almost immediate freezing of PC

Hi all,

I have recently replace my old mother board and CPU with new ones, and after installing the O/S Windows XP Pro (the installation itself ran perfectly without any failures) I've been experiencing freezing of the entire system so that only a hard reset (pain!) helps.

As of my new hardware: ECS P4VXASD2L s.478lan and Celeron 1.8GHz; DDR RAM 256/266MHz. RAM is not brand new, but it worked O.K. with my previous hardware configuration.

I didn't try to replace RAM yet. Can any benchmark software tell me what is wrong with my hardware?

Since the O/S was a new, fresh installation, I don't think it would be a software related isssue.

What do you think? Which element might cause the problem with system freezing?

Ralfska

 

Hi ralska

You might want to explain "recent ". Has the computer ever been stable since these changes. How was the drive prepared prior to these changes. You can start with the checking event log and "Device Manager ". I would be surprised if there are not a number of hardware / driver issues.

 

Hi Dennis,

yes, the system was very stable before, but the mother board didn't wake up one morning and I had to buy a new one plus a new CPU, because the older couldn't work with ECS.

Also, I did a format of the entire HDD prior to installing Win XP. After the OS has launched and I do nothing, then it is stable. Problems occur when I start an application or browse the web.
The event log shows nothing suspicious: no errors, no exclamation marks.

 

Hi Dennis,

yes, the system was very stable before, but the mother board didn't wake up one morning and I had to buy a new one plus a new CPU, because the older couldn't work with ECS.

Also, I did a format of the entire HDD prior to installing Win XP. After the OS has launched and I do nothing, then it is stable. Problems occur when I start an application or browse the web.
The event log shows nothing suspicious: no errors, no exclamation marks.

 

Hi ralfska

Clear you event log, then load a program you know will crash the computer. Now check the event log.

 

Few things to check first:

Motherboard chipset drivers
Video Drivers
Memory settings
Power supply

Sounds to me like its starting to **** out when you put any kind of a load on the computer. Although socket 370's aren't power hogs, if you are running a 250 watt or less PS or an old PS, this would be a smart upgrdae regardless of whether or not its the root cause of your problem.

 

I took a look at the things Rockster2U suggested and I found nothing wrong there. My PS is also a new one, I think 300 watt.

What I did to look further into the problem was removing the DDR RAM and putting an SDRAM into a black slot. The SDRAM was only 64 MB, but I just wanted to check it out. The result was that the PC hung up even before the Windows introduction logo appeared on the screen.
So, I think it's the RAM which is causing the problem? Can it be incompatible with the new mother board or can it be just damaged?

 

Stick with just the DDR. Head into the Bios and take a look at your memory settings. What are they? What kind of memory are you using?

Read this thread too.
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18062

 

Yes, I stick with DDR RAM - I was not able to find anything specific to the DDR RAM in the bios. There was only a mention of SDRAM:
timing by SPD disabled, SDRAM frequency 200 MHz, Latency 2.5, bank interleave disabled.

I experimented a bit with the bios settings and did load first "best performance settings ". The result was that I was able to work at the PC for a while and I loaded lots of pages at the same time. The PC did not hang up during about 10 minutes, but while I was playing Windows Pinball Arcade, then I go to a hang.

Things were similiar when I load bios "optimal settings ".

And I still don't know where I have to look at yet.

 

In years past, it was a hard and fast rule that you FDisk (partition) and format a drive in the machine in which it is to run. The reason is because of differences in the way the BIOS on various main boards interpreted the drive geometry. The necessity for this has lessened over the past few years; but, the condition still exists between some systems.

Since you have changed boards and thus have a new BIOS, and if the drive has not been FDisked and partitioned on this same board, you may have a drive geometry interpretation problem (drive geometry set up differently on a previous board).

This is only a theory in your case; but, having tried the things you have, it would be my next step, if it were me.

NOTE: I don't know your experience or knowledge level so I will caution you that FDisking (partitioning) a drive is not the same as formatting. Formatting will not accomplish the task of setting up the drive geometry.

 

Alex:

I did perform a new partitioning of the HDD. After replacing the MB the O/S didn't want to start at all which was to expect. I put a diskette with the application Large Drive Tools and did delete all partitions and completely erased the HDD. After that I put the installation cd with Win XP Pro and did a new partitioning and formatting using a non-quick method.

It's interesting that after loading "bios optimal settings" the O/S does not come to a hang immediately (which was the case), but I can run it about 20 minutes.

I'm still unsure if it is a wrong bios setting or the DDR is not compatible with my MB. It is _not_ a DDR producted by known companies.

 

Alex:

I did perform a new partitioning of the HDD. After replacing the MB the O/S didn't want to start at all which was to expect. I put a diskette with the application Large Drive Tools and did delete all partitions and completely erased the HDD. After that I put the installation cd with Win XP Pro and did a new partitioning and formatting using a non-quick method.

It's interesting that after loading "bios optimal settings" the O/S does not come to a hang immediately (which was the case), but I can run it about 20 minutes.

I'm still unsure if it is a wrong bios setting or the DDR is not compatible with my MB. It is _not_ a DDR producted by known companies.

 

My mistake, thats a socket 478 processor - .18, so it might want a little more power.

I might have an idea as to your problem but tell me, what did you use for MB chipset drivers? Where did they come from?

 

All boards don't support all types of RAM. Check your main board book and see if the RAM you have is supported by this board.

Some may support one-sided only, some two-sided only, some both, some have limitations on the number of chips on each stick, etc.

 

Hehehe - don't sell it short just yet.

re: DDR - just because you don't know the company doesn't mean its inferior. In fact, some of the lesser known suppliers sell the best memory. There are only a few companies that actually manufacture memory - there are a multitude of suppliers.

Good advice Alex -

 

What MB chipset drivers? I don't know this. From the MB installation disk I was able to retrieve only the AC 97 drivers, because the PC hung short after that.

Right now I'm trying to install Win XP Pro once again. I did a re-partitioning before for the second time.

We'll see. If it won't work, then I'll return the PC to the service people to check it out. Not doing so, my hair would probably turn immediately gray

 

Thats kind of what I thought you might say.

You need to download and install the VIA 4 in 1 drivers or your machine just plain isn't going to run right. Sorry to hear that you already started another installation as I don't think this was necessary. These should be installed immediately after your first boot on the OS - before anything else, including video drivers.

Drivers are here - install them! V4.47 are the most recent official ones.

http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2

 

I downloaded the drivers, but are you sure they are universal and suitable for each MB with each chipset. Taking a look at the manual I can see following info:

P4X333 VT8235

P4X333 VT8233A (CE)


I'd like to be ensured nothing goes wrong after installing the drivers, because I wouldn't want to re-install the O/S another time.

 

Rockster2U:

I installed the via 4 in 1 drives and rebooted, but unfortunatelly this also did not solve the problem with freezing Win XP. ;(

 

The Via 4 in 1 drivers are removable.

Just run the setup again and the choice to removes should be there.

BillyBob