I recently got completely new hardware for my computer and am now experiencing random lockups. At first, I thought it was driver conflicts or something, but I have reinstalled Windows and I am still getting it. I do not think my CPU is overheating, because every time it locks up I check how hot the CPU is, and it is never a consistent temperature, and it's never very hot.

I've locked up while gaming, while surfing the internet, while watching a DVD, almost in every situation.

Windows Vista
Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 1.86GHz
ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 nVidia nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 640MB
Corsair 520W Power Supply
CorsairXMS2 DOMINATOR 2GB RAM
Samsung 18X DVD±R DVD Burner
NEC DVD Burner
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum 7.1

500GB SATA Seagate Barracuda
400GB SATA Seagate Barracuda
80GB IDE Maxtor
160GB IDE Seagate Barracuda

I also have a Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler, but I do not think it is working as well as it should. Reviews have people saying their CPU idles are 38 degrees C, while mine is in the mid 40s.

Thanks.

Wow, I am surprised this got posted. As soon as I hit "Post Topic" my computer fucking locked up again.

Edit: Now it is locking up when I am not even at the computer.........

What temperatures are you getting when it locks up? With an aftermarket cooler, it should be running colder than the mid-40s. Is the heatsink properly fastened? Is there thermal paste between the heatsink and the cpu?

And have you tested the RAM yet?

If not...

http://www.memtest86.com/memtest86-3.3.iso.zip

It's a small download. Burn that to a cd and boot from it and it will start the test on its own. Any errors that pop up imply bad RAM. Usually a bad stick will give you dozens of errors at once when it tries to access bad parts. If you are getting errors, you can try removing a stick and running the test again until you find the good one and just use that until a replacement arrives.

I put on thermal paste between the heatsink and the CPU, but I can't help but think that I did not put enough. I also made sure to tighten it as much as possible before setting everything inside my case.

I have not tested my RAM yet, but I will be sure to do so.

When it locks up, I go into the BIOS and the CPU temperature is anywhere from 45 - 49 degrees C, it is hardly ever more than 50.

I've gotten blue screens a couple times in the last few days. The error messages have been "Memory Management" and "SOMEVARIABLE is not less or equal"

I'll test my RAM tonight after work.

it wouldn't possibly be the PSU could it? The 8800GTS 640mb is a hefty card and requires a huge amount of power

I guess it could be, but I do not know how to determine if I have enough wattage for all of my parts or not, the guide I used had everything I had, save for a couple of hard drives, so I figured it would be enough.

hmm, according to nvidia the 8800 series only require 175w.

Which doesn't seem right because they reccommend you have a 800-900w PSU for SLI

the psu is good enough. run memtest a few times.

Looks like it's the RAM. I ran it overnight and returned to a screen that was half red.

time for an rma :/

True, I got it approved and stuff. I'll send it out tomorrow. No desktop for a week and some change.

Wonderful. I get my new RAM today, install it, and not a minute goes by after Vista boots I get a blue screen, again with "Memory Management" as the message and my computer restarts.

Think it could be my mobo? I am about to take out everything except one harddrive and my RAM to see if I still lock up.

Check the timings on your ram. A bunch of reviews on newegg said that they have to manually set the timing for the ram to work.

Can I do all of that through the BIOS?

e: errr, duh. I am dumb.

One review on newegg had this to say...

This was a 2 day nightmare to get working right on an Asus Striker Extreme. Initially the motherboard used a default of 1.87v so I adjusted to 2.1v as it should be. Set latency mnually to 4.4.4.12-1clock. Result...Spontaneous reboots and bluescreen causing memory dumps. After 2 days of this the OS was corrupted. Set latency to auto, got 5.5.5.18-2clock. This would'nt do. FINALLY I figured out to set the SLI memory ready to ON at 5% and manually adjust voltage to 2.1v BUT,leave the memory latency at AUTO. Result... 4.4.4.12-1clock as promised.

I just did that in BIOS, so lets see how my build runs now.

Hmm, I can boot and it seems ok for now, but I think I bricked my wireless adapter somehow in the process...
I also think that I corrupted Windows somehow. I am going to try a fresh copy, but no lockups yet!

Woot, I'm ordering that mobo, so lemme know if that does work.

Ran memtest on the new RAM and encountered a fuckton of errors.

Fucking RAM.

Sooooooo, I put in the new sticks of RAM, plug everything in, and WHAMMO!!

...no video output...
Everything is running, fans are spinning, everything, but now I can't get my monitor to display anything.

computer problems are so fucking aggravating

lmao

So worth it just to buy a prebuilt nowadays, seriously. Kinda late for that, but for anyone reading, you can get cheap ass computers with all shit pre setup including drivers and updates and shit.

I had no problem whatsoever with my last build. Oh, well. Es muss sein.