Help - Asus M2A-VM Freezing

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System Specs Currently

ASUS M2A-VM - Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2.4GHz Socket AM2 - Processor
ePOWER EP-ZU-450W ATX12V 450W - Power Supply
OCZ Platinum 1GB DDR2-800 Dual Channel - Memory
No internal or external vid or sounds cards, using onboard

This is my first system I have ever built and it seems I'm having problem after problem. First motherboard I received was bad, exchanged that only to find out that 1gb ram stick of the two i purchased was also bad. My current issue is although I have got XP installed, im running into it freezing, causing me to have to cold restart the system. I do notice two types of freezing, one will just lock the screen up (cant do anything, mouse keyboard, crtl+alt+del, nothing) or the other the monitor will also the sudden go black and say no signal, although it appears everything is running in both cases.

There does not seem to be a time period for which it will happen, although it seems to happen more so when im trying to use it instead of idle. It does also just happen during idle though. Using PC Probe II I can monitor the temperatures of CPU & Motherboard. CPU seems to be around 35-42C & CPU at 34-35C. According to PC Probe CPU is fine however Motherboard is in red.

I tried updating bios a few times, first trying a final release update and after a more current beta update. Neither seemed to change for the good or the bad. I'm just fresh out of ideas and on wits end. Would appreciate it very much for any help that could be offered up.

Thanks,
Jay <email removed>
 
Have you installed all the motherboard drivers? Is XP fully updated to SP2 and are all the critical updates installed?
 
Tmagic650 said:
Have you installed all the motherboard drivers? Is XP fully updated to SP2 and are all the critical updates installed?

All motherboard drivers have been installed and every single update including sp2 from windows update have been downloaded & installed.
 
Do you have only one memory module installed right now? Try resetting the bios to failsafe default settings
 
Hi. I've got same motherboard, but not same issues. I find BIOS 1101 to be stable. The temperatures also sound fine - and if the PC Probe says motherboard is "in the red" it is wrong - maybe one of your issues is too low a setting for MB temperature. PC Probe allows you to change it. Offhand I think 50C should be "ok", but I forget if there was any good spec available on this.

It sounds like you have selected good components. Using the manual, have you gone back over each and every step in the assembly process? If so - good. Double check that the heatsink is flat relative to the board - a slight tilt might indicate a problem with clearance of the components or matching up with the socket mount (this was often the case with Socket A's, but less likely with the AM2) Double check that BOTH power plugs are all fully inserted (a partial can result in high resistance and peculiar failures - including a burned pin). Also check that the other components are truly and completely inserted (a partial insert on a floppy cable took me 2 hours to find). You may even wish to completely disassemble and reassemble out side of the case, but if you do be sure to elevate the motherboard as the bracket on the video card (if you use one) hangs down lower.

I would next go into BIOS and confirm each setting. Make notes of every change so you know what you have done.

http://www.techarp.com/Default.aspx has a good reference on the various elements of BIOS.

Now I had some problems - so I disabled the Cool'nQuiet and a few other things and updated the motherboard drivers (with the updated ATI drivers) and my problems were pretty much resolved. The onboard video still glitched a bit (not badly, just funny blanking at startup) and I had an extra $50 so I picked up a low end nVidia 6600 (there are even better cheap cards available now).

"Your mileage may vary."
 
Asus M2A-VM random freezes

Hi, I know your post is a little old but I just wanted to say I have the exact same problem with 2 of these boards. I bought 2 M2A-VM, one for me and one for my GF. I had a hard time installing Windows XP on one of them. They both give me random crashes like you. I haven't touched the one for my GF much though, she is still using an older PC untill I can fix this..

But this is the one I use everyday on my PC and I often get lockups, seems to happen more often when viewing videos on youtube but that could be that I watch a lot of them most of the time..

I have used different memory for both systems as well, I had the problem with Win SP2 and now with SP3 as well.. Very frustrating, currently have BIOS 1201. I think there might have been a bad batch of these boards! Hopefully I'll eventually find a fix or will RMA both of them and try to get replacement for differen board..

Hope you found your problem, if you get this message please get back to me if you found the problem you were having.

Thanks!
 
I found my issue to be the memory. This particular board does not play nicely with some ram. I ended up just purchasing some cheap ram from Best Buy and have not had a issue yet.
 
Wow that was a fast reply!! Thanks so much. I'm just about to update my BIOS to 2101 and also install the latest chipset drivers. If this doesn't work I will check the memory next.

Thanks again!
 
Well so far I have updated the VIA 4 in 1 chipset drivers and no more crashes but haven't spent much time watching videos though. So far so good, I'll keep posted..

Well so far I have updated the VIA 4 in 1 chipset drivers and no more crashes but haven't spent much time watching videos though. So far so good, I'll keep posted..

Spoke too fast, keeps crashing all the time tonight, my girlfriend was working in word and kept crashing..
I will switch the memory next with the one I was building for her (with the same motherboard) that I am currently not using untill I can figure out how to fix mine..

The memory I had ordered for her is not the same brand so I'll try this, although I had crashes with that system as well when I built it, reason I have not used it since.. I think this is just a crappy board!
 
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