Is My Motherboard Dying?

[funkyjiveturkey]

so basically a while ago my desktop computer became subject to random blue-screens of death and hard resets for no apparent reason. i've tried everything to isolate the problem and this is all thats left.

My Specs:

Asrock N68-VGS3 UCC
AMD Phenom II X6 1075T processor
8GB (2X4) DDR3 1600 mhz
90GB Corsair SATA3 SSDD / Seagate 160GB 7200rpm HDD
NVIDIA Geforce 520 1 GB DDR3
Running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

when this first started happening, it would just freeze on the current screen and not restart or anything. a reinstall of windows fixed that. but instead, it would just flat out blue screen after a few minutes, and at completely random times usually when i'd be doing something the least bit strenuous.

- first i reinstalled windows 7, then the nature of the crashing changes.
- then, figuring my solid state was the problem, i put in my other hard drive with a fresh windows 7 install. again, this helped nothing.
- i ran several extended tests of my RAM through some live CD's that i have. no problems were found
- i reapplied a nice coat of silver thermal paste to the processor. this made it run error-free for 24 hours, then it started crashing again.
- i tested the power supply in my case, no problems.
- i even replaced the CMOS battery on my motherboard, which was dead. it ran error-free for another day, then it just crashed.
(this is all over the course of the past month or so)

so i'm wondering if it's my motherboard itself, i've exhausted every possibility. is there any problem i'm overlooking? i've already ordered a new board, but it would be nice to make sure this works so i can at least resell it.

-thanks
M.B

 

[SnowyGamester]

You've done some pretty extensive testing, however you havn't mentioned testing another video card or using only onboard graphics. Probably the mobo, though it doesn't hurt to be thorough.

 

[funkyjiveturkey]

You've done some pretty extensive testing, however you havn't mentioned testing another video card or using only onboard graphics. Probably the mobo, though it doesn't hurt to be thorough.

i don't really have another graphics card but i havent tried the onboard video. i dont really see that being the problem though as it displays both monitors fine, i don't really game with it, and it's not demanding on power at all it's rather lackluster

 

[Spaloooooka]

Have you tried re-installing, or updating your BIOS?
Another possible solution is checking the contacts. Pull allllll the cards and put them back. Including the CPU.
Over clocking and Temperature?

 

[funkyjiveturkey]

Have you tried re-installing, or updating your BIOS?
Another possible solution is checking the contacts. Pull allllll the cards and put them back. Including the CPU.
Over clocking and Temperature?

actually my processor is severely underclocked. it's set at 800mhz per core as opposed to the advertised 3ghz. i never made any attempt to change this because it's worked fine even on this setting. far as temperature goes, i'm not sure what it runs at, though about 2 weeks ago i put thermal compound on it just incase.

as for the cards i kind of have pulled them over the past while. my mobo is a micro-atx so it only has 2 PCI slots, one for video and one for expansions. i even changed the expansion slot from a wifi card to a usb one, not that that matters.

 

[sarkeizen]

You've done some pretty extensive testing, however you havn't mentioned testing another video card or using only onboard graphics. Probably the mobo, though it doesn't hurt to be thorough.

i don't really have another graphics card but i havent tried the onboard video. i dont really see that being the problem though as it displays both monitors fine, i don't really game with it, and it's not demanding on power at all it's rather lackluster

First disable automatic restart on system failure, if you haven't already. Then report the stop code and any other information on the blue screen.

Next, eliminate RAM as a problem. RAM test disks are specific tests but not terribly SENSITIVE tests. That is they are good at ruling a problem IN and are somewhere between OK and not very good at ruling them out. If your motherboard can run in single channel mode. Try running with each stick of 4 GB RAM individually or borrow some RAM from someone.

Third, eliminate Video - remove the drivers for your video card and run on on-board video. Now re-install the drivers and the card and remove the drivers for on-board video and disable the on-board video in the bios (if possible). Just because you see no video distortion does not eliminate video as a problem.

If you still get failures under all these conditions then you are probably looking at either Motherboard or CPU and simply on the basis of probability I'd get your motherboard replaced.

 

[cookyy2k]

Have you tried re-installing, or updating your BIOS?
Another possible solution is checking the contacts. Pull allllll the cards and put them back. Including the CPU.
Over clocking and Temperature?

actually my processor is severely underclocked. it's set at 800mhz per core as opposed to the advertised 3ghz. i never made any attempt to change this because it's worked fine even on this setting. far as temperature goes, i'm not sure what it runs at, though about 2 weeks ago i put thermal compound on it just incase.

as for the cards i kind of have pulled them over the past while. my mobo is a micro-atx so it only has 2 PCI slots, one for video and one for expansions. i even changed the expansion slot from a wifi card to a usb one, not that that matters.

Have you tried reverting to stock clock? I underclocked my processor a while ago to run some tests and at about 1.5GHz (on a 3.5GHz processor) I got BSOD quite often.

 

[funkyjiveturkey]

Have you tried re-installing, or updating your BIOS?
Another possible solution is checking the contacts. Pull allllll the cards and put them back. Including the CPU.
Over clocking and Temperature?

actually my processor is severely underclocked. it's set at 800mhz per core as opposed to the advertised 3ghz. i never made any attempt to change this because it's worked fine even on this setting. far as temperature goes, i'm not sure what it runs at, though about 2 weeks ago i put thermal compound on it just incase.

as for the cards i kind of have pulled them over the past while. my mobo is a micro-atx so it only has 2 PCI slots, one for video and one for expansions. i even changed the expansion slot from a wifi card to a usb one, not that that matters.

Have you tried reverting to stock clock? I underclocked my processor a while ago to run some tests and at about 1.5GHz (on a 3.5GHz processor) I got BSOD quite often.

never really crossed my mind honestly, it came out of the box this way so i decided to keep it on that setting cuz it was all i really needed and i thought i woul get more life out of it. it ran this way for the past year with absolutely no problems.

 

[AWAR]

never really crossed my mind honestly, it came out of the box this way so i decided to keep it on that setting cuz it was all i really needed and i thought i woul get more life out of it. it ran this way for the past year with absolutely no problems.

That is an AMD feature called "Cool n' quiet" which under-volts the CPU in order to conserve energy and reduce heat, it restores the CPU's power whenever it's needed so it doesn't affect performance. Normally it doesn't cause problems but you can try turning it off from the Bios settings. Other than that, you should really try out what sarkeizen said. Without any information from the blue screen post, we can only guess what is the issue with your pc.