strange issues going on, motherboard maybe?

[keakar]

ok my computer has started acting funny lately and I cant see any issues with it.

about 2 months ago it started with a humming out of the speakers when I turned on power to the computer but hasn't yet been turned on. when I hit the power on button the speakers made a popping type sound but not excessively strong to cause alarm or anything so I just figured the cheap speakers were showing their age.

after about a month of doing it this noise stopped happening. all was fine for about 3 weeks then I started getting random BSOD going on about once a day so double checked all data connections and made sure everything was clean inside and fans were working. I couldn't find any reason for these BSOD but at about a week into it I got 2 or 3 BSOD a day for 2 days in a row then everything was fine again and no more problems.

its now about 2 weeks since I had the last BSOD and now the computer seams to freeze up at random on me. it just gets lost and nothing works, no mouse no keyboard, there seams to be no HDD activity and if I use ctrl/alt/del to get the task manager it doesn't work because the keyboard and mouse are locked out so I have to manually kill power to restart and after restarting everything works fine again. just today for the first time it came out of a manual restart and was still frozen in that I had no mouse or keyboard function to tell it to do anything.

I have built several computers and had my share of experience with OS reinstalls and virus issues requiring manual cleanups but I haven't had any viruses or computer issues for 2 years now so I cant see this being virus related even though I have done several full system virus cleanup checks including a boot scan and nothing was ever found.

I am suspecting this must be a component issue on its way going bad but nothing can be seen visually wrong and im just purely guessing this could be part of the motherboard going out because it seamed to start with the sound being affected first.

can anyone offer ideas if this sounds like I am suspecting the correct component that is having issues?

the computer is the one listed in my specs

EDIT: I also forgot to mention, when using the mouse button to highlight something to copy or edit it hasn't been working right either. sometimes it does not work from the top or front of the sentence but I must start at the bottom or end of the sentence and highlight it going from the end to the beginning in order to highlight it. it also makes the page jump to a different spot when I click to take some form of action like copy after highlighting it.

also when you click a spot to start typing it randomly jumps to the top of the page or somewhere else as soon as you hit any key and you need to watch where it is before you start typing but once you start typing it stays where ever it went to.

 

[erocker]

Since you mentioned the sound issue, try disabling whatever sound devices you have in the device manager. See if the BSOD's persist.

 

[micropage7]

have you done fresh install, resetting bios and run the system on minimal hardware?
try to run it on minimal setup and do test for several hours

 

[keakar]

Since you mentioned the sound issue, try disabling whatever sound devices you have in the device manager. See if the BSOD's persist.

its onboard sound only

I have nothing in any pci slots no cards nothing, its just a naked motherboard and the video card

have you done fresh install, resetting bios and run the system on minimal hardware?
try to run it on minimal setup and do test for several hours

im waiting on a new external drive to move files so I can do a reinstall but haven't done one yet because of the files I need to save first.

if I had had a virus or something I would suspect a reinstall could fix it but there were no viruses that got onto the system "that I am aware of" and I have never had my antivirus fail to stop anything yet. granted there is always a chance something got thru but the speaker thing doesn't sound like what a virus would do.

 

[Jetster]

Look at the event viewer

 

[keakar]

Look at the event viewer

the windows 7 event viewer is very confusing but from what i can see in the administrative section it looks like its just, "application hang" or "application error" is what its saying when it happens.

I would need specific path to find what you need since there is just so much info there its too many sections and too many catagories to list here

 

[erocker]

its onboard sound only

Yes, try disabling it in the device manager.

 

[keakar]

Yes, try disabling it in the device manager.

ok I tried to shut it down thru task manager but there is no option to do it. I also tried task manager and found nothing.

I think I would have to edit the registry to shut it down but I really don't want to go changing things in the registry if I can avoid it

 

[erocker]

ok I tried to shut it down thru task manager but there is no option to do it. I also tried task manager and found nothing.

I think I would have to edit the registry to shut it down but I really don't want to go changing things in the registry if I can avoid it

Device Manager, not Task Manager. Right click and disable.

