OT: pc reboots often, locks up..driver ideas?

ken c wrote on 9/20/2006, 7:38 AM

Hi -

All summer, I've had problems with my win2k pc (w/2 gigs ram, asus m/b) rebooting and/or locking up. I'm hoping one of you may have a suggestion for how to troubleshoot and fix it?

I get everything from IRQL bsods to plain lock-ups, usually when launching a new app, or closing one, or in the middle of a Vegas render, which is frustrating.

It's probably a matter of, I have so many dang programs installed, there's a driver conflict somewhere. Challenge is finding and fixing the bugger. I get at least 2-3 lockups requiring reboot every day. frustrating!

Now I could use verifier.exe to troubleshoot them individually, or in small groups, but it would take forever, eg putting suspect drivers in pool tracking status and seeing which ones have problems... plus the issue of verifier bsodding on reboot and needing to modify the registry to re-enable access etc.. seems like a big headache.

I use a lot of anti-v /anti-spyware programs, so it's probably not a virus/trojan (I use norton, zonealarm, adaware, pestpatrol, webroot and many others), and check the registry windows/run keys and process checkers, and nothing looks out of place.

Any suggestions? I think it's just, I have a lot of stuff running at once, and one driver somewhere corrupts the memory pool over time and causes reboots/hangs, and not sure how to fix it. That's the problem with installing so much a/v related software; something has a conflict and causes problems.

I'd sure appreciate any tips -- thanks all,

Ken

Comments

Grazie wrote on 9/20/2006, 7:46 AM

OK, Ken let's keep it simple:-

#1 - You have lots of AV ware working?

#2 - During Summer? Hot? Overheating PC?

#3 - Get another PC and run your other AV stuff on that. PCs are cheap. Your time aint. Factor in the ROI on several "other" PCs and network 'em.

JJKizak wrote on 9/20/2006, 7:48 AM

Sounds like you need a junk PC for online stuff only, and use the good one for your video.

JJK

prairiedogpics wrote on 9/20/2006, 8:03 AM

My video PC has one drive for the OS, and two media drives, one 112 GB, the other 160 GB.
Last night it started locking up whenever I tried to access files on the larger drive.
I downloaded a diagnostic utility from Seagate and burned the .iso image to a CD for a bootable CD.
Booted up to the CD and ran the utility and it did find a bad file system. I unplugged that drive from the mobo and everything ran fine.
More troubleshooting tonight to see if I can fix it or if I need a new drive.

My point: Your problem could be as low level as a bad hard drive.

Dan

ken c wrote on 9/20/2006, 8:13 AM

thanks - great ideas... agree re getting a new pc... I was holding off til the new dual-core cpus come out... not sure when that is? I've had best luck w/asus mobos, so I want to build a render pc out of that.. excellent point re time is more valuable than 1k or whatever for a new pc... great "nudge" to get me to build my next pc..

anyone know how long til the newest cpus dual-core amds or intels or whatever, will be released? or if they're already out?

good idea to just get new hardware with a 'clean' system, particularly for renders, I can always keep source avis on external hd's and move from one pc to antoher..

ken

MohammeD T wrote on 9/20/2006, 8:19 AM

i totaly agree with JJKizak advice, i had many programs on the same PC:

Vegas
DHDA
Photoshop
Office
Dreamweaver and Flash
and much more, and i also used the same PC for online browsing etc, and no matter what i do, the more programs i install the more problems i get, i bought a Cheap PC with 40GB C drive and just use it for office and email and online browsing etc, sometimes i also tryout softwares on it.

Dual cores are available, even on Laptops now..

TheHappyFriar wrote on 9/20/2006, 9:37 AM

i agree with grazie: overheating. check the cpu/mb temps.

i use the same pc for everything with no problems. if you're careful, it's no big deal. By carefull i mean you don't download illegal stuff.

the intel duel's are already out: core 2 duo. not sure when the amd ones are comming out.

JJKizak wrote on 9/20/2006, 9:38 AM

I believe the core 4 processors are being introduced around Christmas time.

JJK

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 9/20/2006, 11:44 AM

Ken, the Core2Duo's are out now (just barely) and are very fast for rendering etc..., they execute sse instructions (Vegas uses these) in about 1/3 the time that Core Duo's do. Also, if you are looking at a render horse, you could do a Xeon system, They're based on the Core 2 duo chipset and they are 64bit ability to take full advantage of Vista in 64bit, when it comes out) Otherwise I would wait till the 4 Core opterons come out from AMD, but personally, right now, I'd go with either a xeon sytem or a core 2 duo. You won't see a 1/3 rendering time or anything like that, but you will see an improvement in anything within vegas that utilizes SSE instructions.

Dave

ken c wrote on 9/20/2006, 2:56 PM

thanks Dave, and everyone... sounds like it would be worthwhile to get at least one of the new pcs ... and with my render schedule, I'm using my laptops etc for renders (they are really slow, but stable), so it would be worth it to get another render pc anyways.. I'll look into it all .. thx much!

ken