Random lockups - Please help

[Ken]

Hi

This problem has been with me since I first bought my ASUS A9N-SLI Premium. It hasn't occurred very often over the past few months so I've managed to put up with it. I recently bought a WD Raptor and the lockups has returned again occurring regularly.

The Problem - The screen will basically freeze with a still image of what was last on the screen and I can't use the mouse or keyboard. If I happened to be playing some music, the sound would loop like a broken record. It seems to like locking up when idle although it does lockup when I'm browsing the internet for example. It happens rarely while playing games.

Setup - My setup is as shown in my signature but with a WD Raptor as the boot drive. It's running Win2KPro with nVIDIA 6.70 and 81.98 drivers. I did not install the ethernet, sound and IDE driver as I am using a seperate sound card and network card and I have read that the IDE driver is best not installed.

A thread I found has reduced the number of lockups occurring from many a day to 2-3 a day...

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1028734285

The following shows that this problem is not confined to the A8N-SLI Premium although I have still included ASUS threads...

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/weird-nforce4-freezing-problem-vt63281.html
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/38623/?o=0 (many members complaining about the same problem in this thread)
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=8659
http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=64558
http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/nf4-system-freeze-looong-sleep-vt62937.html
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=947347&highlight=locking

The list goes on. I have read countless threads from googling. Some have had success using different chipset/graphics card drivers while others have used different ethernet drivers. Some updated the firmware for their Maxtor drives and some, like me, have yet to find a fix.

I have run memtest with no errors. PSU's rails are fine with very little fluctuation. I've seen a few members with the excellent PC Power & Cooling PSUs experiencing lockups. CPU is at 45C with both cores folding and case temperature is 37C.

I have seen a few members say that they still have the same problems after RMAing. I wish I had some money to buy a motherboard based on the ATI chipset as it seems this is the best option rather than risking buying an nForce 4 board and risking experiencing the problem again.

Many thanks in advance,
Ken

 

[Ken]

Thanks for your reply.

Yep, the board is still under warranty. I think I'll do as you say when Summer is here. Way too much going on right now being in my final year at uni and I need the computer right now even if it does freeze up occasionally. Hopefully, I, along with your help guys will find a way to fix this . I think I'll make a site dedicated to this problem and its fix since so many are experiencing this very frustrating problem!

 

[Ken]

Thanks again all.

I disabled Marvell LAN and I didn't install the SWIDE drivers.

Have you checked for IRQ conflicts?

Looks like you're on to something here...

Very happy to see this as I may have a stable computer soon. You're a star.

As well as all those IRQ conflicts, I'm concerned that I'm not seeing any nForce4 Serial ATA controllers.

Edit: Is it true that a conflict is only occurring if there is yellow exclamation mark next to the device? Devices can happily share IRQs if I recall correctly.

Edit2: I've no idea what the unknown device is and updating the driver doesn't work as it can't find any suitable drivers. I've disabled it now. I thought it was my MX510 but the mouse is still working.

 

[Ken]

I can't thank you enough mate!

As you can see, ever since I switched the soundcard to a different PCI slot it's been stable! For over 24 hours! I've played a game, encoded a video, browsed the internet and left it idling while I slept and not a single lockup.

Thank you so much!