C90s Freeze / Lockup Issue

I have searched through the other posts, and I hope that I am not posting over something that has already been listed, but there are 74+ pages covering all sorts of issues for the C90s, not just this one and I can't find a solution, so...

I am really trying to avoid sending my new C90s back to BTOTech, but it is driving me nutz and I can't seem to find a solution. Hopefully someone can help me out!

For no rhyme or reason the C90s will lockup. At first I though that it was only in Guild Wars, but I soon found that it was not app or OS specific. At any given moment, sometimes seconds, sometimes hours, but always when I least want it to, the screen will freeze and the fans will kick to 100%. And that's it, nothing happens until I hard power it off. It will lock up before the ASUS splash occurs, as it occurs, in the BIOS, in Windows Vista, in Ubuntu... there is no particular place that it locks.

Please, any assistance is greatly appriciated!

Here is what I've got:
ASUS C90s Barebones
Intel (Conroe) Core 2 Duo X6800(2.93GHZ) 4mb cache 1066FSB
3072mb (2gb+1gb) DDR2 800mhz
200gb 7200.2rpm SATA2 16mb 3gb/s Cache
nVidia NV-8600-GT 256mb ddr3 (700mhz) MXMII Modular GPU
Integrated Intel 4965AGN 802.11a/g/n wireless card
DVD/RW Dual Layer Super Multi Burner
Dual Boot - Vista Ultimate 32bit & Ubuntu Gutsy Gibson

 

Could be freezing for lots of different reasons. Next time you start up after a freeze, check your Event Viewer to try and get a clue about what's happening. If your machine is new, clean out the bloatware. If you don't at this point reinstall Windows, run AV and spyware scans. Unplug/disconnect peripheral hardware. One at a time, pull out RAM sticks to see if that makes a difference; swap slots afterwards. Run Memtest. Uninstall apps one at a time. You can try using System Restore, but I'd guess that probably won't help. A last resort would be to reformat and reinstall the OS. I'd follow the list, more or less in order. May have forgotten a step or two, and if so, somebody please correct me.

 

bwrob, thanks for the reply, but I think that you missed some of what I posted. This is not an OS issue, the freeze will occur as the system is booting, in the BIOS, and both in Windows and Linux. I have already eliminated peripherals. I have thought about messing with the RAM, and I will give it a go, hopefully it will help.

Any other ideas?

 

I have a very similar issue with my lappy, turns out is is some sort of short on the mobo, but it is affected by physical manipulation (i.e. twisting the case and such).
Not saying this is your problem but if all else fails you may have some sort of mobo issue, in which case it is a good thing you are still under warranty.

 

Not sure how you've determined that the OS is not the cause, but so be it. Hopefully, though, there is no conflict between it and any installed apps. Have you taken a look at the Event Viewer yet? Aside, at this point, from a RAM of Mobo problem as CoDnut suggested, not sure what to suggest that hasn't already been mentioned.

If the machine were my own, I'd start from where you're at now with the RAM and see if each stick is ok. If all turns out well, personally, I'd next uninstall apps one at a time, but check, as I go, the Event Viewer if freezes still occur.

The last time I had this problem it was with a Voodoo desktop. One thing I just remembered that was suggested to me by a company tech, was to check the PSU. Actually, I never did that; solved the issue first (that PSU now lives in a brand new eMachines desktop LOL) I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try, though, if you're not able to figure out the problem soon. Again, good luck.

 

Not exactly the same behaviour as mine, but close enough.. For over than one month I am now waiting for a new motherboard for my precious C90. It was freezing when 3D kicked in.. sometimes it worked for hours, many times it crashed just when i run 3D application.. I assumed there is a faulty graphic card, which wasn't the case.. at the repair service they said that this is a known error from asus (even though they seen a C90 for the first time) with the motherboard and that I will be getting a new and more powerful ac adaptor (130W)...

I did test my C90 for almost two weeks and then I had to give up repairing it myself.. now here it is, the most devilish waiting time of no hope :d

 

I suggest first check the RAM. Use memtest86. Vista has its own memory tester included, I think you can access it by pressing F8 during startup.

Otherwise check also the HDD.

If neither of these, and it freezes in BIOS, it's probably a hardware issue that needs to be addressed in RMA.

 

Id RMA this right away, its not worth worring about on your own and reguardless if you find what the problem is you will probably have to send it back for repair/replacement anyways.

As for what it is.... hard to say it could be cpu/ram/mobo I dont think its a HDD issue tho.

 

I also don't think it's the HDD but it's an easy test so why not do it.

I suggested first checking components, because it might be possible you don't need to send the entire thing in. E.g., you can send 1 out of two RAM chips & still run the notebook with the other for a while.

 

Thank you all for the responses. I am glad that no one else is stuck on the OS or app scenario; I thought that I was pretty clear that it wasn't an OS or app issue when I stated that it would lock at the ASUS boot up screen, in the BIOS and in either Windows or Linux.

I have tested every scenario with the RAM (Both in, different slots, one in in each seperate slot) but the issue continued to happen. I have been screwing with this since I got the laptop and I am ready to just have it fixed, so I am going to send it in for warranty.

If I find out what the culprit is I will be sure to post up here.

Thanks again to all of you!

 

Exactly. Dont do like others and waste time by tryin to fix the unfixable C90S lockup issue. Just rma to fix your current problem and avoid potential problems in the future.

 

I contacted btoTech yesterday and they had me run a couple tests, MEMTest and the Seagate HD Test. The tests came back fine, so I am waiting to talk to them again today to see what the next step is. I would prefer not to send my laptop back and have the complete down time, but if that is what it takes I am deffinitly in. This problem is quite annoying.

I will keep ya'll updated as it goes through. I don't want to leave anyone else who may have this issue hanging with no solution.

 

OK, I worked with the guys over at btoTech and they pointed me to setting the HDD to IDE Mode instead of AHCI Mode in the BIOS. So far so good! I have had one lock up, but I do believe it was an error with the nVidia Drivers and Vista (something that neither nVidia or M$ feel inclined fix, although they admit the problem).

I am running everything that I can think of, and I will report back in the next couple of days with whether the problem has returned.

 

Run in turbogear overclock mode and run 3dmark06 with EACH test looped about 10 times. it will take a while to finish but it will test it out

 

Is it a driver/Vista problem then, or a BIOS or hardware issue?

Are you sure you couldn't fix this by reinstalling the OS? It's only worth the trouble if the IDE setting in the BIOS taxes performance significantly. It's up to you to determine that.