stuff
----GPU-----
To check the GPU, I would like for you to download and run Furmark. It is a free and simple to use software that will tell us rather quickly if you are experiencing a hardware or software failure with your graphics card.
Here's the link to Furmark - http://www.geeks3d.com/20160826/furmark ... benchmark/ . Click the yellow download link that says "Geeks3d Download", please scroll just under halfway down the page.
Here are the instructions to install FurMark and run the torture test on the video card:
1. Once the download is finished, run the Furmark installer.
2. Click next on the Welcome page of the installer.
3. Accept the License Agreement and click Next.
4. Click Next 3 more times to take the default install options then click Finish.
5. Click Next on the informational page after the install and Finish on the last page with the Launch FurMark option checked.
6. This will close out of the installer, open FurMark and take you to the FurMark website.
7. Close out of the website and click the option in FurMark that says 'GPU Stress Test'.
This will start the test which looks like a spinning fuzzy doughnut that torture tests the video card. If there's a problem with the card it will either freeze up or crash but if the card is healthy then it will be able to run the test for 20-30 minutes. You can then close the test by pressing Alt-F4 or clicking the X up in the corner. Let me know what you find with the test.
----CPU-----
We're going to see if stress testing your CPU confirms any issues. To do that download and extract both of the following programs.
http://download.mersenne.ca/gimps/p95v279.win64.zip
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/php/download.php?id=3
To extract them, once downloaded, right click and select the extract option. Go through the utility that comes up. Once extracted, open the prime95 and CoreTemp programs in the extracted folders.
Now, you'll be looking for two things. The first is to watch the temperatures in the lower half of CoreTemp. It will list the temperatures for your CPU in the lower half of the screen. Just keep an eye on those. Let us know how high the temperatures get for the cores during the prime95 testing.
For the prime95 program, when you start it, choose "Just Stress Testing", then click OK. The program itself will start. Let it run for about five or ten minutes at least. If you can, running it overnight is a good idea, but we can at least check temperatures within ten minutes or so. You won't need to pay too much attention to this, but if you notice any of the "Worker" windows print a line that says it stopped, then that indicates something is wrong. Other than that, you'll just see a bunch of mostly gibberish text.
Once you're done, click Test->Exit for Prime95 and File->Exit for CoreTemp. Let us know what you find!
----HDD----
We can check your SSDs and HDDs by using the SeaTools utility. It is a free utility provided by Seagate that has a generic test we can run to check and see if your drive is experiencing any health issues.
You can download the utility by clicking the link below:
https://www.seagate.com/files/www-conte ... sSetup.exe
Once you have downloaded and installed the utility you can now open the program and it should bring you to a window that should display all of your drives. Check off the boxes next to the drives that you would like to test and then hover your mouse over "Basic Tests". A menu should drop down and one of the options should be "Long Generic". Select "Long Generic" and the test should run on its own. It might take a long while so go ahead and make yourself some tea and kick back while it runs. When it is done, "Drive Status" should change from "Ready to Test" To "Pass" in green letters if the drive is good. If any errors are detected then it is likely that the drive is going bad.
-----RAM-----
Lastly I would like for you to test your RAM by running Memtest. When you received this computer, along with it you should have received a USB with with several tools an utilities loaded onto it. This test could take hours to complete so I would recommend running it over night or at the end of your work day.
1. First off, you'll want to insert your USB Tools drive into one of the USB ports on the computer. I recommend using a USB3 port, but a USB2 port will work as well. Once you've done that, go ahead and start up or restart the computer. When you get the initial POST beep on startup, start tapping the F8 key on your keyboard to get the Asus boot menu (It may be F10, F11 or F12 for Gigabyte). Note, it might be different if you're using a laptop or other motherboard. Our laptops typically use F7. I typically will tap it about once every second or so. You should come to a screen that says "Please select boot device" Highlight "KingstonDataTraveler3.0" and hit enter.
2. Select the listing for "Memory Test" or "Memtest86+" and hit Enter.
3. Let Memtest run for at least 3 passes. A single pass of all 11 tests may take a couple of hours depending on how much memory is installed. Errors will show up as red lines of number and letters on the blue background. Since the test takes a while, if you can let it run overnight, that would be ideal.
4. If the diagnostic returns errors, try turning the machine off and unplugging it, then reseating your memory and running the test again.
Here is a quick video showing how memory modules fit into the motherboard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1TtX7aDpQ4 . Please note that the style of modules in your machine may vary slightly from the graphics in the video, but the procedure is the same.
If there was a hardware component failing, the above tests should catch it. I know that it might seem like a lot to do however if you tackle each test one at a time and follow the checklist I am confident that you will be able to knock these tests out of the park. If after all of this we aren't able to reproduce a crash we will test the GPU/CPU test at the same time and if STILL no restart then that will almost 100% guarantee it is not a hardware cause. Based on what you have described though, I'm guessing the system fails one of our tests and once that happens we will know which component is causing trouble.
