Help!

[sadeyx]

The problem I am about to explain has baffled me now for nearly 6 months and I am at my wit's end.

First let me say that I am no computer novice, and I have tried all the basic fault finding/eliminating steps I can think of.

I dont know if its hardware, or software, indications are that its hardware but having taken the regular steps for identifying a hardware problem I just dont know anymore, so I put this post in general as I dont know what exactly the problem is.

The Problem:
Locking up! - Originally this started happening when I would watch a video on the net in full screen mode (like on sidereel or bbc iplayer) I would start getting graphics corruption which can only be ridden by a reboot.

The has progressed to the system completly locking up. NO Bluescreen and completly NO way of monitoring the problem with software, since every peice of software locks up the instant it happens and is unable to report anything back after a reboot.

I had XP at the time and was planning a major overhaul anyway, so I have replaced (in stages over the past 6 months):

Motherboard (new board is Asus P5N-T Deluxe)
Processor (From '3.4 P4 Extreme' to 'Q9300 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.50GHz 6MB-cache')
Video Card (from 'GeForce 7900 GTO' to 'GeForce 8800GTS 512')
Memory ('Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5' + 'Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5' (purchased at seperate occasions)
Hardrive (Samsung SpinPoint F1 500GB - Though I still use a Maxtor 6L200MO as just a storage drive)

I also upgraded to Vista64 Home premium.

Of course I have changed my drivers, re-installed gone through my bios settings, even updated the bios.

HEAT:
Heat is not the problem here, I constanly monitor the heat and I can play high spec games Like Age of Conan or Vangaurd constantly in any given session and it wont crash.

Ive tried different browers, reinstalling flash, checking for virii, spyware, I've run Sisoft Sandra, 3dMark Vantage, Tunup Utilities, Registry Mechanic and Mem Test not one of them reports a problem!

I can consistently repeat the problem by viewing any streaming video in full screen mode! - but it can happen when doing almost anything now.

I've heard people have installed Nvidias NTUNE on vista64 and completly broken the installation, in fact Im certain that Ntune is not Vista64 compatible so thats the only peice of software ive not installed (and so I cant monitor my graphics card heat but thats not the issue as highlighted above)

Windows VISTA experience Index
Everything is at 5.9 except the memory at 5.5, I dont know why, people with slower memory than mine seem to get 6+, maybe a memory problem? but having replaced memory and switch around the modules in all possible configurations, nothing.

The only programs I consistenly run is MSN and Teamspeak.

Since i have replaced nearly every peice of hardware and software I just dont know what to try next!

Help!

 

[sadeyx]

If it was voltage then why does it not crash during a 12 hour session on an extremly demanding game? - in anycase, how can test that?

My BIOS timings for memory are on auto.. ive not alterd any voltages or timings. In anycase this problem happened on my old board with old ram, and the same problem new board, new ram.

The freeze is permenant, I often fall asleep watching stuff, and will wake up in the morning with it frozen.

 

[sadeyx]

Thanks! I'll try the voltage on the memory.

The PSU, is a 550 watt that I bought some time ago, I dont remember the details Ill try dig them out, but it was very expensive (£90odd) and I always properly research any item I buy and Im certain that is powerfull enough but your right, its one of the few constants remaining. - Do you mean its faulty? or do you mean now powerfull enough? How can I test this?

I Have AVG Pro 8.0 (legitimate) and its fine. All the software diagnosis programs I run say Windows its clean as a whistle and is a recent fresh install, but your right at this stage im willing to beleive anything lol

 

[sadeyx]

Here she is

http://www.**********/Product.aspx?WebProductId=290213

 

[sadeyx]

I dont know if this helps....

Ive increased the voltage as you say, but do I need to adjust anything else? There are loads of different options here that even Im not sure what to 'adjust'

 

[sadeyx]

oddly thats the only product ive not bought from overclockers.. everything else is

Yes, initially its just the fullscreen video that caused it, but now it 'can' lock up doing anything.

Well i've reformated now and re-installed everything, so I'll see how I get on.

Can you tell me which setting the 'north bridge voltage is' and if I am to set the Vcore, what do I set it to?

Also, what do I set my memory timings to?

 

[sadeyx]

northbridge voltage on you're screen shot is the NB chip voltage.

ok, what shall I set it to?

Also, Since ive put my voltage on the memory chip to 2.2 I keep getting more crashes and BSOD! - Ive took it back down and thats stopped the BSOD.

does this indicate a problem or do I need to adjust other voltages as well, or maybe increase the speed of the chips as well?

see this is why I hate messing around with things, there is never any clear instructions.

Not tested the fullscreen video yet after the re-format. but once ive taken the memory volt back to auto it does seem more reliable.

 

[sadeyx]

I had the same problem, i traced mine to the ram, i lowered the timings and upped the voltage and i haven't had a crash for ages.

