1: 62 C, Core 2: 66 C, Core 3: 63 C, Core 4: 66 C.

Real Temp lists the TJ max temp as 98 C, but I don't know how accurate that is. I'll keep Real Temp running all the time to see if I get higher spikes at any point.

I meant to mention the CPUID folks offer a "Hardware Monitor" utility that gives both temps and voltages, but I see you found Real Temp, and those temps look fine for the cores at least.

MidnightFrost1701 wrote:

I had no idea this Event Viewer thing existed, nor do I really know how to read it. But here's a screenshot of the log for errors labeled "critical." And below I'm pasting the text from the "details" tab. Does this mean anything useful to you?

Yeah, that just tells us the system quit unexpectedly, which we already knew. It's possible the non-critical errors will tell us something. (There will be lots of Information and Warning entries even in a perfectly healthy system, so while it's possible those could contain a hint it's a lot of work to weed through them.)

The BSODs go away so quickly that I've never had a chance to see any error codes. They're up for all of a second at most before it reboots. (I don't even remember those errors back in Feb and early March. Maybe they happened when I wasn't at my computer.)

To see those, you have to turn off "automatic restart"

UberGerbil wrote:

I meant to mention the CPUID folks offer a "Hardware Monitor" utility that gives both temps and voltages, but I see you found Real Temp, and those temps look fine for the cores at least.

MidnightFrost1701 wrote:

I had no idea this Event Viewer thing existed, nor do I really know how to read it. But here's a screenshot of the log for errors labeled "critical." And below I'm pasting the text from the "details" tab. Does this mean anything useful to you?

Yeah, that just tells us the system quit unexpectedly, which we already knew. It's possible the non-critical errors will tell us something. (There will be lots of Information and Warning entries even in a perfectly healthy system, so while it's possible those could contain a hint it's a lot of work to weed through them.)

The BSODs go away so quickly that I've never had a chance to see any error codes. They're up for all of a second at most before it reboots. (I don't even remember those errors back in Feb and early March. Maybe they happened when I wasn't at my computer.)

To see those, you have to turn off "automatic restart"

I updated the SSD's firmware to the latest version and then cleared the CMOS. I also just downloaded Hardware Monitor, and here are the numbers without anything else running. I've turned off automatic restart on the BSODs. Anything else I can be testing/checking while I wait to see if I get another BSOD?

Can you please take a screen shot of the information inside those Kernel-Power errors. Do you have another power supply to test your system with? To start ruling things out, remove parts you really don't need to at least run it and test. Start with the video card (if you've got on-board or a spare low end video card). Then run something like Furmark to beat the heck out of the system to see if it crashes again.

Welch wrote:

Can you please take a screen shot of the information inside those Kernel-Power errors. Do you have another power supply to test your system with? To start ruling things out, remove parts you really don't need to at least run it and test. Start with the video card (if you've got on-board or a spare low end video card). Then run something like Furmark to beat the heck out of the system to see if it crashes again.

I'm not sure what extra info you need from the kernel-power errors. When I right-click on one, I get an option for "Event Properties," but that just shows a "general" tab (which has the same info you see at the bottom of the screen shot I already linked to) and a "details" tab (which is the same info I pasted into my post above). How do I get to the info you're looking for?

This board does have onboard graphics, so I can try using that. I've never used Furmark before, but I'll look for it. I don't have a spare PSU to test with. I've already run it with each stick of RAM by itself. The only other major things I could disconnect are the DVD-RW drive and my SATA HDD (since my SSD is my boot drive). Should I unplug all optional USB devices too (ie printer, USB speakers, WMC remote receiver), or are they not likely to matter?

ETA: Scratch that, I could also remove my TV tuner card and wireless network adapter (which is PCI).

So after updating my SSD firmware to the latest version, I went quite a while w/o a BSOD. I was still getting the occasional horizontal lines on my screen (too quick for me to try taking a screenshot of it), and I still got some stuttering when connecting to a Ventrilo server. However, the "device connect/disconnect" noise stopped as well. Last night I got another BSOD, though (pic here).

I'm running CCC 12.4 and the latest BIOS. There are also no newer versions of any of my mobo drivers on the Asus website. Since it seemed to be improved (if not perfect), I never did swap out my video card for my old 4870, nor did I remove any optional devices (tv tuner card and PCI wireless network adapter). Is this the next best troubleshooting step, or is there something else I can try?