A8V Deluxe and random freezes - help appreciated!

[Dave Hanson]

Hi,

I built a PC a few weeks ago and have been having trouble with random
freezes of 10-15 secs where the computer just locks up (can't move the
cursor etc.) and then unfreezes and everything is ok again.

Nothing specific seems to cause it - it can occur when playing games or
simply moving the cursor across the desktop. I've tested the CPU with
Prime95 for 20+ hours with no errors and the memory with memtest - again
with no errors reported. I've spent weeks trawling through various
forums trying different things eg. disabling Fastwrite, reducing AGP
aperture size, reinstalling windows etc. but the problem still persists.

I also borrowed a friends MSI k8n Neo2 platinum motherboard and had the
same problem but more severe.

My specs are as follows:

Asus A8V Deluxe (Bios 1010)
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Radeon 9800 Pro (Catalyst 5.4)
Pioneer DVR-109 DVD-RW
Plextor PX-116A3 DVD-ROM
Western Digital 120GB Hard Drive
2 x 512MB Crucial CT6464Z40B memory
Windows XP SP2
550W Power Supply

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Dave

 

[Ron]

Hi Dave,

I have exactly the same problem as you have and have searched very hard and
very long for what's causing the random freezes. After having done the same
things as you have and much more I finally discovered it has in my case
probably something to do with the combination of A7N8X-E deluxe and the
Plextor PX-116A3. Because once I disconnect the drive the freezing stops.
Disabling the drive in Windows makes the freezing stop as well. The program
'Process Explorer' indicates a processor usage of nearly 100% during a
freeze and it says it is caused by an 'interrupt'. The occurence is often
accopanied by one or more 'clicks' coming from from the speakers right?
It may be the same in your case. Please let me know so perhaps we can help
eachother with this very annoying problem.

TIA,
Ron.

 

[Dave Hanson]

Hi Dave,

I have exactly the same problem as you have and have searched very
hard and very long for what's causing the random freezes. After having
done the same things as you have and much more I finally discovered it
has in my case probably something to do with the combination of
A7N8X-E deluxe and the Plextor PX-116A3. Because once I disconnect the
drive the freezing stops. Disabling the drive in Windows makes the
freezing stop as well. The program 'Process Explorer' indicates a
processor usage of nearly 100% during a freeze and it says it is
caused by an 'interrupt'. The occurence is often accopanied by one or
more 'clicks' coming from from the speakers right? It may be the same
in your case. Please let me know so perhaps we can help eachother with
this very annoying problem.

TIA,
Ron.

Hi Ron,

Thanks for the advice! I did as you suggested and disabled the Plextor
drive and for the past 3 hours NO FREEZES!! It's too early to say
whether this is definitely the cause of the problem as sometimes you'd
get half a dozen freezes in the space of an hour and sometimes you could
go an hour or two without any freeze whatsoever. 3 hours though without
a freeze would be very unusual for this pc so fingers crossed!

Re. the clicking the sound well, mine was more a "stuttering" sound as if
caught in an infinite loop.... Also, I've noticed that when each freeze
finally clears the hard drive is accessed briefly.

Thanks again for the info! Will post another update later...

Cheers,

Dave

 

[BioHazard2k]

Hi Ron,

Thanks for the advice! I did as you suggested and disabled
the Plextor
drive and for the past 3 hours NO FREEZES!! It's too early to
say
whether this is definitely the cause of the problem as
sometimes you'd
get half a dozen freezes in the space of an hour and sometimes
you could
go an hour or two without any freeze whatsoever. 3 hours
though without
a freeze would be very unusual for this pc so fingers crossed!

Re. the clicking the sound well, mine was more a "stuttering"
sound as if
caught in an infinite loop.... Also, I've noticed that when
each freeze
finally clears the hard drive is accessed briefly.

Thanks again for the info! Will post another update later...

Cheers,

Dave

Say, I’m having a similar problem where my computer freezes for a
short time like 5-30 seconds and then resumes like nothing happened.
No errors, no warnings, no nothing!
Although this problem doesn’t happen that often. Sometimes it happens
once a week, other times it happens 5 times a day.

So my question to you is...
When this was happening to you how often did it happen?

