HELP! I'm stuck!

Netopia

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,793
4
81
Hey everybody....

Normally I wouldn't put an "On Topic" (computers) item in the OT forum, but on the weekends the other formums don't see as much action as this one... figured I'd have a better chance of someone reading it.... so please bear with me. BTW, I did put it in a couple other forums, but not much response.


I?m having a VERY strange problem with a system that I just put together.

The following are the components involved:

Windows 2000 Professional (SP2)
MSI K7N420 Pro
Powerman 300 Watt PS
Duron 1 Gig
256 Megs of Crucial PC2100 DDR (non-registered)
Maxtor 20 Gig 7,200 RPM Drive (D740X-6L)
Samsung 52X CD-ROM
Teac Floppy

I flashed the BIOS to the latest available from MSI?s sight (Version 2.3) and downloaded the latest drivers from nVidia?s sight. Everything is fine until sometime after I install the drivers? then for no apparent reason, the entire machine starts locking up about one second out of every two. If I look at the task manager under the performance tab, there is a clear SPIKE of usage about every two seconds that jumps up to about 70% CPU usage. If I go to the processes tab and sort by CPU usage, nothing shows up but System Idle Process at 99% and an occasional taskmgr.exe for a couple of percent. The other symptom is that I loose all network connectivity. Trying to reinstall drives is futile. I should also point out that there is NOTHING on the system except Win2K Pro and the nVidia drivers.

I?m sure that the problem is with the network hardware or software, because if I go in under safe mode with no networking, the freezing and CPU usage is not present. If I go into safe mode WITH networking, both the freezing and the CPU spiking are back.

Has anyone else had any weirdness like this? What makes it even more disconcerting is that this is the first of probably a total 6-10 machines that I?m going to build with configuration as general usage desktop machines, but I obviously can?t with this going on. HELP!

As always, thank you in advance for even reading my dilemma. Any suggestions will be both tried out and APPRECIATED!

Joe


THEN... POSTED A LITTLE LATER

I just put Win2k SP2 back onto the machine from a Ghost. If I just leave everything alone, the machine runs fine, but obviously, without drivers for audio, video and network, there isn?t a whole lot I can do. After I loaded the nVidia all in one drivers and rebooted, everything was still fine. Then I put in my IP config info and rebooted and I?ve got the trouble back!

I downloaded a program that I?ve used before called TaskInfo. It has identified the culprit as:

DPC Time Placeholder

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,

Joe

 

Slacker

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
8,623
33
91
Oh, that, it is the Dutch Power Cows trojan for distributed computing programs ;)

I think it is Deferred Procedure calls check this link for some info that might get you pointed in the right direction?


I would look at the services that are running when everything is fine, and then see what services are added after you start having problems, also check the event logs.
 

LeStEr

Diamond Member
Dec 28, 1999
3,412
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0
Same problem happend to me with a system I built a while ago. Turned out to be the motherboard drivers though.
 

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
73,774
6,514
126
Don't know if this will help, but can you just not install the 4 in 1 drivers. I didn't and my system then worked fine. XP anyway seems to have what it needs already.
 

Netopia

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,793
4
81
Hey all... thanks for the suggestions.

Slacker, your link gets me "Page Cannot Be Found" message. Any ideas?

LeStEr, I'm thinking that it is some combo of the drivers and BIOS too. I'm d/l'ing some older BIOS's to play with.

Moonbeam Hi Bud! :D If this were a VIA based mobo, your suggestion would probably work... unfortunatly, this is an nForce board with video, audio and LAN built into the motherboard, so there is no way to use the peripherals without loading the drivers.

Joe
 

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
73,774
6,514
126
Can you disable video audio and lan in bios and are they enabled when you want to use them? Are you connected to a netwrok when you install the drivers? Just some thoughts. Haven't played with an Nvidia board.
 

Netopia

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,793
4
81
I've tried installing the drivers both with a network cable plugged in and not plugged in. Didn't make a difference, but I figured it was worth a try.

I can enable/disable all of the onboard things in the BIOS. Maybe I'll play with doing that for the LAN. I'm pretty sure that it's the newest drivers that are doing the nasty though since if I boot in safe mode the computer doesn't exhibit the same problems.

thanks again,

Joe
 

Slacker

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
8,623
33
91
fixed the link, did you look at the event log and see if there is anything there?
 

Keego

Diamond Member
Aug 15, 2000
6,223
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not to sound mean... but I hate it when people post this stuff in the OT forum... :/
 

bcterps

Platinum Member
Aug 31, 2000
2,795
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76


<< not to sound mean... but I hate it when people post this stuff in the OT forum... :/ >>



Why? It's a hell of a lot better than some of the other crap in this forum. You dont like it, dont post.

--Ben
 

Netopia

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,793
4
81
Ummm....

I'm pretty sure that Kyguy was just joking around with some good irony.... at least that's the way I took it! :)

I wouldn't fret too much.

Joe
 

Netopia

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,793
4
81
Have now built a second machine with identical parts.... SAME EXACT PROBLEM!

I've even tried going into different hubs by different manufacturers, just to make sure that wasn't the problem and also put in different manufacturer's hard drive and CD Rom... no effect.

I can't believe that I'm the only person who is having this problem. If it were only on the one board, I would understand and figure that the board was defective, but now it's two completely different systems. Perhaps a bad BATCH of boards?

I'm lost.....


Joe
 

Netopia

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,793
4
81
Just an update:

I called MSI tech support when they opened yesterday. After I told the Tech everything I had done and what the results were, he didn't even bother to ask me to try anything else. What he DID do was have me list off EXACTLY the components that were in my machine one at a time.... so that they could build an EXACT replica of my setup at their sight. AMAZING! I've never had a tech support be willing to do something like that before... it looks like they are also interested in what this BIZARRE network problem is. They asked me to give them 24 hours to do the testing... which I am.

Joe
 

Slacker

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
8,623
33
91
Whoa, that is pretty cool, wonder if they are actually building a machine or if they have some way to emulate it?
 

Netopia

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,793
4
81
Here?s the latest:

MSI built up a machine using the same brand/type of components that I have and could not replicate the problem. That?s good news for most people because it should mean that this isn?t a common problem. It didn?t help me though.

MSI gave me the go ahead to ship them my parts and whatever else I thought necessary. They encouraged me to only send mobo/ram/cpu to save on shipping, but I opted to pay the shipping and send them an entire box with everything in it (a completely built computer) and with the OS loaded and malfunctioning. I also sent them a burned copy of the Win2k disk just incase MS has done anything strange with this new iteration of Win2k. This disk is different than others I?ve had in that it installs Win2k Pro WITH SP2 already installed? so I don?t know if they have done anything else to make this install different than any other? so just to be safe, I sent the disk.

Anyway, I sent it all yesterday and it should be there by the middle of next week (FedEx Saver).. they asked to have a couple days to look it over, so I?ll post when I hear back from them. The other unit is actually already in use with the onboard NIC disabled and an Intel Pro/100 installed and is working excellently.

Joe
 

ThaGrandCow

Diamond Member
Dec 27, 2001
7,956
2
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Thats really cool that they elevated you to tier 3 (I think that is tier 3)
I've never heard of that happening before