Vista running way too fast!

[bf1942]

Just built a new computer 3 days ago for a friend.
Asus M4A78 Plus
AMD Black edition 720 X3 Cpu
4 gig Patriot DDR2 800
Western digital 1 TB Hard drive SATA
Asus HD4850 Video card
Creative X-fi Extreme-gamer sound.
Samsung SATA dvd
Saitek keyboard
Razer samosa mouse
Visay home premium upgrade edition

Hi ,

The new computer worked well for 3 days,
then yesterday during boot ,the green moving line was all crazy,(moving really fast )
Windows will blank out becuse the screen saver kicks in rite away, because the
time appears to advance about 2 minutes per second.

Even if I type one letter it fill the screen, just like I held it down.

I did have a linux partition, it came with the ASUS MB , called Express Gate
It allows you to boot into it to check email and stuff.

I also installed Acronis true image,
and then made a secure zone partition to store the image(also backed up externally)

I restored the image twice , and formatted the drive, and removed the linux partition
and restored bios defaults.

The clock in Bios is running at regular speed, but all Windows is 1000 times to fast, in a bad way.

I am stumped. any ideas?
thank you.

 

[lopri]

Try taking out the CMOS battery and re-insert it. Or maybe you need a new battery. That is, if it's a hardware problem.

It could be a software prpoblem as well. Do you have any app (esp. Java-based) running background that can be time-related? (torrents, messanger, etc.)

 

[bf1942]

it's a pretty stripped install so far,
except for motherboard drivers and utilities, and one game Battlefield 2.

It did happen the day after I installed Acronis home image.(secure zone partition)
I thought there could be a conflict with the express gate linux loader partition.

But to the best of my knowledge it should be gone since i reformatted and imaged back to the day one install.

That only had Vista, with Sp1 plus Acronis and the game.(plus IE 8 )
I will remove the battery tonight.
thanks for the response.
Will keep you updated, Ive seen a lot of problems, but this one is really weird.

 

[bf1942]

Fixed it !

Last night I booted it up and watched the clock advance about 1 hour in about 10 minutes time,
It then would cycle back to the previous time and repeat.

Everything was still super fast, typing and double clicking would not respond.

only right clicking and selecting open or explore from the menu worked.

I uninstalled stuff in bunches so i am not 100% sure what it was.

All that was left was the ASUS video driver, ASUS OSD gamer display(recorder)
ASUS motherboard EPU program,

and Creative driver and network driver.

And it was still messed up,

I then noticed that the network was saying that it was only "limited connectivity"
even though the internet was working very quickly.

Unnistalled the network driver.
and all the ASUS drivers and it was back to normal speed.

The network driver did not reinstall or did it silently upon reboot.

I am leaning towards the ASUS EPU software that can overclock the motherboard,

But it ran for 3 days with no issues before it went wacky.

 

[lopri]

:thumbsup:

 

[n7]

Last time i saw what you describe it was a motherboard issue; got it replaced & all was well.

It's unlikely your issue is software...

 

[soccerballtux]

Run Crysis and report back!!!

 

[Gerbil333]

Originally posted by: bf1942
Fixed it !
....

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I assure you it is not fixed. I'm having the exact same issue with an M4A78 Plus. I thought I'd fixed it by removing a PCI sound card; it worked great all week. Then I took the machine to a friend's house and the clock went haywire there.

One fix I've found is to turn the computer off and re-seat the video card. It usually boots up correctly afterwords.

I'm going to contact Asus. I think they have some revisions to make...

 

[bf1942]

Gerbil,
You are correct , the same problem just poped up again.

TRYING TO HAVE MY FRIEND RESET THE VIDEO CARD NOW AND WILL REPORT BACK,

THANKS FOR THE TIP

sorry about the caps

 

[bf1942]

Gerbil,

Excellent advice,

Me and my friend thank you,

I had a post on the ASUS forum,

and see that someone (maybe you) suggested the same thing.

I will try to update that and see if we can get some response.

thanks again.

 

[tcsenter]

Don't use any of the ASUS drivers. Get the latest drivers from the chip vendors. And check that you have the latest BIOS:

M4A78 PLUS BIOS 1101
2009/06/17


Here are the latest versions of ASUS utilities I could locate on their servers:

Express Gate

AI Suite

EPU-4 Engine

Turbo Key

ASUS Update

PC Probe II

 

[bf1942]

Tcsenter,

Thanks

I emailed my friend who I built this system for,

To update the Bios ,

Good idea to get the chipset drivers from AMD.

This problem drove me crazy when it first popped up.

Did you also have this issue?

 

[tcsenter]

I don't have this board. He can get drivers here:

Grab the South Bridge Driver for AMD chipset

Radeon 4800 Series Vista 32-bit

Radeon 4800 Series Vista 64-bit

Realtek HD Audio

The Realtek LAN driver he can obtain via Windows Update.

 

[bf1942]

Thanks again,

The South bridge driver is pretty new, I wonder what they fixed,
He complains about EQ crashing , with DX10.

I will have to look at upgrading mine also, its an older board.

Will check to see what chips I have.

good links.

Thank you.

 

[Gerbil333]

It's probably not a driver issue. I observed the problem while installing Vista SP1 64-bit (the loading bar during initial installation was moving way too fast to see). Installation of Windows 7 RC1 produced the same result. The fact that it hasn't occurred with Windows XP (32-bit), however, is baffling.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: Gerbil333
It's probably not a driver issue. I observed the problem while installing Vista SP1 64-bit (the loading bar during initial installation was moving way too fast to see). Installation of Windows 7 RC1 produced the same result. The fact that it hasn't occurred with Windows XP (32-bit), however, is baffling.

XP doesn't support HPET, so if there is a bug in how the BIOS is exposing/programming HPET, it would affect Vista and Windows 7 but not XP. You could try disabling HPET in BIOS to see if anything changes.