 

[keakar]

Device Manager, not Task Manager. Right click and disable.

its a typo, it was to read device manager but I did not open the path fully, I had just clicked on the sound controller tab and got no options to disable it

yes, mine looks like that but I have 4 entries for NVIDIA High Definition Audio before it

- NVIDIA High Definition Audio
- NVIDIA High Definition Audio
- NVIDIA High Definition Audio
- NVIDIA High Definition Audio
- Realtek High Definition Audio

I disabled all 5.

does this really make sense to be sound related or are you thinking its a short in the board that was what's causing the sound and other issues? just trying top form an idea of what is going on.

oh, by the way, the BSOD stopped happening a few weeks ago so when it stops working now it locks up because it allows no input signal (I assume) from the mouse or keyboard so just to keep things in order of whats going on right now.

i'll wait and see if it does it again, if this solves the problem then I need a new mobo correct?

 

[erocker]

If it solves it, you might just want to try using different Realtek drivers until you find ones that don't break things.

You can get the latest drivers here: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads...=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

 

[95Viper]

Firstly, are you OCing? If so, turn off any OC and test.
Second, try resetting your Bios and test.( as stated before)

Check the CMOS battery.
That MB have any bulging caps?
How are your temps? (at idle and at load)
Is she dusty? Airflow good? (Check case and PSU)
Run a memory test; or, at least, try running with 2 sticks at a time and then swap them around.
Check the outputs on the PSU to be sure they are in tolerances.
Un-plug any external devices (anything connected to the USB ports, cards slots, 1394 ports, etc.) not needed, and, also un-plug the CD/DVD player, printer, scanner, card reader, and try a different mouse and keyboard for testing. (as stated before)
Change the HDD data cable and test the HDD for errors and look at the SMART values.

Just throwing some stuff out to try.

You had popping and humming through the speakers... sort of sounds like a power or grounding problem somewhere.

 

[keakar]

Firstly, are you OCing? If so, turn off any OC and test.
Second, try resetting your Bios and test.( as stated before)

Check the CMOS battery.
That MB have any bulging caps?
How are your temps? (at idle and at load)
Is she dusty? Airflow good? (Check case and PSU)
Run a memory test; or, at least, try running with 2 sticks at a time and then swap them around.
Check the outputs on the PSU to be sure they are in tolerances.
Un-plug any external devices (anything connected to the USB ports, cards slots, 1394 ports, etc.) not needed, and, also un-plug the CD/DVD player, printer, scanner, card reader, and try a different mouse and keyboard for testing. (as stated before)
Change the HDD data cable and test the HDD for errors and look at the SMART values.

Just throwing some stuff out to try.

You had popping and humming through the speakers... sort of sounds like a power or grounding problem somewhere.

Firstly, are you OCing?
no im not OCing, everything is auto detected and confirmed to be set to factory default settings for the components I have
Second, try resetting your Bios and test.( as stated before)
I thought I had addressed that already, I reset bios and it made no difference
Check the CMOS battery.
it was ok but I replaced it anyway while I was resetting bios a few weeks ago
That MB have any bulging caps?
no, its All solid capacitors design board, no caps to pop or bulge
How are your temps? (at idle and at load)
its always at idle and never under load, I do minimal gaming
VCORE -- 1.202V
DDR1.8V -- 1.888V
+3.3V -- 3.344V
+12V -- 12.112V

CPU TEMP -- 38-39* C - normal idle running temp
44-46* C - under load when gaming

Is she dusty? Airflow good? (Check case and PSU)
completely clean and great airflow, takes a full year to get slightly dusty
Run a memory test; or, at least, try running with 2 sticks at a time and then swap them around.
memtest shows all ram to be good
Check the outputs on the PSU to be sure they are in tolerances.
power supply is putting out good constant voltages
Un-plug any external devices (anything connected to the USB ports, cards slots, 1394 ports, etc.) not needed, and, also un-plug the CD/DVD player, printer, scanner, card reader, and try a different mouse and keyboard for testing. (as stated before)
the only thing running on usb is the printer and the keyboard.
I tried other keyboard and mouse when frozen but it didn't matter.
Change the HDD data cable and test the HDD for errors and look at the SMART values.
swapped out a new data cable and the HDD came back tested with no errors

You had popping and humming through the speakers
it was humming like when a speaker is turned up at a loud volume but has no sound to it, it makes a dull pop when you hit the computer power on button everything goes silent which I assume is when the computer signal was found. there are no other issues with the sound which works and sounds great.

this computer has been running fine for 5 years now and nothing was changed or added to it.

