Random HARD LOCKUPS in Windows XP Pro

[agathodaimon]

This is a fairly new build I have:
Asus A8N-E
Athlon 64 3200
2gb G. Skill PC3200
Sapphire Radeon X800gto2
Xclio 450w PS

This system has been unstable since I put it together, everything is at stock settings right now,
and when I first built it, I even had a different video card. (a 6800gs)

MOSTLY, the problems happen when I surf the internet. I use Firefox mostly, and it will just freeze at random.
Usually, the mouse will still move, but CTRL ALT DEL does nothing at all, so I have to reboot manually.
But this morning, it completely locked up.... No mouse movement, nothing. Just FROZEN.
The hard drive light stays lit up whenever it locks up.

I have about everything disabled that could possibly be disabled in Windows and in the BIOS, but nothing
seems to be working.
My temperatures for CPU and video card are all normal, voltages seem fine as well.
I've ran Memtest with no errors, used virus scanners, spyware scanners & disk checkers & nothing is found.

Could it be possible that my memory may be incompatible even if Memtest does not find any errors?
Could my power supply just suck?
Or is my motherboard the culprit?

I've NEVER had a hard lockup with Windows XP before... So this is new to me.

Any suggestions are appreciated, even if you think they may be silly.

 

[hardcandy2]

In the bios, under USB configuration, try turning off the "Legacy USB" option if it is availablel and turned on. I read somewhere this option causes some instability in certain Asus boards. I'll tryand find the thread.

 

[agathodaimon]

I'll give that a shot.
I've also read online about a "Hard drive spin-down power saving feature".... That should be disabled.

Can't do anything right now, I'm at work... Gotta wait until 5:00.

 

[Rhezuss]

I have a similar problem with my computer. I replaced my PSU and it worked for 1 day and then it happened again.

I read on some other forum that the latest Marvelle Yukon Ethernet drivers (I think it's for the integrated lan on the ASUS motherboards) was causing random freezes and reboots. I installed an older version of the drivers yesterday and for now it's running ok. I'll see later if that solved the problem.

The thing i've done too is separate my hardware to let the heat dissipate more efficiently. I found out my soundcard was 2 PCI slot down the AGP slot so I plugged it in the farest PCI slot from the AGP. I also installed the latest VIA Hyperion drivers to get the latest AGP and chipset drivers.

So i'll come back to you if the LAN drivers was really the problem with this error. I don't think it's hardware related since our comps are booting.

(P.S. it's a copy/paste reply i've posted earlier.)

EDIT: I've heard that the new Marvell Yukon drivers 8.49.2.3 run stable. You can go fetch them here: http://www.marvell.com/products/pcconn/yukon/index.jsp

 

[agathodaimon]

Rhezuss - sweet, thanks man. I'll have to try out those drivers for the ethernet.

hardcandy2 - I disabled the Legacy USB support, so far so good, we'll see what happens.

 

[Rhezuss]

Unfortunately, the probelm occured again, with the 7.xx.x.x drivers. I just installed the 8.49.3.2 version plus I disabled Legacy USB in the BIOS like hardcandy2 proposed.

I'll run the comp some more and repost here with results, if results I have.

EDIT: One thing i'll do and you should to, is clean the case from dust and other things. Dust can cause some overheating problems in some cases.

 

[agathodaimon]

Yeah, everything inside is clean as a whistle. I keep it tidy. My temps are all ok, with CPU, case and GPU all around 35C.

But so far so good with the USB Legacy disabled, granted I haven't been surfing as much as I was the other day, but we'll see.