To check the GPU, I would like for you to download and run Furmark. It is a free and simple to use software that will tell us rather quickly if you are experiencing a hardware or software failure with your graphics card.
Here's the link to Furmark - http://www.geeks3d.com/20160826/furmark ... benchmark/ . Click the yellow download link that says "Geeks3d Download", please scroll just under halfway down the page.
Here are the instructions to install FurMark and run the torture test on the video card:
1. Once the download is finished, run the Furmark installer.
2. Click next on the Welcome page of the installer.
3. Accept the License Agreement and click Next.
4. Click Next 3 more times to take the default install options then click Finish.
5. Click Next on the informational page after the install and Finish on the last page with the Launch FurMark option checked.
6. This will close out of the installer, open FurMark and take you to the FurMark website.
7. Close out of the website and click the option in FurMark that says 'GPU Stress Test'.
This will start the test which looks like a spinning fuzzy doughnut that torture tests the video card. If there's a problem with the card it will either freeze up or crash but if the card is healthy then it will be able to run the test for 20-30 minutes. You can then close the test by pressing Alt-F4 or clicking the X up in the corner. Let me know what you find with the test.
----CPU-----
We're going to see if stress testing your CPU confirms any issues. To do that download and extract both of the following programs.
http://download.mersenne.ca/gimps/p95v279.win64.zip
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/php/download.php?id=3
To extract them, once downloaded, right click and select the extract option. Go through the utility that comes up. Once extracted, open the prime95 and CoreTemp programs in the extracted folders.
Now, you'll be looking for two things. The first is to watch the temperatures in the lower half of CoreTemp. It will list the temperatures for your CPU in the lower half of the screen. Just keep an eye on those. Let us know how high the temperatures get for the cores during the prime95 testing.
For the prime95 program, when you start it, choose "Just Stress Testing", then click OK. The program itself will start. Let it run for about five or ten minutes at least. If you can, running it overnight is a good idea, but we can at least check temperatures within ten minutes or so. You won't need to pay too much attention to this, but if you notice any of the "Worker" windows print a line that says it stopped, then that indicates something is wrong. Other than that, you'll just see a bunch of mostly gibberish text.
Once you're done, click Test->Exit for Prime95 and File->Exit for CoreTemp. Let us know what you find!
----HDD----
We can check your SSDs and HDDs by using the SeaTools utility. It is a free utility provided by Seagate that has a generic test we can run to check and see if your drive is experiencing any health issues.
You can download the utility by clicking the link below:
https://www.seagate.com/files/www-conte ... sSetup.exe
Once you have downloaded and installed the utility you can now open the program and it should bring you to a window that should display all of your drives. Check off the boxes next to the drives that you would like to test and then hover your mouse over "Basic Tests". A menu should drop down and one of the options should be "Long Generic". Select "Long Generic" and the test should run on its own. It might take a long while so go ahead and make yourself some tea and kick back while it runs. When it is done, "Drive Status" should change from "Ready to Test" To "Pass" in green letters if the drive is good. If any errors are detected then it is likely that the drive is going bad.
-----RAM-----
Lastly I would like for you to test your RAM by running Memtest. When you received this computer, along with it you should have received a USB with with several tools an utilities loaded onto it. This test could take hours to complete so I would recommend running it over night or at the end of your work day.
1. First off, you'll want to insert your USB Tools drive into one of the USB ports on the computer. I recommend using a USB3 port, but a USB2 port will work as well. Once you've done that, go ahead and start up or restart the computer. When you get the initial POST beep on startup, start tapping the F8 key on your keyboard to get the Asus boot menu (It may be F10, F11 or F12 for Gigabyte). Note, it might be different if you're using a laptop or other motherboard. Our laptops typically use F7. I typically will tap it about once every second or so. You should come to a screen that says "Please select boot device" Highlight "KingstonDataTraveler3.0" and hit enter.
2. Select the listing for "Memory Test" or "Memtest86+" and hit Enter.
3. Let Memtest run for at least 3 passes. A single pass of all 11 tests may take a couple of hours depending on how much memory is installed. Errors will show up as red lines of number and letters on the blue background. Since the test takes a while, if you can let it run overnight, that would be ideal.
4. If the diagnostic returns errors, try turning the machine off and unplugging it, then reseating your memory and running the test again.
Here is a quick video showing how memory modules fit into the motherboard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1TtX7aDpQ4 . Please note that the style of modules in your machine may vary slightly from the graphics in the video, but the procedure is the same.
If there was a hardware component failing, the above tests should catch it. I know that it might seem like a lot to do however if you tackle each test one at a time and follow the checklist I am confident that you will be able to knock these tests out of the park. If after all of this we aren't able to reproduce a crash we will test the GPU/CPU test at the same time and if STILL no restart then that will almost 100% guarantee it is not a hardware cause. Based on what you have described though, I'm guessing the system fails one of our tests and once that happens we will know which component is causing trouble.
FurMark - GPU = PASSED
prime95 - CPU = PASSED
SeaTools utility - HDD&SDD = PASSED
Memtest86+ - RAM = PASSED
