Freezing PC

[spannersatcx]

Dear all, I have the following unbranded homebuilt PC. W98SE 128mb RAm 2 x HDD total 14GB on primary IDE channel, Creative 24x CDROM Philips CDRW on 2ndary IDE, Creative PCI64 Soundcard, Creative GeForce256 Annihilator AGP graphics card all on an ABIT BE6-2 Motherboard with an Intel P2 350. Nothing overclocked or tweaked. I keep experiencing random screen freezes and or sometimes corrupted display i.e. funny colours on menu bars and icons. I have installed reinstalled all the latest drivers and BIOS. All BIOS settings are as recommended for AGP, aperture size at 64mb video BIOS off etc etc. Creative TS no help, not our drivers, awaiting response from ABIT TS. Have reinstalled W98, not a format and clean install but over the top. Have recently installed Norton utilitie which came up with nothing, have run regclean etc etc still no joy. Have tried Nvidia reference drivers and things seem a little more stable but it's hard to tell. I can have the pc going all day shut down and come back an hr later and it will freeze normally when I get to the desktop or shortly after. Have exclude all start up files by running msconfig, doesn't seem to make any difference. Always run viruse checkers, nothing found. Using utilities CPU and system voltages and temps are in limits. Anybody got any ideas, last resort will have to be a reformat and reinstall, which I'm trying to avoid, anything would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[clownfish]

I saw something exactly the same last year and the problem turned out to be in the RAM. Just because it passes the startup test means SFA. If you can, try changing the RAM and see if the problem remains.

[blackadder]

If you have Norton Utilities on yer PC, DUMP IT !

Your probs might be solved, the only software Norton sells that works seems to be Anti-Virus.

[Wiggly Amp]

Spanners,

Recently had trouble with Abit BE6II Mboard, had to send it back, occasionally it wouldn`t power up and display somtimes corrupt when it did decide to power up. It eventually gave up and wouldn`t even switch on ATX supply in case. New BE6II fitted, no problems. It does seem that the BE6II is a little fickle compared with the original BE6.

If you havn`t elliminated the RAM as a possible suspect as previously suggested, I have a 64Mb stick you can try just to narrow down the culprit of the frozen screen.

Regards

Wiggly Amp

[Blacksheep]

I'm with blackadder on this one. Had the same problem, exactly as described a year or so ago. Removing Norton Utilities and MS Agent solved the problem for me.



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Info noted. Plse report further.

[spannersatcx]

Thanks so far guys. FYI I only installed Nortons Utilities in the hope of finding some file corrupted somewhere, doesn't seem to of worked. So I might go for the 60 day money back offer on that. Wiggly amp, I've just updated the BIOS
, again, which gives a default voltage of 3.5volts for the V I/O, as suggested by ABIT TS. Nil help. I might take you up on the RAM offer as I have notice that sometimes excel/word are a little slower in booting up. Please mail me at [email protected] to arrange a time and a place, very much appreciate your help. I have 2 x 64mb DIMMS from different sources so it could well be one or the other. Failing that I guess I'll have to persuade DABS to do a swop of the MOB. Thanks again all.

[Wiggly Amp]

Spanners,

I bet you can`t guess where my Abit BE6 II with problems came from. However there does not seem to be a problem returning stock, unfortunately as of last week they have no stock of the BE6 II and are not exspecting to get any more according to the sales person I dealt with. You might want to try Micro Direct for the BE6 II as they do have stock at a slightly higher price of £99ish.

I will e-mail you regarding the Ram.

Wiggly Amp

[Jesus loves me]

Hello Spanners,
Have to agree about Nortons, bin it quick.
I myself had similar problems, seemingly unexplainable, tried allsorts, swapped RAM, cleaned windows, re formatted to no avail. Eventually changed CPU cooling fan (on a guess) and solved everything. I don't know why or how I arrived there as the old one looked and sounded perfect, but obviously wasn't doing the business. The system was less than 2 yrs old.
Hope this helps.
JLM

[FL310]

Your icons change too? When opening an application like Corel Draw 8 or any big program you see strange comments like FONTS NOT INSTALLED ?
It has nothing to do with your hardware! It is one of the nice programs on your PC which leaks memory. Maybe Outlook Express (took me 2 months to isolate it) or any other freebie you find on the net.
There are RAM defragmenter on the market, they look nice, they help a bit but, no real solution.
Try to start your PC with less programs.
Anytime I start my PC, all is fine, starting Outlook 2000 , everything is fine, starting the newsreader (the tailored Outlook Express), things are getting nasty and after finishing my work on the news side I have to reboot....
Due to certain reasons I cannot swap to another application, so I have to live with it, but don't look at your hardware only....

[spannersatcx]

FL310, I have already disabled all startup programs using msconfig, still no good though. Sometimes it doesn't even get as far as the desktop, it will freeze with a blank desktop. A other times shortly after star up with everything nml I see an odd pixel near the mouse pointer, it stays with it, I then know that very soon afterwards the whole thing will freeze. I'm awaiting reply from the suppliers T/S on what they want me to send back first. It has to be hardware as when I put my old PCI graphics card and 3dfx voodoo 2 back in all is well, then again.....it may not as it appears to be totally random. Thanks for all the inputs.

[InFinRetirement]

Spanners me ole fruit.

How about? You go first to your motherboard's web site and sus out what they have by way of new drivers and download them. BUT....if the BIOS is working OK the general rule is leave it alone. I'm upgrading my CPU to Celeron 533 but got to have BIOS upgrade too. Then you can get updates for your graphics card, sound card, modem - everything. I would hazard a guess that your hang is due to a conflict between one card and another. Then of course you should get DirectX 7a - but LAST.

