PCI Graphics Card Freezing Computer - Potential Software Issues??

Hi,
I’ve been experiencing some serious problems with my Computer, and I’d appreciate it if you could provide me with any assistance on the following Issues:

Initial Problems:

I previously had two PNY Graphics Cards* installed in my Computer and encountered the following problems:
* = 1 x PNY QUADRO 4 200NVS AGP Graphics Card (a couple of years old and brought used) & 1 x PNY VERTO GeFORCE FX5200 PCI Graphics Card (brought brand new around 10 months ago)

1)      If I tried to load ANY (not just the latest) nVidia Drivers for these Graphics Cards, Windows would start freezing at Start-up.
 
2)      The only way I could get the Drivers to load into my PCI GeForce FX5200 Card was to make the PCI card the “Primary Graphics Card” in the BIOS and permanently leave it that way. Then I could get the two cards (& 4 Monitors) working.
 
3)      From then on I received lots of Windows Blue Screen STOP Error Messages which identified: Graphics Card Device Drivers (especially Infinite loop errors) / Device Drivers / RAM which contained Windows / and files including win32k.sys / usbport.sys / usbohci.sys / bugcode_usb_driver….…etc.

4)      Windows also used to spontaneously freeze while I was using software programs on my computer.

Action Taken:

1) I ran Memtest86+ and Windows Memory Diagnostic tools and found NO errors with my RAM.
 
2) I installed each Graphics Card individually in my Computer so I could test each Card on it’s own.  The AGP PNY Quadro still produced a couple of STOP Crash Error Messages, and the PCI PNY VERTO FX5200 still had ALL of the problems listed in (3) and (4) above.

3) With the problems still present, it looked like potential faulty Graphics Cards, so I Installed my MATROX MILLENIUM G550 AGP Graphics Card (brought new about two years ago, but used for about 9 months before I obtained the PNY cards) on it’s own with it running two VGA monitors. The Matrox Drivers loaded fine and my computer ran perfectly for the couple of days I tested it.  There were none of the errors / problems listed above of any kind.

4) Still thinking the PNY cards were at fault, a week ago I purchased a BRAND NEW MATROX MILLENIUM G450 32MB PCI Graphics Card, and Installed it along with the G550 AGP Graphics Card = 2 Graphics Cards in my computer to run 4 Monitors.

Problems occurred:

1) The same problems occurred (as I had with the PNY cards) when I tried loading the Matrox Graphics Drivers = Windows would start freezing at Start-up /or/ Shut-down /or/ while entering my Password as Windows loaded.

2) If I set the “Primary Graphics Card” in my BIOS to say AGP, it would then Boot up on my PCI Card, and vice-versa.  So my BIOS doesn’t seem to be recognizing (or is switching) my two cards.

3) After numerous restarts, I eventually loaded the Matrox Graphics Card drivers and my computer recognized three Monitors but not the fourth. The only way I’ve found to get the computer to find the Monitor which was missing on my PCI Graphics Card, was to set the other Monitor on the PCI Graphics Card to be the Primary Monitor = “Use this Device as the Primary Monitor” in Windows Display Properties / Settings. Thus on restarting Windows, it would then locate the final fourth Monitor which had previously been missing.

4) In the Advanced Display Properties for my Monitors, they are set up with a refresh rate of 85Hz, but I can see the refresh lines going down my Monitor screens (although the lines are moving fast, their still causing eye strain) so I don’t know if they are actually refreshing at the correct rate or not?

Present Running Status of the Computer:

1)      On the plus side, after running my Computer with both of the Matrox Cards installed for the past week, I’ve had NO Blue screen STOP Error Messages at all, and Windows has been starting up and loading ok as well.
 
2)      The two Monitors which are being run by the AGP MATROX G550 Card have been working perfectly, with no problems whatsoever.

3)      However, the other two Monitors which are run by the PCI MATROX G450 Card have still being randomly and consistantly freezing when new windows are opened / existing windows expanded / software programs opened…etc.

