win98se program crashes

[Tribble]

G'day all,
I am having some problems with 98se, I just changed motherboards from a BX6 v1 slot 1 too a VH6 694X-686A so I could run PIII 800MhzEB chip instead of my old PIII 500Mhz Slot1 CPU.

I know I did the swap over correctly via getting rid of the old system board devices before swapping boards and the swap went flawlessly.

But now ever so often (3-4 times a day) programs will just crash and some wont reload w/o a reboot eg: C&C Renergade won't reload after it crashes but my firewall (Kerio) will reload after it crashes.

Sometimes the error is with the kernel or the user.exe.

I have checked the regisrty with different progs and found no errors and am at a loss, is it the Via (Fear) chipset on the mobo or really just windblows playing up?

Thx for your time.

[Cricket]

Hi Tribble,

I hate to say it, but the problem may very well be the VIA chipset. The INTEL BX chipset was one of the most stable chipsets of all time. Many here feel the INTEL CPU/VIA chipset combo isn't a very good matchup.

Did you install any new programs or utilities? Do you have a lot of background programs running?

Are the VIA chipset drivers up to date?

Have you cleared out all your temp folders?

I saw your other thread about OC'ing and my suggestion is that you get the system running really stable at stock speeds before you even try to overclock it...if you overclock it now, all the problems you have now will only get much worse.

Cricket

[Tribble]

G'day,
I started the other thread just for information.

Nothing new installed, would like too see if there are updated for the VIA(Fear) chipsets but don't know where to look

I know that there are some real bad performance from VIA(Fear) chipsets eg: A friend of mine has a P3 1Ghz on an AOpen Via(Fear) mobo and using my P3 500 on the BX mobo I could out perform on things like formatting larger (80gig+) drives and so on.

So where can I identify the VIA(FEAR) chipsets and get updated drivers?

[Cricket]

Originally posted by Tribble So where can I identify the VIA(FEAR) chipsets and get updated drivers?

Go to the motherboard manufacturer's web site first.

I guess you could also check out VIA Tech or VIA Arena and take a look around.

Cricket

[Tribble]

Well Abit suck ass because they don't even have a manual let alone drivers for my mobo.

I went too VIA Arena and downloaded the 4n1 drivers but am unsure if I should install them ......

[GaryRouth]

Hi Tribble, Hi Cricket . . .

Those newer Via 4-n-1s theoretically can't hurt to try. They are supposed to be able to detect your OS & Via chipset and just install the files you need.

Abit has both the drivers and the manual for your board, but it's not the easiest site to navigate. I recommend searching at the US site, since it tends to have things the Tawain site doesn't keep online as long. For the manual, try this link, the VH6 had 3 versions - your manual should be about 3/4 of the webpage down under the PIII board listings - http://www.abit-usa.com/downloads/manual/
And for the drivers, you can look on this link - http://www.abit-usa.com/downloads/driver/
and they even have a mirror site in Austrailia, which might be speedier - FTP Mirror in Australia
ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/abit

I'd try an over-the-top reinstall of Windows (rename win.com to win.xxx & then run Setup) - and then try the new 4n1 (or just a different version) & see if that does it.

I haven't heard the 694x/686a chipset called the "Fear" chipset before - I wonder if that's how they market it down under. Here in the states they call it the Apollo MVP3 -or- 4, if my memory serves me tonight (though it is getting late). . .

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[AlwaysUp]

I respectfully submit that for problem free operation you may well have been served better by remaining with the BX6 board and the PIII 500. There isn't that drastic a performance increase and no comparison in the stability department. Didn't Abit make a bios flash available to support up to the PIII800 on that board? I know they have slot1 slockets still available.

[AlwaysUp]

After a search at the Abit-usa site I find, alas I was misinformed about the availability of a BIOS that supported your higher frequency cpu's as you stated. I built my first system with the BX6-ver2 and as anyone knows this and subsequent boards like the BE6 went through many variations.

[mike breck]

Hi Tribble,

Did you use the ENUM method for eliminating the old drivers

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9254

If not, it might be worthwhile trying it and then reloading all of your drivers again.

If that doesn't work, and Gary's suggestion of an overlay Windows install doesn't help, I, personally, would try a fresh install of Windows.

HTH

[Tribble]

Well I was going too run Nortan System works registry swipe and delete every entry then reboot *Crash* rename win.com to win.bak and delete it, then reinstall windows ....

But I guess I might even just fdisk/format/reinstall and lose 45gig of movies *cries*

@GaryRouth
Downunder as you call it *Technically we sit on top of the world's surface* we have a saying, "If it is VIA, Fear"

[Tribble]

Well I did the dredded Fdisk/format re install and it all seamed to be working ..... and now I get DirectX errors when playing games like Warcraft 3 "ddhelp errors"

I have Nvdia's latest drivers and DirectX8.1 so Bleh windows sucks

[Tribble]

Can someone please help me resovle these conflicts?

[GaryRouth]

Seems unusual to see a sound card driver using interrupt 10 - I thought the Creative cards liked 5 and 7. If you're not using any USB devices, though, you can leave it where it is & it can have that interrupt all to itself by disabling the USB in the Bios Setup for your system.

Those aren't necessarily confilcts, but just sharing. You could double-check by looking in Device Manager under Properties and Resources for those devices. If they list "no conflicts", then theoretically they should work.

You can try reinstalling DirectX and then try the nVidia Detonators again. [especially if you accidentally installed the DirectX upgrade after the nVidia drivers rather than before, which generally works better]

Over/Under Windows goes asunder
. . . Gary

[Tribble]

My optical scroll mouse is USB.

I will try re installing DirectX and the nVidia driver again.