Computer locking up

[Reiver]

I've been having a problem recently where my computer would just freeze at random (usually as windows loads but sometimes in games, browsing etc.) not blue screen or reboot, just stop. If there were any moving pictures on the screen the'd stop and i'd lose control of the mouse/keyboard. The only way to get out of it was to press the reset or power switch. Sometimes it would let me into windows other times not. Booting in safe mode didn't work as it froze at mup.sys. A couple of times it flashed up error warnings about the boot.ini and the registry.
The computer isn't new, apart from the motherboard and graphics card all the other components have been with me for about a year. The motherboard had some teething isssues when i first installed it but after getting the configuration right it worked fine for at least two months before the problem started. All specs are as in sig.
After some searching and eliminating memory problems and overheating it looked like it was a corrupt registry causing the problem so i decided to do a complete reinstall today. Everything went fine up the install had 18 minutes to go (microsoft time as it jumped from 35 to 18 mins in about 5) when the computer locked up again. The HDD activity ceased and the mouse froze stopping the install.
Has anyone got any ideas what could cause this? Even with the intermittent freezes i was able to stability test using super pi, run BF2 for 5-6hrs etc. when it allowed me into windows. Occasionaly it would lock up again but usually if i got started it was OK. The only way i was able to recreate the lockup with 100% success was by running itunes for over half an hour then it would always freeze.
Sorry for the long winded post but i'm pretty stumped and i was hoping someone could suggest something before i start ripping things out.

 

[leezer3]

You're another person with the same problem as me
Setting the MPS Table version in the BIOS to 1.1 as opposed to 1.4 appears to have nearly fixed it in my case, but not totally.
I'm 99% certain this is a BIOS issue (Only appeared after an upgrade), but cant change my current BIOS as I need working Linux support!

Hope this helps.

-Leezer-

 

[Reiver]

Ok i'll give that a shot. Cheers. Just to check you're using an A8N sli as well?

 

[Reiver]

Went to try it and couldn't find the option. I'm going to try it with a different (ide) hard drive. If that doesn't work the board is getting RMA'd. I've found quite a few people with the same issue and same board online.

 

[leezer3]

No, a MSI RS-482M2.
Crappy board
There are a ton of people with this problem (And different boards); If I could find any fault with the bliddy board it would have been RMAed long ago.
Trouble is, it's rock stable in Linux, even in the games that crash under Windows (WINE).
I'm about 90% certain the problem started after a BIOS update, its just typical isn't it

The only thing that slightly concerns me that it could be is my GFX card idling at around 57- 59c (GF 6600LE, PCIE), but the trouble is that these crashes are so random- I would have thought that running BF2 for a couple of hrs would cause the crash.

Edit: Oh, what RAM? (I've currently got 1gb of Crucial non-dual channel cheapy stuff running in dual channel, which is due to be replaced with 2gb of GEIL Dual channel- This could be a problem?)

If its the same issue, I take it there is nothing of any note whatsoever in the event viewer?

-Leezer-

 

[Reiver]

Corsair twinX 2x1GBPC3200. Yep nothing in the event viewer that explained it. Now i can't get into event viewer 'cause it won't complete an install of windows without freezing. I must have left it switched on for about 2 hrs while i went out at the stage where it boots from HDD it didn't have any problem until i tried to complete the install when it froze. So maybe it's the hard drive activity.

 

[leezer3]

I've pretty much discounted the HDD, there are two different ones in the system (Maxtor Diamondmax 10s), both of which reveal nothing under a full surface scan
I'm busily disabling everything I can get my hands on in the BIOS, but I kinda want to kill this board, as I've tested everything else, and can find no faults whatsoever.

I've also ferreted up a beta BIOS for this mainboard off the net, which among other things enables 1t command rate for 2 DIMMS but I really don't want to install this at the mo

Edit: Oh @%&*%- Just found this on the MSI forums (Older board revision but still pertinant):
http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=88430.0
http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=92004.0
Sounds like it could well be a compatibility problem between the ATI & Nvidia components of the system, and that would tie in with you running a ATI card in an Nvidia board.

-Leezer-

 

[Reiver]

Sounds like it could well be a compatibility problem between the ATI & Nvidia components of the system, and that would tie in with you running a ATI card in an Nvidia board.

