Computers & Electronics

About to lose my mind with PC errors

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  • Sep 6th, 2019 9:29 pm
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Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2006
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gontori wrote: It sounds to me it's your mobo.
This is my bet.
Hell there's nothing really left outside of the board and the PSU.
x3fann wrote: I took apart the PC including the PSU
Wait. What? You took apart the PSU?

Also did you test the PSU?
Do you not have anything else to do rather than argue with strangers on the internet
Nope. That's why I'm on the internet arguing with strangers. If I had anything better to do I'd probably be doing it.
Member
Dec 30, 2016
330 posts
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coilz wrote: Some googling gives some reports of people with PSU problem or loose power cables when the microcode loading error shows up.
I might have to try another PSU but I don't have any extra laying around at the moment.
death_hawk wrote: This is my bet.
Hell there's nothing really left outside of the board and the PSU.
Wait. What? You took apart the PSU?

Also did you test the PSU?
Lol, yes I did! It was pretty dusty inside so I said "might as well test everything". The PSU is delivering proper power according to software, but I haven't tested it physically though.
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Feb 10, 2007
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if it was the PSU, you'd get random hard crashes and not soft crash

and you won't have that memory problem

.... jesus
The sweetest gyal
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Jan 21, 2014
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Could be a driver issue. Can you test without plugging your Bluetooth speakers in and uninstall the driver that it's using (might be a generic MS driver?) ?

If it's still freezing, I think that you'll find your answer on the hardware side of things.
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Mar 23, 2004
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My money is on mobo or PSU but could be anything here. If you don't have parts to swap you'll probably continue to be stumped. PSU is easy enough to get a new one, old LGA1150 boards a little more difficult esp. 'cause you're gonna have to get a used one and you can't be sure it won't have an issue if you're not sure the other parts are good. I'd buy a new decent-make Gold-or-better PSU (it can always be put into a new machine or just used in general if it turns out to be something else)--it's always good to have a spare PSU around as you can tell from this very thread.

I was going to ask about your OC settings/voltages but It looks like this system is running stock though, which is odd--like why the heck do you have a K-CPU and a Z-board if you're running it at stock 3.4GHz? Or did you set it back to stock after the issues started? I have a machine (funny enough the one I'm typing on right now) that is OC'd but I had an odd problem with getting a certain "Unexpected store exception" BSOD on it. Had me stumped for a good long time. I bought new RAM and a new SSD for it (at the time I didn't have enough parts lying around but had parts I could have swapped from other systems... I didn't want to dismantle those so I just bought new parts), but these didn't solve the problem. I can't remember if I went to the trouble of PSU swapping but I have a few of those so I probably did. But in the end it was simply a single voltage setting I boosted (can't remember what but it's a Lynnfield system anyway so not likely applicable to you) and that put the problem to rest. Kinda kicked myself later that I spent money on parts but ehh whatever, I reused the old parts in other machines eventually so NBD. Just saying if the system was OC'd before you could have stressed/worn something out on the board over time--boosting some voltages on certain items might help out if the age has affected the ability to maintain stable voltages across the board. Yes even solid-state parts wear over time, so it's possibility.

Anyway, apart from buying a few parts and probably taking a risk on a used mobo (which is probably overpriced), you may be better off just building a new system. Good news is prices are down across the board--RAM, SSDs, GPUs are probably at the lowest prices they've been in a long time! Not every component is a bargain but overall it's a good time to build :) Be prepared for a lot of RGBeez and LEDeez though--least it looks pretty :)
Member
Dec 30, 2016
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sexyj wrote: if it was the PSU, you'd get random hard crashes and not soft crash

and you won't have that memory problem

.... jesus
That's true, but it' worth a shot to try a different PSU anyway and see. It'd be cheaper than a whole new DDR4 system. Besides if the PSU isn't the problem, then at least I have a new PSU for my future build.
andersb wrote: Could be a driver issue. Can you test without plugging your Bluetooth speakers in and uninstall the driver that it's using (might be a generic MS driver?) ?

