AMD 64bit PC freeze

[blackened]

Hi ,
I have just bought and built a new PC with the following:

AMD 64 bit 3200 processor
200Gb HDD
Epox 8KDA3+ nVidia nForce3 250Mb set socket-754 mobo
Radeon 9800 PRO graphics card
Windows XP

Basically the PC freezes at randon - not much help.
But I did start to notice patterns, for example when I played media in WMP9 and use the scroll bar to jump back and forth in the media clip it is prone to freeze. However it does not happen all the time.
I thought it might be a problem with the mobo's onboard sound, so I disabled it in BIOS and did the same tests using the scroll bar.... well it seemed to hold up better.... did not freeze during my testing... But it still does freeze at random occasionally.

Might you have any thoughts as to why this might be?

Kind Regards
HB

 

[Cappy]

did you you install the latest 4in 1 chipset update?Check for the latest Motherboard bios update.Is your power supply holding up ?
Run the newest memtest86 on your memory?

 

[blackened]

My power supply should be ok (380w) and I am not running anthing fancy like extra fans etc. I am not familiar with the 4in 1 chipset update, where would I find this?

 

[Spartan 1394]

What is the processor temperature? Might want to check the heatsink and fan to make sure they are on correctly.

 

[Nubius]

your 4in1 are your motherboard drivers....should be on the motherboard drivers installation and utilities disk. Thats what he was talking about. Make sure you got onboard everything disabled if you have a card to counteract it IE: if you got a soundcard or graphics card or network card you need to disable onboard of all 3 of those cause most newer mobo's come with all 3 of those things standard and by default...enabled

 

[blackened]

My Processor should be ok - its running between 35-45 degrees.

I have looked in google for the 4in1 motherboard drivers for my EPoX motherboard but could not locate them.

I found VIA Arena Drivers from http://www.viaarena.com/ but they state that 'VIA Hyperion drivers are suitable for any VIA chipset and all Microsoft Windows 32 bit Operating Systems' however my motherboard is an 8KDA3+ nVidia nForce3 64-bit . If I tried to run this driver would that not do 'bad' things?

I am now on the nVidia site and are about to install the Windows XP - Unified Driver, Version: 5.10 so I will let you know how I go.

I looked for memtest86 and could not find any instructions on how to use this - any useful hints would be appreciated.

PS: Apologies for probably sounding like a novice, but this is the first PC I have built from scratch.

 

[Nubius]

the 4in1 drivers should be on your motherboard installation disk...if you don't have that disk...theeeen ....well yeah you shouldn't NOT have that disk.

 

[blackened]

I do have that CD but there is nothing titled a ' 4 in 1 Driver'.
I have:

nVidia nForce3 Driver V4.0.91
AC'97 AUDIO Driver V3.57
USB 2.0 Driver README
SILICON IMAGE SATA RAID Driver V1.0.0.7
JAVA 2 RUNTIME Environment Installation
SILICON IMAGE SATA RAID GUI Installation V1.13

And they are all the drivers that are displayed in the UGI, under drivers when the motherboard CD spins up?

 

[ekÆsine]

whats the power supply make/ model? The cause is either from an unstable (cheap) power supply or defective motherboard.

 

[Nubius]

well the chipset update he was talking about would be the one titled

nVidia nForce3 Driver V4.0.91

That's what he meant by 4in1...on some boards (I guess not yours) they say 4in1 cause its just a quick way to install the chipset, AGP, USB, and Network adapters I believe, I forget...but basically he was just saying to get the most up-to-date drivers for your chipset or atleast make sure you had the drivers installed.

380w of power should definitely be enough, but yeah what ekÆsine said....could just be a cheap powersupply. Have you tried swapping out a different power supply to see if the problem continues? If not then perhaps it is indeed your motherboard.