PC woes...
 

hey all,

im trying to set up a computer solely for encoding video, however, i am having major troubles with it...

it is a PIII 600 w/256 RAM running Win2000. i always understood that 2000 was a most stable OS, but it is going nuts all the time. somedays it will just reboot itself whenever, other times it will freeze up, and many times, the screen will go all buggy til it is just gone.

ive tested the RAM and all the cards. did a fresh format and install. i cant figure it out. could it possibly be the power supply. i hope its not the mobo.

does anyone have any sort of idea that could help me figure this out? i dont want to turf this system. any tips would be awesome.

take care guys!

hey DeltaBoy,

I had a problem with a PII 400mhz win98 system where it would randomly reboot itself and the problem was the power supply- check it out! The system i had problems with had an Asus motherboard with hardware monitoring capabilities that told me there was insufficient voltage somewhere so that helped me a lot.

-ren

evening deltaboy,

My OS was Windwos 98 too w/ PII (Intel 233 MMX)

Yes, I had that same exact experience too.. keyboard lockup; mouse
disapearing; desktop freezing up.

At first, i thought it was my mouse, ..replaced, problem came back.

Then, I thought it was my keyboard, since too would blank out, ..replaced
w/ new one, but problem came back again.

Then, thinking it was a warn CMOS/BIOS battery, I replace it, same thing,
Problem came back.

Then, I replaced the motherboard !! he, he..

Yeah, I think it's your MB - I have not seen this issue come back since. :)

Good luck w/ a NEW board.
-vhelp

yes,could be your MB .


take it easy......test a power supply first!
the cpu is cool?...if not,the pc reboots!

i had problems with power and memory too! :)

wow! thanks for all the insight guys. i will try and test everything in a costly manner. start with testing the HD, then replacing the power supply, and as a last resort, replacing the mobo...

its not that big of a deal. anyway, you can buy smoking new systems for under $500 now. i guess that would bne the ultimate last resort.

thanks everyone!!!

everyone that post could be right in diagnostics...but
listen to me:(is my work for 30 years),
first test power supply and if the cpu is cool (cold,not warm),
if not...could be mb and or mem! :wink:
only try to help you,take it easy.
eletronics makes mad things! :)

editing: cool(cold,not warm).....is my poor english, :teeth:

how exactly do i test the power supply anyway? i also know it is not the memory.

thanks!

Hi deltaboy,

Are you overclocking your CPU :?:

-kwag

oh, no no... i never do. i dont think its worth it to try to squeeze out just a little more juice. id rather not take the chances.

good question kwag,it's warm the cpu too!

deltaboy wrote:
"how exactly do i test the power supply anyway?"
just test your pc with "another" power supply! :wink:

im not that good with the mechanics. is it easy? i dont want to ruin my only good one, heheh.

very easy,just see the position of the "plug" of power supply in the mb.

very important: remove the cable from energy before change(on the wall)

very ,very important 2: sorry my "klinglish"(klingon and english) :tongue2:

Ok, just wondering, because that's one cause for sporadic crashes. You might want to try something. As jorel said, it could be the power supply, but it could also be a faulty piece of hardware. I have a suggestion. You might want to download a boot image of FreeBSD from www.freebsd.org.
It's a 1.44MB image that you will write to a floppy disk using a program called "rawrite.exe". The idea is that you'll boot from this floppy using it as a diagnostic floppy. And let it sit overnight after it fully boots. I've used this trick on many of my customer machines. Here why. Windows ( And most pieces of M$Crap except XP or 2000 ) are running mostly in real mode. That is, using BIOS to access peripherals. In XP and 2000, the hardware is accessed directly by the operating system, so flaky hardware usually bombs faster that if you are using Windows 95, 98, or ME. The idea of booting from a small FreeBSD install disk, is that it will do a very exhaustive test on your chip set and hardware, and if anything is faulty, it will bomb with a message on the screen. Not just locking up your PC, as WinBlows usually does. I have used FreeBSD for over 8 years now ( commercially :wink: ), so if you have any problems, just scream :D
I could suggest a Linux boot floppy, but FreeBSD is more aggressive on hardware, so it's better as a diagnostic tool. Let me know what you do :)

-kwag

Edit: rawrite is here: ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/tools/
And the floppy boot image you have to download is this: ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/re...ppies/kern.flp

great, thanks... ill give it a whirl, but if anything goes wrong, im coming after you!!! hahahahha. j/k

ewww, i dont know if i want to experiment with freeBSD. i learned a bit of it in a networking class a couple years back. i hated it!!! i am a complete fool when it comes to command line.

or is this just a diagnostic tool? i cant find any relevant links to this rawrite.exe. wink, wink, nudge, nudge...

Hehe :D ,
It's safe to boot. It won't format your drive, unless you run the full install. :wink:

-kwag

I edited my post with direct links. Rawrite is a DOS tool that will write an image file to a floppy. Just open a DOS ( Command ) window and after you download the boot image type: "rawrite kern.flp a:" without the quotes, of course :wink:

-kwag