New build, vista home premium 64 bit freezing/crashing

alexi · Aug 7, 2008

Hi,

I finished building my first computer this morning, and installed vista home premium 64 OEM to finish it off.

Specs are:

Asus P5N E SLI
8600GT
Corsair 4gb 800mhz
q6600 Quad Core

I've updated the bios to the latest version, and have put all drivers on but Vista keeps crashing. It freezes for no apparent reason. I've been using Vista HP (32) on my 2yr old laptop with no problems (I'm using it to type to you all now), and I'm lost as to what is wrong. I've had a very brief look around and it sounds like another user on here has had a similar problem, but as I've just built the whole system I'm wondering if there's anything I've missed which is causing it to crash/freeze/generally be unresponsive?

Any help would be hugely appreciate, thanks in advance.

Bare Foot Kid · Aug 7, 2008

Hello alexi, welcome to Vista forums!

Some have had issues installing 64-bit Vista with more than 2GB of RAM installed.
I am told it depends on the MoBo, (not sure what ones).
Try installing with just 2GB in, then add the rest later.

Hopefully others will have more to say on this for you.

Keep us informed!

Later :shock:

Ted

rtt_77388 · Aug 7, 2008

My first guess is to look over the hardware.

-Did you have enough power supply to run your system?
-Do you have good ventilation in the case?
-Is the heat sink mounted on your processor good?
-Have you ran memtest on your memory?

alexi · Aug 7, 2008

Hi, thanks for the response Ted.

I'll try that later as a last resort, would rather not reinstall yet...

----

rtt_77388

It's a 500W PSU, I've been told that should be fine
ventilation is good, core is 41 deg atm.
Haven't run mem test yet, how do I do that?

Thank you both

EDIT: Curiously, my Vista experience rating is currently at 1.0 because of my graphics... I'm going to reinstall the graphics card driver and see what that does.

Bare Foot Kid · Aug 7, 2008

Testing the RAM is a good idea. Just burn this to a CD and boot into it.
It would be best to check each stick individually and let each one run a full pass.

Memtest86.com - Memory Diagnostic

Later :shock:

Ted

Bare Foot Kid · Aug 7, 2008

alexi said:
EDIT: Curiously, my Vista experience rating is currently at 1.0 because of my graphics... I'm going to reinstall the graphics card driver and see what that does.

Hello alexi.

I get the same thing everytime I re-install, untill I click on "Update My Score" in "Performance Information".

http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/96219-window-experience-index-scores-41.html#post780009

Later :shock:

Ted

alexi · Aug 7, 2008

Bare Foot Kid said:
alexi said:

EDIT: Curiously, my Vista experience rating is currently at 1.0 because of my graphics... I'm going to reinstall the graphics card driver and see what that does.

Click to expand...

Hello alexi.

I get the same thing everytime I re-install, untill I click on "Update My Score" in "Performance Information".

http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/96219-window-experience-index-scores-41.html#post780009

Later Ted

Well I tried installing the graphics card driver anyway, and it froze again.
Am running the memtest as we speak, do i just leave it until it does anything in particular?
Thanks again

Bare Foot Kid · Aug 7, 2008

alexi said:
Well I tried installing the graphics card driver anyway, and it froze again.
Am running the memtest as we speak, do i just leave it until it does anything in particular?
Thanks again

Just let it continue until it completes a full pass, then do the next stick.
In my experience one full pass takes about two hours to complete.
(kind of like watching grass grow)

Keep us informed!

Later :shock:

Ted

Fumz · Aug 7, 2008

I'm assuming that by "installed all drivers" you mean you used the CD that came with the board and installed every driver that came with it? If so, included in that package is the nasty nVidia SATA driver.

The nVidia SATA driver causes a lot of issues like this and there seems to be no readily available fix; some updates work for some guys, not for others.

If you have the nVidia SATA driver installed I would get rid of it asap. Go to the device manager, expand IDE ATA/ATAPI and look for the NVIDIA Controller. Highlight it and select properties, then go to the driver tab. If the Driver Provider is nVidia, then this driver is most likely causing you, like coutless others, your issues. Uninstall it and allow the machine to load the Windows driver, reboot. Go back to the same place and make sure that the Driver Provider is Microsoft.

Before you uninstall the driver, make sure to turn off automatic updates. Apparently (just helped some guy with this same issue last week) Vista silently updates the Nvidia SATA driver, and installs one that isn't correct. Not sure if "this week" things have changed, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

Bare Foot Kid · Aug 7, 2008

Not to get off topic here, but dmex wrote this tutorial about
"Device Manager" some may not know about, that came in handy for me.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/163016-ghost-devices-drivers.html?ltr=G

Later :shock:

Ted

rtt_77388 · Aug 7, 2008

How did you measure 41 degrees C on the processor? If it was from the BIOS, it might be a tad high at stock speeds for idling. It you are still looking after you get done watching the grass grow (memtest), you might download a program called Orthos and another called Speedfan. Google both.. they are free. Orthos will stress the processor and memory, speed fan will give you core temps. You probibly shouldn't get out of the mid 50 degree c range after running it for an hour. It it hits 60 you probibly have an issue.

alexi · Aug 7, 2008

Fumz, I tried doing as you said and all drivers were Microsoft provided apparently

So That's not my issue. Thanks for the link Ted, I used it, but as I said, it didn't reveal Nvidiaevildriver.

rtt_77388, That was measured using the Asus proveded software.
Have been using Speedfan on this laptop but as I said, the Asus software does the same job on the pc so will use that. Do you think the issue could be with my cpu?

Windows is updating atm, 24 updates. First time, so maybe there will be a fix there. Alternatively, I think it's a graphics related issue as my gfx driver wont install; it stops at the same place (has done the last 2 goes). I'm downloading the driver again and after the update wil run the install again. Hopefully it will install and with any luck my problems may be over...
...

