Vista Ultimate 64 and Freezing

[kershner]

Hey everyone, not sure if this particular problem should go in this forum, if it needs to be moved that is perfectly fine with me.

Anyway, my girlfriend's recently built computer (around a month) is experiencing frequent freezes at random times. The freezes only occur in Windows Vista, and they're quite random. All she uses the PC for is general web browsing/word processing, the Sims 2, and iTunes. The freezes occur after seemingly random bouts of time - sometimes a few minutes after logging in, sometimes an hour or so, but recently they've been getting worse (I think she said it froze six times yesterday). It's a very strange issue and I was hoping for some feedback from you guys.

Here are the pertinent specs.
E5200 @ stock clocks/voltage w/ a Core Contact Freezer
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R Mobo
Corsair (2x2gb) 800 mhz DDR2 ram
WD 320GB HDD
Corsair 400W PSU
Radeon 4830

I had the E5200 overclocked and stable at 3.6 for a while, but after the freezes started I dialed it back to stock, but the freezes still occur. The computer is a solid one, ran Crysis beautifully, if that's relevant in any way (I'm guessing not, haha).

Anyway, anyone have any ideas? Is random freezing a known issue with Vista? Would a fresh install of Vista solve the problem, do ya think? Motherboard BIOS update? I'm open to any suggestions here, my girlfriend is starting to get anxious about the money she dropped on a nearly unusable system heh.

Thanks guys, let me know if you need more info.

 

[KSoD]

Well do you have SP1? Have you checked Temps? Have you updated the BIOS and all drivers? Without knowing if the system is fully up to date and it is not a temp issue we dont have anywhere to really start.

 

[kershner]

Thanks for responding man.

It's not really my primary computer, but the temps are usually pretty solid - maxes about 50 or so under load. SP1 is installed - I had SP2 Beta for a while, but uninstalled and just put SP1 back on there maybe a week ago.

I do believe that the UD3R could possibly use a BIOS update, I guess I never saw the need at first because the system was rock solid stable. I don't have a USB flash drive or anything handy though, and I've heard Winflash doesn't work in Vista x64? Would I be able to burn the BIOS update into a CD and boot from that?

 

[KSoD]

There is a way to get it working in Vista 64. You will have to check around the mobo's website to see how it is done. Maybe can run it in Compatibility mode or something?

But your best option will most likely be the Winflash method. Check in the Other Hardware section. I know someone had this issue not long ago themselves and found a way to get it working.