WIN 98 hangs up after loaded

[Aaron2]

Here is a weird one... (i.e. one I can't figure out)


~70% of the time after booting the system will freeze up. The system boots but the first thing you click on will leave the system locked up. Example: moving the mouse down to start and clicking on it - you will see the 'identation(?)' that you pressed it and then freeze the system up. CTRL-ALT-DELETE gives you the response that the system is 'busy' - never comes out of it. The same thing will happen when clicking on the AOL logo to use the broadband - the icon will change to show you that you did indeed click on it and then the system freezes up. Once in a while it will work after boot up... but will lock the system back up after closing opened ap.

What I have tried to do to remedy the problem:

1 - went into msconfig and unchecked the basics hogs like REALPLAYER, QUCKTIME, etc... about 10 are still checked - I'm not sure what they are.

2 - Grabbed the driver disc that came with the system and reinstalled the video driver, sound card driver, bus master drivers, etc...

3 - WINDOWS UPDATE - downloaded all upates...

NO luck.....


system specs:

AMD 800 Mhz, 96 megs / 8 meg video / modem - dial and cable / soundblaster sound

[GaryRouth]

Hi Aaron2

Some questions:
1) Home build or Major brand?
2) System ran fine for years till now?
3) Add/Remove anything just before the trouble?
4) Have you received any error messages other than the "busy" system?
5) Do you have backups of your most important data?
6) Do you have an up-to-date virus scanner installed?
7) Do you have a set of Recovery Disks (if this is store-bought)?
_____________
My first guess is that the quickest fix, if the system is pretty much unchanged from when you bought it (I'm guessing you added a cable modem and perhaps more memory), is to perform a complete reformat/restore from a recovery disk from the system's manufacturer. Doesn't sound quick, but it's thorough & should do the trick. If you added the cable modem after the original system purchase, unplug it during the recovery & reinstall it after. And scan whatever backups of your data you have with an antivirus scanner before loading them back in to you freshly restored system.

You can check on your system temps in Bios Setup, too . . . just to be sure it's not heat related (it doesn't sound like it is, but if your temps are sky high - that can cause havoc)

If you just recently added more memory, remove the newer part and see if the lockups disappear.

And double-check the settings in Bios Setup to make sure they are set according to your motherboard's manual. Download a manual if you don't have one.
_____________
That should get you started: post back for more help
. . . Gary

[Aaron2]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by GaryRouth
[B]Hi Aaron2

Some questions:
1) Home build or Major brand?

Major brand... something like Micron - purchased from home shopping club a few years ago - they actually used name brand components...

2) System ran fine for years till now?

Yep... fine the last couple years.

3) Add/Remove anything just before the trouble?

No, but added since (cable modem)

4) Have you received any error messages other than the "busy" system?

Nope... problem explained above... mouse moves but nothing responds. Pressing CTRL-AL-DEL responds with SYSTEM BUSY MESSAGE.

5) Do you have backups of your most important data?

Nothing important on it... belongs to an 'old lady' who just plays card games and AOL on it.

6) Do you have an up-to-date virus scanner installed?

No... no virus software at all. Would a VIRUS cause this kind of weirdness?

7) Do you have a set of Recovery Disks (if this is store-bought)?

No recovery but do have the 98 disc and driver CD.

_____________

[GaryRouth]

It certainly couldn't hurt to scan for viruses. Since the pc has none installed, you can go to TrendMicro.com and try their free online scanner, called "HouseCall". It will let you know if the pc is infected and clean it if it can. For protection in the future, a full real-time virus scanner will be needed - especially with a cable modem. Might want to use AdAware and The Cleaner to check for spyware and trojans, too.

Seems to me that if there's nothing much on the system, and you think it's software related, you can do a re-install & see if that does it. Did you check the temps? (just in case).

Check the motherboard, too: if it's an older KT133 or KT133a with the 686b Southbridge, there were IDE/PCI timing issues that were fixable through bios updates (though this pc ran fine earlier - no bios changes lately?) If you want to read more on that bug, you can view a webpage for George Breese's patch for it: http://www.networking.tzo.com/net/so...s/faqvl019.htm
Another thing to try would be to download the most recent drivers you can find for the pc - especially the soundblaster (the 686b bug especially affected pcs with soundblaster cards installed) . . . Those original drivers may well have been updated since the machine arrived from home shopping club.

Adding the cable modem to an unstable system probably didn't help things any. You could also try uninstalling the cable modem & testing - Look in on Device Manager for any conflicts or problem devices.

I'm surprised a Micron box didn't come with a recovery disk. Could the owner have lost it? (or forgotten about it?)
________
This should be enough to keep you busy for a while. Let me know if none of this helps.
. . . Gary

[Aaron2]

You know... I did go back and reset the bios settings to default when I started looking at it. I didn't know if someone else had messed with them...

What would be the 'key?' things to look for in the bios settings that might be causing this?

I'm picking the computer up in the morning. I'll have it all weekend to beat on

[TwoRails]

Hi Aaron2,

Getting in late, here, but I've had very similar problems in the past. This type of problem is one of the hardest to trouble shoot. To try to figure out the problem, I did more than can be typed in a reasonable amount of time. So, to cut to the quick, I had to do what I hate the most. Reformat and reinstall. I hate doing that so much, that I've only done it several times in the last 20 years... but, if nothing else works, sometimes it's the only answer.

Good luck

TwoRails

[GaryRouth]

Hi again

Two Rails is absolutely right that this sort of thing can take an unreal amount of time to troubleshoot (& that sometimes the reformat/reinstall is the cleanest way to start over).

You'll still need a motherboard manual for the bios settings, whether you try to fix the current installation or re-install. Do you have one? Do you need help finding one online? (If you post your motherboard's make/model - which is usually silkscreened onto the circuit board near the PCI slots - I'll take a look for you and post a link)

Cpu and memory timings are pretty important - some motherboards take care of this entirely in the bios, others have jumpers on the board itself. Voltages are important too. Also check to make sure that an onboard video,modem, lan, or sound device that you're not using is not enabled by a default setting.

. . . I'll be at work this weekend, so I'll be on & off the forum a lot & should be able to see how you're doing
. . . Gary

[Aaron2]

It's gets even stranger... I brought it home today and hooked it up out at my computer bench and I can't get it to crash. Running with no problems...

Looping videos through windows media player, opening a bunch of programs at once, rebooting...

Really weird. Friday afternoon I went through 7 failed boot ups in a row.

I'm going to leave it on all night and then try to hook it up to my network and 'surf the net' for an hour or so to see if I get any hang ups.

[GaryRouth]

Hmmmm....it's been stable: since the cable modem isn't in use? (or perhaps the power at the pc owner's place is troublesome?) . . .

Should be interesting if the trouble starts again once it's hooked to your network.
. . . Gary

[Aaron2]

Follow up...


System performed fine when I hooked it up to the Network. Only one hang up this afternoon. I ran the virus program you mentioned... picked up 23 virus's and a worm_klev (?) virus. After that I installed Norton 2002 - it picked up an additional 55 infections and removed them.

No other problems to mention... had it on all day and it seems to be working again. I'm going to return it now and see how it works at her house.

[GaryRouth]

I imagine the system will be happy to be rid of it's viruses. I haven't heard of klev, but the Klez.h virus has been killing pcs all over town. I think it's still in the top 10 on most virus lists. Sneaks into files and hides under normal looking filenames. ugh. You should be much happier with Norton on the job.

Glad it's working again
. . . Gary