Several pc problems

[Greenleaf]

Hello, have several pc problems and I don't know why. Hope you'll help me.
First some details:
Pentium III 650Mhz;
Win 98;
motherboard ATX via Apollo Pro133;
ATIrage 128Xpert;
ESS solo-1 PCI Audiodrive;
256Mb RAM
HD Matrox 30Gb,

Some time ago I started having problems with IE6 and then with other applications...the system crashed quite often. I tried to reinstall Windows but things changed for worse. So I decided to format my HD and create 3 partitions. I reinstalled Windows and all the drivers (the same I've always used), did windows update, and then reinstalled some applications (quicktime, realplayer, zone alarm, webshots and so on) but almost immediately the errors started to occur again and quite randomly. The system crashes, problems with IE6 (recurring error messages) and often things like:"Error occuring during access to system register" or problems as: "slwapi.dll connected with missing kernel32.dll.ptv"...but these are only a few of the messages that I get.
Can somebody help me? Can this be a motherboard problem? Or Ram problem? Pliz, help! Thank you in advance.

 

[BuckeyeComputers]

My bet goes to a ram problem or harddrive problem but would try to test the ram first

 

[Greenleaf]

How can I test it? Is there a way? or try with another ram?

 

[BuckeyeComputers]

there is a program called memtest i believe dont have a link for it, if you do a keyword search of this forum with the words memtest you should be able to find a link to it

 

[SESaskDFC]

Howdy:

You wouldn't happen to have a program called "FidoNet" installed would you??

Murray

 

[BadBigBen]

Hi there,

the mem could checkout to be good with the mem testers and still be bad... happened to me... the ram can overheat and loose its information...

check your BIOS settings on the DRAM timing and make sure that it is set correctly... can cause the problems you are mentioning...

check if your powersupply connector (ATX Block) is sitting firmly in its seating...

also make sure that all cables to the drives are firmly in their place... another thing could be that your IDE cable is going bad so you might wanna check that one aswell...

Hope you find the info useful...

Ben

 

[Greenleaf]

Murray, no I don't have FidoNet installed.
I have dowloaded memtest version 3.0, I think and ran it (not completely though,it seemed neverending). Anyway, test 4 gave one error, test 5 found 376 errors. God knows what would have been found if the test had proceeded. Are these errors correctable? Or there's no hope?
Ben, yes, the cables appear fine but how can I know what the correct BIOS setting are?

 

[BadBigBen]

Hi Greanleaf,

in the Bios Setup under Advanced Chipset Features check what it says under DRAM Frequency and SDRAM CAS# LATENCY...

PC133 MEM can run under 133 or 100 for the Frequency
PC100 MEM only under 100 (if set to 133) the memory gets overclocked and produces the symptoms that you described and can cause MEM to overheat and produce memory errors...

if you are unsure of what your MEM can handle try setting it to the Failsafe Values (usually F6) in the BIOS and save upon exit and try it from there... if the symptoms continue then it definetly is your memory going bad...

How many stick of Mem do you have installed on your board? do you have two sticks of 128mb or one stick of 256mb... if you have two sticks, take one out and reboot your system and see if that cures it, if not take out the one that is on the MoBo with the one earlier taken out and check if it cures it then... (this way you can find out which stick is going bad)... if you only got one, well, all I can say is try to get one from a friend to try or sweet talk your local dealer and see if he would let you try to test the MEM in your MoBo...

that is all I can do at the present to help you...

good luck with finding the culprit that causes the error...

Ben

 

[Greenleaf]

Hello Ben, right now I am working with the old stick of memory of 64Mb. No errors so far I keep my fingers crossed...I'll let you know.
Thank you for your help and for the details you provided!

Sara