Constant Freezes/Reboots, but no BSoD...

[BrimStone]

I've been having frequent freezes from start-up to about 10-20 minutes afterward. On a rare occasion I can avoid a crash for over 30 minutes, but a crash is inevitable.

I haven't been fortunate enough to get a BSOD, and my minidump file is over 2 days old (don't remember seeing any BSoD then either; Must have been really quick), but I could zip it up if you think it may still be helpful.

This is a brand new build (details listed on my control panel) with Windows 7 Home Premium clean installed and fully updated. Any ideas on how to get some debugging info or ideas on what may be causing problems will be extremely appreciated. Thanks

*Edit - Thanks for responding, CarlTR6. I had decided to uninstall my Norton IS 2010 for a bit, and also removed my Radeon 5770 (using HD4200 onboard now)... With some success. Though it could easily be coincidence, I managed to have 2.5 hrs of UpTime before the same old freeze happened. At least this time it restarted with only one false start and "Startup Repair" run.

The only critical msg I'm getting in Event Viewer is "EVENTID 41, task 63.... Kernel-Power" which I've attached a txt copy of. This event has happened a BUNCH of times, and seems to be about right to coincide with my freezes. Tried the automated help for it, and got nothing but an automated shrug. Thanks again for any help.

 

[CarlTR6]

Do you have Action Center in your Home Premium edition? If so, have you looked at maintenance for any messages? Have you checked Event Viewer for any errors?

I had the same symptoms and the above pointed to a graphics problem. However Device Manager showed the graphics card was functioning properly. It did turn out to be the graphics card.

A bad power supply can also cause these symptoms. I am interested to see what you find out.

 

[BrimStone]

*Correction Edit, see below posts. Even if the video card IS shot, then there is also something else wrong.

Well, it appears that it WAS (not only) my new video card. (But,) I haven't had a freeze all day long and only once since switching to solely onboard video. (Likely WAS a coincidence, as using only the onboard video began doing the exact same crashing behavior.)

I'll try to reinstall the HD 5770 tomorrow and with new/other drivers and hope for the best. Worst case, I'll have to RMA the bugger. I'll try and remember to report back, as these types of problems are all over the Net with very few solutions to be found.

 

[BrimStone]

Spoke too soon

I was about 5 minutes from switching back to my 5770, when I crashed and crashed and crashed. It was just like old times again. I hadn't changed a thing, but it took the same strategy as last time to stop the rolling crashes. I had to disable all USB in my BIOS, running my keyboard with a usb to ps2 adapter on it. No mouse ps2 on this MoBo, and its such a PitA navigating without a mouse

So, it seems I need to do something about my USB, but I have no idea what. I can't uninstall any drivers, as the hardware isn't even listed in my device manager while its disabled, and enabling it causes a crash immediately after the OS loads up, if not sooner. I don't think this can be coincidence, and I see a few other hits on google for USB + Win7 problems... I'd appreciate any help you all may have. For now, it looks like I'm off to scour the Internets.

(On the positive side, there's a good chance my shiny new video card isn't dead ^_^ ) Thanks again

 

[BrimStone]

Are there really no ideas or leads to this problem?

-Crashes constantly, often immediately; Especially with USB enabled in BIOS.

-No BSoD; only eventId 41, task 63 (Kernel-Power) critical event in viewer.

-Crashes are the same whether on the integrated HD4200 or HD5770 card.

I've got the latest BIOS installed, a 700w PSU (And 810W UPS). I'm trying to think of anything else relevant but my brain is fried... Any ideas at all would be appreciated. Tell me where I should focus my attention. Please, please, please...

 

[BrimStone]

Fixed, I think

Feels kind of silly responding to my own post, but I think I solved this problem. Hopefully it will help some other folks having the same issues.

After finally narrowing the problem down to my RAM, I found out that performance RAM just won't do with factory BIOS settings. I went to Mushkin's site and set my bios settings as recommended and now it seems all is well... FINALLY!

I had gotten the freezes and crashing to stop by pulling out one of my Mushkin 996657 2gb sticks, but they'd happen very quickly once I put the other back in. I switched the "good one" for the "bad one" and it still worked perfectly fine, just not with both at once. Yep, just the BIOS settings needed fixing. Seems ASUS (at least) sets their RAM voltage simply way too low. Cheers all!