 

[FX-GMC]

Firstly, are you OCing?
no im not OCing, everything is auto detected and confirmed to be set to factory default settings for the components I have
Second, try resetting your Bios and test.( as stated before)
I thought I had addressed that already, I reset bios and it made no difference
Check the CMOS battery.
it was ok but I replaced it anyway while I was resetting bios a few weeks ago
That MB have any bulging caps?
no, its a solid state board, no caps
How are your temps? (at idle and at load)
its always at idle and never under load, I do minimal gaming
Is she dusty? Airflow good? (Check case and PSU)
completely clean and great airflow, takes a full year to get slightly dusty
Run a memory test; or, at least, try running with 2 sticks at a time and then swap them around.
memtest shows all ram to be good
Check the outputs on the PSU to be sure they are in tolerances.
power supply is putting out good constant voltages
Un-plug any external devices (anything connected to the USB ports, cards slots, 1394 ports, etc.) not needed, and, also un-plug the CD/DVD player, printer, scanner, card reader, and try a different mouse and keyboard for testing. (as stated before)
the only thing running on usb is the printer and the keyboard.
I tried other keyboard and mouse when frozen but it didn't matter.
Change the HDD data cable and test the HDD for errors and look at the SMART values.
swapped out a new data cable and the HDD came back tested with no errors

You had popping and humming through the speakers
it was humming like when a speaker is turned up at a loud volume but has no sound to it, it makes a dull pop when you hit the computer power on button everything goes silent which I assume is when the computer signal was found. there are no other issues with the sound which works and sounds great.

this computer has been running fine for 5 years now and nothing was changed or added to it.

I recently found out that my case wasn't properly grounded and was causing my computer to freeze whenever there was a static discharge to the case. It may be worth quickly verifying that your case/mb are grounded.

This issue just came up recently due to the dry weather.

Just throwing that out there since I about pulled my hair out troubleshooting software for a hardware issue.

 

[Arjai]

You had popping and humming through the speakers... sort of sounds like a power or grounding problem somewhere.

I recently found out that my case wasn't properly grounded and was causing my computer to freeze whenever there was a static discharge to the case. It may be worth quickly verifying that your case/mb are grounded.

This issue just came up recently due to the dry weather.

Just throwing that out there since I about pulled my hair out troubleshooting software for a hardware issue.

+1
+1
There is NO doubt in my mind that you have a bad ground. NO DOUBT. Hopefully you find it before any damage is done.

 

[keakar]

+1
+1
There is NO doubt in my mind that you have a bad ground. NO DOUBT. Hopefully you find it before any damage is done.

anythings worth a try, i'll loosen and retighten all the board connections and see.

 

[keakar]

update, all screws were tight and solidly grounded to the case and confirmed with ohm meter that the board is solidly grounded to the case

also as added info the case never gets touched in any way for it to received a static shock unless its something spontaneously happening within the case.


so far for the short period I have had the sound disabled it hasn't acted up but that doesn't indicate anything yet in my mind because this thing comes and goes so it can go days or a week with no issues then start acting up again. if it goes 2 weeks without an issue I can say disabling the sound may have stopped the problem.

 

[keakar]

If it solves it, you might just want to try using different Realtek drivers until you find ones that don't break things.

You can get the latest drivers here: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=24&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

sorry I haven't replied to this post yet but I had confirmed I have the lastest realtek sound drivers but i'll go ahead and reinstall them in case they are corrupted somehow

my external drive should arrive Monday so if it does i'll be able to save my files and do a drive reformat and new install of windows and see if I still have any issues after that.

 

[Hood]

I'm leaning towards the OP's diagnosis, that the mobo has seen better days (all other components seemed to have checked good, except didn't try swapping the PSU). There are thousands of small parts, traces, solder joints, and connectors on a mainboard, and 5 years down the road it's been subject to varying heat and moisture levels, voltage spikes or brown-outs, mechanical vibration, corrosion, etc., and it's a wonder it boots at all. A wall in my office is plastered with dead motherboards, all 5 to 8 years old, to remind me that you can't fix everything. I usually have enough spare parts laying around that I can swap every component out of a system (except the mobo), but even then I'll try booting it outside the case before declaring it deceased. Most of the time the loss of the mobo makes an older system not worth repairing, but in this case all the other components are top shelf so finding a high-end socket 775 board will be well worth the trouble.

