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Random lock ups

Joined
Aug 10, 2003
Messages
52
I installed windows xp pro last night. Installation went fine, installation of the drivers went fine, though I got a warning from the ac97 realtek sound drivers, saying that this isn't a window logo certified driver.

About every two hours, no matter what I am doing, be it playing a game or using firefox, the computer just randomly locks up and I am forced to restart. Specs are:

Biostar M7NCD with sempron 2400 +
Sapphire Radeon 900 pro
256 DDR333 Kingmax Ram
6 Gig WD HDD
Antec Mid tower case with 350Watt PSU.

Any input appreciated.

Edit: Now random restarts occur as well. Twice it has happened when I try to close windows media player.
 
Its not overheating, the proc is ~36 idle and ~42 load. The motherboard temp is around 25 at all times. I am starting to think it is bad ram. What program do you recommend to test the ram?
 
memtest86 for the ram testing software.

Also.. check your power supplys voltages.
 
I ran memtest86 6 times, it passed all tests with no errors. My voltages are:

VCore: 1.57
VTT: 1.44
+3.3V: 3.25
+5V: 4.92
+12V: 11.58
-12V: -12.44
5VSB: 4.82
VBAT: 3.07
 
lol.. I have an old Athlon 900MHz that locked up randomly as well. I tried EVERYTHING to fix it.
Decommisioned it for a while, and one day I decided to play with it again. I overclocked it to 1GHz and has not locked up on me since. Go figure. :p

Glad that memtest turned out fine. The rails on your power supply look good. The +12V might be a tad low, but thats not low enough to lose sleep over.

When you boot into Windows, go to the event viewer to see if there are any clues in there. Like possible drive conflicts, hardware failures... etc.

Might even have to test the hard drive to see if its working to its fullest potential.
 
Well I started to run Prime95 just for some extra testing, and I get about an hour and a half into it, and this thing pops up and says "Hiding your inactive notification icons.." and immediately it locks up. That might have nothing to do with it though. I am using a HDD from 1998, a 5400(If that) 6 Gig, since my 40 crapped out on me.
 
Nyarlathotep said:
Well I started to run Prime95 just for some extra testing, and I get about an hour and a half into it, and this thing pops up and says "Hiding your inactive notification icons.." and immediately it locks up. That might have nothing to do with it though. I am using a HDD from 1998, a 5400(If that) 6 Gig, since my 40 crapped out on me.

Not sure why it would lock up at that particular point when hiding your inactive icons notification, but then again.. who knows. Best thing to do is check your event monitor for XP. See if it says anything strange in there.

Could possibly be that 6Gig you have. Run the HDD test utilities to see if it finds anything wrong with the drive.
 
Ran the WD Diagnostics, it passed the extended test. In the event manager I have about 9 errors. Service Control Manager seems to be messing up the most. I have an ati2mtag error as well.

I think I might unistall my chipset/lan/usb/agp/video card drivers and get the most current. Is there a specific program that I should download to make sure all drivers are gone, or just remove them threw add/remove programs?
 
Driver Cleaner 3... for removing Video Drivers.

That ati2mtag error is for your video card. I'd start by removing the ATI drivers via Driver Cleaner.. and then re-install the newest Catylist drivers. See if you make any progress that way. If not..

I'd reformat. Install the OS. Install chipset and video drivers only. Install prime95 and run it as long as it takes to lock up. If it doesn't lock up within 2 hours or more... Install the next driver.... then repeat the same process until everything checks out ok. If it locks up as soon as you install the driver for a particular device... uninstall that driver, try the newest one avaliable ... and if it still locks up.. try a different version of the device that is locking up the PC.
 
Nyarlathotep said:
I ran memtest86 6 times, it passed all tests with no errors. My voltages are:

VCore: 1.57
VTT: 1.44
+3.3V: 3.25
+5V: 4.92
+12V: 11.58
-12V: -12.44
5VSB: 4.82
VBAT: 3.07
From my experience I know that mobo readings may differ from actual state by 0,5 V. If you have a multimeter try measuring voltages with it... also it won't hurt to test your rig using different PSU.
 
Well I removed the chipset and ati drivers and reinstalled them. I let it run all night, and it didn't lock up, but I got another ati2mtag error, and I have the newest catalyst installed from ati's site. Could the video card be bad?

Edit: I reinstalled windows, and thought I fixed the problem. I went and installed the AC97 audio driver, and it told me it wasn't apart of the WHQL(The windows logo thing), but I said continue installation. About 20 minutes later it locked up again. I am going to uninstall the audio driver, but after that I am not sure what to do.
 
And update: I have switched out my video and ram now, and tried knoppix. I still get lock ups, all though when I tried my 9500 pro from a different system, it was about 3 and a half hours before I got a lock up. I am out of ideas. I owned myself and ordered a motherboard that I can only get a replacement and not a refund, goddamn :mad:

ANY suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
 
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