Mobo dying?

[Poppa_Meth]

I built a custom computer for the store I work at back in 2009. Specs below. It ran Vista x64 Pro for a while with no issues at all. A few months later I got our free upgrade to Win7. I did an upgrade install which seemed to go fine but eventually kept getting a win32k.sys related BSOD. I finally blanked it and did a fresh install a few weeks ago. Everything seemed fine for a while and then I started having issues again. BSODs occurred periodically, which seemed to be related to the network adapter most of the time. I'm also getting odd freezes from time to time. The screen seems to just totally lock up but not outright crash. However, it may not be locked up at all. I notice when this happens that the lights on the keyboard and mouse (both USB) go out. Unplugging and replugging them does not reactivate the peripherals. It seems like I've lost power to the USB ports.

I've tested HDD for errors. I've run memtest overnight for 17 passes with no errors shown. I have not yet done a stress test on the GPU. Other than those items, there isn't much else installed on the thing. I'm thinking maybe the mobo is the problem. At the time I bought it, the board was highly rated but looking at Newegg now, there are a ton of bad reviews on it. Anyone have any idea of what else I can test?

• 1 x COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
• 1 x GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
• 1 x EVGA 01G-P3-N959-TR GeForce 9500 GT 1GB 128-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
• 1 x Antec earthwatts EA500 500W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.2 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC "Compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply
• 1 x Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor BX80570E8400
• 1 x Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT25664AA1067
• 1 x AFT XM-35U BLACK USB 2.0 Kiosk Card Reader (3.5")
• 1 x Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 Licensed for 3 PCs
• 1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue WD1600AAJB 160GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 / ATA-6 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
• 1 x Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
• 1 x Logitech Deluxe 250 Black USB Wired Standard Keyboard - OEM
• 1 x Logitech MX310 6 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB or PS/2 Wired Optical Mouse
• 1 x Pioneer CD/DVD Writer Black SATA Model DVR-S18M LabelFlash Support
• 1 x Microsoft Windows Vista Business SP1 64-bit for System Builders w/ Tech Guarantee - OEM
• 1 x Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM
• 1 x Arctic Silver ACN-60ML (2-PC-SET) Thermal material Remover & Surface Purifier - OEM
• 1 x MASSCOOL 8W553B1M3 90mm Ball CPU Cooler

[aedipuss]

holy crap batman, i've never seen so many bad reviews for a single product before. 16 pages of 1 egg or people wanting to give it 0 eggs but can't. your problem sounds like a lot of the ones written about, especially the nic bsod'ing.

[redwudz]

Try running it in safe mode and see if you get the same problems. I have the same MB in one of my PCs, but never had any problems. The lights going out on the KB is a bit odd. That seems a decent power supply, but that would also be suspect.

You could try HW Monitor and see if anything odd shows up: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

Other than that, the usual method of checking all internal connections, RAM and cards included. Then remove all cards except the video and all drives except boot and try again. You could also disable the network adapter and see if that has any affect.

[Poppa_Meth]

I was thinking the PSU as well but it's odd that it can go for weeks with no issue then suddenly start the BSODs again and it never fully dies in any way. It goes to blue screen and will set there indefinitely since I've disabled the reboot on it. With all the bad reviews on the mobo now, I'm definitely leaning that way. At least I can get a new mobo for about $50, though all you can seem to find now are Micro ATX. Anyone had any experience swapping the mobo without reinstalling Win7? I've been told it's very possible but not always 100% certain.

[redwudz]

If you are using the same CPU and RAM, you could try a MB swap. I would back up everything first and have all your new drivers ready to install. Sometimes booting into safe mode helps for installing drivers, though W7 is fairly good at working with the MS default ones. The big problem will be Microsoft, but you might be able to convince them over the phone to reactivate.

The newer Micro-ATX MBs have a lot of good features, even decent HDMI video. They mostly lack a lot of PCI slots, but with most everything already built into the MB, not a lot of need for extra cards.

[aedipuss]

I was thinking the PSU as well but it's odd that it can go for weeks with no issue then suddenly start the BSODs again and it never fully dies in any way. It goes to blue screen and will set there indefinitely since I've disabled the reboot on it. With all the bad reviews on the mobo now, I'm definitely leaning that way. At least I can get a new mobo for about $50, though all you can seem to find now are Micro ATX. Anyone had any experience swapping the mobo without reinstalling Win7? I've been told it's very possible but not always 100% certain.

might work, might also have bsods down the road from driver issues, your best bet would be a different board using the same intel p45e chipset.

[johns0]

Anyone had any experience swapping the mobo without reinstalling Win7? I've been told it's very possible but not always 100% certain.

I've installed 2 different mb with win7 64 and no problems at all,i just let windows update the mb drivers,helps that all the motherboards are asus.

[Nelson37]

I would strongly recommend you try switching out the RAM. Just finished a unit with similar symptoms, this unit had some history of issues but started rebooting and BSOD frequently but sporadically. It blue-screened three times in two hours in my shop and then ran 5-6 hours with no problems, then froze.

Swapped out the RAM and ran it for 48 hours, no problems.

IMO simulated stress-test programs are nearly worthless. I run 2 different virus scanners, defrag, Speedfan, and a Hulu video, at the same time, repeatedly. Or simply let it sit in the BIOS overnite for a heat test. Have not used a memory tester in almost 20 years and would not waste 5 cents or 5 seconds on one. RAM can be good one moment, bad the next. Swap with new RAM takes seconds.

[Poppa_Meth]

I've got two modules in it, maybe I can remove one at a time and see what happens.

[budz]

I have that same mobo & never knew it had such bad reviews.....I have a overclocked Q9550 on it.....as suggested try swapping out the ram.....what mobo bios do you have on that UD3P?

[Poppa_Meth]

It's the latest as of last week. I don't have the PC in front of me right now.