Lowered it to what, and increased it to what?

Cmon, specifics please there are hundreds of settings here I dont want to randomly adjust stuff

you can rma it crucial is very fast with rma's last time I had to it was 48 hours.

rma?

 

[sadeyx]

Had you checked for hardware conflicts? i.e. 2pcs of hardware not being allocated to the same I/O slots..

theres no indication of this, nothing in device manager and as I mentioned in my first post I have run numerous tests including 3dmark.

Alternatively also try de activing screen savers and in power options putting everything to never?

Yes, this is also one of the first things I did.

And just to update, I set those timings and alterd the NB voltage to 1.6.

After the reformat and re-install I dont appear to get Game crashes anymore, but it still crashes in web fullscreen videos.

Previously, I could watch a dvd image in fullscreen with no problem, but now I get the crash with all types of video - full screen.

A friend has suggested getting a sound card (as opposed to using onboard) But I cant shake this feeling that something is wrong with the memory. But then I remember that I bought two sticks, and another two a month later, and have run both sets individually, together and in different configurations, can it really be possible that all 4 chips are faulty? I doubt it.

You see, if I go back to overclockers and say "one of these peices of hardware is faulty because it crashes in full screen mode" they will simply say its my software!

If you could get back to me with those reccomended timings and voltages that seems to be the very last thing to try, having replaced nearly everything I cant simply start buying new hardware just to prove to overclockers that something is not working, I've put myself into quite a bit of debt already trying to solve this

 

[sadeyx]

My ram is different to yours, i checked the website for the correct settings.

My settings are correct according to "the website" the way you said it I thought you meant you lowerd them from the reccomended. Sorry.


Well I've not done a hijack this yet, but this is what I did last night:

Since Ive re-formatted the problem has actually been a TON worse!

Tried removing the Maxtor - Still crashed

Installed a Sounblaster card
Now, while I did that and installed the drivers windows update notified me of other udates possible. The nForce network controller and the SATA controller driver. Updated those also.

Rebooted and VOILA! - I watched an entire episode of TOPGEAR from bbc iPlayer in full screen.. no crashed!

So, I went back to my bios and increased the voltage on the memory and the NB Chip! - Played another few episiodes of things, still no crash!

Im getting very excited.. I even ram the Windows Experience rating which upped my memory rating to 5.7

But for some reason my game refuses to load... so I took out the Soundblaster!

I tested fullscreen video again, and without the sound blaster its seems to be fine.

Disaster strikes however when my game loads now, but locks up almost immediatly.

slowly I start putting the settings on my bios back to 'auto' - timings, NB chip, each time I changed something I reloaded and try the game. I didnt finally stop crashing until I put the voltage back to 'auto'

But of course now my memory rating has gone back down to 5.5.

This seems like a victory for now, but I have reformatted before and within a few days I will get the fullscreen crash again, so Im not prepared to crack out the Cigar just yet.

So my question is now about the RAM, is it because I have the timings wrong that the voltage wont take? Maybe 1.6 on the NB is not enough? I want to make sure these settings are properly correct before I start blaming the chips themselves.

Thanks everyone for your time in kindly helping me with this.

 

[sadeyx]

Thought I'd post an update:

I actually went to the ASUS forums and did some digging around there, apparently my board is a right bag of bolts!! - all sorts of complaints about problems similar to what I have reported here.

I found some really good settings for my memory which has made a huge impact on my performace! However, whenever I try altering the voltage at all to anything it locks up! - so I have to have it on auto all the time.

I dont think this is the memory though, I think its the crap motherboard. Im really disapointed with ASUS, I actually changed over from ABit to ASUS because they had a better name, but the P5N-T Deluxe is shocking, or its possible that its just the nForce chipset!

I really cant be without my PC though and sending it back or arguing with returns so I am putting my last hopes into an expected BIOS update!

Incidently, since reformatting and changing the memory timings I didnt have any game crashes at all! (unless I alter the memory voltage) but about a week later and the corruption has started on video's again.

I have found the way to resolve this is to power down, and switch off the PSU! - upon rebooting it reports that the bios settings have changed and I need to go back into the bios. which I do and it seems to stop the corruption on video.

If I dont get this resolved it looks like another motherboard change is going to be needed, and I know I need to avoid nForce and ASUS - any reccomendations please?

 

[sadeyx]

I have never had a problem with Asus motherboards using the Intel chipset. Years ago I had a VIA KT133 (I think) chipset on an ASUS A7V. Now that was hell to pay but since then I have had 3 Asus boards without issue.

Traditionally they do, but in this case its awfull, but it might be an nvidia problem.

In fact the first motherboard I had in my alienware was an Asus, which also packed up promptly after the warranty ran out.

So im starting to see a pattern. I'll scoot through the motherboard forums and see what people suggest.