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XPS 730 H2C issue. Freezing?
I am having a recurring issue with my 730 that is out of warranty and would be great full for any help here.
790i sli board with 4gb ddr3 QX9650 factory OC GTX280 win 7 64bit
The issue is that when left to idle but not consistently and on some occasions whilst it is in use, the screen blanks (no signal - amber light) and it cannot be woken, also no light eg the capslock will turn on or off on the keyboard and the mouse although lit up seems to not do anything either.
This usually happens of a night time so when I return to the pc to wake the screen by keyboard or mouse, I get nothing. But has happen twice while I have been sat using it.
The graphics card fan stops spinning maybe 50% of the time when this happens but all other fans, lights etc stay on as well as the dvd drives still being able to open and close when the button is pushed
This leaves me with no choice but to hard power down.
On reboot I get the windows was not shut down correctly error, every thing boots back fine and the event viewer logs show nothing but an unexpected shut down.
The pc can run for days before this happens or sometimes only hours.
At first I assumed a graphics card issue, however the fan doesn't always stop spinning and this coupled with the usb keyboard being frozen (lights on but can't change to capslock numlock lights etc when pushed) confuses me.
I have re seated ram, graphics card and sound card and thoroughly cleaned of dust. (Temps sit at idle CPU 25~ GPU 55~)
I have ran the pc with minimal usb attachments (Basic mouse/keyboard, no tablet, no usb tv card or external usb drives)
reinstalled operating system several times reinstalled all ESA software (nvdia system tools & always ran fine so far for me) and gpu drivers in various ways.
I have run memtest and had fine results as well as prime 95 for several hours. No crashes or freezes
As with furtest for the gpu although this gained high temps but this isn't shocking with the GTX280 again no freezes or crashes
Still I get this issue randomly what ever I have tried and I have run out of ideas.
Please ask if you need any other information or clarification on anything and thanks for any input, this is becoming very frustrating as I am unable to confidently leave the pc on knowing will will still be running "alive" when I get back
Nudimensionz
63 Posts
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April 1st, 2012 16:00
Not even an hour and it's crashed with same sysmtoms only this time the screen saver was on but frozon..
So yea.. 1 stick of 1 gb ram atix600 keyboard mouse monitor, i forgot i have two drives and a card reader plugged in too...
any suggestions?
I haven't mentioned so far that I do run the main C: drive as a Raid 0 setup i think.. the two hard drives work as one drive.. Could a failing drive cause these kind of lock ups?
The lock ups are happening much more frequently now that I have a minimal amount of components in. I will be swapping the single stick for another tomorrow at some ;point to rule out that stick.
tacoslammer
174 Posts
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April 1st, 2012 17:00
The power supply tester Tesla1856 mentioned ~$24 may be a good next step before getting a new motherboard. It appears you can get it pretty quick from Newegg. It does appear to place a load on the PS during the test. It gets hot during the testing. Tesla has the experience with it. From the Rexus website it seems you may be able to test with the PC operating also. I'd check that out before doing so.
Sounds like you are down to short strokes unless someone has other suggestions. It you do decide to replace the MB, try to get a Dell part. If not, you need to find an inverted ATX. Otherwise you will not be able to install cards, etc. without a case mod. Then buy the $50 case and install components on standard ATX MB.
A new PC with current i5 or i7 CPU may be least expensive route.
Tesla1856
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April 1st, 2012 18:00
tacoslammer
174 Posts
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April 1st, 2012 22:00
[/quote]
I guess I missed the Raid 0 set up. Had I realized that, my first suggestion would have been to Dump Raid. Raid is bad because you cannot determine individual drive health in Windows.
I had Raid 0 on my XPS 720. Began having BSODs and hangs. Got so bad I installed LINUX to get my data, etc. that was not backed up from the drives. Linux enabled me to read individual drive health. I discovered one of the Raid 0 drives had quite a few bad sectors. Linux is the only way I found to determine individual drive info within a Raid set up. I don't like Linux but still have it as a OS choice at system start up.
