Computer Freezing Up

[kurokaze]

Don't know if I'm on topic with the forum, so please bear with me.
One of my PCs is constantly freezing up, some times for no reason at all during idle Windows sessions.. definately when I try to play Quake 3. I have 3 PCs and this is the only one this happens to.

The system:
Intel P2 - 266Mhz
Asus P2L97 Mobo rev. 1.02
256MB PC100 RAM
Matrox G400 32MB AGP Vid Card
Adaptec 2940UW SCSI Card
Generic 10/100 Ethernet NIC
Soundblaster AWE64 ISA Card
Pioneer 6x SCSI DVD-ROM
Yamaha 4416S SCSI CDRW
Micropolis 3391WS 9.1GB UW SCSI HD
10GB IBM Desktar ATA33 HD
4.3GB Quantum Fireball ATA33HD
300W PSU
Win98SE

Everything's been flashed with their latest
bios, has the latest drivers, etc. CPU rarely
goes over 30C. I thought it might have been a
vid card freeze but I don't think so since I
can't turn the numlock on/off when it happens..
so I suspect that its the motherboard but can't
confirm. This is starting to drive me nuts..

Any help would be appreciated

 

[Guest]

Quake 3 on a PII-266? Don't know what the minimum requirements for Quake 3 are, but my gut feeling is your computer can't handle it. For that matter, Win98SE might be too much for PII-266. ISA sound cards are notorious for causing trouble. You might try taking it out and see if it helps. As another thought, I see you've upgraded the PSU from whatever originally came with this system so in theory you shouldn't have power problems. But it's possible your MB can't send enough current to the AGP video card even though there is plenty available at the PSU. About the only way to test that theory would be to try an older video card that doesn't need much power. Hope that's helpful.

 

[FUGGER]

Do you use a microsoft optical mouse on that machine?
There is a known problem with a short in the cord.
You can jiggle the cord and watch the optic at the bottom to see if it goes out. If it goes out thats bad and needs to be replaced. The optic should stay on at all times.

 

[Guest]

>For that matter, Win98SE might be too much for PII-266.

I was running it on a P200 until very recently when the powersupply when and took the MB with it. Ran about as well as Win98 runs anywhere...which isn't saying much.


In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.

 

[Guest]

Goodness, if you've seen a newer computer that can't run Win98 better than a P200, it's got some serious issues.

 

[Guest]

A P2-266? Isn't that proc designed to run on a 66 MHz FSB? If you have your mobo set to a 100 MHz FSB and your proc is designed to run on a 66 MHZ FSB, you may be in for some problems. I had a P2-300 running on a 100 MHz FSB (it was an accident) and sometimes it worked and other times it had major issues.

 

[Guest]

My kids play Quake 3 on a K62-500 with 128pc100,Diamond S540 16mg video, and they lock up on Quake 3 as well. I put it on my Classic Athlon 1ghz with 768mb Pc133 and a ATI 32 mb Expert video and it also locked up. My system NEVER locked before so I did some research on the Zone and Quake 3 seems to have lockup issues for lots of people. I took it off my system and don't plan on putting it back. They can play Quake 2 for hours on end and no locks. I'm convinced its a software issue. Just my opinion, not looking to argue the point.

 

[Crashman]

Upgrade your processor and video card.
Ph, and if it is a video lockup, do the three fingered solute wait about 5 seconds, and hit enter. If that don't bring it back, do the three fingured solute, hit tab twice, then enter, and it should shut down (better than just shutting it off).

Suicide is painless...........

 

[HolyGrenade]

Quake 3 runs just fine on my friend's k6 300 with a TNT 1 card.


<i><b><font color=red>"2 is not equal to 3, not even for large values of 2"</font color=red></b></i>

 

[Guest]

> Goodness, if you've seen a newer computer that can't run Win98 better than a P200, it's got some serious issues.

I've seen newer computers run Win98 faster, but not better.


In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.

 

[khha4113]

<b>For that matter, Win98SE might be too much for PII-266.</b>
Win98SE runs fine even with the speed below 200 MHz. My brother-in-law still has his Pentium 166Mhz (used to run Win 95 until I installed Win 98SE for him).

 

[khha4113]

Did you check in your <b>Device Manager</b> to see if there is any <b>IRQ conflict</b>? Not sure about your mobo but in my experience, I usually see in early mobos IRQ Steering can cause freezing up if your hardware shares IRQ together.