Error Vista Freezing Problem (Read 690 times)

RedScythes

#1 January 13, 2008, 04:38:18 am
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I recently installed Vista. My computer is decent, but Vista will just randomly hang when I'm using it and not even the keyboard will respond. (I can press the caps lock key and the caps lock light won't go on) So I have to force shutdown by holding the power button.
My specs are:

AMD Athlon 3800+, Dual Core processor
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-K8n51gmf- 9
Video Card: NVIDIA 7600GS
2GB RAM
400 watt power supply


The RAM may be the problem, but I left memtest86+ for a while and there was no problem. I have two 333mhz 512 MB sticks running dual channel and one 333MHz 512 and a 400MHz 512.
The freezing does not occur during any particular program, and doesn't happen at any particular time interval. I have the CPU monitor running, and its usually around 10% (the usual) when the computer freezes. I'm sure its not the hard drive because I used chkdsk and also defragmented. The weird thing is that I can leave it on with azureus or running a virus scan or defrag without the computer hanging, but I can just be exploring windows or moving my mouse to click on something and the computer will hang. I searched all over and found several people with the same problem but no answer.

I used driveragent.com to find bad drivers, and the following are bad:
High Definition Audio Device
NVIDIA nForce 430/410 Serial ATA Controller
NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller

But they won't let me download the drivers without joining them for $30 and the Gigabyte website does not have Vista drivers for anything but the audio device. Any idea how I can figure out the solution to this issue?
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goat

#2 January 13, 2008, 01:07:39 pm
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You can download the latest nforce drivers for your motherboard at nvidia.com, but I doubt that is the issue...

Quote from: RedScythes on January 13, 2008, 04:38:18 am
I have two 333mhz 512 MB sticks running dual channel and one 333MHz 512 and a 400MHz 512.

You cannot have some sticks in dual channel and others not. They're either all in dual channel or none of them are. Your system is probably assuming the 333 and 400 are also in dual channel and that's what I'm guessing is the problem. Also it's not a good idea to mix ram speeds. Some motherboards will compensate for this, but not all. Keep just two 333mhz 512's in dual channel and see how that runs.
Last Edit: January 13, 2008, 01:14:38 pm by goat
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Rowain

#3 January 13, 2008, 01:20:35 pm
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I had a similar problem. I more or less resolved it (I still often get bluescreens on my first bootup after being completely shut down, but after the restart it's generally stable). For me, my dual channel Corsair 6400C4s (2x1GB @ 800mhz) were the culprit. After some googling, I was lucky enough to find a thread detailing the exact problem with these ram sticks at Corsair's support forum. One chap had fiddled around with manually adjusting ram timings in the bios and had found a setup that virtually eliminated the freezing for every single person experiencing the problem.

My setup:

ASUS P5N-E SLi motherboard
Corsair XMS2 6400C4 2x1GB @ 800mhz

I could share the timings if you want, but obviously the solution could vary greatly seeing as how we have very different hardware. I'm willing to bet you're experiencing memory problems though and it may just be as simple as what goat said.
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RedScythes

#4 January 13, 2008, 06:02:16 pm
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Damn, I thought I had it. I removed two of them, like goat said, but it just happened again. The two 333mhz that are left in my computer right now are Corsair, but they're pretty old. If the timing thing does not work, I'll try to replace them, but I want to leave that as a last resort.
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Rowain

#5 January 13, 2008, 10:05:43 pm
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Well, I really doubt my settings would help you at all. The people having the problem I did had the same ASUS mobo, and were using the same RAM. I don't know what bios Gigabyte mobos use either.
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RedScythes

#6 January 14, 2008, 05:16:42 am
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In any case, I swapped the RAM with RAM from another case. It seems it was the corsair after all. I guess I'll have to buy new memory after all. But thanks for the help, I would have never thought that it was the corsair brand RAM that was causing the problem.
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goat

#7 January 14, 2008, 07:20:04 pm
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It may not have been any one bad stick, but a bad mismatch of ram types/speeds. You should always buy ram in pairs for dual channel. A pair of 1gb sticks should do you fine, and you should have the slots to get two more 1gb (or even 2gb each) for future expansion. True dual channel with all 400mhz ram will definitely be noticably different.
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