# [SOLVED] New Custom PC Keeps COMPLETELY freezing (ASROCK P55 Pro USB3)



## schnikon (Nov 8, 2010)

G'day,

I built a new computer for my wife a couple of months ago, and unfortunately it hasn't been a success:

The computer is crashing several times a day, but there doesn't appear to be a pattern to when it crashes. 
The crashes are so severe that the entire computer freezes (i.e. mouse cursor doesn't move), ctrl-alt-del doesnt work, the reset and on/off buttons don't work. I have to flick the power supply switch off and back on. 
The first sign of a crash is that the speakers "pop".

System Specs are as follows.

Hardware:
ASRock P55PRO-USB3 Motherboard	
Intel Core i3 530	
Mushkin 996768 Silverline PC3-10666 (2x2GB) DDR3
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W Modular
HIS ATI Radeon HD5770 1GB
G.Skill Phoenix PRO 60GB SSD	
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB HD103SJ	
ASUS DRW-24B1LT DVDRW SATA LightScribe	
Tp-Link WN350GD 54M Wireless PCI Card with Antenna	
Antec NSK4000B II Case	
Scythe Kama Reader 2 Black	

Software:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM
Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010 Retail

I have used a mixture of bluetooth and USB input devices ... doesn't seem to make a difference.
I have thoroughly checked the HDDs and the memory - no issues.
spyware and viruses - no issues. 
Updated motherboard BIOS to 1.30 - crashes are still occurring. 

My assumption is that this is a hardware issue since the crashes are so severe. Does that sound correct?

I've just realised that the compatibility memory list for the motherboard (ASrock P55 Pro USB3) does not include the Mushkin memory (my fault for not checking). Could this be an issue?

Any help would be much appreciated - I have one annoyed wife.

Schnikon


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

*Re: New Custom PC Keeps COMPLETELY freezing (ASROCK P55 Pro USB3)*

Yes, it could be a real issue and a prime suspect at this time. If it is not compatible, then you have found the problem most likely. 

You also might not have enough power supply to do the job with that video card. Test that by trying a less powerful video card in there.

I would start off and test that memory and we have provided a link to a free program for you to use.

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

I am also including a link to a video to instruct you on how to do the process of testing.

YouTube - How to test RAM with Memtest 86


Please test ONLY one stick in the motherboard at a time. We suggest also that you test for a minimum of 2 hours per stick

Post results back here so we can see what might be happening.


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## schnikon (Nov 8, 2010)

*Re: New Custom PC Keeps COMPLETELY freezing (ASROCK P55 Pro USB3)*

Tumbleweed36,

I will do as instructed and post results back here when done.

Cheers,

Schnikon


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## tim19889 (Jan 24, 2010)

*Re: New Custom PC Keeps COMPLETELY freezing (ASROCK P55 Pro USB3)*

I think you may be correct in suspecting you're specific type of memory may be incompatible. You may want to try contacting the manufacturer to see what they say, or else swapping in some ram from a different manufacturer. It's possible the problem could lie with your power supply as well. They are notorious for causing the sort of random crashes and issues you have just described. Also it'd be a good idea to grab a multimeter and test the voltages coming from your outlet in the wall and then test the voltages on your power supply 20 and 4 pin connectors as well. If your in the US the wall outlet should read between 110 and 120 volts and I think for other countries it is between 210 and 220 volts, and your p4 and p20 connectors should be ~12 volts. And of course make sure ALL your drivers are updated. Good luck hope you can make wife happy again lol


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## schnikon (Nov 8, 2010)

*Re: New Custom PC Keeps COMPLETELY freezing (ASROCK P55 Pro USB3)*

Note that I actually have 4 x 2GB Muskin RAM. I assume that I still need to do the tests with one piece in at a time. 

Cheers, 

Schnikon


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

*Re: New Custom PC Keeps COMPLETELY freezing (ASROCK P55 Pro USB3)*

I think that would be wise, but be sure first to contact the motherboard and ram manufacturers to see if it is compatible. If it is not, then don't waste your time testing it.


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## schnikon (Nov 8, 2010)

*Re: New Custom PC Keeps COMPLETELY freezing (ASROCK P55 Pro USB3)*

An update.

- I ran memtest on each of my 4 sticks of ram (1 at a time) ....... NO ERRORS
- I then left the computer going with only 1 stick of ram. it managed to not crash overnight, but it crashed in the morning. (Computer just froze ... mouse won't move, ctrl-alt-del doesn't work, reset and on/off buttons don't work)

I was hoping that running it with less than 4 sticks of RAM might have done the trick. 

I have left messages with ASRock and Mushkin asking them whether the ram and motherboard are incompatible, but no responses yet. Have no idea whether this is the source of the issue. 

Someone has suggested to me that the next step is to try a different hard drive to boot from, since SSD's are very hard to scan for errors, and data corruption in the RAM can cause this.

Would there be any point in reinstalling Windows 7 or is this clearly a HW issue?

An earlier suggestion was to check the power supply .... I'll have to think about how I can do this. I might have some equipment somewhere. 

Thanks for your help so far. 

