My self built pc occasionally hangs with a black screen and the message "Windows Protection Error" before rebooting. This happens at random times regardless of the type of activity i am doing ( once when just typing ) I hope this doesn't mean my motherboard is damaged. Its an Asus A7V333 Here is my IRQ list collected from msinfo32 0 System Timer 1 Free 2 Programmable Interupt Controller 3 ViaTech3038PCItoUSBUniversalHostController 3 ViaTech3038PCItoUSBUniversalHostController 3 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering 4 ViaTech3038PCItoUSBUniversalHostController 4 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering 5 Free 6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller 7 Free 8 System CMOS real time clock 9 SCI IR used by ACPI bus 10 Via USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller 10 CMI8738/C3DX PCI Audio Device 10 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering 11 ViaTech3038PCItoUSBUniversalHostController 11 Rage 128 Ultra 11 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering 12 PS/2 Compatible Mouse Port 13 Numeric data processor 14 Primary IDE controller(dual fifo) 14 Via Bus Master PCI IDE Controller 15 Secondary IDE controller(dual fifo) 15 Via Bus Master PCI IDE Controller I installed Windows with PnP OS [ no ] in the bios. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks.

I'm no expert, but the most obvious thing that's standing out is that you have way too many VIA USB controllers showing up, alongside the USB 2.0 Controller. And along with that, I'm a bit puzzled as to why IRQ 5 is still showing up as free. If I had to make a guess, I'd say that your BIOS is working pretty hard, and as a result, occasionally it "hiccups"... which would account for the Windows protection error message. You might also have a conflict between the older VIA USB drivers and the 2.0 version. I'd be real curious to see how Windows would handle the IRQ situation if you ever set PnP OS to "yes".

I had the same problem. I found loose connection in RAM . I took out the RAM chips and cleaned and reinstalled it firmly and it worked.