Thanks to everyone for all your help, much appreciated. Is there anything I could have missed as a new system builder? Something I should have done but haven't? I'm a bit paranoid atm.

rtt_77388 · Aug 7, 2008

I have my doubts about the processor being the problem. However, my build acted like that. It turned out one of the anchors on the heat sink wasn't seated well. It would idle ok but when it was stressed for a bit if would heat up and crash fast. Yours sounds a little more stable than mine was.

I have read in other forums about folks saying thier q6600 was ilding in the low 40's. However they were running the processor past the 3 ghz mark....

Fumz · Aug 7, 2008

Ok, then onto the next suspect.

rtt_77388 said:
Did you have enough power supply to run your system?

alexi said:
It's a 500W PSU, I've been told that should be fine

The wattage doesn't tell us anything important; in fact, it's rather meaningless. What we need to know is the amperage on the +12 volt rail(s). What's the make and model number?

alexi · Aug 7, 2008

rtt_77388 said:
I have my doubts about the processor being the problem. However, my build acted like that. It turned out one of the anchors on the heat sink wasn't seated well. It would idle ok but when it was stressed for a bit if would heat up and crash fast. Yours sounds a little more stable than mine was.

I have read in other forums about folks saying thier q6600 was ilding in the low 40's. However they were running the processor past the 3 ghz mark....

Wow, well I haven't overclocked yet, perhaps they had extra cooling/better case? I know for a fact my room isn't the best for ventilation :/

I've taken out a stick or ram, and my gfx card driver installed...
Probably coincidence, as it's just frozen again. Really starting to bug me, what else could it be???

Bare Foot Kid · Aug 7, 2008

Fumz said:
Ok, then onto the next suspect.

rtt_77388 said:

Did you have enough power supply to run your system?

Click to expand...

alexi said:

It's a 500W PSU, I've been told that should be fine

Click to expand...

The wattage doesn't tell us anything important; in fact, it's rather meaningless. What we need to know is the amperage on the +12 volt rail(s). What's the make and model number?

Maybe you missed this post!

Later :shock:

Ted

rtt_77388 · Aug 7, 2008

Fumz said:
Ok, then onto the next suspect.

rtt_77388 said:

Did you have enough power supply to run your system?

Click to expand...

alexi said:

It's a 500W PSU, I've been told that should be fine

Click to expand...

The wattage doesn't tell us anything important; in fact, it's rather meaningless. What we need to know is the amperage on the +12 volt rail(s). What's the make and model number?

Well I wasn't sure that would be an issue with an 8600 card. However, thank you for bring that up. Not all 500w power supplies are equal. Alot of folks think the 29.95 special on that 500w power supply is good enough for government work.

alexi · Aug 7, 2008

Fumz said:
Ok, then onto the next suspect.

rtt_77388 said:

Did you have enough power supply to run your system?

Click to expand...

alexi said:

It's a 500W PSU, I've been told that should be fine

Click to expand...

The wattage doesn't tell us anything important; in fact, it's rather meaningless. What we need to know is the amperage on the +12 volt rail(s). What's the make and model number?

This is my PSU:
Sumvision 500W 20+4pin SATA 2x 80mm Fan PSU - Retail Box - Ebuyer

Probably should have spent more on a PSU. Now that I've taken a stick of Ram out, things are working. Will report if that changes. EDIT: Almost as soon as I said that, it froze. :O

I've been advised that having Vista on a 500gb hdd with no partition is silly, should I reinstall the OS on a smaller partition? If so, could someone please guide me as to how to do this?

Fumz · Aug 7, 2008

I can't find anything that would tell me the amperage on the +12 volt rails; that's not a good sign. The only thing your link says is that it passes FCC and CE. Now I don't know what those entities are, but a good PSU like a PC Power & Cooling passes UL, cUL, CE, CB and TUV. While I honestly don't know what those entities are either, what I do know is that PC P&C makes damn good PSU's and, more importantly, I can easily find what the amperage is on the +12 volt rail.

I can't even find out this crucial information on Sumivision's site: SUMVISION - We Sell PC Hardware, Software, Digital Media, Digital Cameras, MP3 Players, Components, Networking Equipment and more... I also have no idea if it's a single or dual rail PSU, which is also important info... they're so stingy with the details that I think they're hiding something: the fact that their products are crap.

If you spent $13.00 on this, then that's a really small price to pay for a lesson learned? I would suggest getting a decent PSU. That's an often overlooked crucial component of any system. Insufficient power can manifest itself in all sorts of ugly ways. Do yourself a big favor and spend some coin here.

rtt_77388 · Aug 7, 2008

On the partition issue, it will be ok, it is more of an orginizational thing.

On the power supply, if you dont find another issue it might be a possibility. Although I still think it is something else. If it came to that....this would be more along the lines of a power supply to get.

Newegg.com - Antec earthwatts EA500 500W ATX12V v2.0 Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CUL, FCC, TUV, CE, CB, C-tick, CCC - Power Supplies

New build, vista home premium 64 bit freezing/crashing

New Member

My Computer

R.I.P. August 13th 2014

My Computer

Shade Tree Geek

My Computer

New Member

My Computer

R.I.P. August 13th 2014

My Computer

R.I.P. August 13th 2014

My Computer

New Member

My Computer

R.I.P. August 13th 2014

My Computer

Buggin

My Computer

R.I.P. August 13th 2014

My Computer

Shade Tree Geek

My Computer

New Member

My Computer

Shade Tree Geek

My Computer

Buggin

My Computer

New Member

My Computer

R.I.P. August 13th 2014

My Computer

Shade Tree Geek

My Computer

New Member

My Computer

Buggin

My Computer

Shade Tree Geek

My Computer