Schnikon


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

*Re: New Custom PC Keeps COMPLETELY freezing (ASROCK P55 Pro USB3)*



schnikon said:


> Note that I actually have 4 x 2GB Muskin RAM. I assume that I still need to do the tests with one piece in at a time.


Yes, one stick at a to get accurate results.
4 sticks of RAM could very possibly be your problem. Try using ONLY 2 sticks of RAM and se if the problem continues. 4GB is more than enough and filling all the RAM slots on a Mobo can cause Voltage issues.


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## schnikon (Nov 8, 2010)

*Re: New Custom PC Keeps COMPLETELY freezing (ASROCK P55 Pro USB3)*

Hi Tyree,

Yes, I've tried with just 1 stick of ram and the issue still occurred (see previous post). 

Is there any point trying with 2 rather than 4 or 1? 

Schnikon.


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## schnikon (Nov 8, 2010)

*Re: New Custom PC Keeps COMPLETELY freezing (ASROCK P55 Pro USB3)*

Hey, a quick update:
- I ran memtest on 1 stick, 2 sticks, 3 sticks, 4 sticks ..... no errors.
- a bit later ... the computer completely stopped booting up. It started to go into some W7 recovery function, but was unable to successfully recover .... so now it no longer boots
- I have been away and have not done anything to the computer for a couple of weeks

I am going to reinstall W7 onto the SSD. My question is do I need to do a "secure erase" using something like HDDerase, or can I just start installing W7 in the normal way and delete the SSD partition and format the SSD. Is the "secure erase" necessary or is W7 clever enough to deal with the SSD?

I think I should completely reinstall W7 and check to see that the crashing still occurs.

Thanks,

SchNikon


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

*Re: New Custom PC Keeps COMPLETELY freezing (ASROCK P55 Pro USB3)*

I prefer to zero a Hdd before installing an OS but Windows will "usually" do the job.


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## schnikon (Nov 8, 2010)

*Re: New Custom PC Keeps COMPLETELY freezing (ASROCK P55 Pro USB3)*

An update (was having trouble with pc crashing all the time): 
- W7 re-installation failed about 10-15 times .... each time it failed at the first reboot, and said it couldn't find a file "Windows failed to start" .... this was with 4 sticks of Mushkin ram (i.e. 8gb)
- Most online forum suggestions said that there was something wrong with the W7 disk (I highly doubted that), but I found one mention that it might be the ram - I removed 3 of the sticks and tried again ..... SUCCESS! W7 installed. 
- The computer has now been running for about 5 days and has NEVER crashed (with 1 stick of ram .... i.e. 2gb)
- I've installed all the software that was on before and everything is working fine
- I have now swapped the 2GB of Mushkin ram for 2x2gb of Patriot Ram (borrowed from a mate of mine who coincidently bought it from PCCG) - has been working fine with this memory today - this ram is on my motherboards QVL list

I believe I now have several pieces of circumstantial evidence that indicate my memory is not compatible with my motherboard:
1. The original crashing the computer did
2. Mushkin memory is not on the Memory QVL list for my motherboard (from the ASRock website)
3. Memtests ok, but crashes still happening
4. W7 Install failed until I removed 3 of the ram sticks
5. Working fine with 1 stick
6. Previously my wife was using Adobe Lightroom (a professional photography program) and several photos were showing up as corrupted after importing into the Lightroom library .... there are discussions about this on the web and some mention that it is memory related (those issues are now gone)
7. The computer works fine with 2gb of Mushkin or 4gb of Patriot ram, but not with 8gb of Mushkin ram

I think I will try and get some memory that is known to be compatible with the motherboard, and perhaps limit myself to 4gb rather than 8gb since that also seems less problematic, but get faster ram.

Anyone think the diagnosis is any different?

Thanks for all the help.

SchNikon


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## yanni3003 (Jan 29, 2011)

*Re: New Custom PC Keeps COMPLETELY freezing (ASROCK P55 Pro USB3)*

I recently had the same exact problem and it was driving me nuts. I did memtest, checked core temperatures, swapped video cards...nothing worked and it didn't make sense. I was just about to return the motherboard when I found this forum. Thanks Schnikon for posting, because removing the three other cards of Mushkin did the trick. It works completely fine with the 1 stick.

My friend told me he's had problems with Muskin RAM before and has had to manually set the timings in the BIOS to get them to work properly.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

*Re: New Custom PC Keeps COMPLETELY freezing (ASROCK P55 Pro USB3)*

Did you ever hear back from Muskin?
Manually setting the timings and voltage may due the trick, or Muskin may have special timon numbers to use on your board.


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## schnikon (Nov 8, 2010)

*Re: New Custom PC Keeps COMPLETELY freezing (ASROCK P55 Pro USB3)*

All: thanks for all the help with this. Computer still well 2 months later and still with my mate's patriot memory. I'm not using the mushkin. 

Yanni3003: glad this was helpful. 

Wrench97: yep, mushkin just suggested memtest, and to change voltages if there were errors ( there weren't). It's on the mush kin forums. The title of the thread is "996768 Bluescreen with Win-7 64-bit". 

See ya

schnikon.


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