 

[keakar]

I'm leaning towards the OP's diagnosis, that the mobo has seen better days (all other components seemed to have checked good, except didn't try swapping the PSU). There are thousands of small parts, traces, solder joints, and connectors on a mainboard, and 5 years down the road it's been subject to varying heat and moisture levels, voltage spikes or brown-outs, mechanical vibration, corrosion, etc., and it's a wonder it boots at all. A wall in my office is plastered with dead motherboards, all 5 to 8 years old, to remind me that you can't fix everything. I usually have enough spare parts laying around that I can swap every component out of a system (except the mobo), but even then I'll try booting it outside the case before declaring it deceased. Most of the time the loss of the mobo makes an older system not worth repairing, but in this case all the other components are top shelf so finding a high-end socket 775 board will be well worth the trouble.

this computer was built in mid 2009 and its been like 7 years since I kept up with what components were most desired so lets say I decided to go for it and sell off the 775 cpu and DDR2 ram I have and get a new mobo, ram, and i7 cpu

I know I dont need 6 cores so what is the best quad core i7 to get? i want it to be fast but run cool and not put out much heat, I don't do any serious gaming that requires top of the line stuff but I don't mind going for quality.

I see (ivy, sandy, haswell) so which bridge is best to get for someone who will be using it right out of the box and not overclocking?

so to clarify, if I keep the case, PSU, dvd burner, and video card I have, what mobo and i7 cpu should I get?

 

[THE_EGG]

its been like 7 years since I kept up with what components were most desired so lets say I decided to go for it and sell off the 775 cpu and DDR2 ram I have and get a new mobo, ram, and i7 cpu

what is the best i7 to get? I see not much different between the names (ivy, sandy, haswell) so which bridge is best to get for someone using it out of the box and not overclocking?

so to clarify, if I keep the case, PSU, dvd burner, and video card I have, what mobo and i7 cpu should I get?

I'd suggest making a new thread for this as more people will be able to help with this.

i5s are fine CPUs also btw. I saw a little difference between an i7-2600 and i7-4770 when I upgraded. I don't overclock CPUs anymore as I don't really need to hence why I don't buy 'k' versions anymore because there is $50 difference where I live and that $50 can be used for something else. As you won't be overclocking, just get a quality mobo with all the connections you need. I'm happy with my mobo so I can recommend that - Asus Z87-Plus. I needed a legacy PCI slot for my sound card hence my choice.

 

[keakar]

I'd suggest making a new thread for this as more people will be able to help with this.

i5s are fine CPUs also btw. I saw a little difference between an i7-2600 and i7-4770 when I upgraded. I don't overclock CPUs anymore as I don't really need to hence why I don't buy 'k' versions anymore because there is $50 difference where I live and that $50 can be used for something else. As you won't be overclocking, just get a quality mobo with all the connections you need. I'm happy with my mobo so I can recommend that - Asus Z87-Plus. I needed a legacy PCI slot for my sound card hence my choice.

well when im ready to buy I planed to do a thread for it

I just figured it wouldn't be hard for someone to just tell me right offhand which bridge to pick if the ghz and price is the same which it almost is for most of them

something like

for the best speed

bridge 1 is best
bridge 2 is better
bridge 3 is good

for the least amount of heat output

wattage 1 is best
wattage 2 is better
wattage 3 is good

at this point in time im not looking for a specific item recommendation just general knowledge of what things mean

one big problem I would have in just getting a new board is I would still need new ram for it since the only boards that use my ram only have 2 slots so that means 4gb limit unless I buy new ram and so it would be nearly $200 for new board and new ram just to reuse my old cpu so doing the math it makes sense to do a cpu upgrade too if I need to do all that.

all depending on how this troubleshooting issue plays out anyway, with luck its just going to need an OS reinstall even though im not very certain that's the problem.

