Random lock-ups!!!!!help!!!!!

[bigarms]

I have an Athlon 650 with an All-in-Wonder Radeon and 384 MB RAM. My computer randomly freezes, but especially while running anything that involves media (ie: games, running winamp). i've installed every driver recommended for my motherboard (Asus K7M). the motherboard temp is approximately 30°C and i don't have a temp sensor on the cpu. I'm pretty positive that the lock-up problem has something to do with my motherboard or cpu, because i've swapped out everything else and reformatted my hard drive. I'm running win98se by the way. I have a 250 watt powersupply and one case fan. I realize that this points to overheating but i've taken off one side of my case to help dissapate heat and that doesn't seem to help. if anyone has any ideas, they would be appreciated. thankx

[Sid]

ASUS seems to release mobo's before they work the kinks out of them. My A7V was so bad about locking up I almost replaced it, actually I did just to figure out the problem. Check for updated bios and get the latest VIA chipset drivers. Most likely this is a bios issue.

[mnosteele52]

It could be heat or the powerpack, but i would lean towards your video card, Radeon has ALOT of driver issues. If u can try another card and see if that fixes it.

[bigarms]

i've installed the latest bios and the latest VIA 4-in-1 drivers. i had an ATI Rage about 2 months ago and my computer still randomly locked up so i don't think it's the video card.

[Sid]

Oops, I miss read the post, thought it was one of the newer k7 style boards. Athlons are power hungry bastards. Find a 300w p/s and stick it in there, steel one from a friend, its only 4 screws and a couple connectors. I fought a random lock up on one system for about a week then the p/s died all together. Doubtful its and overheating problem unless the fan has died on the cpu.

[terrancelam]

currently? Are both brands generic? And what are the positions of both sticks. Your PSU is a bit below what I personally would called safe for stability and might be better if your got a more higher rated one. A 350W might be nice if you ever planned on upgrading to a higher mhz cpu, 350W is what I usually recommend for a 1.2ghz -1.4ghz based system.

[bigarms]

i have three ram sticks (one 256 mb, and 2 64 mb) and they're all kingston ram. i've swapped the ram around trying different slots and just using only one ram stick at a time. another thing that i've just remembered is that my computer sometimes reboots while i'm running a program. the rebooting is not picky on which programs are running. what would be a speed that would be considered "safe" for stability and how much would the stable cpu cost? thank you to everyone that has given advice so far.

[monkeyhead]

sounds like a power problem with the rebooting...... although i have had problems with my ati card..... causing lockups on XP!!

also i have a school issued IBM laptop that has an ATI card in it that causes problems

[Sid]

what would be a speed that would be considered "safe" for stability and how much would the stable cpu cost?

He's not talking about cpu speed but how much power the power supply has or can produce

[terrancelam]

I would think that the 64mb pieces might be causing the problem, as I've known older PC100 pieces to crap out (Usually some of the cheaper generic comp shops just relabled their PC66 piece to pc 100.

So have you tested the 256mb individually in different slots? the 250W might be enough, but a 300W would be better for your needs ( I used a 300W AMD Approved PSU on my K6-2 500mhz based system.)

Another thing would to be to check for IRQ conflicts, what other devices do you have installed with this system?

[bigarms]

i've swapped a new 300 watt power supply in for my 250 and my computer still locks up randomly. my computer could run all night without a problem but once i start running a program that seems to involve directx or any other type of multimedia, it's a matter of time before it locks up. When i say lockup, i mean completely. i can't even move the mouse around. when it does lock up, my sound card makes a very repetitive noise. it's hard to describe, but it sounds somewhat like a hum coming through the speakers. the two 64mb ram pieces i have are both marked at pc133 and i'm pretty sure that they aren't mismarked by the computer shop. i thought all of my ram was kingston but i looked again and the 64mb pieces are made by a company called Nanya. the 256mb piece is made by kingston though. i've messed around with the ram before to see if that was the problem. i've had only the 256mb piece in by itself and it still locked up. i took my computer to the place that built it for me and they said they couldn't find any problems.

[Jstyr]

If you've done some surfing on the internet with this PC I'd recommend getting Ad-Ware program to remove any Spy-ware you might have on your system. I had lock-up's and crashing issues with Outlook express and Internet Explorer...I've also had crashes and lockups in certain games. Spyware was removed from my registry and system files and that fixed the problem. Also go into your Strat/programs/accesories/system tools/system information...look under the toolbar in here for the System File checker..run that and replace any CORRUPTED files only!

This may not solve your problem...I remeber reading an article about the Radeon all-in-wonder being not so wonderful....it does a wide range of things but doesn't do any one thing great...look on extremetech.com for an article about it. G'luck to ya,

Sloppy

[Jstyr]

you can thank Norm for all that information if it helps you...I was having lock-ups and mainly "illegal operation" errors the other day and his suggestion seems to have fixed my problem. Now if only I can win the lottery I'll upgrade this hunk-0-scrap.

Sloppy

[bigarms]

is it possible that a sound card could be causing lockups? I have a yamaha ds-xg sound card. i've installed the latest drivers for it too. i just did the directsound test for my soundcard in the dxdiag tool. all of the sound was muffled and my computer locked up everytime.

[Norm]

Sounds like you've narrowed it down to the sound card.
Take the card out and see if things improve.

Remove it from device manager first.

If all is well try reinstalling the sound card and drivers. if it screws up again it may be a short somewhere in the card.
If it's plug and play, try it with the generic windows drivers. Sometimes updated drivers don't work so well.

[bigarms]

i think i fixed it finally after a whole year. i installed a new driver for my soundcard. there were two different drivers on the yamaha website. both were for win98se. i installed the wdm one which used directx 8. the other one used directx 7. thanks to everyone that gave advice. of course, the solution to my problem was very simple yet evasive. thanks again

[gertvanjoe]

Merry Christmas to you too Norm