I really don't think it's Windows, it has to be a clash in the middle of your start-up. Getting rid of config is no big deal but sometimes it is essential to keep it, in spite of what Mr "Norton" says. Their programmes are a pain. Millions of miles too good for their own good! Just had a friend who put Norton's Cleansweep in - after Norton's took it over from Quarterdeck. Crash, big time! An absolute mess. Caused by Norton again. Dump it Spanners. I have Cleansweep from QD can't live without it - gets rid of wicked crap. That's the difference, it hasn't been tampered with by N's.

Best 'o British



[This message has been edited by InFinRetirement (edited 11 March 2000).]

[FL310]

ok spanners, leave the old cards in and see whether it is random or it disappears.

direct x whatever may cause a huge problem, there are thousands out there who will tell you (including me....) but the 7 version solved some problems on my end.

if you find out that it is your graphics adapter, talk to the helpline. had to get rid of a very expensive scsi adapter i bought three months before changing to a p3 system, they both didn't like each other. advise was to downgrade the bios or change it all....as said, seldom the hardware, most of the time the software is the problem.

and this, you can check out when starting w98 via the menu on a step by step way, you can identify where it stops and you see at least where interference takes place (also this may not necessarily be the original problem, but sometimes it is.)

activate the start-up log and see what is written there, if the system hangs, you can see what was noted last.

good luck

[spannersatcx]

InFinRetirement, I have the latest drivers for everything I have. I have the latest BIOS from the Abit website, which gives a default voltage of 3.5v to the AGP slot, they say as others do the Geforce reqs a lot of power, that's why I got their MOB as it was supposedly compatable etc. I also have direct x 7.0a installed. I only installed Nortons stuff to see if it could find a software/hardware problem, ala no joy. I will be returning it under their 60 day money back guaruntee. It is very difficult to narrow down because of it's randomness. Going to try a new memory module tomorrow see if that helps then I might just back up and do a clean re-install, that's a real pain as it takes so long to put everything back. Just thought I can backup my hard drive onto CD if it doesn't work then I can just put it all back again anyway.
Thanks for all the input it's much appreciated. I'm just wondering while typing....no never mind I could go on all night. Thanks again.

[This message has been edited by spannersatcx (edited 11 March 2000).]

[InFinRetirement]

Don't despair Spanners. Aint computers a pain in the rear end. I am amazed that after you did all the right things, it still gives you gyp.

After I posted I thought of other things but it just didn't make sense.

Well, let me know if I can be of help. I have a number of programmes I can help you with.

[OzmateBugsmasher]

One thing that I always disable in the BIOS is the power management. My brother's PC was doing the random freeze for 2-5 secs thing until I disabled all the power management in the BIOS.

Give that a shot,

Also, try the ram in a different slot (sometimes works)

Make sure the processor is getting plenty of fresh air (clean up the cables etc) clean the dust and crap out of the heatsink.

Check that all the boards are seating properly in the MB. Soemtimes when you tighten the retaining screw onto the case, it levers the end of the board up a fraction.

Oz.

oh if none of that works, make sure your PC is aligned directly with the case facing Microsoft headquarters.

[Wiggly Amp]

Spanners,

I was quite busy Sunday, not sure whether you called and I was out. I still have Ram stick in my bag should you still require it.

Are you any closer to a solution?

My new BE6II is steaming along quite nicely now, pushing PIII 450 at 600Mhz with no problems. Hows that for value for money. :) :) :)

Catch you later.

Wiggly Amp

[spannersatcx]

Wiggly amp, sorry i was busy as well, on a bit of a tech delay now. Will mail you to arrange a day. Still suffering the freezing pc I'm afraid. Still waiting for a reply from suppliers TS.

[Feline]

Spanners -

Just in case it's an intermittent hardware problem, here's a trick I used many many moons ago.
You used to be able to get an aerosol can of freezer spray (I guess that it's just raw freon). You squirt at the hardware to see whether you can get the PC to freeze (unintentional pun). The theory is that as the box (and contents) warm up, you get some thermal expansion and this can cause intermittents (hairline cracks in PCDB tracks, dry soldered joints etc). Freezing it with the spray isolates where the problem is.
Might be worth a try.

Good luck!


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Feline
(I Sit, I Watch, I Smile)

[billovitch]

Had a hell of a time on various PCs with Psion installed. All the above symptoms. Love the Psion to bits but the Psi Win programme seems to eat my computers. Oh yes -anyone know how to get rid of the icon after uninstall?

[spannersatcx]

Many many many thanks everyone, I have just sent back they creative geforce under warranty. Since then I have refitted my old Matrox PCI and Voodoo 2 card and all has been fine. Hopefully it is the creative card, shall find out when I get a new one back, if it goes again then it must be something on the MOB/AGP slot. Will let you know when I get the new card,

Thanks again everyone

[stickyb]

Spanners, only just caught up with this thread. Did you say you were getting screen corruptions before freezes? Like some pixels just aside of the the mouse pointer?
If so, my guess is a memory corruption problem, either caused by bad drivers for the video card, or bad configuration between the video card and bios, or just a plain broken video card doing duff memory cycles.
If the problems go away with another brand of card installed, you know the answer

[spannersatcx]

Old PCI cards work fine, just received replacement card, which I shall install very soon. Hopefully all will be okay then, fingers crossed. I thought it was drivers but used Creative and Nvidia with the same results. BIOS has been updated and all settings correct according to both manufacturers. Voltage set at 3.5v. Here's hoping!!!!!

[spannersatcx]

Just installed replacement card, so far so good no fre.....

[BTDT]

Clean all SDRAM, PCI and ISA contact edges, ensure they are sitted home.