Randomized Hardlock - Unable to reproduce

Tritan · Apr 17, 2007, 11:13 PM

Hello everyone,

My PC's hardware configuration is down below. I keep getting these absolutely random hardlocks that result in having to shut the PC down and restart. They can happen anywhere from 5 minutes from the last boot or up to 5 hours so far.

I've frozen while surfing the web, playing games, opening applications, installing applications, and even idling on the desktop (as well as the login screen sometimes as well).

Thus far I've tried moving my 1900xtx into another pci-e slot to no real change. I have not tried changing ram or motherboard as I trully felt the issue was not hardware related. However that is no longer out of the question since I can't reproduce this flippin freeze.

Any help or potential troubleshooting advice would be greatly appreciated.

-Tritan

Dyre Straits · Apr 18, 2007, 05:36 AM

What version of Windows are you using?

Tritan · Apr 18, 2007, 07:22 PM

Vista Home Premium, 32 bit.

Dyre Straits · Apr 18, 2007, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tritan

Vista Home Premium, 32 bit.

I had a sneaky suspicion you might say that.

IMHO, Vista is not ready for the public yet. As it was with XP, I think people should wait until at least Service Pack 1 is released before considering it to be their main OS.

Did your system behave this way under XP (or your previous OS?)

savak · Apr 18, 2007, 08:31 PM

Check the event viewer and google the error message.

H3X4D3C1M4L · Apr 18, 2007, 09:47 PM

Try running memtest overnight... I've seen Vista work on similar systems just fine. It could be that Vista is punishing your rig more than XP or whatever and just now the hardware failure is starting to be more prolific.

Tritan · Apr 19, 2007, 04:41 AM

Definitely possible. although here's the tricky thing. It happened under XP pro sp2 also, just not as frequent. It would hardlock and then after a restart be just peachy. When I upgraded to vista, it became way more frequent.

I had an extra Asus a8r32-mvp laying around so I switch out the motherboards and kept the same everything else. It has not frozen since. I'm thinking that iether my DFI board was shot or the most likely culprit is that I had some small error in bios settings somewhere. I'm not knowledgable enough yet to fully go through that but I believe that may have been the cause.

I haven't received a single hardlock yet on the asus board.

Thoughts? I had suspected vista to be the culprit as well but I'm not so sure anymore.

[edit] I'm more than happy to keep the asus in as it's just as good really. I did still want to use the DFI in a 2nd crossfire rig though, I'll have to plug it all in there and start diagnosing. >.< Heh.

Jitter · Apr 19, 2007, 05:08 AM

My PC used to hardlock, and I discovered it was due to the hard drive going bad. When mine would freeze though, normally I could hear a loud click by the drive.

potnop · Apr 29, 2007, 04:50 AM

My PC started having some problems like this too. I have no idea why still, maybe BIOS. I know you didn't mension it, but does yours hardlock even on POST?

Apr 17, 2007, 11:13 PM	#1
Tritan DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Orange, CA Posts: 17 Rep Power: 0	Randomized Hardlock - Unable to reproduce Hello everyone, My PC's hardware configuration is down below. I keep getting these absolutely random hardlocks that result in having to shut the PC down and restart. They can happen anywhere from 5 minutes from the last boot or up to 5 hours so far. I've frozen while surfing the web, playing games, opening applications, installing applications, and even idling on the desktop (as well as the login screen sometimes as well). Thus far I've tried moving my 1900xtx into another pci-e slot to no real change. I have not tried changing ram or motherboard as I trully felt the issue was not hardware related. However that is no longer out of the question since I can't reproduce this flippin freeze. Any help or potential troubleshooting advice would be greatly appreciated. -Tritan __________________ AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 // DFI Lanparty CFX3200-UT // 2gb OCZ Platinum - EB // Fortron 700w PSU // ATI Radeon x1900 xfire edition // ATI Radeon x1900xtx // Sound Blaster X-FI Fatal1ty // 3x WD Cavier 250gb Sata 2 HD's // Creative Gigaworks g500 5.1 gamer speakers // 22" Samsung Syncmaster 226BW Wide Monitor

Apr 18, 2007, 07:22 PM	Thread Starter #3
Tritan DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Orange, CA Posts: 17 Rep Power: 0	Vista Home Premium, 32 bit. __________________ AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 // DFI Lanparty CFX3200-UT // 2gb OCZ Platinum - EB // Fortron 700w PSU // ATI Radeon x1900 xfire edition // ATI Radeon x1900xtx // Sound Blaster X-FI Fatal1ty // 3x WD Cavier 250gb Sata 2 HD's // Creative Gigaworks g500 5.1 gamer speakers // 22" Samsung Syncmaster 226BW Wide Monitor

Apr 19, 2007, 04:41 AM	Thread Starter #7
Tritan DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Orange, CA Posts: 17 Rep Power: 0	Definitely possible. although here's the tricky thing. It happened under XP pro sp2 also, just not as frequent. It would hardlock and then after a restart be just peachy. When I upgraded to vista, it became way more frequent. I had an extra Asus a8r32-mvp laying around so I switch out the motherboards and kept the same everything else. It has not frozen since. I'm thinking that iether my DFI board was shot or the most likely culprit is that I had some small error in bios settings somewhere. I'm not knowledgable enough yet to fully go through that but I believe that may have been the cause. I haven't received a single hardlock yet on the asus board. Thoughts? I had suspected vista to be the culprit as well but I'm not so sure anymore. [edit] I'm more than happy to keep the asus in as it's just as good really. I did still want to use the DFI in a 2nd crossfire rig though, I'll have to plug it all in there and start diagnosing. >.< Heh. __________________ AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 // DFI Lanparty CFX3200-UT // 2gb OCZ Platinum - EB // Fortron 700w PSU // ATI Radeon x1900 xfire edition // ATI Radeon x1900xtx // Sound Blaster X-FI Fatal1ty // 3x WD Cavier 250gb Sata 2 HD's // Creative Gigaworks g500 5.1 gamer speakers // 22" Samsung Syncmaster 226BW Wide Monitor

Apr 19, 2007, 05:08 AM	#8
Jitter HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 534 Rep Power: 0	My PC used to hardlock, and I discovered it was due to the hard drive going bad. When mine would freeze though, normally I could hear a loud click by the drive. __________________ Sony Vaio PCV-RX670 P4 1.8ghz XP Pro SP2 1 GB PC2100 RAM ATI All in Wonder 9700 pro Audigy 2 ZS Aquamark ~29,500 3dMark03 ~ 5,000

Apr 18, 2007, 08:31 PM	#5
savak HardwareHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Middle Earth Posts: 88 Rep Power: 0	Check the event viewer and google the error message.

Apr 18, 2007, 09:47 PM	#6
H3X4D3C1M4L DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 6,794 Rep Power: 0	Try running memtest overnight... I've seen Vista work on similar systems just fine. It could be that Vista is punishing your rig more than XP or whatever and just now the hardware failure is starting to be more prolific.

Apr 29, 2007, 04:50 AM	#9
potnop HardwareHeaven Newbie Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 16 Rep Power: 0	My PC started having some problems like this too. I have no idea why still, maybe BIOS. I know you didn't mension it, but does yours hardlock even on POST?