XP Pro crashes unexpectedly

[deemint]

Windows XP Pro will lock up unexpectedly in any given situation. The only way to unlock is to power off, reset doesn't work. I looked at the mouse, soundcard, & video drivers. Yes they are the latest & greatest (XP) drivers.
I've reinstalled the soundcard drivers specifically made for XP from creative & this seemed to help a little but the problem still persists. I've also checked to make sure all the PCI & AGP cards as well as the cables were properly seated. I don't have this problem with Win2K, and I'm using the exact same configuration since the HD is on the same machine. Any suggestions? My system specs:

Abit BE6 II MB (XU BIOS)
P3 733 CPU
640 MB PC133 RAM (DIMMS 1-3)
WD 20 gig HD (Win XP) (Promise Contr)
WD 30 gig HD (Backup) (Promise Contr)
WD 20 gig HD (Win 2K) (IDE 1 mas)
Creative 12X DVD-ROM (IDE 1 slv)
TDK Velocd 12/10/32 CD-RW (IDE 2)
Iomega 100 Zip Drive (IDE 2)
Voodoo 5 5500 (AGP)
USB2 Connect Adapter (PCI 2)
Linksys Etherfast 10/100 NIC Card (PCI 3)
SB Live, full ver. (PCI 4)
Promise ATA 100 Controller (PCI 5)
3COM 56K Modem (ISA)

[tha 4NiK8R]

I would try shutting off all power management in the BIOS and within XP.

[Daemon]

well this weekend I had a very bad experiance with XP, first I downloaded the new updates. After that everything went bonkers.

I keept getting blue screens and reboots, and somtimes I couldnt boot into XP.

I got the new bios for my board. Made it so I can boot into XP. I then went out bought a new IBM 40 gb hard drive. I ghosted the old drive to the new drive. I then kept getting blue screen after blue screen. Event viewer said nothing was wrong. But I had two NICS in this system and I couldnt get one working so I pulled that out and that fixed it. It was a netgear NIC. Also FYI: new updates will disable alot of NIC cards in XP

[deemint]

All of my devices work! And yes I've downloaded all the updates. Windows Xp just crashes in any situation, no matter what I'm doing and it's random. This is annoying because you never know when the system will lockup! Is there a program I can use to try and track/isolate such a problem?

tha 4NiK8R,
Explain what you mean by disabling power management. Remember Win2K is using the same system.

[DocPC]

I would start looking at Ram and Power Supply as an issue. You don't mention the rating on your Power supply. You have a lot of power going to all those cards and drives.

You must have a 512 and a 128 (Ram). Try taking one or the other out for a bit and see if it helps.

APM could also be the problem. Try turning ACPI off in the bios.

[mrwilhelm]

What version of the BE6-II do you have? I had the same problem. I updated the Highpoint IDE controller drivers and now all is well. I have the first version of the BE6-II using the HPT366. The XP drivers for those those are still in beta and not posted but they work great. You can either get Highpoint tech support to e-mail them to you or I'll be happy to do it if you shoot me off an e-mail. Here's the link to Highpopint:

<a href="http://www.highpoint-tech.com/" target="_blank">http://www.highpoint-tech.com/</a>

[deemint]

Mrwilhelm

I have a BE6-Rev 2. I'm not using the on-board controller, thus the Promise controller. Works better!

My power supply is a 300W. I've tried removing ram sticks, no luck.
My RAM configuration is two 256, & one 128 = 640, thus 3 DIMM slots.

I’ve set my RAM CAS settings back to 3.3.3. I was running at 3.2.2. I’ll see what happens from this point. Maybe that’ll fix the problem. Remember this same configuration is being run (same box) by Win2K with no problems.

[confus-ed]

[quote]Originally posted by deemint:
<strong>My RAM configuration is two 256, & one 128 = 640, thus 3 DIMM slots.

I’ve set my RAM CAS settings back to 3.3.3. I was running at 3.2.2. I’ll see what happens from this point. Maybe that’ll fix the problem. Remember this same configuration is being run (same box) by Win2K with no problems.</strong><hr></blockquote>

If you are going to mess with your memory timings expect nothing but problems, so yes put them back at default.

Don't get the idea that xp and w2k are pretty much the same they ain't, as you now know what works in w2k may or may not work in xp. XP is being much more 'aggressive' with its use of resources, W2k is much more conservative stability being the issue.

[deemint]

Well, I believe I just got rid of my crashing problems by setting my memory timing back to normal. Memory CAS settings were running at 3.2.2, set them back to 3.3.3. Haven't had a crash since doing so. Seems XP doesn't like my memory timings where as Win2K had no problems!

To all, thanks for the replies.