Hi there everyone, I'm new to these forums and I am desperately looking for a solution to my problem...I'm neither an expert in computers nor a newbie...
Here it goes:
Motherboard: Crosshair III Formula - latest BIOS.
PhenomII X4 965 stock clocks,
16GB RAM HyperX running at 1600MHz,
3HDDs 2xIDE , 1xSATA,
630W NOX SLI-Certified PSU,
Radeon HD6950 2GB(Sapphire dual fan).
Everything was working just fine until some week ago..when I started Pinnacle and my system froze(Windows 7 Ultimate X64). I thought it would be the software but I even formatted and it still doesn't work. I have both XP X64 and 7 X64 and both freeze randomly now. Sometimes, when I open files or documents and stuff...they don't open immediately and the HDDs sometimes make that "start-up sound - no strange sounds but the typical start-up sound of an HDD". RAM&GPU are new.
I checked out every single connection and even replaceD the HDD cables(2 IDE drives and 1 SATA), but to no avail.
I reset the BIOS settings - there was no OC applied on the system.
Everything was working fine until it started freezing up on me. I had the system overclocked for a while and it started giving BSODs so I just kept everything stock and it worked like a charm. I have a passively cooled 8600GT(does not require PCIEx cables) and used it to see if there was a problem with the video driver or the Radeon GPU - no luck.
I disconnected most things and left only the basics connected - no luck either - the system still freezes. There are no overheating issues - I checked that. I ran memtest for various hours, ran HDD Regenerator on every single drive I have(took about 3,5 hours to complete but I did let it perform and finish to see if there's any problem with my HDDs), I ran processor stress tests for some hours - no error.
Everything was done with a non-overclocked system.
At first it was happening only when I fired up Pinnacle Studio 14/15...I formatted and installed the original driver the GPU came with - no success. I formatted again and installed the latest GPU driver downloaded from AMD & Sapphire(formatted before each driver installation)...the problem is still there.
I've tried lowering my CPU clock from 3.4GHz(stock) to 3.0GHz - no luck.
I have two computers (the second one is a Pentium Dual Core, 2GB DDR2,8600GT,1HDD...very basic) with two identical 630W NOX PSUs so I took the PSU from my Pentium PC and connected it to my AMD...the problem persists( I thought it could've been a PSU wear problem).
Again, the temperatures are by no means high - I keep my PC case open(side panels removed), the fans are all clean, and heatsinks are all copper-based.(Scythe Katana III for the CPU, HyperX RAM features heatsinks, GPU is the Dual Fan version with copper based heatsink from Sapphire so cooling isn't a problem here - temperatures were normal - got 60º once after gaming GTA IV with the PC overclocked to 3.6GHz and RAM running at the recommended speed of 1600MHz - had no issues)
I tried removing all but one DIMM(4GB DDR3 1600MHz / 1333MHz - tested with both freqs) - same problem.
I disconnected some HDDs - that didn't solve the issue either.
What is the next step that I can do to identify the component that isn't working in my PC?
RAM & GPU are really new - a few months old and have never been overclocked.
I disconnected USB devices from my PC. I received BSODs related to the following (I use BluescreenView)
22th of April: NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM /
25th: SPECIAL_POOL_DETECTED_MEMORY_CORRUPTION(C1) /
26th: SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION(3B) /
27th: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL /
30th: UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP(7F) /
3rd of May: APC_INDEX_MISMATCH /
4th : DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL(D1)...
Strangely enough - after seeing Pinnacle freezing my whole PC...I used Sony Vegas 11 and everything was fine in terms of video editing.
I have various video editing software on my PC and Pinnacle is the only one that causes this - I suspected the Pinnacle driver to be the culprit - but it used to work just fine some time ago with the exact same configuration.Now my PC freezes randomly - start Mozilla and it may freeze(or not, like now), fire up Chrome and the same thing can happen....play a song and it may freeze while making an awful sound.
After the computer freezes - if I reset it(by pressing the reset button on the case) it may not send an image to my display. I would have to reset it again and again and again...and it still wouldn't show anything on my display. Then, if I take out the power cord from my power supply ..wait for the energy to leak(about 5 sec) and reconnect it back...everything works fine in terms of image output.
NOW: I fired up Event Viewer in Win7 and:
The following list is there(for the 5th of May - that's today):
Error - Service Control Manager - The AODDriver4.01 service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the path specified. The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:
cdrom
I should say I have NO optical drives connected to my PC - I use an external DVD-RW (usb-based) (my optical drives are all IDE and since I am already using two IDE drives - there is only one IDE connector on the motherboard)
Critical - Kernel Power The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
Critical - Kernel EventTracing - Session "Microsoft-Windows-Setup" stopped due to the following
Error - Audit events have been dropped by the transport. 0 error: 0xC000000D
I am exhaustingly looking for a solution to this issue as I spent a lot of money on my computer and I really need it to work. If there are ANY suggestions you can think of, PLEASE feel free to give me a hand.
I went to computer shops - a guy told me they DON'T deal with problems like that(yeah, I was shocked to hear that while I was inside a COMPUTER shop). Another guy told me to replace my IDE cables - I did it and the problem persists.
I discard any RAM or GPU issue as they are really new and have never been overclocked - the GPU is the newest hardware in my computer - the last one I needed in order to be able to use the computer.
Processors should first fail stress tests in order for someone to suspect there's an issue with them.
I don't know how to check my motherboard to see if there are issues with it.
