Help? System locks up in all OS's and Live DVD 1.9

[mikeescott]

OK, now I'm lost again. I tested all 4 sticks in the 3rd slot and all passed. I putt all 4 in and tested. passed once then locked up. I have now been running for about 30 hours with a pair of dual channel 1 gig sticks in slots 2 and 4 plus half a dual channel kit in slot 1 (3 gigs total).

I installed 1.9-64 on the 74gig drive with all the drives plugged in and it went well, or so I thought. After restarting, I was unable to access any OS from Grub. The new 1.9-64 install said"NTDLDR is missing", 1.7 and XP ssaid "Error 17 : Cannot mount selected partition", and XP-64 said "Error 13 : Invalid or unsupported execytable format:

I zero filled the 2 older drives and removed them. Then installed XP on the 320gb drive in a 20gig partition and I'm in the process of installing 1.9 on the rest. When it is done, I will plug the 74gb 10,000RPM drive back in to install XP-64 and 1.9-64 and see how things go from there.

[SaddleTramp]

Howdy Mike, since it's seems to me that your problem is coming from hardware configuration problems thru the BIOS. If you have a name brand system, then check with the mfg (i.e. HP, Dell, etc...) to see it there are any BIOS updates that you may need to install. If it's a custom system, then check with ASUS for the BIOS update. Also, you might try and reset the BIOS back to default values (of course, record any settings that you have modified so you can change them back sometime later). Even if you haven't changed anything, reset it anyway. Another problem could be, although this is extremely rare, the CMOS battery on you Motherboard may be at a weak stage where it stills allows for normal operation, but is barely maintaining a high enough voltage to allow for your system to function seemingly normal. Kinda like the batteries in a flashlight. Although the flashlight burns, the light keeps getting weaker when left on. These are just a few thoughts I had of other things you could look for (as if you didn't have enough already huh ). Hope some of this helps ya (either by resolving the issues or at least advancing thru the process of eliminating causes of your problem).

[cowboy]

I think Saddle is on the right track..might need a Bios update..had problems running four sticks in the new build till an update..unless your running 64 bit in windows..any Ram over 3 gigs gets holed..may apply to Linux also..and in fact seems like the new build ran faster with just only two gigs..depends on your board and processor also..

[mikeescott]

OK, kinda had a long weekend (not much sleep). Left #3 slot empty and installed a dual boot XP & 1.9-32 on the 320gb 7,200rpm drive, then turned it into a quad boot machine by adding XP-64 & 1.9-64 to the 74gb 10,000rpm drive. Grub seems to be handleing everything well now. I am able to boot into each OS from Grub on the 74gb drive. If I need to, I can also boot into XP and 1.9-32 from Grub on the 320gb drive. I did not shut it down since Friday night and never had it lock up. I restarted it about 150 times though and no problems. All 4 OS's are installed and up to date with all my software and drivers installed as well. Most of my steeings have been adjusted to my liking. ASUS has not released a BIOS update in 2 years for my board and I am still using the most current version. I am going to flash them again tonight when I get home and see if that helps. Got a lot of settings to log though. I think these BIOS are the most detailed I have ever used, about 60 different adjustment points. I can only change about 4 things on my laptop.

[SaddleTramp]

OK, kinda had a long weekend (not much sleep). Left #3 slot empty and installed a dual boot XP & 1.9-32 on the 320gb 7,200rpm drive, then turned it into a quad boot machine by adding XP-64 & 1.9-64 to the 74gb 10,000rpm drive. Grub seems to be handleing everything well now. I am able to boot into each OS from Grub on the 74gb drive. If I need to, I can also boot into XP and 1.9-32 from Grub on the 320gb drive. I did not shut it down since Friday night and never had it lock up. I restarted it about 150 times though and no problems. All 4 OS's are installed and up to date with all my software and drivers installed as well. Most of my steeings have been adjusted to my liking. ASUS has not released a BIOS update in 2 years for my board and I am still using the most current version. I am going to flash them again tonight when I get home and see if that helps. Got a lot of settings to log though. I think these BIOS are the most detailed I have ever used, about 60 different adjustment points. I can only change about 4 things on my laptop.

Glad it straightened out for ya mike...little advice tho'...don't try to fix what ain't broke no more If everything's running normal and no freeze-ups, don't think I would flash the BIOS right now...just a thought

[mikeescott]

Glad it straightened out for ya mike...little advice tho'...don't try to fix what ain't broke no more If everything's running normal and no freeze-ups, don't think I would flash the BIOS right now...just a thought

I am going to flash the BIOS to see if I can get it working with all 4 gigs of ram again. Still down to 3gbs and it was maxed out on a few games last night. It also gets maxed out when I am encoding DVD's or editing large high quality pictures.

[SaddleTramp]

Glad it straightened out for ya mike...little advice tho'...don't try to fix what ain't broke no more If everything's running normal and no freeze-ups, don't think I would flash the BIOS right now...just a thought

I am going to flash the BIOS to see if I can get it working with all 4 gigs of ram again. Still down to 3gbs and it was maxed out on a few games last night. It also gets maxed out when I am encoding DVD's or editing large high quality pictures.

Ok...see ya point there...good luck, hope that does the trick for ya

[vinca]

it might be ram, also have you tried opening up your computer and looking physically at the mainboard? if you see any "poofed" capacitors ( the tiny trashcans) with gunk on them, you need either to replace your motherboard or to desolder and solder on a replacement capacitor.