Vista freezes solid on AMD dual core, single core ok

Hi!
I am totally frustrated and clueless with my Vista Ultimate system. Usually
after a few minutes after booting, the system freezes solid, no BSOD, no
dump, only reset "solves" the situation. I can consistently generate a crash
by opening Word and just keeping <return> pressed until a few pages are there
- lock-up.

System is AMD Athlon X2 6000+, 3 GB memory, ASUS M2N32-SLI Premium
motherboard.

I have by now replaced the graphics adapter (NVIDIA instead of ATI, so all
other drivers), updated the BIOS, put in a stronger power supply, tried with
almost all on-board devices disabled (USB, firewire, LAN, audio, one of the
SATA controllers), moved the harddrive to the other SATA controller disabling
the unused one, removed one set of memory, then the other, ran memtest86,
..... Even under a "diagnostic startup" I get the same result.

UNLESS I boot with only 1 core enabled. Then it seems to work fine.

Now, since it also happens in diagnostic mode and I excluded most of the
hardware (except for the CPU), I'm a bit lost as to what could still cause
these crashes. For now, the system is completely useless, as by the time I
started the application I need, the system has frozen and it's groundhog day
all over.

Does anyone have any idea what I can still do (besides scrapping the system
and buying a pencil instead)? I'd appreciate any help. Greatly!!

Thanks!!

Cheers,
Hendrik

 

A great Vista troubleshooting story
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=1761

Random Windows errors? Check the hardware
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=1789

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

---------------------------------------------------------------

Hi!
I am totally frustrated and clueless with my Vista Ultimate system. Usually
after a few minutes after booting, the system freezes solid, no BSOD, no
dump, only reset "solves" the situation. I can consistently generate a crash
by opening Word and just keeping <return> pressed until a few pages are there
- lock-up.

System is AMD Athlon X2 6000+, 3 GB memory, ASUS M2N32-SLI Premium
motherboard.

I have by now replaced the graphics adapter (NVIDIA instead of ATI, so all
other drivers), updated the BIOS, put in a stronger power supply, tried with
almost all on-board devices disabled (USB, firewire, LAN, audio, one of the
SATA controllers), moved the harddrive to the other SATA controller disabling
the unused one, removed one set of memory, then the other, ran memtest86,
..... Even under a "diagnostic startup" I get the same result.

UNLESS I boot with only 1 core enabled. Then it seems to work fine.

Now, since it also happens in diagnostic mode and I excluded most of the
hardware (except for the CPU), I'm a bit lost as to what could still cause
these crashes. For now, the system is completely useless, as by the time I
started the application I need, the system has frozen and it's groundhog day
all over.

Does anyone have any idea what I can still do (besides scrapping the system
and buying a pencil instead)? I'd appreciate any help. Greatly!!

Thanks!!

Cheers,
Hendrik

 

....forgot to mention that I had also changed the SATA cable... to no avail.
;-)

Hendrik

 

Doe the event logs reveal anything?
Have you tried downgrading to 2GB of memory with just one matched pair of
1GB Dims?
How much virtual memory do you have allocated?

 

Nothing in the event logs, except a note that the shutdown was unexpected.
Re. memory: I originally had 2GB matched DDR2 RAM, where I already had the
problem. Then added another GB matched to 3GB, and also tried with only the
new 1GB installed. Same difference.
On virtual, it's normally on "system decides", but I also tried to limit to
512-1024MB. Same thing.

BTW, forgot to mention earlier that temperature is nice and low, enough
ventilation and fans going and monitored via Everest. Lock-ups are not in any
way linked to temperature increases, high HD activity, or high CPU load.

Only remedy is 1 cpu only, or it seems to run in safe mode, but this is hard
to test, as the only sure way I had to crash is using Word, all other freezes
feel random, and Word wants a new activation if the system is in safe
mode.... Not going to open another can of worms there.

Anyway, 1 cpu seems to work, safe mode seems to work, but even in a
diagnostic startup it crashes. Makes me believe it would be some device
driver which loads in diagnostic mode but not in safe mode. What could that
be?

Since I changed the graphics adapter to a totally different one, and
disabled most hardware to test along the way, it must be deep in the Vista
system. Any ideas????

Appreciate your help!

Hendrik

 

If you have not re-installed Vista after all of the changes I suggest that
run
Vista Repair. Be sure both CPUs are enabled in the BIOS first.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial148.html#overview

 

Hi!

I assume you mean booting from Vista DVD and using the startup repair
function? Tried that, came back with no problems identified. Or is there
another way to get Vista to "repair" all drivers to a current state, even if
it thinks the right one is installed (e.g. in case of a corrupt file)?

For me it now boils down to a device driver which seems to be linked to the
MB (ASUS M2N32-SLI Premium with AM2) which does not get loaded in safe mode,
but does get started in diagnostic startup, and which has a dual-core problem.

Is there any way one can write a log of all driver calls to at least have a
log of where the thing freezes? Since there is no event entry, its a bit a
walk in the fog otherwise.

Thanks again for your help!

Cheers,
Hendrik