Problems with AMD Thunderbird and WIN98 SE.

[Saucy]

System:

AMD Thunderbird 800
SYMANTEC Mobo with VIA Drivers Installed
Award BIOS
Voodoo BANSHEE
AWE64 Soundcard
DVD Drive with Decoder Card (Running Hollywood+ Drivers)
ATX Case
128 meg SDRAM

Problem:

Running windows 98 SE the computer will freeze after about 5 minutes, regardless of the program running. After resetting, the computer will re-load and work fine. The problem will start again after the computer has been turned off for roughly an hour.
Both the CPU fan and power suply fans work. Checking the temp as soon as the PC is turned on shows that the PC is not over heating.
Have tried re-installing Windows, to no avail. Also attempted to delete all device drivers and reinstall the hardware seperately.
Also turned off all power management options in BIOS and Windows.

Any suggestions?

 

[spacekowboy]

does it do same if running in safe mode?

have you checked for hardware conflicts?

have you checked for a virus/boot virus?

is your startup in msconfig cleaned to essentials?

something in bios or if you are on a lan from there has to be turning it on after its off, unless theres a short/etc, but i doubt it.

please let us know

thanks

 

[Comtech]

Symantec make motherboards? Cheers,
Jim
reboot@pcmech.com

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/

Moderator at

http://www.56k.com

Staff at

http://www.pcmech.com

Windows 9x/ME instructor.
Jim's Modems:

http://reboot.8m.com/

 

[Saucy]

The computer frezzes in safe mode as well is normal bootup.

I have checked for hardware conflicts and no change even when removed and moved.

Have run Norton AV and VET but conputer is scanned clean.

MSCONFIG is clean bar the essentials.

Most promising thing so far has been installing power management in bios but deleting all power management drivers in Windows.... but then the PC jams after 15 minutes not 5!

Talk about your ghost in the machine!

Thanks for the replies!

 

[butchrecon]

This may sound expensive But have you tried replacing any components such as MB, RAM ro Processor. From your Description it sounds like a Hardware issue.

 

[Sarestarr77]

I also have almost the exact same problem with my system.
I am running an AMD T-bird 850 in Win 98 SE.

ATI AGP Rage 128 Xpert 2000 Video
MS8127C Matsonic board (VIA Apollo Kt133 chipsets)
Motorola 56k
VIA Sound card on board
128 MB RAM
30 GIG HDD

I recently tried calling ATI numerous times for technical support with this issue.. After booting up, it randomly (and frequently) locks up. It's very annoying, considering I just bought the thing not even a month ago.

I have tried almost everything possible. I tried reinstalling Windows 98, changing settings in the BIOS, reinstalling drivers, updating drivers, updating DX, changing IRQ settings, reinstalling graphics card by hand.. I mean, you name it, I probably did it. And still .. it freezes.

Do you have VIA chipset drivers in your motherboard? ATI suggested that might be an issue. I'm really at a loss, though, as well.. thinking about erasing HDD completely and starting from scratch w/updated drivers and software.

It's either that.. or a new OS.
Feedback?

 

[Karl Blessing]

I am noticing a trend of cheapie video cards for people who are having this problem. Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[Sarestarr77]

I was thinking about getting another one.. but still, the problem shouldn't be there to begin with.

Regardless of what kinda video card you've got, configuration still can be made in order to fix the problem.

Just taking it from an analytical point of view.

 

[Karl Blessing]

well maybe your AGP bus is set too fast for the video card? Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[Sarestarr77]

How do I find out the AGP bus settings?

 

[Karl Blessing]

well If you are using an AGP card, in the bios, it might be good to turn off AGP 4X , also there might be a couple other settings that I can recall, though cant remeber that the moment, also try changing your AGP Aperature size around a bit (typically recomends the Aperature size to be twice the size of your rams)

Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[Karl Blessing]

hmm this site must have read my mind

http://www.icrontic.com/faq/index.php3?theme=4&level=2&document_id_select=3

its documentation on recomended, aGP aperature size, etc, and other things you can do to tweak your KT133 system Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[Saucy]

I found that in BIOS my Voltage to the CPU was running at 1.77. After testing the V. at 1.65 the problems have stopped. Also (thanks kb244) turning off the AGP 4X seems to have done the trick as well....

 

[Karl Blessing]

Normally I would have the voltage set to automatic if at all possible, the voltage is very tricky, also I belive the voltage for a 1Ghtz Tbird is supposed to be at 1.8

for example mine is set at 1.81, the 1Ghtz Tbird needs the power. maybe all you needed was to set the AGP down a bit. Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[Saucy]

Okies. After turning the Voltage on the 800 TB back to Auto the machine seems to start freezing again! The reason that i changed it is because i have have a program that detects the hardware in the PC and shows the TB as 'AMD THUNDERBIRD 800MHZ 1.6V'. So I thought that maby the CPU was heating up to much. After going through and erasing ALL signs of Power Managemwnt seems to have helped too.

 

[bytemanlarry]

Thanks for the warnings and suggestions. I'm putting together an AMD 1.2 GHz /266 FSB and will be sure to get proper Voltage settings from AMD site.

B-)

 

[Karl Blessing]

Saucy, when I mentioned the 1.8V , I was refering specifically to the 1Ghtz ( I hope you didnt set 1.8 for the 800Mhtz ) , but it was more of a hint , to look up the specifications, AMD's site might be a bit of troble to search in , try tomshardware.com , also if you have the motherboards on auto, it should pick up the voltage, multipler, etc automatically, unless you modified them yourself.

Unless you really want to pay extra money for marginal performance boost , go ahead and get the 266FSB (also keep in mind only SOME socket A motherboards support the 266FSB Tbirds) , also if you plan on getting one of those DDRram systems, I would hold back, the existing chipsets do not help the rams get more than a 5-10% performance over PC133 SDram, the problem is the same as Rambus, Rambus didnt shine until Intel came out with a board that ran at 400FSB , which is what these high bandwidth rams need, is faster board speeds, otherwise you cut them off at the ankle. Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[Sarestarr77]

Thanks for the link

 

[Saucy]

Thanks kb244! You are indeed a wealth of information!