By all means DUMP the Raid. That solved my problems. I was able to salvage the drive with bad sectors & use it for data only. Then did a clean install on the good one for the OS drive and later installed a new 7200 RPM HDD with a large cache as my "C:"drive using Acronis to clone the old one and transfer to the new HDD. I could not tell any start up time difference. Once you dump Raid, I would NOT go back to it.
Nudimensionz
63 Posts
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April 2nd, 2012 16:00
Well here is the latest.. in summery no progress and I am now very disheartened
I have run the pc on all single sticks of ram in all slots, crash/freezing is still occurring.
I split the raid setup into two hard drives and reinstalled windows onto one. the freezes still occur on all variations of ram.
I tried to install windows onto the 2nd drive to see if the first has been causing the issue. But I am unable to get the windows install to see the drive, I think it needs drivers and am stuck on how to proceed.
A result of splitting the raid setup also means I have lost the dell diagnostics partition and obviously can not run any hardware diagnostics checks now.
So I sit here with a completely non usable, expensive box and do not know what to do next.
Might be worth noting I ran a ubuntu live cd which didn't freeze / crash once in an bhour and I have also not had these crashes in the bios or windows setup screens.
How do I install the driver for the harddrive at windows install? To enable me to test that drive although I feel it probably isn't that causing the freeze/crashes
Is there anyway of adding the dell diagnostics partition back so I am able to run those hardware checks?
any help is welcomed as I know do not know what to do.. all this after the warranty ran out two months ago as well...
Tesla1856
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April 2nd, 2012 17:00
Remove all partitions from the drive. Vista or Win-7 setup should allow that in Advanced. You can also use a BootDisk.com or GParted Live CD maybe. It should work as long as BIOS sees the drive.
BIOS should NOT have to be in IDE mode, but RAID mode might be reserved for RAID. Try AHCI mode.
Dell Diags for your model should be available at support.dell.com . Likely, only a certain version (and newer) supports your machine. Almost always, you can run it from bootable CD.
Interesting Ubuntu Live CD works fine. Test that some more. Maybe try a Linux benchmark that pushes machine hard (processor and video). If this continues to work ... well, it would be hard to believe the MB is still bad. Only thing missing is HDD access. Use that CD to install local to local HDD.
If the Windows DVD works with one HDD, it should work will all HDD (no extra driver needed). The only problems happen if trying to use Win-XP before SP2 (or was it SP3 ?) with a SATA controller. There is still a way past it, but you have to have a real 1.44 Floppy connected. What version of Windows are you using?
tacoslammer
174 Posts
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April 2nd, 2012 18:00
If one HDD from the Raid configuration is not allowing access to install the OS, then the HDD may have a problem. Go to the manufacturers website and find their diagnostics and repair programs. I had a 500GB WD HDD several years ago that caused all sorts of BSODs. Finally ran a diagnostics and it failed quickly. Still have the drive in spare parts bin for some unknown reason.
If UIbuntu Live is working you may be able to run a Linux HDD info and diagnostics. Suprising how much better I found the Linux HDD info than Windows. May not be a suprise to LINUX users.
There is an online Dell diagnostics here: http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/us/en/19/diagnostics?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=anavml
Which version of Windows are you trying to install? If Windows SP3, you may have to install SP3 after completing all the Windows updates including SP1 and SP2. Can be an issue in some cases. Vista should be lees of a problem as would be Win7 32 or 64 bit. (64 bit preferred.)
Nudimensionz
63 Posts
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April 9th, 2012 06:00
Sorry for the delayed response, it took some fiddling to get my drives recognised again individually, but latest update...
I have managed to locate the problem to my raid setup, Oddly when diagnostics was run on the raid no issues where found and nor where any found once the raid was split and drives tested individually.
