I have installed Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) on my workstation, previously running Windows XP professional. My problem is that it is extremely unstable; It randomly restarts - my screen goes black and then it restarts. I have installed Windows 7 twice - on the first install. I had gotten everything set up, all my programs (primarily video editing in nature- Adobe Master Collection CS3, Sorenson Squeeze and such) and my computer restarted. It froze and for a half second a scrambled screen appeared then it restarted. On restart it first said that it needed a bootable device cause it couldn't find one. On the second attempt at restart it would not allow me to load into windows it just came to the screen "starting windows" and remained there. On restart it gave me no option for start normal - just the option to repair system startup - or continue if it was just a power failure. The continue did not work. So I tried to repair startup - this would not work either - it said that windows could not repair itself. So I was forced to format my drive and reinstall.
On second installation - I thought I was safe. Then I had the same random restart. This time however, I repaired restart. It said that it was repairing my registry. But it must have monkeyed with it because it corrupted some of my programs. Then I continued to have the same freeze, scramble, reboot - only on the next several occasions it gave me a bluescreen. I tried after looking at forums to up the voltage of my ECC Ram (4gb - 2slots) from 1.8v to 1.83v (manufacture says they should run at 1.8v). This did not seem to help. I also tried running it with only one stick of Ram - worked for awhile over night, but then failed again the next day. I don't know if there is any relation - two failures were during system backup (from backup/restore center) and twice it failed when I was deleting from the trash. But then it failed at other random times as well. - However, It will work for extended periods of time - but then randomly quits.
I am trying to find the problem - but do not know where else to look. It appears to be hardware, but then I am not sure if it could be software related. I MUST get this machine up and running - Primary work machine.
Here are my Hardware specs:
OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Version 6.1.7600 Build 7600
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5420 @ 2.50GHz, 2499 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
Processor Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5420 @ 2.50GHz, 2499 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical
SMBIOS Version 2.5
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7600.16385"
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Kingston DDR2 ECC 6400 2GB x 2
Graphics Card
Saphire ATI Radeon HD 3870 512mb
Motherboard
Asus Z7S WS
Hard Drives
System Drive - Seagate 7200.11 320gb
Drive 2 - Seagate 7200.11 1tb
Drive 3 - Seagate 7200.10 500gb
Drive 4 - Seagate 7200.11 1.5tb
Drive 5 - Seagate 7200.11 1.5tb
iSCSI
DroboPro External Array
External Firewire Drive
Seagate 7200.11 1.5tb
Capture Card
BlackMagic Intensity Pro - PCI Express
Software:
Adobe CS3 Master Collection
Sorenson Squeeze 5.1
Office Plus 2010 beta
Klite Codec Pack windows 7
Drobo Dashbaord
Mozilla Firefox
AVG Free (crashed with and without this installed)
On second installation - I thought I was safe. Then I had the same random restart. This time however, I repaired restart. It said that it was repairing my registry. But it must have monkeyed with it because it corrupted some of my programs. Then I continued to have the same freeze, scramble, reboot - only on the next several occasions it gave me a bluescreen. I tried after looking at forums to up the voltage of my ECC Ram (4gb - 2slots) from 1.8v to 1.83v (manufacture says they should run at 1.8v). This did not seem to help. I also tried running it with only one stick of Ram - worked for awhile over night, but then failed again the next day. I don't know if there is any relation - two failures were during system backup (from backup/restore center) and twice it failed when I was deleting from the trash. But then it failed at other random times as well. - However, It will work for extended periods of time - but then randomly quits.
I am trying to find the problem - but do not know where else to look. It appears to be hardware, but then I am not sure if it could be software related. I MUST get this machine up and running - Primary work machine.
Here are my Hardware specs:
OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Version 6.1.7600 Build 7600
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5420 @ 2.50GHz, 2499 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
Processor Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5420 @ 2.50GHz, 2499 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical
SMBIOS Version 2.5
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7600.16385"
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Kingston DDR2 ECC 6400 2GB x 2
Graphics Card
Saphire ATI Radeon HD 3870 512mb
Motherboard
Asus Z7S WS
Hard Drives
System Drive - Seagate 7200.11 320gb
Drive 2 - Seagate 7200.11 1tb
Drive 3 - Seagate 7200.10 500gb
Drive 4 - Seagate 7200.11 1.5tb
Drive 5 - Seagate 7200.11 1.5tb
iSCSI
DroboPro External Array
External Firewire Drive
Seagate 7200.11 1.5tb
Capture Card
BlackMagic Intensity Pro - PCI Express
Software:
Adobe CS3 Master Collection
Sorenson Squeeze 5.1
Office Plus 2010 beta
Klite Codec Pack windows 7
Drobo Dashbaord
Mozilla Firefox
AVG Free (crashed with and without this installed)
