System Lockups constantly. Please Help

[MDK]

I recently posted this to a different forum and have recieved no response so I thought I would try here. It is a long post but I really hope you guys can help. I am one step away from giving up completely. Here goes:

Good Day,
A first time poster to this forum and I am at my wits end. I recently upgraded to a new system and it has done nothing but give me a headache. Here are the specs:

OS: Win98SE
1Ghz AMD Athlon (Socket A)
Asus A7V-E mobo
384MB PC-133 RAM
ATI All in Wonder 128 Pro (32 Meg)
Promise Ultra 100TX2 IDE Controller
Dell OEM Turtle Beach Montego Sound Card (From my old system)
20GB 5400rpm Western Digital Hard Drive (OS Drive - Primary Master)
30GB 5400rpm Western Digital Hard Drive (Video rendering drive)
40GB 7200rpm Western Digital Hard Drive (Video capture drive)
SMC Fast Ethernet Controller
Creative 8432E CD Burner (Secondary Master)
Hitatchi DVD-ROM (Primary Slave)

I think that is it.

For generally usage, internet, word processing, etc..., the system seems okay. However, as soon as I start working with, or playing, any audio-video files, the system locks up on me and I must hit the reset button. When I am working inside a video editing package the system perfoms a little better, maybe locks up 50% of the time, but as soon as I try to play a a-v file it is a near guaranteed freeze. Even, once in a while, clicking "OK" in a dialog box will freeze it up. In general the system is very unstable.
To the best of my knowledge I am running the latest drivers, except for the ATI card where I am running the latest drivers that offer 'Video for Windows' support. My BIOS is the latest available from the ASUS site, the one that came pre-installed on the board.

I am desperate and just about ready to take an axe to the whole thing. The reason I upgraded was for audio video work and it is the biggest thing this system is the $hit$ at.
I reasonably know my way around a system, but I am not a tech by any means.

Thanks for any and all help and sorry for the long post
MDK

P.S. If I forgot anything let me know and I will post. TIA

P.S.S. I also read once that there are some issues with VIA chipsets and the Aureal chip set on the Turtle Beach sound card. True?

I built a system for my Dad with an Asus mb with via chipset and ati video. There are some issues. go to ati website and do some searching. Also check latest 4in1 drivers at via website. thats all I ccan suggest...MJ

[MDK]

chiefmate,

I have looked somewhat at the ATI site regarding the issues but really have found no answers that worked. I also am running the latest VIA drivers.

Don't know what to try next.

Thanks for your reply
MDK

[zzyzzx]

Exactly what program are you using to watch these vidoes on?
Plus ATI traditionally doesn't do a good job of supporting VIA MB's. I get the impression that they don't even consider them until they get a lot of complaints, or something.

[MDK]

zzyzzx,

Most of the vid it is just mediaplayer for regular vidfiles, and powerdvd for MPEG2 and SVCD.
The problem is not just limited to that instance though. It seems to be something that is system wide. Basically, I play audio-video, system crashes

Thanks for your post
MDK

[dancoe]

MDK

I have close to the same set up as you. The only real difference is that I have a QDI motherboard, but it also uses the VIA 4in1 drivers.

I too was having almost the same problems as you and it was right after I built the system and was pretty frustrated.

Mine turned out to be a BIOS issue. One thing you have to keep in mind is that the newest BIOS isn't always the best.
Modifications that are made to the new version of the BIOS may not even pertain to your situation and in turn effect your set up.

My advice is to flash the BIOS with the previous version and work your way down until you find one that makes your system run at its best for what you primarily use it for.

Some PC freaks just have to have the newest drivers, firmware, BIOS versions, but the versions never change significantly but only add a few new instructions.

Good luck,

email me if you want more help.

[MDK]

Hi dancoe,

Thanks for the reply. I have not upgraded the BIOS on my mobo, about the only thing I haven't. There is only one BIOS version available on the ASUS website, for my mobo (ASUS A7V-E) and I am still in the process of trying to find out if it is older or newer than the one that I have. I have bios version 1002c and the one on the website is version 1002b. To me the website one has an earlier designation but the release date is a couple of months after mine. Once i can confirm that it is newer than mine I may try it.

As for everything else, I have tried so many things on so many new installs it is not even funny. If I can't figure something out soon I may just take you up on the e-mail offer

Thanks again all for the replies
MDK

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: MDK on 2001-07-06 19:32:33 ]</font>

[brynuk]

Have you tried here http://www.amdmb.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?s=181ea238afb1f0c0ac8f9395f78d54f2&forumid=8

[shochan]

I had the same exact problem, First off I moved my sound card to the last pci slot (chances are your sound card is in slot 4 or 5, Right?) furthest away from your agp slt. and install the 1002b bios. and that should hopefully take care of it.

[MDK]

brynuk,

Thanks for the link. I have searched around that site and found some answers, I will go and look around again. There is so much info out there you never know when you are going to miss something. Thanks

shocan,

I have not tried that yet. Actually I think my sound card is in PCI slot 2, almost right next to the AGP slot. Right after this post, okay, actually at 11:00am after Voyager I am going to move my sound card and update my BIOS. Wish me luck. If you don't mind, what are your system specs?

Thanks again for the replies
MDK (feeling the hope again)

[MDK]

Okay here we go,

It is starting to look like all of the aforementioned problems are related to the sound card (DELL OEM Turtle Beach Montego - a relic from my old system).

I moved the sound card to the last PCI slot and hard the same problems - constant hard lockup. I then flashed the bios to 1002B - an earlier bios version than the one on my card. Same problems. Frustated as all hell, I removed the sound card from the device manager and started playing around with audio-video files, without the audio of course. You know what, no crashes, no lockups, no bad things at all . Amazingly enough the system seemed stable

Oover the last month I have tried that f&*^ing sound card in 4 different PCI slots and always the same result - crash and burn.

Next problem, what replace it with. I am going to test further, but I think that is the problem. I was wondering if a few of you wonderful prople out there could post what sound cards you use and the luck you have had with them. I think I am going to stay away from Creative though since it sounds like the 5.1 card will only serve to open a new box of problems for me.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated and thank you all for the help to this point.

Cheers
MDK

P.S. sorry for the long post but I am a man with his faith and happiness on the virge of renewal.

[Rise]

Ok, here we go…

My computer:
OS: Win98SE
1Ghz AMD Athlon (Socket A)
MSI K7T Turbo
256 PC-133 RAM
Pinnacle Studio DC10 plus
SB live 1024
30 GB 7200 Maxtor (slave)
40 GB 5400 Maxtor (master)
Liteon 52X (master)
Liteon Burn Proof CD-RW (slave)

I have had exactly the same problems. I was spending a lot of time trying to solve the problem. My computer was in the repair shop so many times that I lost count; and no luck from there.

One time I was spending an evening and night on the net searching some help… and guess what? I did find the solution that worked with me.

VIA has announced that there is a problem with their chipset. The problem comes, when working with large files and sound card (they said SB card). From the site http://www.amdzone.com/files.cfm you can find the latest VIA drivers (4-in-1) and BIOS upgrade (ASUS 1008_01e). This BIOS is probably not on the ASUS site, because it’s a “beta” version that fixes lock-up problem. The site is also very good when searching AMD related solutions.

I can’t be sure that this will work for you, but it did for me and now I’m creating nice SVCDs with my system.

Hopefully you get your system working...