Vista 64 Random Freeze

[KurtD]

The background here is that I put together my first new system since a socket 939 about 5 years ago. I decided on a Phenom II X4, mainly because everything about the I7 is unbelievably expensive, but I digress... I put together the system and installed Vista 64 on a newly formatted SATA hard drive. The install and loading of drivers was smooth, until Vista started trying to update itself. After about 20 iterations and reboots, this process finally concluded. I got all my software loaded and now everything seems to be working OK, except for these extremely irritating random freezes. No warnings, no pattern - just stops in it's tracks requiring a hard re-boot.

System Specs:
AMD Phenom II X4 810, 95w, 2.6ghz socket AM3
MSI 790FX-GD70 (currently using on-board sound)
2x 2gb OCZ DDR PC3-12800 (1600mhz CL 8-8-8-24 @1.9v per specs)
EVGA 7950 GT KO with latest drivers
USB Wireless N
USB Logitech Kbd/Mouse

I have tried the following: "detuned" the memory, pulled the modules out one at a time, added a compatible SB sound card, none of this has any effect on the Vista freezing. I have conservative, safe bios settings.

Any suggestions are very much appreciated!!!

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: KurtD
The background here is that I put together my first new system since a socket 939 about 5 years ago. I decided on a Phenom II X4, mainly because everything about the I7 is unbelievably expensive, but I digress... I put together the system and installed Vista 64 on a newly formatted SATA hard drive. The install and loading of drivers was smooth, until Vista started trying to update itself. After about 20 iterations and reboots, this process finally concluded. I got all my software loaded and now everything seems to be working OK, except for these extremely irritating random freezes. No warnings, no pattern - just stops in it's tracks requiring a hard re-boot.

System Specs:
AMD Phenom II X4 810, 95w, 2.6ghz socket AM3
MSI 790FX-GD70 (currently using on-board sound)
2x 2gb OCZ DDR PC3-12800 (1600mhz CL 8-8-8-24 @1.9v per specs)
EVGA 7950 GT KO with latest drivers
USB Wireless N
USB Logitech Kbd/Mouse

I have tried the following: "detuned" the memory, pulled the modules out one at a time, added a compatible SB sound card, none of this has any effect on the Vista freezing. I have conservative, safe bios settings.

Any suggestions are very much appreciated!!!

I have only ever had random freezes in both XP and Vista with factory oveclocked video cards,so you could try a slight underclock to see if it goes away.

 

[KurtD]

Ahhhh! Makes sense, never thought about that one! Thanks, I'll give it a shot.

Kurt

 

[KurtD]

Unfortunately, this is still happening. It is probably fair to suspect that this is a hardware issue... Everything on my system should be OK, although the network adapter is somewhat notorious and not well supported (D-Link WUSB300N). If this were happening under times of high loads on the system I might suspect my 500w power supply was not adequate, but that is not the case either... Hopefully an update comes along that simply solves the problem.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: KurtD
Unfortunately, this is still happening. It is probably fair to suspect that this is a hardware issue... Everything on my system should be OK, although the network adapter is somewhat notorious and not well supported (D-Link WUSB300N). If this were happening under times of high loads on the system I might suspect my 500w power supply was not adequate, but that is not the case either... Hopefully an update comes along that simply solves the problem.

Does it happen in safe mode too?

 

[KurtD]

Does it happen in safe mode too?

I will boot into safe mode tonight and leave it on to see what happens.

 

[Sacraster]

I think it might be your psu. Have you tried to use another psu to test?

 

[KurtD]

Well... The two most "senior" components in my system are the psu and the dvd/rw. I am building a system for my sister (actually my old system in a different case) and will need a psu for hers, so I might as well go get something a little better for mine instead. My old system ran fine with this psu, so I know it will work for hers. I really like this psu, the modular cables help keep things uncluttered. The dvd/rw is just a vanilla unit that seems to work fine, I doubt it could be an issue - but stranger things have happened.

 

[n0tdan]

i had a similar issue. it turned out to be my video card drivers. for some reason it didnt' like certain versions. i'm using the 169.xx atm

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...260808&highlight_key=y

been running since then problem free.

 

[KurtD]

I have a psu on order, which is something I should have done to begin with. I will give the new drivers a shot and see what happens. Yesterday it only froze once, when the screensaver kicked in. I have seen that happen a couple times, although not consistently.

The adventure continues!!!

Thanks for all your tips.

 

[KurtD]

I think my sound card is part of the problem (Audigy2 ZS) - I pulled the sound card and will see if it helps. Onboard sound is no different via optical cable than the Audigy... I have progressed from freezes to BSODs...

 

[legocitytruck]

Any progress?

 

[KurtD]

Switching to the on-board sound reduced the freezes, but they were still occurring. During this entire time, I was having trouble with my WUSB300N wireless adapter. It would power down even though I had it set not to do so. Out of the blue, I then had a flurry of issues, including BSODs, all related to this piece of hardware. I uninstalled it from safe mode and finally got the Marvell chipset drivers to load (bypassing the Linksys drivers). I also set minimum power-saving from the Control Panel in addition to disabling it for this device from the device manager. Since then (about 2 weeks), I have not had any freezes or issues at all. So I would conclude that the suspects in my case are the usual suspects - drivers... I never would have suspected a USB device would have been the source of so many of my issues. I thought about re-installing the Soundblaster to see if it really had anything to do with the problem, but now that everything is working I just can't bring myself to do it. I have two new video cards on the way to install via Crossfire, so that will be my next challenge. Once that is working I plan to upgrade to a more recent sound card with a built-in optical port... So, in conclusion, after about 6 weeks of messing around it looks like the issue was either, or both, the sound card and/or wireless LAN.