Computer hangs minutes after startup!

[ppgrainbow]

Hey again. I'm starting to have a annoying and serious problem here.

Minutes after starting up my computer, I typically go online and browse the internet with my Linksys Wirless-G PCI network card and when the network connection attempts to load the images, the computer hangs hard and the mouse freezes.

Looking at the CPU activity on the LCD display part of the Logitech G510 gaming keyboard, one or more of the four cores of the CPU spike up to 100% and remain there indefinitely. The only way to fix this is to shut off the computer and then turn it back on after several seconds.

If the disk activity remains inactive and all of the USB devices get initalised, the computer works as-is and I can browse the internet without problems until I reboot.

The operating system that I'm using is Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP2, I have a ASUS M5A97 R2.0 motherboard with 8 GB memory and a EVGA 8400 GS graphics card.

What puzzles me is that the display drivers are up to date, the memory, CPU and hard disk drive is all good, but something could be causing the computer to lock up hard just minutes after reboot.

Could it be the Linksys Wireless-G PCI network card or the router that we have in the family room? The model number of the PCI network card is WMP54G v4.1.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing the computer to lock up when browsing the internet minutes after startup? If so, how would it get fixed?

Unfortunately, since I bought this custom computer from AVADirect, I'm not allowed as the end-user to fix things myself as the warranty will end up being void. I spent almost $700 on a new PC and I hate finding something and replacing things that don't work correctly.

Edited March 30, 2014 by ppgrainbow

[Tripredacus]

I looked up your board and looks like you have a PS2 port for a keyboard. This means that you would be able to initiate a bugcheck at the time of the hang.

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/130004-creating-memory-dumps/

But you might want to go through and take a look at your startup programs, get rid of unnecessary ones and see if that makes a difference.

[bphlpt]

You can also see if you have any older, no longer needed drivers hanging around that you can remove.

Cheers and Regards

[Tommy]

I just want to add my two cents in here. It may be totally totally unrelated but EVGA is made by NVidia. I have an NVidia Geforce 8600GT card in my Windows 2000 machine. When I would log in, my computer would hang for like 3 minutes before the desktop came up to the point it was usable. If I waited for a bit to log in after the logon prompt came up, I'd log in and it would go right to the desktop and I could use the computer, but not immediately logging in when turning the computer on. I done some digging and my problem was caused by the NVidia Display Driver Service in the services control panel. When I went ahead and disabled it, I restarted the computer and now I can log on immediately after the logon prompt comes up and it no longer hangs. It was the display driver service. I don't see any different having it disabled unless it messes up the control panel for the card itself, but for my use, I no longer have a computer that hangs.

Edited April 1, 2014 by Tommy

[ppgrainbow]

I just want to add my two cents in here. It may be totally totally unrelated but EVGA is made by NVidia. I have an NVidia Geforce 8600GT card in my Windows 2000 machine. When I would log in, my computer would hang for like 3 minutes before the desktop came up to the point it was usable. If I waited for a bit to log in after the logon prompt came up, I'd log in and it would go right to the desktop and I could use the computer, but not immediately logging in when turning the computer on. I done some digging and my problem was caused by the NVidia Display Driver Service in the services control panel. When I went ahead and disabled it, I restarted the computer and now I can log on immediately after the logon prompt comes up and it no longer hangs. It was the display driver service. I don't see any different having it disabled unless it messes up the control panel for the card itself, but for my use, I no longer have a computer that hangs.

I uninstalled AI Suite II and the services associated with it. I'm gonna look into disabling the NVIDIA Display Driver Service and reboot to see if this will fix the problem. The graphics card EVGA 8400GS is made by NVIDIA. What's unfortunate is that this graphics card is only DirectX 10 capable and NVIDIA is going to pull the plug on support for these DirectX 10 graphics cards on 1 April 2016.

Anyways, I sure hope that disabling the NVIDIA Display Driver service solves this problem. However, if the problem persists then I'll get back to you and post a update.

Update: Disabling NVIDIA Display Driver Service had no effect. My computer would usually be stable without being able to go online or have the network disconnected.

The hard lockup usually occur when I visit the Google News page (it can be tested on browsers such as Internet Explorer 9) when almost all of the pictures get loaded and when it does, the computer stops responding (hangs). The PS/2 mouse will respond for a few seconds longer and then it freezes hard. Simply hitting the RESET button is not going to fix the lockups since it will occur again.

The cause of the lockup minutes after reboot is difficult to pin down and it eventually has been that way since I got this computer over a month ago.

I suspect that the problem might either be the following:

1. The Linksys Wireless-G PCI network card (model number: WMP54G v4.1).

2. Defects in the Fractal Design Integra 500 watt power supply unit (PSU).

3. Defects in the AMD FX-4300 quad-core CPU.

4. Defects in the ASUS M5A97 R2.0 motherboard overall. For which I hope that it's not that.

To fix the hard lockup as a temporary solution, I had to do the following:

1. Power down the computer, wait a few seconds and then turn it back on.

2. Wait at least 10 minutes for all of the processes are initalised and then go online.

3. Browse the internet.

The computer will remain as-is until I restart the computer and then the lockups start up again.

Edited April 2, 2014 by ppgrainbow

[ppgrainbow]

Hmm...I was wondering if the drivers that came from the Linksys WMP54G v4.1 and the updated November 2008 revision from Windows Update caused my computer to hang all along.

With the November 2008 version of the Linksys WMP54G v4.1 drivers, if I select Normal Mode or Safe Mode with Networking, the computer will hang minutes after it starts up. But if I shut off networking and don't browse the internet, then the computer works.

I did a search for "Linksys WMP54g 4.1" and "hangs" on Google and I found that people were having a lot of problems using the network card under 64-bit OSes (including Windows Vista and up).

So, I'm wondering if the digitally signed drivers from 2009-08-24 did the trick: https://sites.google.com/site/linksysupdateddrivers/rt61/driver/download

The file name is Linksys-rt61-200908-24.zip.

I took further measures by downloading Prio, a utility to permanently change the CPU and I/O priorities, hence I had to set the CPU priority from Normal to Idle and the I/O priority to Background and limit the transfer rate from Auto down to 2 Mbps (256 KB/s limit).

I kinda feel that it would save me a lot of hassle having to get a better network card that will work with Windows Vista x64, because the network card still has a lot of dust and it might need cleaning soon.

I'm still also considering upgrading my power supply unit to further increase stability. Anyways, to play things safe, do not use the Linksys WMP54G v4.1 drivers from the CD on a computer running Windows Vista (or later), they may not work 100% correctly.

I'll try rebooting and turning the computer off to see if the computer will still hang or not. If the problem continues, then something could be wrong with the PSU or the motherboard, preferably the CPU.

Update: So far, so good. The computer is working really well, because of the updated WMP54G v4.1 drivers from August 2009. I might want to check the Event Viewer to see what other problems are found.

Edited April 5, 2014 by ppgrainbow