Windows Vista Random freezing in Vista Ultimate 64

[Facepuncher]

I have recently upgraded my system with some new hardware, and installed Vista for the first time. It turned out to be a disaster. My computer freezes up seemingly at random, requiring a reset from the front switch.

This freezing has occurred as soon as the login screen loads up, when browsing the internet, and especially when gaming. Sometimes it will go hours without freezing, sometimes it happens every five minutes until I give up. It will usually go a while if I am just browsing the internet, but it will always freeze eventually. When I start a game or run 3Dmark it will usually last 3-5 minutes before freezing almost every time.

I've tested the ram with memtest86 and the built in windows tester and it checks out OK. I was so convinced that it was the ram that I even bought a different brand of equal quality and it had no effect. I have set the BIOS to reflect the timing and voltage of the ram that was reccomended by the manufacturers, as well as left everything on auto, to no avail.

I would greatly appreciate any help, I don't even know where to begin to check for my problem. I don't know if it is Windows or hardware, but it seems that a lot of people have the same problems as me on vastly different systems with Vista 64.

I have a Biostar I45 motherboard with the P45 chipset, an Intel Q9550 quad core cpu, an MSI 8800GTS 512 video card, 2x2gb of Mushkin DDR2 1066mhz ram (replaced 2x2GB Patriot Extreme Performance 1066mhz ram), A WD 250GB hard drive, and a OCZ stealthxtreme 500w power supply. I have Vista Ultimate 64 bit installed with SP1 and every update. All my drivers are current.




I have attached a recent minidump file for anyone that would be kind enough to help me. Thanks!

 

[Facepuncher]

I didn't notice that the minidump file wouldn't attach before, so here is a rar'd one. This is for a crash that just happened, and the computer actually restarted itself. This information was in a window after the computer restarted, usually I do not get this:



Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 50
BCP1: FFFFFA6000566000
BCP2: 0000000000000001
BCP3: FFFFFA6002646C73
BCP4: 0000000000000000
OS Version: 6_0_6001
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\Mini092308-02.dmp
C:\Users\Black Mesa\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-33375-0.sysdata.xml
C:\Users\Black Mesa\AppData\Local\Temp\WERC9D7.tmp.version.txt

 

[kemical]

Thanks for supplying all the information...

Have you checked the bios to see if it's the latest version? You say you tested the RAM but did you test it one module at a time?

 

[Facepuncher]

I did not test the ram one stick at a time, because I figured that the chances of getting a bad stick in each of the two different brands I tried was pretty slim. When I get home from work today I will definitely try that though.

The Bios is the most up to date version available on the motherboard manufacturers website.

 

[YOBTAF]

I'm also running Ultimate 64 and having random freezing issues. It may do it 1 or 2 x's today and not do it again. Most of the time if it does it, I can reboot it and run the crap outta it afterwards and it not do it again. Kinda odd?
The funny thing is I can reformat and reinstall my OS w/SP1 and run it for a few days with no issues at all, but if I download updates, after a few days it will start to freeze up again I've also installed one update at a time and go a day or 2 between updates and as soon as it starts acting up I've uninstalled the update but it still does it. I'm outta ideas

 

[kemical]

Even though I run 32bit I know what you mean... From time to time I'll get a lock up when booting or it will freeze at a seemingly random time. The thing is for 98% of the time it runs absolutely fine and I can go for days without an 'event'..
I know my drivers/bios are the latest, I don't have ant temp issues, my memory is in good order but for some reason it still happens. I still feel that some drivers are not as 'compatible' as they could be and perhaps it will take another service pack before these final issues are ironed out.
A report by ms a few months ago showed the results of some of the feedback the'd been getting when your pc 'reports your problem to microsoft'. Nvidia were shown to be the leading cause of vista related crashes: Nvidia drivers named as lead Vista crash cause in 2007 | Register Hardware
'Others' were second, MS were third with AMD and Intel being fourth and fifth respectively. I'm just about to switch from Nvidia to AMD so it will be interesting to see if some of these 'events' are reduced...
Fingers Crossed