Windows 98 Installation -- Crashes and Reboots

[cylent1]

I recently decided to build a PC system. I used the following components:
Soyo 5ssm Motherboard with built in AGP and sound
AMD K-6II- 500 Mhz
3 SDRAM memory PC100 (108, 32, and 32)

I reformatted my hard drive (4.32 GB) and attempted a installation of Win 98, SR 2. Everything worked until Windows tries to read the various plug and play devices and install drivers. The system just crashes and reboots (not even a blue screen of death with crytic error messages ).

I can boot up in safe mood, but using msconfig and making sure nothing loads still crashes the system when it looks for the plug and play devices. At first I thought it might be the on-board video card with shared memory, but I install the video card drivers (latest from Soyo website) in safe mode.

The system indicates it is looking for drives for the PCI IDE controller right before it crashes. I installed Soyo latest IDE drivers (which support the Ultra DMA66) in the safe mode but the system still crashes when I boot up normal.

I've tried using the bootlog.txt option to boot, but the last item indicates that device loading is unknown. I did note in the bootlog text that several fonts did not load. I'm not sure why, I checked and they are in the system. Is this important? Is there another way to tell what exactly is causing the system to crash and reboot?

Any suggestions or ideas would be helpful. Would bad memory chips cause this type of crash?

 

[fenris]

It could be a number of things, hardware conflict, memory or windows doesn't like the system

From what I gather from your post everything is intigrated into your mobo. Did you read the installation instructions for your motherboard? I am saying this because I have a DFI board that caused me quite a bit of problems till I decided to read the instructions. They were quite clear on how and when to install the drivers. After following the instructions and praying to the gods it worked.

It could very well be a memory problem. Pull out all but one chip and try the install again. If it works then memory is a suspect and you will have to play the swapping game to find out which module is the culprit....

BTW it could also be one of the slots that the memory resides in.

But I have a funny feeling that it is just a driver conflict.

Good luck...

 

[cylent1]

Thanks for the advice. Don't tell my wife, but I did read the instructions very carefully on installing everything before I started. I've been burned on that one time to many to fool with that on PCs.Don't ask, lets just say a fried HD is not pleasant

I will try you suggestion on the memory.

I also have a DFI board, which I used before upgrading to the new mobo. It was part of a barebones system and worked okay. It had trouble with the suspend mode, but that was not a big deal to me. (In fact, I am planning on using the DFI mobo in a W2k system I want to use for my personal business. But I have to get this W98 game system working for the kids first.)

 

[Guest_imported]

change out hardware like memory or cpu and netcard . you have to swop parts.

 

[cylent1]

Thanks all for the response. I hate reading questions, and then not seeing which the solution worked. Thus a quick update:

Following the instruction to remove devices and reboot, I was able to get Win98 installed. Once installed, I was able to load the newest drivers and avoid the device conflicts that were causing the crashes.

 

[fenris]

Congratulations....