New Build-System Hangup

[james19747]

I am new to the forums and new to building computers. I just finished building a system for my church to use with our new projector. I am having a problem with it and I am not sure what the issue is. It is randomly hanging up. Sometimes it will just quite responding and other times the display will get horizontal white lines running across it until the screen is almost white and then hangs up. I am thinking that it could be a IRQ problem. Below is the components and the IRQ settings that are showing. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Components: 750 Athlon slot processor, 2-128 RAM, 30.7 Western Digital Hard Drive, CD-Rom, HP CD-R, Vortex AU8810 Sound Card, AGP Matrox Millennium G450 Dualhead-English Video Card, Using Windows 98SE

IRQ Settings
0-System Timer
1-Standard 101 Keyboard
2-Programmable Interrupt Controller
3-Com Port 2
4-Com Port 1
5-Vortex AU8810 Sound Blaster-Pro Emulation
6-Standard Floppy Controller
7-Printer Port
8-System Cmos/real time clock
9-ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
9-VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
9-VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
9-SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus
10-Vortex AU8810 Multifunction PCI Platform
10-Vortex AU8810 PCI Audio
11-ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
11-Matrox Millennium G450 Dualhead-English
12-PS/2 Compatible Mouse Port
13-Numeric data processor
14-VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller
14-Primary IDE Controller (dual fifo)
15-VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller
15-Secondary IDE Controller (dual fifo)

[Cricket]

Hi james19747,

Your IRQ assignments look okay, but you might want to disable the Vortex AU8810 Sound Blaster-Pro Emulation on IRQ 5. I think that's used only when you use DOS based applications. Does the church use the serial ports? If not, disable COM1 and COM2 in BIOS.

Is the motherboard based on one of the VIA chipsets? Did you install the VIA 4-in-1 drivers? What about updating the video card driver and DirectX?

Does the computer hang in one particular program or in any program? Do the hangs seem to come after the PC has been on for a certain amount of time?

What programs do you have installed on the PC?

Is the computer case cooled properly? 1 intake fan in the lower front of case, 1 exhaust fan on the back panel near the CPU. Also it's a good idea to keep the wires and cables bundled up and neatly tucked away from the CPU and out of the air paths.

Because you're getting the horizontal lines, I'd guess you have a video driver issue. But it could also be related to a heat problem.

:) Cricket

[james19747]

The Motherboard was given to me to use so I am not sure if it is based on a VIA chipset of not. How can I tell?

There doesn't seem to be any particular program that it locks up on or any certain length of time either.

It seems to be properly cooled also. I only have a minimal amount of software installed. Office 97, Print Shop Deluxe, and SongShowPlus.

I am downloading the most recent drivers for the video card. I will let you know if it solves the problem.

Thanks.

[Cricket]

Hi james19747,

Take a look at the motherboard and see if you can find the manufacturer name (ABIT, ASUS, SOYO, EPoX, etc...) and some other identifying markings (K7V266, 8KTA3, something that looks like the model name of the board), will probably be near the expansion slots. Once we know which motherboard you're using, we'll be able to find out which chipset is used.

Since it's a Athlon 750 Slot A CPU, it could either have a VIA chipset or maybe even an AMD chipset.

If you don't have the proper chipset drivers, you're probably missing the AGP driver.

:) Cricket

[james19747]

Hi Cricket,

I looked at the Motherboard and it is a ABIT-KA7. The chip next to the markings has VIA VT82C686A 0019CG 12C4N1700 marked on it. Since I really don't know what drivers I have, is it possible to get a list of all the drivers that I need to get the system working properly and were I may be able to find them?

[Cricket]

Hi james19747,

Here are some links to the ABIT USA website for product information on the ABIT KA7:
http://www.abit-usa.com/eng/product/mb/ka7.htm
http://www.abit-usa.com/eng/download/driver/driver-ka7.htm
http://www.abit-usa.com/eng/faq/ka7.htm

And here a link to the VIATech website for updated VIA chipset 4-in-1 drivers:
http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2

And finally, a forum devoted to ABIT motherboard owners...these folks would know more about your motherboard than I do:
http://www.amdmb.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=7

:) Cricket