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New Computer Locking up

A

Autocrosser

Member
OK. I am quite the newbie, but decided to try to build my own computer. Having lurked here a bit, I am impressed by the friendliness and helpfulness of the people on this forum and I hope to be able to learn from the masters here what I might being doing (have done) wrong.

I built the system, but have been having quite a bit of stability problems. The computer tends to lock up at various stages of installing drivers. I have Symantec GoBack installed and have carefully stepped forwards and backwards through each step of installation, but have not been able to isolate the problem.

I suspect that I may have a compatability issue between the motherboard and the memory, but I don't know yet. I purchased the memory and the motherboard at the same time and only discovered after receiving the hardware that ASUS has only approved certain memory manufacturers/configurations.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Also, I have never been able to get ANY sound out of the mobo or the sound card at any time.

Thanks!!!

Here is what I have:

ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard

eVGA 256-P2-N376-AX Geforce 6800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card

Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply

AMD Athlon 64 FX57 San Diego 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADAFX57BNBOX

Mushkin High-Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)
Unbuffered System Memory Heat Spreader color may vary Jet Black 6 Layer PCB Model 991434

Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JS 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA II Hard Drive

CREATIVE Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS GAMER Limited Edition 70SB035000013 8 (7.1) Channels PCI Interface Sound Card

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

Thermaltake CL-P0114 120mm Cooling Fan/Heatsink

Microsoft Windows XP Professional With Service Pack 2

Thermaltake Armor VA8000BWS Black Aluminum/Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
 
Hi, to see if its your ram, dl and run memtest86+ your problem is most likely ram, if it fails rma it, or try it on a different pc. does it lock up installing the same drivers for a certain device? if so what is it?
 
Thats a great idea. I will do that right now. I might be able to also install the memory in my old system and run memtest on it too.

Great idea!

The computer isn't consistent about when it locks up. It locks up in various stages of the installation. Whenever, I have had a lock up, I have restored to a previous configuration using Norton Go Back and it still has problems.

Sometimes it even locks up when Norton GoBack is restoring the drive, so, that appears to me to point to a memory issue.

I have successfully run the Western Digital Data Lifeguard tools and ran the complete test on the hard drive and that does not appear to be the problem.

Thanks for your thoughts!!!

Jim
 
OK. I was able to run Memtest from a boot DVD and ran it for 12 hours without any errors. That appears to confirm that my memory is OK.

Is that correct?

I am now reinstalling Windows all over again and start at the beginning.

My other suspicion is the RAID driver. I installed my hardrive using an SATA port. When I install the Silicon Sata RAID driver, it always asks me if I have any non-RAID drives connected to the RAID controller (red connectors). I tell it no, because my hardrive is connected to the black (non-RAID controlled) connectors.

I may see how far I can get without installing that driver.

Jim
 
if it passes id say your ram is 99.9% not likely to be the problem. yeah, it could be the driver, try not installing it if thats the one it kept bombing on. you can try to look at asus' site for an updated driver
 
I only have the one Hdd, so, I don't need the RAID driver. I just thought (incorrectly) that I needed to install all of the drivers that came with the mobo CD. Now, I know better.

I did not install the RAID driver and I still have the same problems.

This morning as I left for work, Windows reformatted the Hdd. Then when I got back home, I reinstalled Windows and the nVidia drivers only (i.e. Ethernet, firewall, audio). I did not install the Silicon RAID driver, the Realtek audio driver or any other driver.

I rebooted the system and received notification (as always) that I needed to install anti-virus software, so instead of using my Norton System Suite CDROM, I put the mobo CDROM back in the drive and tried to install the "anti-virus" software. It turns out that it is Norton Internet Security which includes a firewall and anti-virus software. The problem is that it only installed the firewall and locked upon when installing Norton anti-virus.

I rebooted the system and tried again and it locked up again.

I rebooted again and it failed to start Windows. Saying that it was missing or had a corrupt Windows/config/system file and telling me that I can repair it using the Windows disk.

Well, I had done this many times before on previous installation attempts, with success.

I change the boot settings in the bios to CDROM and rebooted.