I have tried to rebuild my array but end up with the same freezes once the OS is installed and left to idle ( still no freezes during install or set-up)
I have dropped the raid array altogether and the "pc seems" to be running as is should now, nearly 3 days without lock ups/crashes
Although I am slightly frustrated that I can not figure what is the issue when using the raid I am happy enough to drop the array and carry on with a rregular setup
Thanks for all your inputs and advice. I learnt a lot about this pc if nothing else
Tesla1856
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April 9th, 2012 11:00
Nudimensionz
63 Posts
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April 13th, 2012 09:00
joegreen
72 Posts
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April 13th, 2012 09:00
Nudimensionz,It could be so many things and you have seemed to do all the proper tests,without having your pc in my hands and testing we can only provide suggestions and usual suspects,I said from day 1 it usualy is Mobo or gpu even ram,I wasnt convinced when you said HDD.I wish I wish i could physically test your pc myself.I checked on your issues a few weeks ago and gave my recommendations as have others.I know how frustrated you must be,thats why some things especially electronics are very hard to diagnose without actually seeing the issue during testing.I can only say test known good ram hdd gpu and try there or your changing a mobo gpu etc and issue will be gone.
Tesla1856
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April 13th, 2012 12:00
Is it connected to a good UPS (like APC, etc.)?
Nudimensionz
63 Posts
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April 13th, 2012 13:00
From swapping out various components I have been left with the only options being mobo psu I believe.
I am hope more towards psu and guessing I need to borrow or just buy to be able to test and find out
It is plugged into a 4 way adaptor with the pc power, monitor power and surround sound power as normal.
I have swapped the sockets to have it sit on it's own source as of today.
Nudimensionz
63 Posts
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June 4th, 2012 04:00
Any other suggestions on what I can do here would be appreciated, I am struggling to get this machine back to a decent working order. It will run for 24 hours at the most with out a screen blank.
I can stress test the hell out of it and its fine, (anywhere form 2-5 hours with prime 95) but leave it over night and the screen will blank most of the time by the time I'm up in the morning.
red light on back of gpu no usb's working, but Case lights, fans mobo display all stay as normal. Diff gpu gave same issue as did running on single stick of ram with minimum components.
One thing to note after stripping the pc down and reapplying cpu paste and generally cleaning an checking all connections I have noted one of my CPU heat sink screws will not really tighten anymore, could this be the cause of crashes or would this just raise my temps? (CPU temps sit at 40 deg after prime 95 at 100% cpu for 3 hours currently.)
I feel it can only be either PSU CPU or MOBO, does this sound about right? if so how can I figured what is to be replaced?
I do not have that much PC experience and don't wan't to go throwing more money at this box to not solve the problem.
Thanks for any input
Edit.. can anyone help with an aftermarket powersupply that will deffinatly fit..
I have found a replacement dell version
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DELL-Original-XPS-730-H2C-1000W-PSU-UR006-/350564652467?pt=UK_Computing_PowerSupplies_EH&hash=item519f4815b3#ht_1854wt_1151
However would prefer to go with a branded version, What do I need to check to make sure a new power supply would work?
Thanks
discobay
30 Posts
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July 10th, 2012 22:00
I have a 730 bought here in Australia in 2008. A few months ago it experienced a few BSODs and since then it has frozen regularly and randomly. I have tried these valiant efforts:
removed everything and left just the system HDDs, RAM and display card,
changed the RAM,
changed the HDDs for another HDD,
changed the display card,
run memtest,
run a HDD test routine,
re-installed Windows 7 (both 32 and 64-bit version) from two different DVDs.
I also tried replaced the psu with another but I couldn't get the cabling right so the cpu didn't get any power.
Then last night I decided to remove the motherboard to (a) get a better idea of what Dell is doing with it's power cables to the board and (b) failing that replace the board with something else. During this exercise I noticed that the 3 tall green capacitors next to the board's power supply cable from the psu have domed tops. These should be flat so it looks like my caps have "blown". There is another similar cap elsewhere on the board that looks equally sick.
The problem I have now is with trying to remove the board. Some of the screws are obscured by the cpu heatsink/fan assembly. That is covered by a plastic cover which is secured by four screws 2 of which are only accessible from the bottom of the case upwards. The system manual doesn't give me any clues in this area picture or not. If you or anyone has any hints please post here.