If it's still freezing, I think that you'll find your answer on the hardware side of things.
I tried that a few days ago and it was freezing/stuttering. I literally unplugged it from the wall before work today, quadruple checked that I had uninstalled the drivers and everything; and left a game running. I came back home just now and the game was still running. Hmm, but I don't know, sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. I'll try some heavy games and resets tonight and see.
ES_Revenge wrote: My money is on mobo or PSU but could be anything here. If you don't have parts to swap you'll probably continue to be stumped. PSU is easy enough to get a new one, old LGA1150 boards a little more difficult esp. 'cause you're gonna have to get a used one and you can't be sure it won't have an issue if you're not sure the other parts are good. I'd buy a new decent-make Gold-or-better PSU (it can always be put into a new machine or just used in general if it turns out to be something else)--it's always good to have a spare PSU around as you can tell from this very thread.

I was going to ask about your OC settings/voltages but It looks like this system is running stock though, which is odd--like why the heck do you have a K-CPU and a Z-board if you're running it at stock 3.4GHz? Or did you set it back to stock after the issues started? I have a machine (funny enough the one I'm typing on right now) that is OC'd but I had an odd problem with getting a certain "Unexpected store exception" BSOD on it. Had me stumped for a good long time. I bought new RAM and a new SSD for it (at the time I didn't have enough parts lying around but had parts I could have swapped from other systems... I didn't want to dismantle those so I just bought new parts), but these didn't solve the problem. I can't remember if I went to the trouble of PSU swapping but I have a few of those so I probably did. But in the end it was simply a single voltage setting I boosted (can't remember what but it's a Lynnfield system anyway so not likely applicable to you) and that put the problem to rest. Kinda kicked myself later that I spent money on parts but ehh whatever, I reused the old parts in other machines eventually so NBD. Just saying if the system was OC'd before you could have stressed/worn something out on the board over time--boosting some voltages on certain items might help out if the age has affected the ability to maintain stable voltages across the board. Yes even solid-state parts wear over time, so it's possibility.

Anyway, apart from buying a few parts and probably taking a risk on a used mobo (which is probably overpriced), you may be better off just building a new system. Good news is prices are down across the board--RAM, SSDs, GPUs are probably at the lowest prices they've been in a long time! Not every component is a bargain but overall it's a good time to build :) Be prepared for a lot of RGBeez and LEDeez though--least it looks pretty :)
Yeah I was thinking about a new system anyway. As for the OC settings, I'm impressed that you noticed that everything was running stock! Good eyes. But yes, I never overclocked it(except for a failed XMP profile ages ago for the memory that just refused to boot flat out). I purchased these parts back when I was really into gaming and tech. My intention was to overclock and toot my own horn, but I realized that I just browse and do light gaming now and then mostly, lol. It's a bit silly, but it's worked out the last 6 years pretty well. As for more testing, as the other poster stated above; I will definitely give the PSU a double look and try a different one; if it solves the gremlins, great; if not, as you said yourself; at least I have a new one for a future build.

Edit: lmao. No joke just after I typed all of this, I went to run another monitoring program to see if actually was actually fine and clicked on the search icon in Windows 10, now the start button and the search button don't work, but other explorer items do. *shrug*
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Aug 22, 2006
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x3fann wrote: Lol, yes I did! It was pretty dusty inside so I said "might as well test everything".
I hope you followed proper precautions. Obviously nothing happened, but if you didn't already know for the future a PSU can kill you.
The PSU is delivering proper power according to software, but I haven't tested it physically though.
Yeah I'd multimeter it.
But my money is still on the motherboard.
Do you not have anything else to do rather than argue with strangers on the internet
Nope. That's why I'm on the internet arguing with strangers. If I had anything better to do I'd probably be doing it.
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Dec 30, 2016
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death_hawk wrote: I hope you followed proper precautions. Obviously nothing happened, but if you didn't already know for the future a PSU can kill you.


Yeah I'd multimeter it.
But my money is still on the motherboard.
Oh I know about PSU discharges and capacitors. Was a bit terrifying but I was desperate lol. Thanks again.
Member
Dec 30, 2016
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Update: So I tested the PSU using CPUID, Open hardware monitor and Aida 64. All three reported that the voltages were fine, especially a stable +12v rail. While I left all the monitor applications running I did some light browsing and tried watching some youtube videos, everything worked fine(and has been running since last night) audio wise. But after trying to watch another video, I heard the speakers click and pop(something that has been happening for a while from time to time) and knew there was some lag coming. The speakers suddenly died out, I went to control panel to disconnect and reconnect them(which rarely works, usually have to delete them and restart) and control panel just grayed out. As of right now, my search icon doesn't work, my start button doesn't work and the system has no audio.