The difference this time is that it never tries to boot from the CDROM. Now, it only takes me to the same "Windows file is missing or corrupt screen" after getting past the mobo screen, the RAID installation/setup screen and the system summary screen.

I double checked the bios. It definitely has the first three boot devices set to the CDROM and the fourth device disabled.

I had to give up tonight and turned the power switch off of the back of the computer as guests arrived.

I am not sure what I am going to do now, if the system refuses to boot from the CDROM.

If you think that it is a hdd problem, perhaps I can install a legacy hdd from one of my older systems (albeit it is an IDE drive) and see if that solves the problem.

I can always replace the SATA drive if that is the problem.

Thanks for all of the suggestions!

Jim
 
When you say it locks during driver install is it a hard lock or do you get BSOD or error messages?

Once Windows is loaded what order are you loading drivers? I generally load drivers in this order OS - chipset - video - sound - LAN If your not running RAID and your HDD works then it should not be necessary to install those drivers. Also not sure about Norton GoBack sounds like Windows system restore to me hope it was free. Either way if your system is unstable now it's best do a clean install. Should take 20 minutes or so with your setup
 

well, it could just be the norton screwing with you. why not try antiVir for a free trial to see if it does it again. i don't use the nv firewall because i've heard it can be problematic and windows and my router does me fine. i could certainly see the three firewalls not playing nicely together.

if that fails then i'd definitely try another hdd and perhaps do a search on WD or asus sites to see if there are any known issues.
 
When it locks it is a hard lock. I have yet to see a BSOD.

I Load Windows, then the chipset drivers, then the nVidia IDE drivers, then the nVidia Ethernet drivers. The nVidia Ethernet drivers load only with the nVidia Firewall. The Windows firewall is disabled.

I have done so many clean installs that I have lost count (at least ten).

I am going to start another clean install today.

The instructions that come with the router (linksys) require that I have an Internet connection before connecting the router. So, I would like to have at least one firewall (at least the nVidia firewall) active before connecting to the Internet.

I would also like to try to install anti-virus software before connecting.

This last go around, I did not install Norton GoBack at all and I still had a hard lock. It occured while I was trying to install Norton anti-virus.

My new memory should arrive today from NewEgg. I will try that and if that fails, I will swap out the hard drive and try it with an IDE drive from an older computer.

Thanks again!!!

Jim
 
when you try whatever next out. dont install any software firewalls, just use your linksys router for a firewall untill you know whats causing your problems, it could be a dying hdd, your ram is fine i dont think new ram will solve your problem. can you run a western digital hd diag on your hd from their website that you dl, etc.. if it fails its the hdd, if your hdd is fine, or if you still have problems on an ide hdd id say its your motherboard causing a majority of your problems with windows corrupting.
 
Well my power was out last night due to some storms that passed through so I couldn't do too much, but I did swap out the Mushkin memory for the recommended memory that arrived yesterday.

After the power came back up, I repaired Windows, and managed to successfully install all of the Norton components.

I disabled the nVidia firewall and connected using the router.

Windows updated successfully as did Norton.

It didn't lock up at all.

Before I left the house for work I got memtest running and will see if it reports any failures.

However, I still don't have any sound, which is very frustrating because I bought this very nice Creative Inspire 7.1 system. I can't even get sound from a simple two speaker system.

Hopefully, the memory will solve the locking problem.

I have run the Western Digital HD diagnostics in DOS successfully. I will download the Windows version and run that too.

Thanks!!

Jim
 
Thanks to everyone who offered a solution. It is greatly appreciated!!

I ended up installing memory from the approved list of memory vendors and it hasn't locked up since.

Now, I just need to sort out why I have no sound.

Thanks again!!

Jim
 
What ram did you get to fix this problem? I have mushkin ram (2x512mb pc3500 level one) in an asus a8v deluxe motherboard, and it keeps locking up.

Was it "Kingston ValueRAM 2GB" as mentioned in your sig? Can you send a link to newegg?
 
Wow, that's very overpriced right now 🙁 $135 for 1gb value ram. Sometimes newegg has a high notify price, but lowers it when they get stock. How much did you pay for it?
 
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