Vista - Computer Randomly Locks up.

This is my 4th reinstallation of Vista Ultimate. I keep on reinstalling
because I heard that fixes the problem. It doesn't, I built my computer. It
doesnt matter what im doing but it will lock up and it wont unlock for 10
mins. then everything comes back like nothing was wrong. Does anyone have a
single clue what to do. Also I went through all my drivers, and had it pick
which ones would be best or whatever. Specs,

Vista Ultimate
Pentium 4 3.4ghz ht
1gb Kingston ram
1gb Crosairs ram
512mb HyperX Kingston Ram
160gb Western digital, 250gb westerndigital, 250 gb Hitachi hard drives
Motherboard: PA1 MVP ECS
Graphic Card; Ati Radeon 1600xt 512mb Pci-Express
Sound Blaster Audigy.

Bring up the Task Manager and leave it up...see what's taking your CPU time
when it locks up. You might Disable the Windows Search service. Make sure
you have the latest video drivers from the manufacturers web site. Creative
has new drivers as of last week, I think, so make sure you get them too.
Don't let Windows Update get drivers for you, but get them from the
manufacturer. What other software have you loaded? Finally, some systems
don't work as fast if the ram is unbalanced...I'd remove the 512Mb and just
keep the two 1Gb sticks.

Dana Cline - MCE MVP

"emayers12" <emayers12@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5D6200CF-B6AA-4288-83B8-BFA44433F413@microsoft.com...
> This is my 4th reinstallation of Vista Ultimate. I keep on reinstalling
> because I heard that fixes the problem. It doesn't, I built my computer.
> It
> doesnt matter what im doing but it will lock up and it wont unlock for 10
> mins. then everything comes back like nothing was wrong. Does anyone have
> a
> single clue what to do. Also I went through all my drivers, and had it
> pick
> which ones would be best or whatever. Specs,
>
> Vista Ultimate
> Pentium 4 3.4ghz ht
> 1gb Kingston ram
> 1gb Crosairs ram
> 512mb HyperX Kingston Ram
> 160gb Western digital, 250gb westerndigital, 250 gb Hitachi hard drives
> Motherboard: PA1 MVP ECS
> Graphic Card; Ati Radeon 1600xt 512mb Pci-Express
> Sound Blaster Audigy.

"emayers12" wrote
> This is my 4th reinstallation of Vista Ultimate. I keep on reinstalling
> because I heard that fixes the problem. It doesn't, I built my computer.
> It
> doesnt matter what im doing but it will lock up and it wont unlock for 10
> mins. then everything comes back like nothing was wrong. Does anyone have
> a
> single clue what to do. Also I went through all my drivers, and had it
> pick
> which ones would be best or whatever. Specs,
>
> Vista Ultimate
> Pentium 4 3.4ghz ht
> 1gb Kingston ram
> 1gb Crosairs ram
> 512mb HyperX Kingston Ram
> 160gb Western digital, 250gb westerndigital, 250 gb Hitachi hard drives
> Motherboard: PA1 MVP ECS
> Graphic Card; Ati Radeon 1600xt 512mb Pci-Express
> Sound Blaster Audigy.

You have three different types of RAM. Have you run the memory diagnostics
on it? Also have you removed all but one 1GB of one type of RAM and tested
it that way?

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

"Rock" wrote:

> "emayers12" wrote
> > This is my 4th reinstallation of Vista Ultimate. I keep on reinstalling
> > because I heard that fixes the problem. It doesn't, I built my computer.
> > It
> > doesnt matter what im doing but it will lock up and it wont unlock for 10
> > mins. then everything comes back like nothing was wrong. Does anyone have
> > a
> > single clue what to do. Also I went through all my drivers, and had it
> > pick
> > which ones would be best or whatever. Specs,
> >
> > Vista Ultimate
> > Pentium 4 3.4ghz ht
> > 1gb Kingston ram
> > 1gb Crosairs ram
> > 512mb HyperX Kingston Ram
> > 160gb Western digital, 250gb westerndigital, 250 gb Hitachi hard drives
> > Motherboard: PA1 MVP ECS
> > Graphic Card; Ati Radeon 1600xt 512mb Pci-Express
> > Sound Blaster Audigy.
>
> You have three different types of RAM. Have you run the memory diagnostics
> on it? Also have you removed all but one 1GB of one type of RAM and tested
> it that way?
>
> --
> Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]
>
>
Thanks both of you, the ram was the problem I removed and ran one at a time.
I kept on trying though so i could get the most ram possible and the 512
hyper x and the kingston 1gb worked and the other one messed it up. Thanks a
bunch!

"emayers12" wrote
<snip>

> Thanks both of you, the ram was the problem I removed and ran one at a
> time.
> I kept on trying though so i could get the most ram possible and the 512
> hyper x and the kingston 1gb worked and the other one messed it up. Thanks
> a
> bunch!

You're welcome. Glad you got it resolved and thanks for posting back.

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

The ram might be an issue!

--

http://www.goldwatches.com/watches.asp?Brand=39
"emayers12" <emayers12@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5D6200CF-B6AA-4288-83B8-BFA44433F413@microsoft.com...
> This is my 4th reinstallation of Vista Ultimate. I keep on reinstalling
> because I heard that fixes the problem. It doesn't, I built my computer.
> It
> doesnt matter what im doing but it will lock up and it wont unlock for 10
> mins. then everything comes back like nothing was wrong. Does anyone have
> a
> single clue what to do. Also I went through all my drivers, and had it
> pick
> which ones would be best or whatever. Specs,
>
> Vista Ultimate
> Pentium 4 3.4ghz ht
> 1gb Kingston ram
> 1gb Crosairs ram
> 512mb HyperX Kingston Ram
> 160gb Western digital, 250gb westerndigital, 250 gb Hitachi hard drives
> Motherboard: PA1 MVP ECS
> Graphic Card; Ati Radeon 1600xt 512mb Pci-Express
> Sound Blaster Audigy.