System Freeze 3

[sharc]

Hi all, I'm hoping that I can get a couple of helpful hints here.
System:
900 mhz athlon
Asus A7Pro MoBo/ViaApollo KT133 chipset
256MB Ram
NvdiaGeForce2MX 64MB (AGP)
Quantum 10GB HD
Win98SE

Problem is the computer will freeze on average of twice per hour. No "Blue screen", just a comlete lock up. Ctrl-Alt-Del will usually restart the computer but not always. Have tried running Macafee crash protector in the background to see if that made a difference but no luck but nothing popped up (it has detected some other crashes and let me fix them).

I have installed the updated 4-in-1 driver for the apollo chipset, updated drivers for my ethernet card, as well as the latest driver for the Nvidia graphics card (it is a no name card but is using the Nvidia chipset). The updated video drivers didn't work very well, after switching over to Duke 3d video game, the windows desktop had black areas on it (mostly the bottom toolbar). I reinstalled the old drivers and all is back to normal but still getting the freeze problem.

It seems that there are no IRQ conflicts in either the control pane/system or in Sandra Sisoft. In the Sisoft tune up wizard I get 4 wrnings that may have something to do with the problem.
In mainboard info; "Warning 2533: Disabled host controllers are present, check Bios settings"
In CPU and Bios info; "Warning 2533: Processor 1 disabled host controllers are present, check bios settings"
PCI and AGP Buses info; Tip 1202; VIA tech. VT82c686a ACPI power managment controller; device does not support bus mastering.
"Warning 1206 D-Link unknown (1300): PCI latency too high, Device could hog the bus for too long."

I am at a loss as far as the host controller messages are concerned (I have searched the Bios for anything disabled but can't seem to find anything that would make sense) is it possible that it could be a jumper setting on the board?

As for the latency, it is currently set at 32 in the bios. Itried it at 25, no different, 64 and 128 as well had no effect. Sorry this message is so long, just trying to give enought detail. Any help would be a appreciated,

Sharc

 

[Zorlod]

Could be talking about the ram latency. did you install more ram in the system yourself? sometimes Athlons have troubles like this if you use CAS 3 ram instead of CAS 2. Other times they have no trouble running CAS 3 at all, depends on if you get lucky or not. Do you have different ram to try, or a stick to take out?

 

[sharc]

Was running 128 MB when I first bought the system, added the second 128 hoping that might help the problem. Both the same type of RAM (identical sticks). Will consider trying new RAM when the stores open again tomorrow.

One thing I have noticed is that it does seem freeze more while I am online. Since my connection is DSL, the computer is regularly on-line while I am here. I also forgot to mention that when I installed the updated drivers for the video card, Sisoft gave me a number of errors under the Direct X category that I don't get with the older drivers.

 

[batchoychoy]

I noticed that your bios had a lot of error messages. Try clearing the settings by shorting the battery. This way, when you boot, it will use the factory settings. Athlons are indeed very picky on memory. If you know how to assemble a computer. Try removing a hardware, then boot the PC. This way youll know if any device has a problem.

 

[trutexan]

I too had the freezeups several times daily with my AGP Nvidia Geforce 2 MX and usually while doing network type stuff in the backround, like downloads. In Device Manager,I found the Nvidia kept sharing IRQs with the network card(IRQ11). Thanks to the marvels of PCI steering(I assume)and Windows98 second edition it is a legitimate process. I had to do the following to free up an IRQ
(1) Remove network card from Device Manager
(2) Power down the PC and physically remove the network card
(3) Free up an IRQ by disabling my onboard Com1 port, which was unused after I installed a cheap bus mouse in place of the serial mouse.
(4) Power up to Windows98 and then shutdown the PC again
(5) Reinstall the network card and power up the PC
(6) Windows98 rediscovered it and alas! The Nvidia Geforce was now IRQ4 and the network card was IRQ11 and I have had no problems since.

 

[sharc]

Hi guys, thanks for the responses, have tried all of the above will try new memory this afternoon. Video card is on IRQ 11, ethernet card is on 5. The only IRQ on which there is a shared device is 14 and 15. The VIA bus master shares with the primary and secondary IDE controller respectively.

I have noticed however even though there is only one device on each IRQ, the ACPI PCI IRQ bus steering shows up along with graphics card, audio card, ethernet card and USB controller. Is this normal?

 

[mridle]

Interesting issue. Are you running a particular program or even particular game when the lockup occurs, or can you let the system sit, minus power standby of course, and it still locks up? I've seen many issues with nvidia chipsets and their "parent" company drivers...especially PNY. A quick recommendation, if it's worth your time, would be to load nvidia's detonator 3,4, or XP driver. Check that out. Also, just fer shi+s-n-giggles, use msconfig to turn everything off except systray at startup. See what happens. Just a quick thought.

 

[flexware]

Something to try, boot to safe mode and go to Start / Settings/ Control Panel /System - Device Manager. Now look to see what is installed under each heading. If you find multiple devices, ie four CD drives, delete them all. If you have been trying different device drivers, your system is probably still loading all the drivers.

I had a customer using a notebook with a DVD and she couldn't get the DVD to work. When booted to normal mode, it showed 1 DVD drive, when booted in safe mode, she had 18 of them. I deleted them all, rebooted, let Windows find the DVD and everything started to work. I think everyone should boot to Safe Mode once and awhile just to see what extra crap is being loaded.

Cheers
Bill

 

[Scotsdude]

also, download the Windows XP compatibility checker from Microsoft.

Bizarrely enough, this flagged a problem with my graphics card that nothing else had shown, as it warned me this wouldn't work properly under XP. I didn't upgrade to XP, but sure enough, my graphics card gave up the ghost about 3 weeks later.

Scotsdude
********
I do the best I can with the info that I have.
If it works, let me know.
If it don't, ditto!

 

[sharc]

Higuys, thanks for the tips. Fortunately I was playing around in the BIOS a couple days after the last post and was able to figure out what was wrong. The system performance setting was at "optimal" instead of normal. Once I changed that, 98 was as stable as it was going to get. Have since upgraded to XP and love the improvements. Thanks again.