system locking up

[mtlee0321]

Just installed win98 on a computer. After a few minutes the computer locks up. Ctrl Alt Del doesn't work. Num. lock doesn't work. Went into safe mode, system info , tools and run tests that showed nothing wrong. Restarted and had enough time to run Dr Watson and showed nothing. Computer locked up after that. Went to msconfig to trouble shoot and turned off Autoexec.bat and Config.sys. Still locked up. I ran directx tests all passed. What cold be the problem?

[ktkendall]

What are the specs of the above montioned PC? Could be a number of things. I've seen bad cdrom drive cause that, could be memory, even seen mouse or keyboard cause similar things. The fact that safe mode runs OK kind of points to a driver/device issue!!

[Paul Victorey]

Not a programming forum type of question, moving to Win ME/98/95 help.

[GaryRouth]

Did you check your temps? (just to cover all the bases). Is this an old system or a new build? Home-build or major brand? If this is an older computer, did you Upgrade over the exisiting Windows - or clean install? If you just did a clean install, you have the option of just fdisking and starting over again: it does sound like device/driver trouble. If it was RAM, you'd likely see invalid page faults once and a while. If you decide to start over: remove any modems, sound cards, printers, network cards - and add them in one at a time later.

Best of luck, & Happy Holidays
. . . Gary

[like kt mentioned, the more specs you can provide, the more we'll be able to troubleshoot]

[mtlee0321]

Sorry wasn't sure which area to pose the question.

[mtlee0321]

thanks, I made a clean install then formatted disk and clean installed windows ME instead. The windows 98 disk was in pretty bad shape. Don't think I had all the files on the hdd. Removed the network card and sound card. I am still having lock up. The cpu fan appears to be blowing, could it not be blowing fast enough for a AMD T-bird 850 mhz processor? I have one stick of memory (64 mb sdram) and Maxtor 2.5 g hard drive. All on an International mobo.(not sure the name)

[GaryRouth]

Since you're having lockups with both operating systems, it's probably hardware related. Can't hurt to check the heat: enter your Bios Setup and look under a menu called "PC Health" or "Hardware Monitor" or something like that. An 850mhz Tbird needs a fair amount of cooling.

If it's not heat, keep testing the rest of the hardware.
For the memory, you can try DocMemory: http://www.simmtester.com
For the hard drive, try Maxtor's Powermax: http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

Some of the early chipsets for the T-bird motherboards had troubles with PCI/IDE timings (can cause lockups). Most of these were with the KT133/KT133a VIA chipsets. Motherboard bios updates, and more recent VIA 4-in-1 drivers usually fix the problem. That particular chipset caused trouble for some SoundBlaster Live! cards too - newer drivers sometimes helped there.

Even if the win98 cd was in bad shape, if any of the files had trouble copying, you should have seen an error - so you can run whatever OS you prefer: you just have to see if the trouble is heat or a failing part.

What brand/wattage power supply do you have?

Was this a major brand box? - Or? [. . . and to check the motherboard: if you can't see a model # silk-screened on the board itself, if you can keep Windows running long enough to download and install SiSoft Sandra (a set of system analysis tools) - that can identify the motherboard for you. BelArc Advisor can do this, too. SiSoft Sandra: http://www.sisoftware.co.uk BelArc Advisor: http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Best of luck
. . . Gary