W2K or Hardware?

[raffie]

System -
AMD MP 2200+ 2 of them
Asus A7M266-D mobo
PC2100 - 1gb
WD 80GB
Leadtek A250 Ultra TD 128MB video.
OS W2K

When I loaded my system for the 1st time, I forgot to add the network card. After the OS was done I put it in and directed it to loaded the W2K drivers. After 3 hrs it would load. I got the error, the device failed to load. The data is invalid.
So out of fustration, I left the network card in, formated and reloaded the OS. Everything loaded fine and worked.
I wanted to test out my other video card to see how it would preform in my new system.
The same problem occured. W2K would not let me load the new video card, would not let me unload the video card drivers for the new ones. I worked on this for about 5 hours steady. No matter what I did I got the same error message. "The device failed to load. The data is invalid."
I have the latest video, BIOS and W2K updates.
As I was monitoring the temp of the system I noticed that when the mobo chip got to 86 degrees and the CPU hit 118 my system would shut off. After this was going on for a while I bought the Koolance Exos system. Does not shut down any more but the orginal problem still exist.
I have 2 512 PC2100 ram. I took one out and tryed loading the new video card and then swapped them around and got the same results.
I have been building and doing computer support for 8+ years, I do it fore a living.
None of my friend, co-workers and myself have never seen anything like this before.
I have NO clue to if its the mobo, OS or just WHAT is doing this.
Its as if the registry is locked or something.
Is there diag program that I can get to run on my system?

 

[Teq]

When you installed win2k did you set up an ADMINISTRATOR account with a password?

When doing hardware changes you must log in as the administrator.
If you do not have admin priveledges you can't change the hardware.




--->It ain't better if it don't work<---

 

[raffie]

I have been toying with that thought as well.
I made an account that has admin rights, BUT I made it so that I do not need to login to the account. Wonder if I have to login for it to be fuly functional instead of going into it as admin without a pswd.

 

[Teq]

If you didn't set up an admin account during install, your system actually has no parent ADMIN group with rights which can be passed to other accounts...

Sorry to say this but... if you didn't create that account you're going to have to reinstall.


--->It ain't better if it don't work<---

 

[HardWareBoss]

I had a problem with my system with 2000 Pro. I had password set. But did not have firewal up an running. So someone got in an messed me up. So I could not change password. I had to reinstall 2000 PRO. After I installed firewall. Problem solved.

 

[Teq]

Absolutely... unless you are on dialup... always run a firewall...

Also check out the security and services tweaks here:
<A HREF="http://snakefoot.fateback.com/tweak/winnt/default.html" target="_new">http://snakefoot.fateback.com/tweak/winnt/default.html</A>

You'd be surprised how leaky win2k is in it's "out of the box" configuration and how much better it will perform when all tweaked up...



--->It ain't better if it don't work<---

 

[jlanka]

isn't that done by default, i.e. you can't "not" do it?

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[Teq]

There is an installer dialogue where you have to enter your administrator password. Bypass that and you've got a system with no ADMIN priveledges.

You'd be amazed how many people install these OSs by simply skipping all user entry, thinking the defaults will be adequate. For that matter, you'd be amazed how many people simply don't do setup on any software.

NT derived OSs do not install in "ready to use" condition... you really do have to spend the time to set them up for your particular uses. I've seen speed improvements of 100% and memory reductions of nearly half when win2k is correctly setup and tweaked.


--->It ain't better if it don't work<---

 

[jihiggs]

http://www.xtra.co.nz/help/0,,6156-1359658,00.html
i recently had this problem with a modem. this fixed it.

my computer is so fast, it completes an endless loop in less than 4 seconds!

 

[HardWareBoss]

Thanks for the link. I didn't get around to Firewall till about 2 or 3 weeks after I went with Broadband. Using a Linksys Router For firewall.

 

[Teq]

Yep, hardware firewalls are better than software ones.

The tweak link I gave you is pretty good... I use it a lot myself.

Just one caution... don't try removing the OS2 support, which they suggest, if you have Service pack 3 installed, SP3 actually uses some of the OS2 features.



--->It ain't better if it don't work<---

 

[jasen]

There is an installer dialogue where you have to enter your administrator password. Bypass that and you've got a system with no ADMIN priveledges.

This is incorrect. It does still have an administrator account, and it does have an administrator group. These are done automatically by default and you cannot undo them without editing the registry in real-time.
The scenario you suggested simply assigns no password to the admin account... but it is still a valid admin account, it simply has no password.
I generally do not give my administrator account a password at first, until I've finished updating and installing and rebooting umpteen million times. Then I set the admin password and create a new user for myself with admin rights. There is no problem with this, it does not negate your admin priveledges, it's simply a security risk.

 

[HardWareBoss]

I bought 2000 Pro with Service pack 3 allready installed on CD. Waiting for Sp4 to be finished.