Lockup Problem

[Vomish]

Hi All

 

I purchased all the components for my system about 3 months ago. After some memory problems (more on this below), I was finally able to have the board run stable for a while. About 2 weeks ago, I was recording a tv show with my PVR. After the recording finished I was about to show a friend how kick butt the new rig was with games. I fired up HalfLife 2 and boom the pc locked up. Since then, all I get is STOP errors from the os (it will run stable for a day at most then lockups occur). The error report response from ms indicated either a driver or hardware problem (of course they don't tell you WHICH piece of hardware...). I tried many many things to resolve this (reinstalling drivers, repair the OS etc). I ran memtest, Sea Tools (Seagate HD diagnostics), virus scans etc to no avail. No test pointed to a problem. As I have an 64 bit cpu, I decided to try XPx64. This ran solid for a while then once again, stop errors all over the place. At this point I removed the PVR card from the mb and the errors stopped for about 2 days then occured again. I tried reinstallin XP x86 again but now it freezes midway through the install.

 

Previous Memory Problem:

When I first installed everything, I had problems with the memory. I would run memtest and I got multiple errors on test #5. After the proper timings were entered I got no errors at all even when I ran memtest for an extended period of time (the longest being about 4 hours). I did find it strange that memory errors occured when everything was set to auto but did not question it once it was stable.

 

I am at wits end here and I am unsure of how to proceed. One question I have (besides the obvious 'what's wrong?') is what component(s) could become problematic over a period of time? How should I proceed with testing (order of components)? Unfortunately, all my friends run intel boxes so replacing components for testing requires me to purchase them (I guess I don't have a choice).

 

Sorry if this message seems disjointed and long winded but I am desperate to get this rig up!

 

BTW, I am not OCing, everything is at stock speeds. Also, I popped the chipset fan off and applied arctic silver thermal compound as per instructions in another thread. I also added 2 fans to help with cooling (connected to the PS not the MB) which reduced my chipset temp from 63°C to about 50-51°C (under load).

 

Thanks!

[StephenC]

It would be helpful if you would post the stop error's. Are you getting the same stop error? Or are they random as to the error mesage.

[Vomish]

The stop messages I can remember are:

 

BAD_POOL_CALLER

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

 

These are the ones that always come up though I don't think in any specific order (as far as I remember).

 

I have looked at the MSDN site that documents these errors but all they say is it's either a hardware or driver issue.

 

I do have some of the parameter codes written down. If you need them, let me know and I will post them when I get home.

 

Thanks!

[boatasiaus]

I usually like to run my memtests overnight. 4 hrs, esp. on sticks that were proving troublesome, is just not long enough

 

Longer is better!

[HokieRif]

I had similar problems when running XP64, specifically while trying to run the 64-bit version of Far Cry. The majority of the time the system was stable, but once a game of Far Cry started I would crash the system within minutes. I attributed most of this to the fact that I was running XP64 and the nvidia reference drivers for XP64. My initial hunch was correct when I did a fresh install of XP (32-bit) and I haven't had a crash since...

 

Basically what I've learned is that things are still way too buggy under XP64 and to hold off on moving to a 64-bit Windows OS until Vista is available.

[Vomish]

HokieRif:

I installed XPx64 after the XPx86 version was getting errors. These same errors also happened under XPx64 so I'm pretty sure it is a hardware issue. At the moment, I have no OS as the install of the XPx86 version locks up in the middle of the install. The XPx64 install was just a test and I will not be installing it in the future.

 

At the moment the only games I am running are HL2 (CS:S, DoD:S) and BF2 but I don't think they are at fault.

 

boatasiaus:

I will run memtest overnight and see what happens. BTW, should I run the memtest embedded in the bios or the bootable disk version (I have this as well)?

 

All:

I forgot to mention, I have all 4 power connectors hooked up on the mb.

 

I have done a search of previous threads (I know, I know, I should've done this before posting...sorry) and have found a few things to try in the bios and will post my results (please keep the suggestions comming though!).

