after an upgrade to pci-e i.e new mobo and graphics card, i get the occasional freeze up. in other words it just locks up and i have to use the reset button.

cpu is running at about 41 degrees c, mobo is running at 38. GPU (x1800xt) runs at about 60-66, which is not bad as peope have reported temps of up to 80! so heat doesn't seem to be an issue.

it has only done it playing games, nwn and oblivion, not surfing, etc. i haven't ran 3d mark yet.

other stuff: PSU is an 480 w antec, plenty of case fans (5 i think), windows up to date, not upgraded bios, chipset drivers, etc. using 6.4 cats with the oblivion hotfix.

anyoe got any ideas? its really pissing me off

No big ideas. Sounds like you know your shit, so a recommendation to format the HD is probably useless.

I would upgrade chipset #1, bios #2 drivers #3

yea, uninstall/reinstall base drivers...ie, remove motherboard & graphics drivers, then do the driver shuffle... install motherboard drivers, reboot, install graphics drivers, reboot, install directx, reboot.

Download process explorer and terminate any process that isn't required by Windows, then play your games. I used that method to troubleshoot my issues with Oblivion crashing...after some work, I narrowed the crashes down to the Sun Java updater. Since removing that from my system, I crash very very rarely.

3rd, mail me your PC and I'll look at it.

HD was formatted with a fresh install of windows

ok, i'll try the chipset drivers, etc. any idea of a good program to tell me the versions? asus information is crap

mmm..managed to find it out, seems i'm using the latest bios, apart from a beta one, cant find any newer chipset drivers than the ones i have. you still think i should re-install them?

btw, no idea how to uninstall my chipset drivers. not on the old 'add and remove programs' list

oh, and doesn't un-installing direct x do bad things? or do you mean install over the top?

For chipset and directx and driver you always just reinstall over the old ones.

If after doing that and doing Satis Process Explorer thing you still have lockup problem you might have a

-Falty bios that asus has yet to come out with which sinces its asus I wouldnt doubt

-have something miss-configured in your bios

-overclocking? Make sure the motherboard doesnt have somekind of default overclocking feature

you can actually uninstall nvidia chipset drivers. But yea, just install over top for the rest.

11b's got a point...if you're running some sort of high performance BIOS settings, you could try knocking it down a notch. I usually have my memory timings set real aggressively, for instance, since I buy quality RAM. You could try knocking all that crap down a notch. Turn off any integrated peripherals you're not using. If you reinstalled the O/S and have the same issue, it's not Windows. Did you search the internet? It could be a bug with the drivers, maybe. I had nothing but problems with VIA chipsets. I've been MUCH happier since switching to nForce.

ok, i'll re-install chipset and direct x and ati drivers, let ya know if it changes anything.

tbh, havent messed with the bios in anyway, apart from the normal boot from cd at start of install, etc. everything else at stock settings.

no overclocking at all, again, everything at stock speeds.

haven't re-installed windows since changing the mobo, didn't have these problems on my old msi mobo

current one is a K8N4-E deluxe nForce 4 mobo, so no via to worry about

well, you should be able ot uninstall the chipset drivers then. It shows up under nvidia in add/remove programs. If you're using chipset drivers supplied with the motherboard....don't. Download the ones off nvidia.com

ah, ok, yeah, using the ones from the disc. i'll give the nvidia ones a shot

EDIT: downloading now, interestingly enough, the ones of the disk are 6.66, now d/l version 6.70 ...asus really need to catch up..

well, something must be said for anything with 666 in it.

ok, updated chipset drivers, re-installed cats, re-installed direct x, anyone got any other ideas?

EDIT: just ran MemTest, RAM seems to be ok

ok, this is XP right? I believe it is...so, your machine may not be rebooting on its own, it may be XP, especially if you haven't tweaked it. Try this.

Right click on my computer, properties.
Go to the advanced tab
under startup and recovery, click settings
uncheck 'automatically restart' under the system failure tab
(screenshot attached below)

You'll still crash, and quite possibly blue screen, but at least you'll get more meaninful error messages out of it.

Also, have you checked your event logs? It's possible something of meaning was written there. To check them, right click on my computer and choose manage.
Open the Event Viewer portion
check the application and system logs around the time you had a reboot event and see if there are any interesting messages. (screenshot attached)

hey,

it doesn't re-boot as such, it just locks up. it doesn't respond at all, even the old ctrl+alt+delete doesn't work. the game is still running as such, it just stops and freeze frames. the only way to get out of it is to hit the re-set button.

i haven't tweaked windows as of yet, i'm at the in-laws atm, but i'll try what you said.

is it possible that the psu isn't good enough anymore?