Vista - Random freeze and lock-up of the system

Hi,

I am using Windows Vista 64 bits Ultimate Edition. Let me provide you with
some system specs before i begin to explain the problems i am experiencing.

CPU: Intel Quad-Core 2.4Ghz
CPU Fan: Zalman (dont remember model) but its a big circle fan in copper
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tracer 800Mhz 4Gig
Motherboad: Asus Striker Extreme with last BIOS update
Graphic: Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTX OC2 768 Megs
HDD: 2 SATA Western Digital 300Gig each
Parition: regular NTFS (not using RAID)
Sound: X-Fi card provided with the motherboard
Network: Gigabit provided with the motherboard
Powersupply: Total of 1200watts seperated in two powersupply of 600Watts.
I am using one powersupply for my video-card and
DVD-Burner.
The second powersupply is used for the motherboard and
HDD.

Here his the problems:

The first time i installed Windows, i was getting blue screen of death. I
saw on some forums it was related with the 4Gig of ram so i removed two stick
to let only 2Gig. The installation worked perfectly after that. I decided
then to apply all the patch from Windows Update (a total of 51 patch in my
case). This was important to be able to use my two other stick of memory.
After the patch was done, i decided to shut down the PC. I've added my two
last stick then turn back on the PC. The the blue screen of dead appear again
before i was able to see the logon screen. If i remove the two i can boot but
got problems.

In safe-mode with networking everything work fine, no lock-up, no crash or
blue screen.

In regular mode, its different, lock-up, blue screen, crash, etc. Sometime
it boot up correctly and i am able to use the PC for a small amount of time
then it suddently lock-up even if i am not doing anything with it. I mean
lock-up when Idle. Lock-up when i am watching a video on Youtube, etc.
Sometime i can hear the sound trottle when it lock up.

I've tested the memory with the utility included in Windows and the report
tell me everything is fine. I used checkdisk and it found some stuff to
repair. Thats normal because the shut down wasn't done the normal way. But no
bad sector at all, just corrupted index.

I tryied DXDIAG and it will not complete, somewhere, the green bar at the
bottom lock-up so i tested my graphic card in another PC with XP and it seem
to be good.

Im reading forums since yesterday to try to find idea or tricks. Most people
point to a "memtest" program i should use to check my memories but since i
used the one from Windows and it tell me everything is good i assume that the
memory is good.
I have no idea where to find the memtest thing. Im not even sure i could
burn it cause of my crashes and lock-up. Its the only PC i have.

I haven't modified the BIOS setting, everything is set to "AUTO" in the
memory section. And i don't want to harm my component without being sure
before changing the setup there.

Im a computer technician, but im not working in that anymore since years so
i may have forgot something. So i ask for a MvP help before calling the
support of Microsoft. I heard alot of horror stories about Vista and memory
handling so i want to get others opinions on what i could do. I tryied to use
the program that read the MEMORY.DMP file and found a error message about
storport.sys may have cause something but i havent installed the symbols so i
miss alot of informations in the file.

Any help would be appreciated. Please post your reply in the newsgroup. I
will be notified when a reply is done. It may help others in the same
situation as me.

Thanks in advance,

Dominic

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929777

--
Jane, not plain 64 bit enabled :-)
Batteries not included. Braincell on vacation ;-)
MVP Windows Shell/User
"Dominic Gauthier" <DominicGauthier@xxxxxx> wrote in
message news:887FBE45-39F6-4E0D-ACAE-7E47E2E51D76@xxxxxx

Hi,

You can find alternate memory tests here:
http://www.docmemory.com/
http://www.memtest86.com/

I've found with some boards as well that setting memory timings manually,
rather than using auto, resolves this type of issue.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"Dominic Gauthier" <DominicGauthier@xxxxxx> wrote in
message news:887FBE45-39F6-4E0D-ACAE-7E47E2E51D76@xxxxxx

Hi Jane,

Thanks for the link. I have another quick question about the link you
provide. The patch you can download from that link is not included in Windows
Update? I was assuming it was included?

thanks,

Dominic

"Jane C" wrote:

Hi Rick,

Thanks from providing me the links. I will check into that. Is there a good
place where i can find the manually way to program Crucial Ballistix Tracer
memory? I checked their site but didnt find any link for those type of
informations.

I know that the Asus Striker Extreme is using a Nvidia chipset. Some people
are saying that this board need good setup to make it work so your idea isnt
bad at all.
Im gonna good check both site you send me and read... thats the best way to
learn =)

Thanks,

Dominic


"Rick Rogers" wrote: