Random system lockups, please help

[IceBreakerG]

Hey everyone,

I recently started having an issue with the system that I built a few months ago (back in april or may i think). This started this weekend. My system has been locking up randomly for no reason, and I cannot figure out why it is doing it. Sometimes it locks up while i'm using it, other times it locks up when i'm not even near it. Here are my system components:

AMD Athlon64 3800+
Gigabyte K8N-SLI nForce4
1GB (512x2) OCZ DDR400 (PC3200) EL Platinum Rev. 2
BFG 256MB 6800GT PCIe
Enermax 600Watt PSU
Creative Audigy 2 Platinum (not using audigy drive)
Cooler Master CM Stacker Case

Now, before anyone mentions it, i strongly do not believe this is related to heat, as i have not touched this system since i built it (based on the gigabyte software, my cpu is running at 91*F anyway, pretty cool to me). The only time i have actually messed with my system was wednesday or thursday i believe (around the time this actually started happening). I removed the side panel of my case, and hooked up a Maxtor sata hard drive my friend let me borrow. I did this because i was going to install windows on this drive, then image it, format it, and give the drive back to him. Then reinstall windows with the image i made. That never happened because the drive did not work correctly (windows did NOT recognize the drive at all, even with the sata drivers. I know this, because i have 2 seagate sata drives i'm using, one of them has windows installed on it). Anyway, i left my side panel off until yesterday, when i finally reinstalled windows because my system was still locking up. After the reinstall, its still doing it, which leads me to believe that it's hardware related. If anyone can help, i'd greatly appreciate it, thanks.

 

[wanderer27]

Couple of ideas.

Are you overclocking ? If so, make sure your HDs are on locked ports.

Check this out:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=34&threadid=1704577&enterthread=y

Finally, check in your Device Manager for any Resource conflicts. Do this and under "View" on the Window menu select "Resources by Connection". Now look at the IRQs and note if you have duplicate IRQs assignments. Depending on Device type, this could cause the behavour you're experiencing.

 

[wpshooter]

When you say you reinstalled windows, did you do a complete reinstallation (including repartitioning & formating of drive(s) or a repair ?

 

[IceBreakerG]

Ok, answers to a couple of questions.

I am not overclocking my system at all. Its been running at the defaults since i built it at the beginning of summer.

I reinstalled windows from scratch. I deleted the partition and reformatted (quick format).

Something to note. My system locked up 3 times during the installation process. First time it locked up, was when i was formatting the drive. I was going to do a full format the first time. It got to 2% and stayed there. The 2nd time it locked up was when i was installing my SATA driver at the beginning of windows setup. The last time it locked up was in the middle of the actually installation (the network settings portion of windows setup). After resetting my system, i got through the installation, but it locked up again after i booted into windows after a while (installed all available windows updates too except for rollup 2 for media center edition, not sure if its "officially" out yet). So i don't think this is specific to windows since it locked up outside of windows as well.

I checked my system resources and i don't see any "conflicts" but there are a few resources using the same IRQ's. I'll post a screen shot soon.

Edit: Here's a link to the screen shot: System Screenshot

 

[birdpup]

In addition to what the others have mentioned, my recommendation is to test your memory with memtest through at least one full test cycle, and then test each of your hard drives with the manufacturer's diagnostic utility.

[*]Memory Tests

• memtest86
• memtest86+

[*]Hard Drive Manufacturer Diagnostic Utilities

• Seagate
• Samsung
• Western Digital
• Maxtor
• Fujitsu
• Hitachi
• Everest Diagnostic Software (not confined to any one hard drive manufacturer)

 

[IceBreakerG]

Alright, i have some bad news now. Monday, my system went down for the count. My system was fine for about 2 weeks as far as locks up (it didn't lock up for about a week and a half to 2 weeks). Then this weekend, my system started locking up again. Monday, it was locked up when i got up to go to work. I reset it, and when it rebooted, it just kinda sat there. Well, I reset it again, and this time, the video locked up in the video card bios, but my system still booted up (my speakers were on and i could hear it booting into windows) but the video was still stuck at the card bios. Reset my system one more time, it booted into windows. I'm "somewhat" relieved but pissed off at the same time. I had to leave for work so i left, and when i got home, my system was locked up again. I reset it, and no video signal. This time it didn't boot into windows, or as far as i know it didn't. I reset it again. Still no video signal. Reset it one more time, no video signal. So at this point, i swap my monitor "just in case" thats what it is. Still no video signal. So i call up BFG (the card is a BFG 256MB GeForce 6800GT OC PCIe) and tell them whats going on. So they're going to RMA my video card. My friend told me that the PCIe bus is tied into the hyper transport bus. So if this is true, then if my video card was going bad say, 3 weeks ago when these problems started, it could also be the cause of my system lockups as well. Right now, BFG hasn't even shipped my card out yet (i did the advanced RMA which cost me $15) but i was told it should be shipped out today or tomorrow. Which means i won't get it until "at best" friday, but probably monday. I just hope that the video card was the problem all along. I really need my system back, its driving me crazy not having it. What do you guys think about this?