-Leezer-

Yeah found a lot of cases on the web after i extended the search beyond people with the same board. Most had an ATI card and/or a soundblaster card. Definitly something i'll try out. The weird thing is the way it happened. It started off freezing occasionally (after over a month of running fine) and then it seeemed to degrade to the extent almost every time i switched on it would freeze. But then in the midst of that there were two days with perfect normal operation. It's just so random and people seem to be finding fixes in every possible way so there's no set component or setting that causes it. The only constant seems to be that it happens under XP and people with a linux partition can run that fine.

 

[Reiver]

Weird. I cleared CMOS (again) and all of a sudden XP installed OK. I'm up to the driver install stage and no freezes yet so fingers crossed. Even weirder my power led which i though had bust has started working again.

 

[HungryHippos]

had similar problems here for months

lock ups, BSOD's, programs freezing every now and then, programs not responsing but the comp carries on working, sound loops after crashes.

sp2004 stable 20 hours memtest stable 10 hours.

i'm considerin taking this a8n-e ultra and x2 3800 back to the shop and asking for replacements.

 

[leezer3]

had similar problems here for months

lock ups, BSOD's, programs freezing every now and then, programs not responsing but the comp carries on working, sound loops after crashes.

sp2004 stable 20 hours memtest stable 10 hours.

i'm considerin taking this a8n-e ultra and x2 3800 back to the shop and asking for replacements.

I've got a suspicion your situation is slightly different-
You are having probs with a Nvidia card in a Nvidia mobo, the problems we seem to be having is when mixing Nvidia & ATI components in the same system.

If you can get a replacement, good luck- I've tried & can't, even though I was told that there would be no incompatibility problems whatsover

Only thing I can suggest is a BIOS update- I'm almost certain that one either started causing this issue or at least aggravated it, but I need Linux

-Leezer-

 

[HungryHippos]

think mine is just generally an nf4 issue or a dodgy mobo/chip, my comp does really weird things.

For example my screensaver and standby modes can come on randomnly at any time, even when i'm using the comp seconds before.

applications will just crash, things like PS and WoW, but the comp will carry on working even when the app is not responding resulting in lost data.

my event manager is riddled with disk errors relating to paging file operations. and i've got 2 new hard drives and a raptor which all seem to check out fine.

my hard drive thrashes like mad sometimes even when I want to just load control panel or a firefox window, and it can take 5-10 seconds to load these.

And yes my hard drives have all been defragged very recently, even defragged my raptor twice.

Annoying to say the least, paid a lot of money for the comp want it to perform well

 

[Reiver]

From what i've seen it's definitely bios related. I got everything installed and working OK then i decided to turn off what i didn't use in bios (game ports, ethernet controllers etc.) and then BOOM problem back straight away. Took three or 4 attempts where it refused to get into windows and then one where it froze instantly i got in. Cleared CMOS again and I'm now typing this on the computer that's been causing the trouble. Unfortunately when i got back into windows the drivers for everything in my PCI slots weren't working so had to reinstall graphics drivers, wireless network card and soundcard drivers again. I don't remember having to do that before when clearing CMOS, is this normal?
I'll start preening in the BIOS again but one at a time to try and work out the problem. Fingers crossed all is OK and i'll be able to play Oblivion when it comes out.

 

[HungryHippos]

they should really work on their drivers though tbh, and bioses.

because it shouldn't be this much work to get it working right...

I am running quite a new bios in my comp at the moment, and the latest NF4 chipset drivers too, must have installed 3-4 diff bioses here and it's still not right,

 

[Reiver]

Aye scrap what i said. It seems to be bios related in my case. There doesn't seem to be any constant between cases other than XP.

 

[leezer3]

If you're interested, MSI is now spouting twaddle about it being dual-rail PSU related.
From a quick calculation, I'm using 175w on the motherboard rail- 14.5A out of 18A; I think not
When will these guys accept that they have a bug somewhere in the BIOS causing this?!

-Leezer-

 

[HungryHippos]

changed mobo to an A8n-SLI premium from a a8n-e ultra and most of my problems seem to have vanished.

 

[leezer3]

Wanna give me the old board
I want shot of this bliddy MSI board, nothing but trouble.
In addition, the memory is still stuck at 166mhz, 2t (Was fixed for one beta BIOS, now broken again)

I envy you.

-Leezer-