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Windows 98 SE Screen Freeze

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jsjerb

Technical User
Sep 22, 2002
10
US
Running Windows 98SE on a 400 MHz PII system with 128 MB RAM. Screen "Ramdomly" freezing with keyboard lockup ( no response to ctrl-alt-del ) and is not associated with any single application. Will even exhibit this behavior mid screen saver.
 
Well, freezes are difficult to troubleshoot. It could be caused by many things like a bad processor, motherboard, ram, video card, software conflicts, overheating, etc. Open your case and see if your fans are running especially the one mounted over the processor. If you have a table fan blow air into the case on high and see if it still freezes.

I had your problem once. It was caused by a crappy Kensington mouse I actually got for free. Changing the mouse fixed it. Go to control panel--system--device manager tab. Are there any yellow exclamation marks shown there?

Is there anything you did just prior to the poblem appearing like install a certain program or change some hardware?
 
Kento:

I have replaced the ram card, modem card and the HD on this system, but the problem existed prior to these hardware changes. The new HD was formated and the software freshly installed so a software problem ( this even happened when I had Windows Xp installed at one point in time, so I went back to Windows 98 SE ) should not be the problem which points to some hardware devise at this time.

I will try a mouse & keyboard swap to determine if these could be the problem, but your mention of an intermittent thermal problem is well taken. To address a possible thermal problem I will do a thermal servey ( component level ) using "Freeze Spray" to see if the motherboard, video card or CPU may be having a problem.
 
Other things to check are the IDE cables and that all the screws holding the mainboard are tight. I had a nasty problem once with random freeze ups that disappeared when I tightened up some loose screws.
 
Your suggestions are well taken and will be looked into. I will slay "The Dragon" ( I Hope ) and will report back to this THREAD. Looking at simular pleas for help others have posted, this appears to be a "Very Commom" problem and perhaps one of the worst to track down. All fixes, when they are found should be put in a FAQ position because this question appears to be a FAQ.

All responders.... Thanks for your help, now it's up to me.


 
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