a true WTF problem

[custoswashere]

This started about the same time that loaded the NV refresh fix and the newest NVIDIA drivers. I can't remember which I did first but in the end it doesn't matter.
In 1 days time, I've reformatted and reloaded six complete times and have come to an end.
My computer would lock up when transfering large amounts of files. This started yesterday evening. First the screen would freeze then the mouse, then I would have to reboot. I thought and was hoping it was the hard drive (damn IBM crap) but after the first couple of reloads and a few diagnostic utilities I don't think it's the hard drive any more. It's not heat, it's not the memory, it's not the CPU (I think). I started to focus on the video drivers. I tried every video driver from current to the super stable 23.11's. Nothing seemed to make a difference. But i did notice that the problem was not repeatable if the drivers were not installed. I tested it several times (6) and every time with NVIDIA drivers loaded, the computer would freeze with in a few seconds during the moving of some files from one hard drive to another, but uninstall the drivers and everything worked fine. I reloaded the VIA 4in1 to make sure that wasn't it each time. It's got to be the drivers or my video card. On a hunch, I went back to the driver disk it shipped with and installed those drivers 21.88. So far they are working great. Even played several rounds of UT and everything worked great. I ask you, have any of youever had this or heard of this before?

Mike

Just realized that I upgraded my VIA driver folder to the 4.38 version that has an updated AGP driver 4.10 i think. That could be it in conjuction with the NV drivers. Thoughts?

 

[Oni]

Do you have a Soundblaster soundcard? Smells like that bug has reared it's ugly head.

 

[Chris2]

Hmmm, maybe the drivers are in some way conflicting with your PCI Bus drivers. This may be causing problems inside windows at some point. I'm not sure how your video card could have anything to do with your hard drive data transfer. It may be the mobo, try the vid card in another system, same with the HDD.

Only other thing i can think of is corupt drivers, try another source for downloading.

[curios look] sound card bug??? Continue please, i'm interested... [/curios look]

 

[custoswashere]

I was reluctant to think the video card was as fault too. I drivers that I did use and all failed where downloaded from different places around the web. Some were on CD and some were on the spare hard drive. I ran Spinrite 5 for 9 hours on the IBM and found nothing wrong, shocking I know.

I'm completely baffled. I've had this system running for nearly a year now and no problems like this. I'm using the onbard sound and a PNY Geforce 200 all stock. I'll try overclocking to day to see if that's effected.
Last week I noticed a couple if red flags in the system log of unable to read dev/hda1 stuff and IO error on device 1 so I was really thinking it was the hard drive. I really thought the hard drive was going out. The IBM'er is nearly 3 years old now and will be replaced pretty soon with a Seagate but the locking up with video drivers installed, I've never seen that before. Maybe the new heatsink I put on last week, AX-7, is keeping it too cool. Typing right now at 34c idle in a warm house. Well, thanks for any in put.

Mike

 

[Oni]

[curios look] sound card bug??? Continue please, i'm interested... [/curios look]

The Soundblaster bug, or more apropriately the Soundblaster/686b Southbridge bug, was caused when Soundblaster soundcards were mixed w/ VIA boards that had the 686b Southbridge. This caused crashes/lockups/corrupt data when transfering large amounts of data on a harddrive. It was remedied w/ a fix from VIA, and should be incorporated in all of their VIA drivers now. You can pull in the fix individually from both www.viahardware.com and www.viaarena.com