Optiplex 760 freezing

ajwh,

I would start by removing any peripherals except for mouse, keyboard, and monitor and see if the random freezes stop. If they do, then some peripheral is the cause. Then, add them back one at a time.

Chris,

That's all there is anyhow.....

The monitor is a Dell 1908FP, which is fine, and the keyboard is a standard Chicony with Smart-card reader (better quality than the Dell Quietkey).

I've checked all the drivers, and they are signed.

The only thing I can think of is the mouse, which is a Dell one with variable sensitivity, with blue LEDs on top (came with the machine) , for which the system is using a generic Microsoft driver which doesn't recognise the wheel click button. The packing note specified a 570-10512 six-button laser mouse (which I've got on a 755, so I know I can count) , but for the life of me I can't find any side buttons--- Anyhow, the user is happy with this one, so it didn't seem worth raising it with Dell....

Andrew

I use ghost to image all of my workstations and have been formatting and creating own image as far back as the gx240 and gx260's. This is the first system that does this. It's happened to several Optiplex 760's after I've deployed them in the field. User leaves for the night and either leaves system up and running or simply locks pc. When user returns following morning, the system is locked/frozen and the only cure is to hit the power button and restart. This is a major issue.

Anything in your event logs??

I have the same thing with 2 out of 3 Optiplex 760's (3 months old) running XP Pro SP3.  No problem with 755 or 745's running XP.  User uses 760 for 3 days or so and then frozen.  I can ping the machine and get a response but cannot pull anything up remotely (i.e. Event Viewer, Task Manager, etc.).  I also cannot remote in using VNC, RDP, LogMeIn or GoToMyPC.  Then at the machine only the mouse cursor moves on the screen.  Then, if I issue a shutdown /r /f command remotely, the machine throws a blue screen with 9087 stop code.

At around the time the machine freezes, I see an iaStor (Intel AHCI Drive Controller driver) error:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: iastor
Event Category: None
Event ID: 9
User:  N/A

Description:
The device, \Device\Ide\iaStor0, did not respond within the timeout period.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 0f 00 05 00 01 00 6a 00   ......j.
0008: 00 00 00 00 09 00 04 c0   .......À
0010: 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0028: 00 00 00 00 00            ..... 

I've reloaded the OS, etc. several times and picked apart loaded software and drivers with no luck.  I have to believe this comes down to a hardware issue.  I am leaning towards incompatibility between Windows XP and SATA drive AHCI mode (setting found in BIOS) being set that I've been reading about.  In my case, the issue seems to be that AHCI mode is set by default on the 760's and when Dell sold me an XP installed 760, I got a machine with compatibility issues; such as this.  Have not called Dell support yet but just about to.  Will report back.

I may have stopped this, but definitely update any storage drivers from the Dell Support Site. Also, I've updated the video driver. The graphics accelerator may have been the issue. User would see screen saver on screen and it would be frozen. Worth a try to update the video and the storage driver.

Can I assume you are still in AHCI mode??

I don't have the option to update the video card drivers being an Intel and drivers for those not showing on the Dell driver support page nor any driver update for the Western Digital hard drive I have on the Dell driver support site.  Not much there for the drive controller either except an update for the management tool.

The "Intel Q43/Q45/G43/G45 (Eaglelake) Graphics Controller" is what I installed. It was realeased on 5/19. (Make sure you select "XP" when searching for downloads. Doesn't show up under "Vista". Yes still in AHCI mode. Did not want to change that. I'm determined to make it work. :emotion-39:

Okay, I will try the Intels that are posted.  How long since your last freeze??

I am on chat with Dell running tests on one of the 760s.  Uggghhh.  I had him look up stop code 0x00009087 that is associated with our situation.  When a 760 locks up, I attempt to restart remotely with "shutdown /f /r" and I get a BSOD with that stop code.  He says it is related to something to do with the hard drive set up in BIOS.  We'll ultimately find out that is the AHCI setting.  Stay tuned!!

Not much help from Dell support.  Went on a bit of tangent suggesting that SP3 was the culprit given that you can google SP3 lockups and the symptoms appear to be similar.  In that case, I will give it a go and roll back SP3 and give it several days.  If lockup still occurs, I might go the route of changing the SATA mode to ATA.  I will report back.

What was your end result with this?  I've come across the same issue and would much appreciate any information you have.

I think / hope it might be fixed. I decided to restore the machine back to it's original form, and changed the keyboard from the (better  quality) Chicony to the Dell original, and the freeezes seem to have ended....

It was a recycled keyboard from another machine, and was a model with a built-in smart-card reader, which wasn't needed on this machine. I don't know if it was faulty hardware or a driver issue, but it's now four weeks without a freeze...

Andrew

I switched modes to the ATA and problem solved.  You might want to try that.

Yes, I just changed the BIOS.  Not sure if it makes a difference, but I had the initial install of XP unmodified (with exception to updated drivers) when I did do it.

Spoke too soon.... It's started again.

However, I went back to some basics, and ran Norton which identified a whole batch of missing DLLs - looked as if they were Acrobat related (I suspect that an Acrobat reader upgrade might have deleted them without checking if they were needed for other programs).

I also saw that the alternative text entry toolbar had appeared, so I suspect ctfmon.exe issues. I turnd alternatives off on the menu bar, and I'll wait and see....

Andrew

Can you give more details? From my reading issues with AHCI stop the diask from booting - or have I got it wrong?

Do you just change the BIOS?

Andrew