 

Thanks

[Vomish]

Hi All

 

Well last night I disabled the NV Lan (I only use the Marvell) and DRAM Bank Interleave (I read about this in another thread about problems with Crucial Ballistix ram). This allowed me to finish the install of XPx86 Pro. I then installed XPsp2 and added the Marvell drivers, Realtek drivers (AC'97) and the nVidia SMBus drivers. Before the system rebooted (after drivers install), windows update took over and installed 34 updates. The system rebooted and everything was going fine until I ran the nVidia graphics setup (v81.98). At the halfway point of installing the drivers the system froze. No mouse response and ctrl+alt+del did not work. At this point I decided I might as well run memtest (from the bios) for the rest of the night. After 10+ hours, there were no errors at all. I was able to reboot this morning and access the system without it locking or crashing.

 

So even though the graphics driver install crapped out in the middle of the install I'm not so sure it is the video card. I guess I could try installing an older version of the graphics drivers but I'm not sure this would help.

 

Any thoughts/suggestions?

[divided]

i think it could be your hd. ive ran into similar issues and it turned out to be a failing hd.

[Vomish]

I suspected the hd before. So I downloaded and ran SeaTools (Seagate Diagnostic utility on a bootable cd). The only errors reported were a problem with NTFS (the very lengthy surface scan test found no bad sectors). I then ran the recovery console so I could run chkdisk. After that the system was stable for a while then the erors continued.

 

I will run the hd diagnostic again and see what it reports. Also, I have an 80gig IDE drive on another system that I will try (been holding off on it as it is the main drive in my basement file server...oh well).

 

Thanks!

[Vomish]

Grrr!!!!

 

Last night I ran a full diagnostic (SeaTools) on my hd (this is the 5th+ time and it takes 1.5+ hours to complete!). It reported no problems with an extensive surface scan (no bad sectors), no controller problems (though it doesn't recognize the type/brand) and (like before) it reported errors with NTFS: "Failed with critical errors: One or more errors were found in the index". I would expect this as it keeps freezing/crashing while in XP. Then I decided to try and load XP onto a spare drive I have (10gig Fujitsu ATA133 which had an installation of Win2K that I made sure worked on an older machine before the XP install). Everything was fine until I reached the "Completing installation" part. It just froze up the same as before. No mouse or keyboard response (both USB) and even the "little green squares" animation (bottom right-hand side of the screen) stopped. I rebooted and the install started again and again it froze at the same place (the first time it showed about 23 minutes left, the second time it showed about 28 minutes left). I think I have ruled out the hd as the culprit. The last things left are the vid card, power supply and finally the mb itself.

 

Does anyone know of a diagnostic utility for nVidia graphic cards (it would have to be a bootable cd as the os is not and cannot be installed)?

 

The one thing I have not checked before and/or after a crash is the mb's diagnostic led's. Do these only report a problem at boot time or would they report something if the system was frozen?

 

This is quickly becoming frustrating as I am entering week 3 without my rig (sure am glad I have an old laptop to fall back on) and testing with another ps and / or vid card will cost me even more money!

 

As always, thoughts, ideas and suggestions are very very welcome.

 

Help!

[red930]

Usually, Boot Sector corruption is the cause of either:

 

A - improper PSU voltages, or

B - bad or mis-timed RAM

 

Have you tested the PSU voltages? (Link in my sig)

 

What are the complete RAM timings you are currently using?

[Vomish]

Thanks for replying!!

 

I will post the voltages later as I have to wait for the kids to go to bed so they don't crawl inside the pc case while I have the DMM out. lol!!

UPDATE: I read the test your psu link and I am unsure about the AUX connector (measuring the 3.3v rail). Please advise.

 

Here is the complete list of settings from the BIOS DRAM page:

 

MHz: 200 (DRAM/FSB: 1/01)

Cpc: Auto

Tcl: 2.0

Trcd: 02

Tras: 06

Trp: 02

Trc, Trfc, Trrd, Twr, Twtr, Trwt, Tref, Twcl: Auto

DRAM Bank Interleave: Disabled

DQS Skew Control: Auto

DQS Skew Value: 0

DRAM Drive Strength: Auto

Max Async Latency: Auto

DRAM Response Time: Normal

Read Preamble Time: Auto

Idle Cycle Limit: 256 Cycles

Dynamic Counter: Disable

R/W Queue Bypass: 16 X

Bypass Max: 07 X

32 Byte Granularity: Disable (4 Bursts)

 

Again, thanks for the reply.

 

As long as people are trying to help I will stick with this mb to the bitter end (though I hope for sweet rather than bitter ).