Vista freezes up

Question

Please help,   I have a  Dimension E520 with a Duel Core Intell 1.86 MHZ processor, 2 gigs of ram, a NVidia 7300 LE Video card, and a 250 Gig Harddrive.  I brought the computer last November with Windows XP and upgraded to Vista with the upgrade kit .  I followed the instructions and used the Dell Vista upgrade disk.  Vista installed with no problems.  All is well with the operating system expect for one thing and it occurs at irregular intervels.  The computer is freezing for about 30 to 45 seconds and then everything is okay again.  Is anyone having this problem?  Does anyone have any advise?   Thank you

robertc123 · Answer

Search the forum several people are reporting freezing.

JD495 · Answer

It sounds to me like your computer is going into 'sleep mode'. Go to control panel - Power Options and tell Vista not to put your computer to sleep and see if that solves the problem. If that's it you might want to leave 'sleep' off permanently (as I do) or set a time much longer than the default for the computer to go to sleep due to inaction. BTW, 'sleep' will interfere with any events you have timed in Task Manager while the computer is in sleep mode unless you specifically set it to 'wake up' your computer to do the task.

russ-nwsoftball · Answer

You need to update your Intel SATA RAID controller driver.  I had the same issue.  Find your chipset for your motherboard and then go to www.intel.com to get the appropriate driver.

brodie4598 · Answer

i'm having the exact same problem...started immediately after clean install, before I had installed any drivers. It happens about 4-7 times per hour and lasts about 15-45 seconds. It happens whether I'm doing anything or not. It also seems to be hapenning more and more often. I tried the Intel link but I cannot find the correct driver. my stats: XPS410 2.4 Core2 3GB ram NVIDIA GEFORCE 7900 GTX

Crewkip · Answer

Can you tell us how to find the download that we need. I am afraid I will end up making things worse with the wrong file. I have the SAME EXACT problem as these people. Dimension 9200, nVidia 7300LE, RAID 0

russ-nwsoftball · Answer

My Dimension E520 has the Intel P965 Chipset.  In the device manager, under Storage Controllers, mine shows an Intel 82801HR/HH/HO SATA RAID Controller.  Double click on the Intel Controller, then click on the Driver Tab.  Mine is now version 6.2.1.1002 dated 10/31/2006.  It was version 6.2.0.1015 when it was freezing.  I googled 'Intel 82801 SATA RAID driver' and went to this Intel page, where I selected my chipset and downloaded the driver.   http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/cs-015001.htm

brodie4598 · Answer

Thank you very much, however...forgive me for not being hardware savvy, how do I know what chipset I have???

russ-nwsoftball · Answer

The best way to look as to look at your device manager under System devices.  Look for one or two entries with Intel (R) ???????? PCI Express Root Port and Intel (R) ???????? Processor to I/O Controller the ???????? will tell you your chipset.   I did see one website that said that the 410 uses the Intel P965 Express chipset.

Crewkip · Answer

Here is what worked for me.   Go to Dell's driver page. Then go to Serial ATA. I downloaded the available Intel Matrix Storage Manager. There was only one thing there to download so I just tried it.   I have gone 3 days now without a single lockup. I have no idea what this did or why it worked but it did.   I am still having problems with IE. It randomly stops scrolling when I use the scroll wheel on my mouse. The computer does not lock up but the webpage takes a few seconds to start responding to things again.   I also can't install Firefox for some reason.

oreal · Answer

Intel has a chipset identification utility which you can download from the Intel site. The ID read-out contains a link to the appropriate driver page.

brodie4598 · Answer

i managed to figure it out and downloaded the correct drivers. I haven't had it freeze all day Thanks for all the help!

robbins0764 · Answer

I have updated the Intel Chipset on my computer and the freeze up is gone.  Thanks for the help Message Edited by robbins0764 on 03-08-2007 05:22 PM

Crewkip · Answer

My driver version is 6.2.0.2002 dated 10/11/2006. I got it from the Dell driver site. Seems to have been working for the past 3 days just fine.   Just going to the driver website may be easier for some.

soundghost · Answer

Please help!

I must have updated every driver on my machine and I still get the "Vista Freeze" every so often. It's driving me crazy. I'm this close to boxing up my brand new machine and sending it back to Dell with a demand for my money back.

I have a brand new Dell Dimension 9200 (Vista pre-installed of course).

Processor Intel® Viiv™ Core™ 2 Duo E6600 Processor (2.4GHz, 1066MHz, 4MB)
Optional IEEE 1394 Interface Card Adapter Card IEEE 1394 PCI

(**** I asked for the firewire card because of my video editing, please please don't tell me this is the root of all evil ****)

Microsoft Operating System Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium – English
Memory 4096MB Dual Channel DDR2 677MHz [4x1024] Memory

(**** BIOS reports 4096MB at startup, Memory Check said all is okay, Vista Welcome Center only reports 3GB. What's that all about? ****)

Keyboard Dell™ Black Enhanced USB Multimedia Keyboard - UK/Ire (QWERTY)
Monitor Dell™ 20" UltraSharp™ Wide Aspect Digital/Analogue Flat Panel (2007FPW) - UK/Irish
Video Card 256MB ATI® Radeon® X1300 Pro PCI Express graphics card
Hard Drive 500GB Serial ATA RAID 0 Stripe [2x250GB 7200rpm drives with DataBurst™ cache]
Floppy Drives Internal 13-in-1 Media Card Reader
WACOM Graphire2 tablet, cordless scrollwheel mouse, stylus pen.
CD/DVD Drives 16x DVD+/-RW & 16x DVD Drives
Wireless Access Point and Base Routers Belkin F5D7632 ADSL Modem/Wireless Router (802.11g)

While writing this post, I have had to endure 3 "freeze ups" lasting from 5-15 seconds. I just don't think I can use a machine like this.

Someone, somewhere must know what the heck is going on here?

Crewkip · Answer

I have the firewire card as well. Our computers are about the same. Try the Intel Matrix Storage Manager update. If that doesnt work send it back.

I am still sending mine back for a replacement even though it has not locked up in a few days. The fact is the computer NEVER should have been shipped.

Also your 4GB of RAM is worthless unless you run XP 64BIT or Vista 64BIT versions of the OS. 32BIT versions of Windows will only report and use around 3GB of RAM when you have 4GB installed. You may be able to ask Dell to give you an install disk for a 64bit version of Vista Business. I think they will do it free of charge.

Message Edited by Crewkip on 03-10-2007 01:25 PM

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