I’m just trying to determine if you’re having the same problem as me

BioHaz

Specs as follows...
MSI K8T Neo FIS2R (2.20 BIOS) ~ Athlon 64 3200+ w/ Tt Venus 12 HSF ~
Corsair 1024MB DDR-PC3200 XMS C2 ~ BFG Geforce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 ~
Western Digital Sata Raptor 74 GB 10000 RPM W/8MB Cache ~ Western
Digital Sata 250 GB 7200 RPM W/8MB Cache ~ NEC 8x DVD+/-RW ~ Pioneer
16x DVD ~ Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Gamer ~ Enermax 465watt PSU

 

[Ron]

Say, I’m having a similar problem where my computer freezes for a

short time like 5-30 seconds and then resumes like nothing happened.
No errors, no warnings, no nothing!
Although this problem doesn’t happen that often. Sometimes it happens
once a week, other times it happens 5 times a day.

So my question to you is...
When this was happening to you how often did it happen?

I’m just trying to determine if you’re having the same problem as me

BioHaz

Specs as follows...
MSI K8T Neo FIS2R (2.20 BIOS) ~ Athlon 64 3200+ w/ Tt Venus 12 HSF ~
Corsair 1024MB DDR-PC3200 XMS C2 ~ BFG Geforce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 ~
Western Digital Sata Raptor 74 GB 10000 RPM W/8MB Cache ~ Western
Digital Sata 250 GB 7200 RPM W/8MB Cache ~ NEC 8x DVD+/-RW ~ Pioneer
16x DVD ~ Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Gamer ~ Enermax 465watt PSU

Hi Biohazard,
In my case the occurences looked very similar to yours except that the
freezes did certainly not last for 30 seconds, 10 seconds at most and more
often than once a week. In my case the Plextor drive definately caused the
problem since I mailed Plextor and they send me a firmware upgrade which
resolved my problem.
So perhaps your problem may have a different source. At least you could try
disconnecting/disabling drives and see what happens.
Good luck,
Ron.

 

[Mark A]

Hi Biohazard,
In my case the occurences looked very similar to yours except that the
freezes did certainly not last for 30 seconds, 10 seconds at most and more
often than once a week. In my case the Plextor drive definately caused the
problem since I mailed Plextor and they send me a firmware upgrade which
resolved my problem.
So perhaps your problem may have a different source. At least you could
try disconnecting/disabling drives and see what happens.
Good luck,
Ron.

Plextor firmware upgrades can be downloaded from their website.

 

[formerprof]

Hi Biohazard,
In my case the occurences looked very similar to yours except that the
freezes did certainly not last for 30 seconds, 10 seconds at most and more
often than once a week. In my case the Plextor drive definately caused the
problem since I mailed Plextor and they send me a firmware upgrade which
resolved my problem.
So perhaps your problem may have a different source. At least you could
try disconnecting/disabling drives and see what happens.
Good luck,
Ron.

I had similar freezes with an A8V Deluxe. They ended when I replaced the
SATA cable of one of my Seagate drives. I'd recommend first disconnecting
and then reseating all drive cables (at both ends). If that fails,
disconnect each drive in turn to see if one of them is being troublesome.
The cable is the most likely culprit, but it's possible that you have a
faulty drive. SATA-1 connectors don't seem especially secure to me in any
event.

HTH

formerprof

 

[Ron]

Plextor firmware upgrades can be downloaded from their website.

Not for the PX-116A model Mark.

 

[Mark A]

Not for the PX-116A model Mark.

OK. That drive was not even sold in the USA and is quite old. The USA
Plextor site (http://www.plextor.com/english/index.html) has a lot more
firmware upgrades than the www.plextor-europe.com site. I don't know why.

 

[BioHazard2k]

PSU


Hi Biohazard,
In my case the occurences looked very similar to yours except
that the
freezes did certainly not last for 30 seconds, 10 seconds at
most and more
often than once a week. In my case the Plextor drive
definately caused the
problem since I mailed Plextor and they send me a firmware
upgrade which
resolved my problem.
So perhaps your problem may have a different source. At least
you could try
disconnecting/disabling drives and see what happens.
Good luck,
Ron.

I disabled all my dvd drives and so far I haven’t had the freeze.
But then again, it’s only been 1 day. So I wouldn’t know for sure
until a week or more.

Now that I think about it... It probably wasn’t as long as 30 seconds,
maybe 20? It varied from time to time.

I’m starting to think my problem is memory related.
I was playing HL2 over the weekend and it was crashing like crazy,
stating it was a memory error. So I removed the older of the two ddr
sticks and viola it no longer crashes.

So now it’s the waiting game again...

If any of you have any other suggestions please reply,
Thx,
BioHaz