The messed up thing is that pairing the speakers to my phone is instant, there's no popping or clicking when changing audio sources or levels and my phone does not lag. This initially led me a few weeks back, to thinking that perhaps it was a blue-tooth issue with my PC. But as I said before, even literally disconnecting the speakers and deleting them in device manager still leads to lag and freezes. So yeah, unless any of you have some other suggestions for now, I think we can rule out the PSU, GPU and memory. A part of me thinks it could be the CPU somehow, but that seems unlikely as I've had zero CPU related errors.

So yeah, just messing around with this for now to see what I can find. I start school on Monday anyway so it's not the end of the world if I need to access a stable PC. I just can't figure out the missing link here...I thought it was Windows because of the search icon and start button not working at times, but it can't be windows' fault since this install is only 3 days old and there's no bloat here. I was thinking maybe SSD's, because there seems to be something being delayed or crashing that's slowing everything else down. Hmm, I just can't figure this out! I've slayed many gremlins in the past with many pc's/laptops; but this one has me stumped. It seems like a software issue more than a hardware one, but if that's the case; then why does it happen more when a put the GPU in? Wouldn't it be a bandwidth issue then? And doesn't all audio pass through the CPU? But the system doesn't freeze as much when using the integrated graphics, which should put more stress on the CPU. How frustrating.

Sidenote1: I know this is likely the mobo, but I like to know for sure for future cases.
Sidenote2: Come to think of it, the reason why I used the bluetooth function of the speakers instead of wired is because the wired output just stopped working one day and I couldn't figure out why(this was about a year ago) and so I've been using bluetooth ever since. I just plugged in working earphones that I KNOW work for sure 100% into the 3.5mm jack on the back of the mobo itself, windows detected that it was plugged in but there was no sound coming from them. So yeah, very likely mobo. Maybe the audio jack dying a while back was a sign of things to come? I'm going to test more speakers/earphones with the jacks.


//Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. Also one or more ISR routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates. //
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Last edited by x3fann on Aug 9th, 2019 2:46 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Aug 1, 2018
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I had similar issues but, with Gigabyte Z97x Motherboard running an i5-4670 (non K). I did exactly everything you did down to taking the PSU apart, cleaning and inspecting it for Blown/Bulging Capacitors ( i've replaced quite a few bad Caps in my day both on PSU's and MB's). One morning i turn it on and Pufff !!!, PSU gave up the ghost... Blown Capacitors and a Resistor. Bought a new Psu and its been fine since then. I can't count how many days i spent testing every stick of Memory one at a time using Memtest86 off a bootable flash drive.
GL
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Dec 30, 2016
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Dma0691 wrote: I had similar issues but, with Gigabyte Z97x Motherboard running an i5-4670 (non K). I did exactly everything you did down to taking the PSU apart, cleaning and inspecting it for Blown/Bulging Capacitors ( i've replaced quite a few bad Caps in my day both on PSU's and MB's). One morning i turn it on and Pufff !!!, PSU gave up the ghost... Blown Capacitors and a Resistor. Bought a new Psu and its been fine since then. I can't count how many days i spent testing every stick of Memory one at a time using Memtest86 off a bootable flash drive.
GL
Did you have the audio popping noise and disconnects as well?
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Back in the day I would buy a new psu I would always check all the voltages to meet its rated spec. Now for eg. say the 12v reported 11.98 or 12.5 new. Years later when things started to act up. Going over the voltages again on a dying decent psu you start seeing major voltage droop. what originally was a stable 12 or 11.11 was now a dismal 11.5 11.2 etc and you could even start to see it on 5v and 3.3v too. Here is where you realize that the voltage droop effects happen when performance demands it for certain tasks started to effect things. Regardless here is why if you come across a quality psu deal you buy it if you don't have a backup. better to have it for scenarios like this. If its an old psu anyway and its your motherboard thats the culprit best to change both anyway.

