Computer Locks Up

[The Real Bingo]

Well to start off, I doubt this is a heat problem. My CPU hasnt gone over 35 degrees celcius at 100% load at all.

I think it may be due to overclocking my GFX 5900. Each time I up the frequencies the game Im playing locks up, but eventually comes back to life, but its very annoying. Then I was just running 3DMark01se, and it locked up in a middle of a test and had to restart.

My frequencies arent all that high either [475/750] so I dunno whats up. I believe I have the latest drivers [6.14.10.5303]

If anyone has anything to say, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

[rpertusio]

What's your motherboard again? What kind of hard drives do you have?

- rp

[The Real Bingo]

Epox 8RDA3+ is the motherboard, and I have 1 80GB Maxtor SATA hard drive.

[rpertusio]

Interesting. I have an nForce2 motherboard, and have a very similar problem. I've discovered it is specific to graphics card speed and a Maxtor Serial ATA drive.

Could you tell me if you've updated to the latest BIOS for your motherboard?

Also, if you go into your event log, do you see anything? I would always get something similar to:
"An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\s3112 during a paging operation"

During this 'freeze', the hard drive would light up, but no 'sound' was heard. (It appeared the hard drive was doing absolutely nothing.)

- rp

[The Real Bingo]

Yeah, when it freezes, I get no sound, the frame freezes as it is, and I cant Alt+Tab out or Ctrl+Alt+Delete. The keyboard, mouse, nothin works.

About the BIOS, I havent done anything to it since I put it together. I wouldnt know where to get the updates anyway.

Thanks rp.

EDIT: Ok, I went to Epox's site, and I went into the BIOS downloads, and my mobo isnt listed there, so I assume mine is up to date.

[rpertusio]

what about the event logs?
Start Menu -> Run... -> eventvwr.msc

I did find an updated BIOS for your motherboard. However, I don't think it is necessary for you to use it. (1) It might not fix anything (I cant find changelog) and (2) You might already be up-to-date anyway.

If you'd like to try anyway, you can get it here:
Bios for EP-8RDA3+ dated 10/17/2003 (8RD33A17)

What is the SerialATA BIOS revision? (It shows the revision/version on the screen where it is detecting your SATA drive.)

- rp

[The Real Bingo]

I went into event log, but I dont know anything specific to look for. I did have a bunch of errors, however.

[rpertusio]

lol. Be more specific :-p

If you see Errors or Warnings, why not paste the EventID and the text of the errors here. That can greatly help in troubleshooting.

- rp

[The Real Bingo]

Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for a transaction response from the stisvc service. For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Error code 1000008e, parameter1 c0000005, parameter2 f73f4e2d, parameter3 f41bac14, parameter4 00000000. For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

The cpuz service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified. For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

The description for Event ID ( 4 ) in Source ( sojubus ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: .

The time provider NtpClient is configured to acquire time from one or more time sources, however none of the sources are currently accessible. No attempt to contact a source will be made for 2716 minutes. NtpClient has no source of accurate time. For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp

Blah blah blah, thats about the jist of the errors. Doesnt look like anything to do with it, but I dont know.

[rpertusio]

The only one that stands out to me is the "Error code 1000008e"... which is common to see when people overclock. It can sometimes indicate faulty memory (or simply the system memory cant handle overclocking)

Is your CPU overclocked? Maybe you need more core voltage or RAM voltage.

It wouldn't hurt to run Memtest86 for a while and check for any errors.

- rp