Gigabyte g1.Sniper 3 with Intel i7 2600k, Help needed Trouble Shooting Issue.

[CondoningAsylum]

As the title suggests I have an issue with my current build, specs listed at the bottom of the post.

I have 2 monitors. The primary is connected to my Dedicated graphics card and the other to the Intel HD 300 graphics. Both are using an HDMI connection. My computer is on throughout the day and off at night. Randomly while I am using it the whole computer will lock up and the monitor using Intel HD 3000 has what looks like static going across the display but you can still see the image behind it. I have not been able to isolate a specific program or driver causing the issue. The only thing I know for sure is that a re-installation of Windows 7 did not fix the problem. Updating the Intel Graphics driver to version 8.15.10.2712 did make the issue happen less often.

Any input on what could cause this issue would be much appreciated.

Build Specs:

Gigabyte g1.Sniper 3 Mobo
Intel Z77 Chipset
Intel i7 2600k @ 3.4Ghz
EVGA GTX560 Ti 448 FTW w/ 1.2GB vid mem
G.SKILL Sniper Series Low Voltage 8GB( 2x4GB ) x2 RAM 16GB Total
Rosewill Xtreme Series RX750-S-B 750W PSU
Windows 7 Pro x64

Edit: On the motherboard during normal use the LED code is 0xA2 and when the lockup happens it switches to 0x02, also when the lockup starts there is a cracking/popping noise coming from the audio device being used.

[spikey_richie]

Are you using Virtu to piggy back your discrete graphics card with the GFX chip in the CPU?

[CondoningAsylum]

When this first started I was trying out Virtu but after the re-instal of windows 7 I decided not to use it anymore. Recently the full lockups have gotten a lot more frequent and I was starting to think that it was an issue with just the Integrated Graphics part of the CPU. I now have both monitors connected to my GTX 560 and the lockup still happens just without the static on the second monitor.

[spikey_richie]

Ok so try this:

Start > Control Panel > nVidia Control Panel > Set PhysX configuration > In the drop down, select your graphics card; DON'T leave it on auto. Give that a bash and report back. Mine used to lock up, and then you'd get "Windows recovered from a driver fault" and it'd return to normal. I changed that to GTS450 from auto, and it hasn't skipped a beat in months. Also there were some new nVidia drivers released yesterday. May as well go ahead and upgrade those before you chance the setting as it'll set it back to auto.

[Fatman]

Use the DVI ports on the card and disable the onboard graphics in Bios.

[CondoningAsylum]

I havent disabled Integrated graphics yet but I plugged in the second monitor to my 560 and the lockups are still happening. Also when these lockups happen its a complete lockup windows never recovers, feels to me like its a severe hardware issue with the CPU. I'll try disabling integrated and see what happens.

[Fatman]

It is probably locking up because of driver conflicts.....Disable the onboard VGA and see how you go! Also uninstall the onboard VGA drivers if you have them installed.

[CondoningAsylum]

So I disabled the integrated graphics and the lockups still persisted. I then Uninstalled the drivers and for awhile it was fine but just now I had two more lockups one right after the other. Before this I had my computer on from 9am-7pm and then turned it back on about 15 minutes ago and within seconds of logging on the first lockup happened. I think this rules out driver conflict with Integrated Graphics.

Could my EVGA driver be conflicting with something else? The 560 and the mobo are the only new hardware changes I have done around the time these lockups started. I may try the new driver Nvidia just released hopefully that fixes it. 

[Fatman]

Ok download and run memtest and lets check your ram..........Run memtest for about 10 runs.

http://www.memtest86.com/download.html

[spikey_richie]

Did you try what I suggested above with the PhysX settings?

[Fatman]

Did you try what I suggested above with the PhysX settings?

That static he is talking about would come into play if he is using applications like gaming that use Physx. Setting the Physix to auto (default) should set the Physx to use the graphics card and not the cpu.

Good idea though.........You only find that out if you set the Physx to CPU like I have done in the past LOL.

[CondoningAsylum]

My PhysX has always been set for my GPU not the CPU and memtest ran with no errors.

[Fatman]

Ok so what happens if you try running both your monitors off the DVI ports?

[CondoningAsylum]

Where the monitors are plugged in and what connection they use hasn't changed anything. The computer still locks up and if the display is using Integrated Graphics it gets the static.

[CondoningAsylum]

There has been a development. I tried updating my Nvidia driver to the latest version 3.06.23 and nothing has changed. in the last 10 minutes I have had two lockups and on the second one the screen went completely black and in the top left corner I could see a underscore similar to how windows first boots. I really am starting to hate this. I just wish I knew what the problem was.



Edit: I remembered hearing some people have had issues with the low voltage ram I am using running stable and I went into my BIOS and bumped my ram voltage to 1.3v instead of the XMP setting of 1.25v. Supposedly a fair amount of buyers on newegg had to set the voltage at 1.5v for stability. So far 1.3v is doing the trick for me. Hopefully this works, if not I will try 1.5 and see what happens.