That said sometimes during a windows update they include patches and new drivers which just botch things. To determine if thats the culprit you test after installation and before updates and then again after all updates. I had a win 10 laptop that freezes all the time......if I use its onboard wifi which was fine till an update.Never worked again regardless with new drivers.
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Dec 30, 2016
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UPDATE: Okay I think what some of us thought originally is the sad truth here. In my previous post I recalled how the audio jack stopped working last year and how I had resorted to using the bluetooth functionality of the speakers with the PC. Having tried the earphones that I knew were working fine earlier and getting nothing from the PC, I tried another pair...and nothing. Then it dawned on me that I never tried plugging the speakers with the 3.5mm cable into a different audio device. So I grabbed my phone and tried both pairs of earphones, they worked wired. I then physically connected the phone and the speakers together using the same cable I had always used for the PC and...the speakers worked.

So it seems that when the physical 3.5mm jack on the mobo had stopped working last year, it wasn't the speakers fault but rather the motherboards. This would also explain the clicking and popping from the speakers when connected to the PC over bluetooth. On my motherboard the bluetooth chip and the audio jack(s) are all in the same section. What a shame, I guess the one thing I didn't want to be true was the truth. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
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Aug 22, 2006
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x3fann wrote: Update: So I tested the PSU using CPUID, Open hardware monitor and Aida 64.
Maybe I'm old and things have changed, but back in my day software didn't do it.
You had to multimeter it preferably with a load on it.
Do you not have anything else to do rather than argue with strangers on the internet
Nope. That's why I'm on the internet arguing with strangers. If I had anything better to do I'd probably be doing it.
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Mar 23, 2004
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death_hawk wrote: Maybe I'm old and things have changed, but back in my day software didn't do it.
You had to multimeter it preferably with a load on it.
You're not too old, software is good for pointing out really blatant and obvious flaws but most of the time at that point the machine wouldn't have started up to begin with. However software might point out droop going too far on certain lines, etc. but realistically it's not a super useful tool for troubleshooting a PSU. It takes less than a ms of an issue on the PSU to create a freeze or crash situation and software simply isn't fast enough to show or detect that. Software is typically updating every second or more which is several orders of magnitude the wrong way. Really a 'scope is needed to fully diagnose, along with loads that can be placed on the PSU--i.e. a real PSU testing setup. In absence of that, i.e. 99% of regular users, swapping the PSU for a new or known-good one is a much better idea.

Unlike cars, PCs the best/easiest way for a "regular person" to troubleshoot things is to simply swap suspect parts. It's honestly the quickeset and easiest solution. It's not always going to fix it (I pointed out my own example where it didn't earlier) but have solved probably a hundred problems this way v. the one time that didn't help/didn't lead to the solution. PCs are so easy to work on and swap parts due to their modular nature, plug in connectors, and basically one tool required (phillips screwdriver) so yeah. It might cost you a few bucks but if you can rationalise the parts because they can be used again anyway, might as well spend that few bucks if you need to.
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Did you upgrade to latest windows 10 build 1903 or still with same previous build?

It might be device driver(s) issue.

Had to stick with w10 b1607 on my older Lenovo N300 as some device drivers were incompatible with new (higher) w10 builds.
The new generic MS drivers install by new builds did not work on older PCs.
Last edited by imoo2u on Aug 9th, 2019 5:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2006
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ES_Revenge wrote: Unlike cars, PCs the best/easiest way for a "regular person" to troubleshoot things is to simply swap suspect parts.
Even as a tech this is usually easier especially since they probably have spares on hand.

Source: Used to repair PCs
Do you not have anything else to do rather than argue with strangers on the internet
Nope. That's why I'm on the internet arguing with strangers. If I had anything better to do I'd probably be doing it.
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x3fann wrote: Did you have the audio popping noise and disconnects as well?
I actually don't think so, having said that my Fractal Design case didn't come with internal speaker ( already threw one in ) nor does the MB have one. Unless i'm watching something on Youtube my externals are normally off.
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Check if you can disable sound audio on motherboard via Bios and see if that solve your problem. If work then you only have to buy soundcard.
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Dec 30, 2016
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Update: So in case anyone else in the future has these problems, I think I figured out what it was. My memory sticks were not inserted all the way into the motherboard. The system would always refuse to run all four DIMMS and would only accept two, sometimes even just one. I somehow never knew in all my years of computer building to PUSH DOWN BOTH ENDS OF THE RAM STICKS, not only the part that flips up. I felt like such an idiot, the loose RAM was causing the latency issues and I have no had any lag, popping of speakers or bluetooth failures since. My audio jacks still don't work, but that's on the jacks. Good luck and thanks again!

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