Every single control LED on it is green which means everything is fine - I get no beeps either.
Here it goes:
Motherboard: Crosshair III Formula - latest BIOS.
PhenomII X4 965 stock clocks,
16GB RAM HyperX running at 1600MHz,
3HDDs 2xIDE , 1xSATA,
630W NOX SLI-Certified PSU,
Radeon HD6950 2GB(Sapphire dual fan).
Everything was working just fine until some week ago..when I started Pinnacle and my system froze(Windows 7 Ultimate X64). I thought it would be the software but I even formatted and it still doesn't work. I have both XP X64 and 7 X64 and both freeze randomly now. Sometimes, when I open files or documents and stuff...they don't open immediately and the HDDs sometimes make that "start-up sound - no strange sounds but the typical start-up sound of an HDD". RAM&GPU are new.
I checked out every single connection and even replaceD the HDD cables(2 IDE drives and 1 SATA), but to no avail.
I reset the BIOS settings - there was no OC applied on the system.
Everything was working fine until it started freezing up on me. I had the system overclocked for a while and it started giving BSODs so I just kept everything stock and it worked like a charm. I have a passively cooled 8600GT(does not require PCIEx cables) and used it to see if there was a problem with the video driver or the Radeon GPU - no luck.
I disconnected most things and left only the basics connected - no luck either - the system still freezes. There are no overheating issues - I checked that. I ran memtest for various hours, ran HDD Regenerator on every single drive I have(took about 3,5 hours to complete but I did let it perform and finish to see if there's any problem with my HDDs), I ran processor stress tests for some hours - no error.
Everything was done with a non-overclocked system.
At first it was happening only when I fired up Pinnacle Studio 14/15...I formatted and installed the original driver the GPU came with - no success. I formatted again and installed the latest GPU driver downloaded from AMD & Sapphire(formatted before each driver installation)...the problem is still there.
I've tried lowering my CPU clock from 3.4GHz(stock) to 3.0GHz - no luck.
I have two computers (the second one is a Pentium Dual Core, 2GB DDR2,8600GT,1HDD...very basic) with two identical 630W NOX PSUs so I took the PSU from my Pentium PC and connected it to my AMD...the problem persists( I thought it could've been a PSU wear problem).
Again, the temperatures are by no means high - I keep my PC case open(side panels removed), the fans are all clean, and heatsinks are all copper-based.(Scythe Katana III for the CPU, HyperX RAM features heatsinks, GPU is the Dual Fan version with copper based heatsink from Sapphire so cooling isn't a problem here - temperatures were normal - got 60º once after gaming GTA IV with the PC overclocked to 3.6GHz and RAM running at the recommended speed of 1600MHz - had no issues)
I tried removing all but one DIMM(4GB DDR3 1600MHz / 1333MHz - tested with both freqs) - same problem.
I disconnected some HDDs - that didn't solve the issue either.
What is the next step that I can do to identify the component that isn't working in my PC?
RAM & GPU are really new - a few months old and have never been overclocked.
I disconnected USB devices from my PC. I received BSODs related to the following (I use BluescreenView)
22th of April: NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM /
25th: SPECIAL_POOL_DETECTED_MEMORY_CORRUPTION(C1) /
26th: SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION(3B) /
27th: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL /
30th: UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP(7F) /
3rd of May: APC_INDEX_MISMATCH /
4th : DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL(D1)...
Strangely enough - after seeing Pinnacle freezing my whole PC...I used Sony Vegas 11 and everything was fine in terms of video editing.
I have various video editing software on my PC and Pinnacle is the only one that causes this - I suspected the Pinnacle driver to be the culprit - but it used to work just fine some time ago with the exact same configuration.Now my PC freezes randomly - start Mozilla and it may freeze(or not, like now), fire up Chrome and the same thing can happen....play a song and it may freeze while making an awful sound.
After the computer freezes - if I reset it(by pressing the reset button on the case) it may not send an image to my display. I would have to reset it again and again and again...and it still wouldn't show anything on my display. Then, if I take out the power cord from my power supply ..wait for the energy to leak(about 5 sec) and reconnect it back...everything works fine in terms of image output.
NOW: I fired up Event Viewer in Win7 and:
The following list is there(for the 5th of May - that's today):
Error - Service Control Manager - The AODDriver4.01 service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the path specified. The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:
cdrom
I should say I have NO optical drives connected to my PC - I use an external DVD-RW (usb-based) (my optical drives are all IDE and since I am already using two IDE drives - there is only one IDE connector on the motherboard)
Critical - Kernel Power The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
Critical - Kernel EventTracing - Session "Microsoft-Windows-Setup" stopped due to the following
Error - Audit events have been dropped by the transport. 0 error: 0xC000000D
I am exhaustingly looking for a solution to this issue as I spent a lot of money on my computer and I really need it to work. If there are ANY suggestions you can think of, PLEASE feel free to give me a hand.
I went to computer shops - a guy told me they DON'T deal with problems like that(yeah, I was shocked to hear that while I was inside a COMPUTER shop). Another guy told me to replace my IDE cables - I did it and the problem persists.
I discard any RAM or GPU issue as they are really new and have never been overclocked - the GPU is the newest hardware in my computer - the last one I needed in order to be able to use the computer.
Processors should first fail stress tests in order for someone to suspect there's an issue with them.
I don't know how to check my motherboard to see if there are issues with it.
Every single control LED on it is green which means everything is fine - I get no beeps either.
