PC Freezing - Event 129 Error

Jimble · 27 Dec 2010

I would desperately love someone to help me with a problem that has been ongoing for three years now. During this time I have poured time and money in to replacing drives, upgrading the OS, troubleshooting innumerable possible causes. Nothing has ever helped. I finally believe I have an idea what is actually wrong!... But none of the fixes I've seen on Google appear to be relevant, so I turn to this forum for some proper advice.

When using particular programs (virus scan through BitDefender, any internet browser activity, Picasta and many more) the system will freeze up for approximately 30-60 seconds before working normally again. Sometimes this happens every few minutes, sometimes every half hour, either way it is infuriating and sooner or later freezes up completely and the machine has to be rebooted.

Looking in the Event Log every time it freezes there is a corresponding Warning: Event 129, Source = nvstor - "Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort0, was issued".

I am not using RAID (I have just a single 1TB HD) so I thought the fixes mentioned of using Device Manager to remove Device 0 and Device 1 and disable the RAID option in Storage Controllers was a no brainer... Sadly I have no IDE ATA / ATAPI Controllers option in my Device Manager (see screenshot) nor do I see a RAID option in my Storage Controllers (again, see screenshot)!?

I thought I was so close to finally sorting this and am at my wits end as this machine would be amazing (after all the flipping upgrades!) if it wasn't for this daft issue that causes it to freeze all the time. Please can someone offer some assistance?...

Johnathan Lyman · 27 Dec 2010

I'm going to ask this because someone else most likely will and it doesn't hurt to get it out of the way:

Have you updated your nForce Chipset drivers?
During all these upgrades, was a motherboard replacement part of them?

Jimble · 28 Dec 2010

Hi Jellyman, many thanks for your time.

I did think about including that info, sorry, should have done so in the original post... To answer: The Mobo has not been replaced so far. I had a more PC savy colleague of mine check the machine last July and according to him both the Nvidia GeForce 6150 LE drivers and the mobo were up to date, "no driver update or BIOS flash required" he advised, or something of that nature?...

I'm not sure of the accuracy of his findings and am more than willing to check both given instruction...

Johnathan Lyman · 28 Dec 2010

Jimble said:

Hi Jellyman, many thanks for your time.

I did think about including that info, sorry, should have done so in the original post... To answer: The Mobo has not been replaced so far. I had a more PC savy colleague of mine check the machine last July and according to him both the Nvidia GeForce 6150 LE drivers and the mobo were up to date, "no driver update or BIOS flash required" he advised, or something of that nature?...

I'm not sure of the accuracy of his findings and am more than willing to check both given instruction...

How old is the board?

Jimble · 29 Dec 2010

Hi Jellyman,

Unsure how to tell to be honest? The whole thing was purchased in May 2007. The BIOS information advises it is version Dell Inc 1.1.8, 18/04/2007 if that helps?

Johnathan Lyman · 29 Dec 2010

Jimble said:

Hi Jellyman,

Unsure how to tell to be honest? The whole thing was purchased in May 2007. The BIOS information advises it is version Dell Inc 1.1.8, 18/04/2007 if that helps?

Ok. I totally spaced and didn't look at your specs. Looking up the series I'd say no older than late 2006 given that it came with Vista when it originally shipped.

Were you able to verify that the nVidia drivers were updated properly?

Jimble · 30 Dec 2010

Hi Johnathan,

Thanks for the idea of including my specs in the signature line, should help everyone. It was indeed shipped with Vista (since moved to W7 Ultimate).

Looking at my original (larger) screenshot, I went in to Device Manager then the Display Adapters and also Storage Controllers areas and anything relating to nVidia I right clicked and selected 'Update driver software'. All of them advised: "Windows has determined the driver software for your device is up to date"... Should I be looking to update anything else?

Johnathan Lyman · 30 Dec 2010

Jimble said:

Hi Johnathan,

Thanks for the idea of including my specs in the signature line, should help everyone. It was indeed shipped with Vista (since moved to W7 Ultimate).

Looking at my original (larger) screenshot, I went in to Device Manager then the Display Adapters and also Storage Controllers areas and anything relating to nVidia I right clicked and selected 'Update driver software'. All of them advised: "Windows has determined the driver software for your device is up to date"... Should I be looking to update anything else?

Don't check using that method. All that does is ping Windows Update. Go to nVidia's Web site and download the latest chipset and storage controller drivers (if they're separate) for your board. In your case, GeForce (64 bit) (32 bit), nForce (Download a free app called Speccy from Piriform (Piriform - Download CCleaner, Defraggler, Recuva, Speccy - Millions of users worldwide!) and take a look at what your motherboard chipset is, specifically. I'm guessing it's the nForce 430) Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers. The nForce chipset driver package has storage controller drivers in it.

Give those a whirl.

Jimble · 31 Dec 2010

Thanks again Jonathan,

I downloaded Speccy as instructed and it advised my Mobo was using chipset model: GeForce 6150. I therefore went to the link you provided Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers to find the relevant download.

I searched using the following criteria: GeForce / GeForce 6 Series / GeForce 6150 / Windows 7 64 bit / English UK... There was a 'GeForce 6150 LE' option that matches the description of my graphics card but I went with what Speccy advised (chipset model: GeForce 6150).

This brought up a download option that matched the one you predicted earlier in your post (with the exception of the language type of course): NVIDIA DRIVERS 260.99 WHQL

I have downloaded and installed 'GeForce/ION Driver Release 260' - Version 260.99, Release 25/10/2010 and am about to reboot and put the machine through a range of exercises that would normally result in the nvstor Event 129 Warning freeze...

A massive thanks once again and fingers crossed!!...

Jimble · 31 Dec 2010

Sad news I'm afraid,

Within 5 minutes of working in Picasa the system froze up. Looking in Event Viewer at that exact time... The usual unfixable (to date) Warning: Event 129, nvstor, "Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort0, was issued". Arrrggghh! I am looking at possible redundancy soon and simply can't afford to replace this machine. If there is any way to fix it I'm willing to try but I am reaching the end of my tether having put up with it for the best part of three years.

So the chip-set has definitely been updated and doesn't appear to be the cause of the issue. Any further ideas? Many thanks again to all for your support... Effectively that's you so far Jonathan! Thanks.