Ok, so I just got done building my new system. Installed windows and drivers, every thing works fine I can play games fine. But sometimes it just locks up! My CPU stays under 40c I am not overclocking. It seems to happen mostly when I multi-task, I have plenty of memory and my CPU work load is minimum. it just randomly locks up causeing me to press the reset button. The HD led stays on when it does this.


Athlon 64 3000+ Orleans not OC'ed stay's under 40c
MSI k9n nforce 550
1GB PC2 4200 pqi dual channel
Saphire X800GTO 256MB
Maxtor Diamondmax 10 Sata
Windows Home SP2
latest video drivers
(still trying to figure out which platform driver I need ie. nforce4?)

Now, about this thing randomly locking up. Do you have all of the windows service packs installed (you say you installed Windows home edition). Download all of the "necessary" updates from Microsoft Update. I am personally cautious about installing updates, but in this case, it might be necessary. That's the first step (Get your SPs). What kind of hard drive are you using? Maxtor? Seagate? If you go to the website of those drives, they have special drive checking software to ensure that nothing is a miss with you HD. I would run a drive checking software just in case (might be a bad HD).

Check all of your SATA cables. Those things don't fasten on that well and one might be loose.

One more thing. Which system locks up? The new one you got to work? Or an established one (With IDEs?). If it is an older one, then do not discard the possibility that the hard drive(s) is(are) bad. Any small dust particle can ruin your day, depending on your luck. You might have a virus. I like NOD32 for this. Or your registry might be corrupt and/or full of junk. If you do not know how to manually clean your registry (it is a bit tough and pretty dangerous) then try an automatic cleaner (just remember to back up your registry and data).

Congrats on getting your new system to work!

I resetted my Sata cable and now I am updateing windows. I f you have anymore ideas let me know.

Sounds like either a memory or a power problem to me. Do you have a PSU big enough for what you're running? Find a voltage monitoring program and make sure you aren't getting any voltage drops or spikes. That will usually freeze your machine.
You can also try taking one ram stick out at a time. If that fixes it, you have a bad stick, most likely.

Well, it can't be the PSU, because I can run games and stresstest just fine. As for the memory unless I need to increase the latency timings (which I'll try next) I don't believe that is the case.



Update: After updating my windows it seems it locks up MUCH quicker.

There can be a problem with your PSU cables. I had a similar problem before, PSU was ok, but cables not. Every time I touched the cable the hdd stopped and the led was on and I heard a sound (the hdd). One of them made not a good contact.

Try first the cables (replace the connector for your hdd) and then drivers...
Ur exact configuration?

True, it could be the PSU cables. I had a similar issue with a computer I repaired once (I think it was a Dell). It turned out to be a couple of things: A bad ribbon connector (back in the IDE days), the PSU was going, and the hard drive was bad (this was a Maxtor). Usually, computer lockups can be attributed to RAM instability, viruses (obviously), Power issues, and Hard Drives (this is one of the bigger culprits)

Send over your exact configuration and try using the diagnostic software provided by your hard drive manufacturer to ensure that the HD isn't the issue (hopefully it isn't. All of my computer lockups have always been attributed to a failing drive)

I fixed it!!!


I thought I had the latest chipset drivers, which I did (offically) BUT... I stumbled upon nForce 500 beta drivers. So I installed them and my system went bezerk on me and I had to boot in safe mode. I tried to install them again (in safe mode) , and then it worked!!! YAY, anyways it WAS the chipset drivers!!

Thanks for everyones help


Now for my last problem: X800GTO over heating

Hey Ben, was just searching google on my mobo, same as you have, MSI K9N Neo-F.

Here's my setup:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+
MSI K9N Neo-F
Kingston 2GB Dual Channel Kit PC2-6400 (800MHz)
Western Digital 250GB SATA
EVGA 7600GT
SPI 400 Watt PSU
Lite-On DVD-RW

I am having same issue as you sort of, I hope... Since you were able to solve it, I think... Today nVIDIA finally release official WHQL drivers for nForce 550, I just installed them, same thing happens, completely random reboots... Also, I get memory reference errors when I close Internet Explorer quite often... I want to try the beta drivers that you mentioned to see if it helps me. Can you tell me exactly which version you used and also if it truly fixed the problem? Or if it just didn't freeze for a while and then all of a sudden started doing it again? Did you ever update to BIOS 1.3? Mine was brand new, and didn't come with D-Bracket diagnostic LED thing. I first tried OCZ cause it was cheapest, but that was huge mistake, never use them again will I... I've NEVER had trouble with Kingston, they ARE the BEST. I don't like Corsair either. KINGSTON will NEVER let you down, the one brand that is ALWAYS perfect... This is driving me nuts though, if I don't find a fix soon, I'm gonna either get the 570 Diamond, or an ASUS, something under $100.00. I normally use only ASUS but this one seemed fine at the time, I've used MSI plenty in the past with limited to no problems.

BOTTOM LINE: Please tell me what beta chipset drivers you used. I'll go to the nVIDIA site now to see if maybe there's only one beta version, maybe that will work.

Something else, before I flashed to 1.3 BIOS from 1.2, the Windows Memory Diagnostic from Microsoft passed all extended tests 100%. Now, it hangs on test #4, but memtest86 3.2 still passes 100%. I have had the random reboot issues the whole time. So I don't think the flash really did it. Hoping for a new BIOS soon, maybe that would help.

Final thing, before the random reboots, after installing XP, the first issue i get is a BSOD something like "kernel in page error". I was checking up on that issue, and it seems like a lot of people think it's related to a bad hard drive, I don't agree, while I know it's possible that my brand new HDD could be bad, I'd rather not think so, and with all the other issues this brand new socket AM2 motherboard is having, I'm sure it's the motherboard. But after that one BSOD, it does the random reboots, even when I set Windows NOT to restart upon error.

Please post your system including hard drive, thanks a bunch!

Kingston GOOD, OCZ/Corsair BAD!
AMD GOOD, Intel BAD!
nVIDIA GOOD, ATI BAD!

Everyone should thank HP for being the only ones so far to stand up to Apple's Anti-PC propaganda. Apple sucks, don't buy iPODs!

Peace.

hi
your random lock up's may be because you have a small power supply 400W ,it's not really enough with your GPU .It colud be a driver only issue but see the hardware part also during lock up's
and let me know if you find your answer
bye

My issue is not about random lockups, it's about random reboots... I doublt it's the power supply, 400 watts is not small, it meets the requirement of EVGA, as well as the however many amps on the +12 volt rail... sparkle power inc. is a great company too, never had any problems with their power supplys, but i could try a different one, i also have an antec true power 550 watt, but i think that one may have some compatibilty issues with asus/nvidia combos, the 550 is in my asus board now, have random shutdowns with that pc...

i do appreciate any replys from anyone with more ideas, and i will post my resolution if i can ever find one...

still waiting for ben tor respond too.

but as i say, my psu should be perfectly fine, doesn't seem to be video erlated at all, more internet/completely random... only happened a couple of times in game, was playing oblivion... seems to happen more often with nothing open at all, or with IE open... (firefox is a joke) everyone should play prey, it's cool

as always, more ideas are extremely welcome!

peace!