# Solved: PC randomly freezing - possibly caused by sound card...



## ollie111 (Aug 19, 2010)

Hi,

Yesterday I got a 2nd hand Asus Xonar D2, all was working fine until today.

I was just browsing the net and doing simple tasks when the first freeze happened, I think it was when closing a browser window. The PC froze and was un-usable, mouse didn't move, no keys responded (ctrl+alt+del etc) waited a few mins until I was forced to press the reset button.

The 2nd freeze happened when closing a word document, same thing. The third time, I was about to listen to music, put headphones on and noticed it was very crackly as I move the cable etc. So I went to the back of the PC and unplugged the cable and put it back in. When I got back to the PC screen it had frozen again.

So, it could have been a coincidence but maybe sound card caused it.

PC Spec:

i5 760
GTX 470
ASUS P7P55D-E
Asus Xonar D2
8GB DDR3 RAM
OCZ ZS Series 650W
Win7 64bit

Nothing is overclocked, and it's not overheating, already checked.

For now I've disabled the sound card in device manager and using onboard, no problems yet..

Any ideas?


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## dant22185 (Oct 5, 2009)

Strange how a sound card would have that level of impact on the performance of the computer. I would keep eye on how the PC operated with it disabled and in the mean time try and find the most current driver to install with it then test again.


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## ollie111 (Aug 19, 2010)

dant22185 said:


> Strange how a sound card would have that level of impact on the performance of the computer. I would keep eye on how the PC operated with it disabled and in the mean time try and find the most current driver to install with it then test again.


Yes it's very strange. I've been running the PC with it disabled for multiple hours now without problems. It has the latest drivers. I'm not really sure what I can even try besides re-installing drivers which I doubt will make any difference. Really hope this isn't a hardware issue.

Found this in Event Viewer listed as an error:

*Faulting application name: ASUSAUDIOCENTER.EXE, version: 0.3.0.36, time stamp: 0x4d802c45
Faulting module name: VmixP8.dll, version: 1.0.0.16, time stamp: 0x4dad3239
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x000010d2
Faulting process id: 0x63c
Faulting application start time: 0x01cc9e4a16d696e9
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\ASUS Xonar D2 Audio\Customapp\ASUSAUDIOCENTER.EXE
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\ASUS Xonar D2 Audio\Customapp\VmixP8.dll
Report Id: b1fa727f-0a3d-11e1-9782-bcaec5326a8d*


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## dant22185 (Oct 5, 2009)

This could be it. That application failure could in essence be locking the machine up. I would continue to monitor it. Maybe possibly google the DLL that the time stamp is referring and see if this is common. I guess it also wouldn't hurt to reinstall the drivers. Maybe even try to install the device on a different machine to see if you get the same results. That will more easily point at a hardware problem if you are having the same issues on two different machines.


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## crjdriver (Jan 2, 2001)

You did not post your pw supply. Post the exact pw supply you have installed.

Next have you checked your voltages? Since this is an asus board, you can download the latest version of asus probe for your board and install. Probe will give you the voltages and temps OR you can install something like hwmonitor.


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## ollie111 (Aug 19, 2010)

dant22185 said:


> This could be it. That application failure could in essence be locking the machine up. I would continue to monitor it. Maybe possibly google the DLL that the time stamp is referring and see if this is common. I guess it also wouldn't hurt to reinstall the drivers. Maybe even try to install the device on a different machine to see if you get the same results. That will more easily point at a hardware problem if you are having the same issues on two different machines.


I will leave it disabled for now, I've un-installed drivers for now, will try enabling it again tomorrow and test without drivers firstly. Unfortunately don't have another machine I can test the sound card in. I'll have a search for the DLL though.



crjdriver said:


> You did not post your pw supply. Post the exact pw supply you have installed.
> 
> Next have you checked your voltages? Since this is an asus board, you can download the latest version of asus probe for your board and install. Probe will give you the voltages and temps OR you can install something like hwmonitor.


Forgot to add PSU, added it to first post now. Here is probe:


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## crjdriver (Jan 2, 2001)

Those look fine. It may be a conflict between the card's driver and some other app you have OR perhaps a problem with resource allocation. 

One thing you might try is to remove the sound card driver and any other software associated with the card. Pull the card out and install in a different slot. Now install just the sound driver and not any other software. This may or may not work. If it does not, then I would tend to think it is a driver conflict.


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## ollie111 (Aug 19, 2010)

I'm working on it now.

- Enabled the card again in device manager
- Disabled the onboard audio again in BIOS
- Rebooted, installed latest drivers
- Installed this driver over the top: http://brainbit.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/
- In device manager there was NVIDIA audio device or something :s Strange because my onboard is Realtek, anyways I uninstalled it from device manager.

Now to see if it freezes again, all working fine right now.


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## Tanis (May 30, 2006)

I would suspect the NVidia audio device is associated with the GTX470, which I would assume has an HDMI output on it. HDMI can carry audio and video on the same cable, so it is not uncommon to have an audio device associated with the graphics card, I have the same with my GTX460 card.


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## ollie111 (Aug 19, 2010)

Tanis said:


> I would suspect the NVidia audio device is associated with the GTX470, which I would assume has an HDMI output on it. HDMI can carry audio and video on the same cable, so it is not uncommon to have an audio device associated with the graphics card, I have the same with my GTX460 card.


Oh ok thanks. Still no problems so far.


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## ollie111 (Aug 19, 2010)

I've had no problems now since doing that, so looks like it was a driver problem. Seems like Asus are as bad as Creative when it comes to sound card drivers =/


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