 

[Lalakai]

I had similiar situation that turned out to be problems with mb and hd.......at same time. Very very rare for both to go at same time. Part of problem was me; when mounting the mb i tightened screw too hard and cracked the mb. when it got hot and expanded, it would lock up. then when hd went bad i was really confused. Tried reformating hd, swapping memory, even changing power supply. only when i mounted stuff on another mb did i isolate the hd as another problem. Hope yours is easier

 

[IceBreakerG]

I had that problem with my last system. Which is how i got my current system, i ended up replacing everything. But the last system was the MB and video card. MB problem was my fault though. But right now, i won't know if the video card was the problem until i get my replacement card from BFG. I just hope thats what the problem is. I can't afford to replace another system trying to fix it

 

[IceBreakerG]

Ok, after 4 phone calls (yeah, 4!!) to BFG, I finally got some information regarding my RMA with BFG. They told me earlier that my card was delivered to my house this morning at 9:30am. I'm at work right now, so I can't verify until I get home (that should be in about an hour or so). SO, hopefully (crosses fingers, prays) this will fix my problem and I'll at least be able to see whats going on. But like i said earlier, my friend told me the video card can definately be the cause of my system lockups. I'll find out soon. I'll let you all known tonight when I get home and swap the cards if this works.

 

[IceBreakerG]

I won't be finding out if the new card works today since BFG sent me the wrong damn card. Bastards sent me a got damn AGP card instead of a PCIe card. After this i'm never buying another BFG product again. They seriously have crappy customer service. I don't care how good the product is, if the service sucks you won't get my business again. Now i have to wait another 3-5 days to get another replacement

 

[raanemaan]

Do you have another PSU to try? I was having problems with my video card and booting. The video card and hard drive were fed by the same set of wires. I switched them to different ones and now everything is working.

 

[IceBreakerG]

Originally posted by: raanemaan
Do you have another PSU to try? I was having problems with my video card and booting. The video card and hard drive were fed by the same set of wires. I switched them to different ones and now everything is working.

I "have" another PSU, but not sure if i want to use it, cuz i'm not sure if its good or not. But my 2nd replacement card came last night. Put on my anti-static wrist strap (after my last system, i'm VERY paranoid about something happening so i take precautions lol), took out the old card, put the new one in, hooked everything back up, and what do you know, it booted up just fine. As far as i know, there's no problems that i can see right now. My system did not lock up last night, and i hope it isnt locked up today when i get home. I'm still going to have to format and reinstall windows again though, and get another image made, but i hope my problems are fixed now. So far it seems like it was the video card all along, otherwise i'm sure it would've locked up last night. But since i'll be at work for another 11hrs (i've been here since 7, and its 8:12am now, yeah, i work 12hr days on the weekend, it sucks), that should give it plenty of time to stay powered on. I'll also run memtest86 when i get a chance as well, to see if there's any problems with my memory, and also run the hard drive diagnostics as well. Thanks for the help and suggestions everyone, i really appreciate it.

Also, based on this experience, anyone looking for a new video card, i would suggest NOT going with BFG, as they tend to have pretty crappy tech support if you ever need it. This RMA has been a horrible experience.

 

[IceBreakerG]

Alright, yesterday morning i came to the conclusion that something strange is definately going on with my system. When i got up yesterday, my system was locked up (happened sometime during the night or morning). Well, i reset it, same thing, locks up again. I keep resetting it, it keeps locking up over and over again. Strangely enough, BFG sent me "another" 6800GT on wednesday. I didn't know whether to keep it or send it back, so i decided to sleep on it. Well, it was a good thing that i kept the card because those issues were caused by my video card again. I know its rare to get 2 bad cards, but not impossible. But i put the 2nd RMA card in yesterday morning and my system has been working fine (i'm at work right now, so i'm not sure if anything is going on now or not). If its not the video card itself thats going bad, i think its either the motherboard or my power supply. My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI, and my power supply is a 600W Enermax Noisetaker 701. I don't think its the power supply in my system as everything else works just fine. I did, however, switch pci-x power connectors on the power supply this time just in case something funky was going on with that one. I checked my bos and i cannot control the voltage for PCI-X on my board, only the frequency (which is set to 100mhz). Does anyone have any ideas on what could be causing this? Or do you all think it might've just been another bad card? Thanks.