 

[Hood]

Haswell is the way for you, it's definitely the best performer at stock clocks, and the Z87 boards are all a step up from Z77 boards in terms of quality, features, and ports. I prefer Asus boards, starting with the Z87-A ($140), or better if you need more SATA ports than 6. To give you an idea how much faster it will be, in Passmark, your Q9550 gets 4072 CPU marks, i5-4670 gets 7517, and i7-4770 gets 9959 marks - even the i5 is almost twice as fast, and the i7 is amazing. Judging by your present system, you like lots of computing power, so you should pick the i7-4770 ($340), and get 16 GB of RAM. Higher frequency RAM = faster overall system performance, so look for deals on a 2400 MHz (2 x 8GB) kit (~$150), they're priced very close to 1600 RAM kits (about $8.50/GB) at this time. Haswell systems can handle up to 3200 MHz RAM, depending on the CPU and motherboard, so any 2400 kit should work with no sweat. Speeds of 2600 and above are extremely high priced at the moment and not worth the money for such small gains. So for an outlay of $630 you'll have a system that feels at least twice as fast as your old one, or lop off $100 if you decide the i5 is enough. Another way you could make it feel much snappier is take that $100 and buy a Samsung 840 Pro 128GB for your boot drive. As almost any enthusiast will tell you, no high-end system is complete without an SSD (true, for at least the last 2 years). The 840 Pro has risen to god-like status in the last year, for it's speed in all scenarios and utter reliability. So now you know a bit more what to expect from this upgrade and what it should cost, totally worth it IMO, especially if your present mobo is toast.
EDIT - Haswell is also by far the most efficient platform, and runs cool unless you're overclocking. The only reason to prefer Sandy or Ivy over Haswell is if you like high overclocks, and that doesn't describe you. Haswell "K" unlocked processors run very hot over 4.3 GHz and require massive voltage, and that's why you hear enthusiasts disparaging them. Non-overclocked procs have no such problem.

 

[keakar]

Haswell is the way for you, it's definitely the best performer at stock clocks, and the Z87 boards are all a step up from Z77 boards in terms of quality, features, and ports. I prefer Asus boards, starting with the Z87-A ($140), or better if you need more SATA ports than 6. To give you an idea how much faster it will be, in Passmark, your Q9550 gets 4072 CPU marks, i5-4670 gets 7517, and i7-4770 gets 9959 marks - even the i5 is almost twice as fast, and the i7 is amazing. Judging by your present system, you like lots of computing power, so you should pick the i7-4770 ($340), and get 16 GB of RAM. Higher frequency RAM = faster overall system performance, so look for deals on a 2400 MHz (2 x 8GB) kit (~$150), they're priced very close to 1600 RAM kits (about $8.50/GB) at this time. Haswell systems can handle up to 3200 MHz RAM, depending on the CPU and motherboard, so any 2400 kit should work with no sweat. Speeds of 2600 and above are extremely high priced at the moment and not worth the money for such small gains. So for an outlay of $630 you'll have a system that feels at least twice as fast as your old one, or lop off $100 if you decide the i5 is enough. Another way you could make it feel much snappier is take that $100 and buy a Samsung 840 Pro 128GB for your boot drive. As almost any enthusiast will tell you, no high-end system is complete without an SSD (true, for at least the last 2 years). The 840 Pro has risen to god-like status in the last year, for it's speed in all scenarios and utter reliability. So now you know a bit more what to expect from this upgrade and what it should cost, totally worth it IMO, especially if your present mobo is toast.
EDIT - Haswell is also by far the most efficient platform, and runs cool unless you're overclocking. The only reason to prefer Sandy or Ivy over Haswell is if you like high overclocks, and that doesn't describe you. Haswell "K" unlocked processors run very hot over 4.3 GHz and require massive voltage, and that's why you hear enthusiasts disparaging them. Non-overclocked procs have no such problem.

thanks, that's exactly the info that I was looking for

and yes I like lots of computing power but not because I actually make use of it, I just like things fast plus im hoping in 5 years not to need to upgrade it again. even though it never seams to work out that way lol.

I try to max out my budget and avoid the top tier stuff while buying the third tier or maybe second tier stuff at lower prices.

 

[keakar]

update:

well the drive came in and its DOA so I got an RMA and ordered the Samsung PRO 840 SSD 128GB that was on sale for $120. figured no matter what since im reinstalling windows I just as soon upgrade that right now and I will no longer need the external drive for saving my files.

I turned the sound back on last night and so far still no issues going on to report