Built New System- Vista x64 Keeps Locking Up!!

[guitardude777]

I just built a new system and installed Vista 64-bit on it. It works great, except for the fact that it completely locks up at least once a day. By locks up, I mean that the screen completely freezes and the mouse and keyboard do not function. I have to hit the reset button on my case to get it working again. It will do this randomly; I have noticed it happening when I'm doing something specific. I thought I had fixed it this morning after installing all of the windows updates and chipset drivers, but it happened again about 10 minutes ago. I'm assuming(and hoping) that this is just a Vista problem and has nothing to do with the hardware. All of my drivers, including the mobo bios, are installed and up to date. Does anyone know what could cause this? Here's my hardware configuration just in case.

Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 (rev. 2.0) Motherboard
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=3097

4gb G.Skill DDR2 PC28500 RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231166

AMD Phenom II X2 3.0GHZ Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103694

 

[Celegorm]

Usually with what I see, hard lockups like that are caused by the hard drive, or RAM.

Step one for me is to re-seat all memory and see what happens. Then run memtest and the manufacturer's diagnostic utility on the hard drive.

 

[ABanzhof]

maybe your cpu is overheating? your heatsync may not be set properly, you can use coretemp to check, if you havent already. just a guess

 

[guitardude777]

Well I'm positive it isn't the hard drive, because it happened when I was running off of my other hard drive with Vista on it. I can try memtest, but im not sure it'll find any errors. Anyone know the possible software issues that could be causing this? Would upgrading to Vista SP2 help?

maybe your cpu is overheating? your heatsync may not be set properly, you can use coretemp to check, if you havent already. just a guess

Nah it's not overheating. But it's weird, coretemp is telling me that the CPU runs around 30 celcius and it's only recognizing one core. The BIOS tells me the CPU runs at about 50 celcius, but if I feel the heatsink with my finger it's barely even warm. Also, coretemp is telling me it's an AM2+ processor, I thought it was an AM3 socket?!

 

[Celegorm]

It could just need updates. But wait, do you have any updates installed yet (Or atleast SP1)? I just remembered that back when vista first got released if you had 4 or more gigs installed before getting a few updates you'd run into crashes and lock ups. Most people fixed it by taking out a gig or two, running updates, then putting the other stick back in.

 

[guitardude777]

I'm running SP1 with all of the updates. The only update left is SP2; i'll update it today and see if it fixes anything.

 

[CBrooks]

I had the same problem with my 32-bit installation of vista, after i installed windows 7 RC it never happened again.

But your problem may be something totally different. Like celegorm already suggested I would test your ram.

 

[Celegorm]

Hmm SP1 should have cleared it up. Let me know how memtest goes, and if you could please humor me and run the HDD test as well.

 

[nevermind1534]

I think maybe the windows installation or, more likely, the memory.

 

[guitardude777]

I ran tests and my memory and hard drive are fine. I've realized that the ATI driver for my AMD motherboard will not install the Northbride Filter Driver. It tells me that it has installed correctly, but when I restart the computer and launch the installation wizard again, it says that it is not installed. I need to find a way to make it install correctly, because I'm thinking that could be the problem. Also, I'm thinking the problem could have something to do with the fairly old ATI Radeon X300 card I have installed. Should installing a PCI Express 1.0 card in a 2.0 slot cause any problems?

I've discovered that when I can make windows lock up by running a game. The game that's making vista lock up is called Rise of Nations, which is not graphic intensive at all. Does anyone know why the system would be having problems with my ATI Radeon X300 video card? I installed all of the newest drivers, so it should be fine, right? I guess the only other option would be to buy a new video card if that is what's causing the lockups.