Dear Groups (sorry for crosspost),

Last few days, I'm plagued by some vague instability. Every now and then my
whole screen freezes (pc hangs). Harddisk seems to be doing something at the
time the PC freezes. This happens only in Windows.
I've excluded memory or overclocking issues (6 hours MemTest86, 8 hours
Orthos burn-in, long tem gaming, no problem). Also happens when not
overclocked.

I'm using the Asus P5N-E SLI, 2 sticks of Kingston 6400LL @ 533 MHz, E4300 @
2400 MHz, Antec Truepower Trio 650 Watt, single eVGA 8800GTS 320, Seagate
320 GB HDD, Western Digital 120GB HDD, Samsung 18x DVD+-RW. I'm getting low
temperatures, installed a heatsink on southbridge.

Anyone had similar experiences? Or even an answer?

After I got the board, I upgraded quite soon to the 0505 BIOS. I'm not sure
if i had this issue before that. Now I've quickly upgraded to 0602, hoping
this will cure it. Didnt hang yet. Also installed a third party VGA driver.

TIA,

--
Met vriendelijke groeten, Thomas vd Horst

Thomas wrote:
Sorry, I included the less busy ASUS newsgroup. I hope this way of including
the busier one is okay.

--
Met vriendelijke groeten, Thomas van der Horst

Hi Thomas,
I have the same board, different (other stuff), and the same video card,
I'm not seeing this, although I am seeing a couple of strange things, such
as hanging occasionally during startup at the BIOS press DEL or TAB screen,
and sometimes Vista not starting.
What OS version are you using? Does the hang recover? Is the hang/freeze
total, i.e.. no mouse, no Ctl-Alt-Del response, no num lock/caps lock led
response?
I'm running the 0505 BIOS, I didn't know a newer version was out. I'll have
to give that a try.
Sorry, no answers, only questions!
Jack r

"Thomas" <ThomasH (AT) lycosmail (DOT) nl> wrote

Thomas wrote:
Some more details: Running XP Pro. I even installed XP-Pro x64, to see if
that mattered. But the new install gave me the same problem (after
installing all the drivers, last driver was for the videocard).

This night I did another burn-in, still no problem.

To Phil, yes, I did use that Orthos test (also stress memory), but only for
an hour or 2.

I hope dearly that this BIOS upgrade helped me. Well, I'm off to work. Let's
see what the PC does.

--
Met vriendelijke groeten, Thomas van der Horst

Jack R wrote:
Well, keeping my fingers crosses, my PC still seems to be functioning since
BIOS upgrade... But I'll refrain from doing anything extra-ordinary until
I'm certain it's fully stable...

The hang was total, the system didn't respond to ANYTHING. I could just use
the 'reset' button to get it back to life.

Well, I'm cooling the southbridge now, using a small Zalman block (only
4eu50, incredible).
http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=71

I'm thinking about replacing the northbridge cooler as well. I've gotten the
CM Blue Ice. I hope it can just fit next to my Arctic Freezer 7. Any idea if
northbridge cooling can be removed without removing mainboard? If it can't,
I'll wait a week (stability isssue).
The cooler:
http://www.cluboverclocker.com/revie...eIce/index.htm

--
Met vriendelijke groeten, Thomas van der Horst

Thomas wrote:
Last two days, I've had the same problem all over again. I'm going to try
and return the board. Pity I installed the southbridge, have to see if I can
clean the muck from the southbridge...

--
Met vriendelijke groeten, Thomas van der Horst

Thomas wrote:
Apparently some tweaked memory settings took care of the
problem for some people here:
http://www.houseofhelp.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=58425
The "Jimmy Smith settings" may be worth a try!

Jack R wrote:
Hey Jack,

I read on the web that 0602 AND 0505 are sh*t. I now downgarded to 0401.
This BIOS is stable, AND I can change my multiplier! Now running at 8 * 333
= 2667 MHz...

--
Met vriendelijke groeten, Thomas van der Horst

Good info, thanks!
Now, should I wait for a 'new and improved' BIOS version, or downgrade?
I'll grab a copy of 0401 while I ponder this...<g>
And, by the way, I'm coming to the conclusion that Vista is the OCer's worst
enemy.
I may have to stuff an XP drive in this system to prove.
Jack R

"Thomas" <ThomasH (AT) lycosmail (DOT) nl> wrote