ASROCK 939 Dual: Freezing Problem

I'm having a nightmare with this motherboard. I've been trying to resolve a freezing problem for last two weeks but without a luck. I have the following hardwares.

ASROCK 939 Dual with 1.6 BIOS
Operton 165
Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2(512MB x 2)
ARCTIC COOLING FREEZER PRO 64 CPU COOLER
Netgear PCI Wireless Network card
Geforce 2 VGA card with 64mb memory
Promise Ultra100 TX2 ATA/100 Controller
2 Seagate 160GB ATA
2 Western Digital 120 GB ATA
Benq 1665 DVD/RW
Aopen DVD-1648/AAP
Antec Smartpower 2 500W

The freezing problem normally happens when I browsing a web. It freezes and I have no option but press a reset button. I sometimes received the BOD(MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION). I'm not overclocking at all. Everything is at default in BIOS set up. I'm beginning to think this M/B is a defect. Can anyone give me a suggestion to resolve this problem before I RMA this M/B?

BTW, I don't have any error running Prime95 and Memtest. I ran them about 8 hours each.

Thanks.

What setting are you using in bios?

You may need to use 2T cmd.

Everything is at default or Auto. I'll try it with 2T.

jonspd said:

What setting are you using in bios?

You may need to use 2T cmd.

Click to expand...

It could also be the vid card. have installed AGP drivers?
set AGP to 64 or 32mb instead of 128mb, see if helps.

Yes, I thought the same thing. I initally installed the AGP driver but removed it since the freezing problem. Unfortunatelly, it did not make any difference. I was able to run prime95 and Memtest86 without any errors for 9 hours.

ochungry said:

It could also be the vid card. have installed AGP drivers?
set AGP to 64 or 32mb instead of 128mb, see if helps.

Click to expand...

Also set CMD to 1T if running stock speed's with whatever timing you ram spec's have. Make sure you done have flexable option enabled under ram settings and ram is set to 200mhz instead of a divider.

BTW the 1.60 bios are crap I would try to flash back to the 1.5 if you cant fix the problem.




*edit*
You must install in order:

ALL in one drivers from ULI site, agp driver's, then your vedio card drivers or you will see problem's. Per other people haev posted

None of your suggestions worked. I guess only thing I can do is RMA. I don't want to spend my time to resolve the freezing problem any more. I never had this kind of problem with other mother boards previously. The only reason I purchased Asrock was to use the existing VGA card. I don't know mine is a defect or bad batch. It's a shame I have to RMA Asrock since so many people had a great success.

Thank you for your help.

I am very sorry for having a problem and have to RMA. Before you RMA it, reinstall win xp and remove 1 or 2 of your ATA HDD. It could be ATA on board not suitable for 4 ATA HDD's. Or maybe a conflict between CD drive combined w/ ATA HDD. Or could be the vid card itself not compatible w/ ULi.
did you do a fresh install BTW? If not, it could be the reason.

I migrated from Nforce2, so yes I did the fresh install. I also ran with friend's PCI express video card but the same problem occured.

OChungry, I read your postings and learned a lot.

Thanks.

kwatch, np.
as an alternative, use 0ne HDD to just see if freezing gone. if so, then use 2 ATA HDD, and so on. if at anypoint freez againg, then you might be short of power(wattage.)
I think each HDD takes about 15 watts. adding these and AGP (~60 watts), you may be left without enought wattage(specially the 12v rail) for cpu.
If none of above helps then RMA is the only option.
good luck with it.

I think I found the problem. It was Netgear WG331T PCI Wireless card. I removed it and no more freezing for 5 plus hours. I should have tried removing PCI cards one by one and ran a test long time go.