BS of D

[Crazybob]

My largest cruncher has been giving me fits for months now. Started by locking up the keyboard and mouse. Thought it was part of WIN 7 power management. Later it started to go to Blue Screen, with memory dump. So far I have ran it with 1 chip each time in memory slot 1 to check the chips (4GB DDR3 each) BSD every time. Reloaded windows on a new HD and reinstalled all drivers. No joy. Ran it with only 1 of the GTX 570's plugged in at a time. No Joy. Moved all the SATA connections to different slots. No joy Checked MB connections. This box never blows hot air since it has 4 onboard fans, 2 of the extra large variety. Chip isn't running warm also. PSU is 80+ Bronze, 750 watt.

Any other ideas would be helpfull.

[litehouse43]

How about a short? It's a long shot since it sounds like you've taken pretty much everything in/out at some point. Maybe a standoff screw? I had an issue with a uncovered ribbon strip hitting a standoff screw a while back and things went crazy every time it brushed up against it. Is it a modular power supply?

[kmanley57]

Last machine I had that acted 'weird' had blown caps on it, so the voltages varied due to the lack of regulation on board. So I would look the mother board over REAL good for exposed traces and damaged parts.

[Fire$torm]

Other things to test, in sequential order.

PSU - Swap in a known good unit. If your system behaves properly then its time to order a new one.

CPU - Pull cooler. Clean the CPU & cooler cold plate with 70% or better isopropyl alcohol. Apply fresh TIM, reassemble and test.

MB - Only way to test is to transfer CPU & RAM from known working system and test. If original MB functions then its either the CPU or RAM that is bad.

[Crazybob]

Yes it is a modular PSU. I have been suspect that that could be the cause, but the other 2 I had on hand turned out to be faulty. I have 2 more on order that should arrive hopefully today. I was planning on swapping it out to see what happened. Even with the large size of this case, it is still pretty packed with hardware and cabling. I will try to do a once over when I swap out the PSU to see if anything looks blown. Don't have a similar MB to check out the chip in. I guess it will come down to once I rule everything else out then what ever is left must be it.

[Fire$torm]

Yep, that is the best way to troubleshoot. Best of luck finding the problem.

[Crazybob]

RL health issues have kept me from trying out a new PSU to see if that was the problem. Someone hit me in the head, cause I think I fixed it. Took an easy approach and turned on the screen saver. I know that it's like bringing pork rinds to an Al Qeda party, but I did it anyway. The box ran for an entire day, before locking up over night. Since I had already run the 2 GPU's seperately and this pointed to a video problem, I took the next easiest thing to do and DL'd the latest drivers. Doh, has run steady since. Again please offer swift kick in the butt here.

[Fire$torm]

No swift kick required. Good job figuring out the problem. And sorry, I just made the assumption that your drivers were up to date.

Hope you feel better soon.