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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.