Frustrating instability on new PC
OK, I've just built myself a brand new PC. First off, here are the specs:
ASUS A7V8X Motherboard
256MB PC3200 RAM (Corsair)
WinXP Pro (SP-1)
WD 80GB HD (special edition w/ 8MB cache)
Gainward GeForce4 ti 4200 (128MB ver.)
CL Audigy2 Platinum
Samsung 16X DVD-ROM
TDK VeloCD 48X CD-RW
The problem is I keep getting these strange crashes and so far I haven't been able to solve it. It usually happens when I'm multitasking. These crashes take on two different forms, but according to the event log they're caused by the same problem. Either:
1. My PS/2 ports disappear causing my mouse and keyboard to stop responding (rest of the system seems fine and I am able to recover by plugging in a USB mouse).
Or:
2. The exact opposite happens and my entire system stops responding but the keyboard and mouse is OK (you can click on things but there's no response). There is no graceful way out of this state and it always requires a hard reboot.
In either case, here is what the event viewer has to say:
"The device, \Device\Harddisk1\D, is not ready for access yet."
The BIOS and all relevant drivers have already been updated to the latest versions. I'm assuming it's hardware since I've already tried reformatting and reinstalling.
This thing is driving me bananas! Any ideas?
Thanks...