Other Action Taken:

Instead of pointing to Graphics Card faults (both Matrox cards were new), it could be pointing towards Chipset Driver (and maybe BIOS) software issues.  As recommended after speaking to both PNY and Matrox telephone support, I’ve tested the following:

1)      I’ve moved the Matrox PCI card to another slot (Bus 3), but this has made no difference;

2)      I DISABLED “Hardware Acceleration” on the PCI Card, and “Enable write combining” was DISABLED on BOTH Cards = But this caused a Blue Screen STOP message when I ran my software applications;

3)      I DISABLED “Hardware Acceleration” on the PCI Card, and “Enable write combining” was ENABLED on BOTH Cards = But the freezing has continued;

4)      I’ve looked at the BIOS settings (a lot of the settings they recommended to change are not in my BIOS anyway), but the ones I could change (AGP settings) have made no difference;

5)      I have NOT updated my BIOS from v1.8 to v2.0 yet, not sure how to do it myself, and big problems could occur if I get it wrong;

6)      I’ve updated the following SiS chipset software:

SiS 900 LAN Driver v1.18 (2004-12-06)

SiS IDE Controller Driver v2.04a (2003-11-18)

SiS AGP GART Driver – I’ve reinstalled the original version from my Driver CD = v1.16 (20/02/2003).  I downloaded and tried to install the latest v1.21 (2005-01-01) but ran into problems. Firstly, when I managed to get it installed I looked in Device Manger to check the version of the Driver, but it was a version number totally different to v1.21 (I think it ended in 228?), and secondly, when I ran my computer on this version the freezing got even worse.  So I reinstalled v1.16 and although my computer is still freezing, it’s not as bad as when I had the later SiS AGP driver version in.

7)      I’ve also checked all of the archived ASRock FAQ’s but couldn’t find anything relating directly to my situation.

8)      I’ve emailed ASRock Technical Support, but have not received a reply yet.

Help required:

All of the testing I’ve done seems to lead to potential Chipset / BIOS issues (?), but I have no idea what to do next to get a solution to this problem. So, if you have any further advice / guidance (potential compatability issues / software changes etc) it would be greatly appreciated.  


Many thanks,
Paul

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COMPUTER SPECIFICATIONS


MOTHERBOARD:
ASRock K7S8XE+ (BIOS v1.80)
SiS 746FX / 748 North Bridge Chipset & SiS 964L South Bridge Chipset
(No “separate” Sound or Network Cards installed in Computer)

CPU:
AMD ATHLON XP 3000+ 2.17 GHz (333 FSB) + Akasa Heat and Fan

1.5Gb RAM:
1 x CRUCIAL 512Mb DDR PC3200 (400MHz) SDRAM (Single-Bank) 2.5-3-3-6 2CMD
1 x UNBRANDED 512Mb DDR PC3200 (400MHz) SDRAM (Double-Bank) 2.5-3-3-6 2CMD
1 x UNBRANDED 512Mb DDR PC3200 (400MHz) SDRAM (Double-Bank) 2.5-3-3-6 2CMD

HARD DRIVE:
MAXTOR 80GB IDE 7200RPM (NTFS File System)

GRAPHICS CARDS:
1) AGP (Bus 1) = MATROX MILLENIUM G550 32MB DDR (MGA G550 Chipset) || 360MHz RAMDAC || AGP 4x/2x = runs 2 Monitors

2) PCI (Bus 3) = MATROX MILLENIUM G450 32MB PCI (MGA G400/G450 Chipset) ||
360MHz RAMDAC = runs 2 Monitors

Latest WHQL MATROX Drivers Installed.

350 WATT POWER SUPPLY

OPERATING SYSTEM:
WINDOWS XP Home Edition SP1 & SP2 (Including all updates)

DISC DRIVES:
BTC – Combo Drive 16x DVD – 52x24x52 CD Writer
3.5” Floppy

MODEM:
BT Voyager 105 ADSL Modem (+ latest Drivers)

MONITORS:
2 x RELISYS TE988 19” CRT MONITORS
2 x HANSOL 930D DYNAFLAT 19” CRT MONITORS

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