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General discussion

Win 2K freezes!

Dec 3, 2003 4:15PM PST

My friend has problems. THe following is what happens:

He managed to get his new PC setup working and have reinstalled everything to dual-boot system. But he can't do much in W2K before the screen freezes. He can usually get in between a minute and 5 minutes of time before he has to hit the power switch and start over.

The following components is what he has:

AMD ATHLON XP 2600/333 FSB CPU, two sticks of Crucial 515 MB memory, DDR and a ASUS Mobo Model # A7N8X Delux. His PSU is 400+W, but I don't know the exact amount of Watts...

Anyone has a solution or suggestion?

Thanks in advance.

Discussion is locked

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Re:Win 2K freezes!
Dec 3, 2003 7:58PM PST

Sorry, but I see a hardware issue. I will not offer assistence to such a machine since I'm seeing far too many of them.

In short, the owner of such a machine should contact the machine's maker or vendor until the matter is resolved.

Bob

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Bob...
Dec 3, 2003 9:47PM PST

He is building it himself and has built may, many computers without any problems at all. So it is not due to inexperience at least...

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So let the builder fix it.
Dec 4, 2003 6:26AM PST

The issue is not evident as a Windows 2000 issue. The machine in question shows up too often. Let them fix it.

Bob

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Bob, I don't know why your answers all of a sudden are so "grumpy"?
Dec 4, 2003 11:55AM PST

Isn't this forum made for asking questions about issues even if you don't happen to have an answer to it?

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The answer is simple. Fix the hardware.
Dec 4, 2003 10:04PM PST

In my opinion, the hardware seems to be the issue. Rather than spend your weeks trying to find out it's not a Windows 2000 issue, I was being "not nice" and shooting the problem instantly rather than sugar coating it.

Let me be blunt. Windows 2000 does indeed "glide" onto a good hardware "box."

Why are people accepting such hardware from vendors?

I'd love to tell you to install Windows 2000 in some fashion, but when you have such hardware issues, its best to deal with the source of the issue than waste your time.

Bob

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Re:Win 2K freezes!
Dec 3, 2003 11:43PM PST

You say this is a dual boot system. Does it work under the other operating system? That should eliminate most hardware issues and you can then concentrate on WIN 2K isssues. If it fails on both operating systems then you probably have a hardware problem or serious conflict.

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Thanks For Your Response...
Dec 4, 2003 9:48AM PST
You say this is a dual boot system. Does it work under the other operating system? That should eliminate most hardware issues and you can then concentrate on WIN 2K issues. If it fails on both operating systems then you probably have a hardware problem or serious conflict. - jconner

I am the proud owner of this new setup. I have never seen a new setup act like this before. The W98 partition is nearly as stable as W98 can be. But the W2K partition sometimes freezes up while the desktop is starting to display. Sometimes it freezes when displaying tool tips, other times it freezes in Explore while opening a tree list. It even freezes sometimes while moving a scrollbar. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for any of the freezes. At first, I thought it was a bad W2K install, so I started over and reformatted and reinstalled everything again, to no avail...

It "appears" that I don't have a hardware issue since the W98 partition is stable. I'm going to update the BIOS and see if that makes any difference, but I'm not expecting miracles from this option. I'm definitely running out of other ideas though...

I installed W2K SP3, which has worked fine on all other PCs I've built. I'm now wondering if W2K SP3 could have a built-in conflict with my new hardware. To find out, I would have to start over again. I wonder if anyone has had any similar problems with W2K SP3???
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Re:Win 2K freezes!
Dec 4, 2003 12:02AM PST

This is a very difficult motherboard to get right for W2K. Download ALL of the drivers from
http://www.asus.com/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=A7N8X%20Deluxe. Get W2K working perfect before he goes to dual boot. It can be fixed, but it will take more patience than most have. I am changing mb's to get a stable W2K back. Forget dual boot until he gets it right!!!

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Thanks For Your Suggestion...
Dec 4, 2003 10:00AM PST
This is a very difficult motherboard to get right for W2K. Download ALL of the drivers from A7N8X Deluxe Updates. Get W2K working perfect before he goes to dual boot. It can be fixed, but it will take more patience than most have. - dbennett48

Do you currently own and use the A7N8X Deluxe mobo? If so, have you experienced a lot of problems with it???

The problem with getting W2K stable before making the PC a dual-boot system is that I would have to delete the W2K partition in order to install the W98 partition again. Right now, I at least have one fairly stable partition on this PC. But I really need to get both up and running and as stable as possible for software testing purposes...

I have a lot of patience as long as I have options that I can try. I'm going to try the BIOS update as you recommended, but since the W98 partition is stable, I have my doubts whether the BIOS upgrade will make a difference. But since my options are few at the moment, I'm willing to try anything...

Do you have any other suggestions just in case the BIOS upgrade doesn't help???
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Re:Thanks For Your Suggestion...
Dec 4, 2003 11:28PM PST

The BIOS update helped. Go for it. I will still dump this mb very soon. I have been fighting this too long. As soon as I get out of this cast on my left arm and can work tools again, I will dump ASUS. Testing software "REQUIRES" stable hardware.

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Rock Solid Hardware Setup...
Dec 5, 2003 5:05PM PST
The BIOS update helped. Go for it. I will still dump this mb very soon. I have been fighting this too long. - dbennett48

I'm a bit disappointed because this mobo was highly rated everywhere I looked. Now that I have installed it and am fighting some very weird problems, I'm seeing a lot of negative comments on it. Have you decided what to replace your mobo with yet? The Gigabyte mobos seem to have a good reputation...

I will dump ASUS. Testing software "REQUIRES" stable hardware. - dbennett48

You're absolutely correct. If the hardware is flaky, it's impossible to determine whether the hardware or new software is the problem during testing failure. I also plan to install multiple Linux distributions on this PC, so I would prefer that the hardware is rock solid before I get too deep into everything...
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Re:Rock Solid Hardware Setup...
Dec 5, 2003 11:13PM PST

I have not made up my mind as to the model, but I am leaning toward Abit. I have noticed that this Asus mb is much more stable with the BIOS update. I don't know why they did not state this. Market perception.

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Re:Re:Rock Solid Hardware Setup...
Dec 5, 2003 11:31PM PST

If changing ASUS for something else, I would go with GigaByte or MSI. One good thing with MSI is the fact that they have a very, very active forum where you can exchcange ideas and experiences and that can be very useful...

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Re:Win 2K freezes!
Jan 9, 2004 1:14AM PST

I had a W2K Pro problem that was driving me nuts the system went very flakey, everything you could imagine was going wrong with no ryme or reason.

I tried a NEW memory checker and lo and behold had a bad memory stick. Removed the stick and problems disapeared.
You may want to test your memory if your exisitng testing tool passes it fine a different checker

RSW

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Re:Re:Win 2K freezes!
Jan 9, 2004 2:40AM PST

Again, if everything is stable under win98, I don't think it is a hardware issue beyond driver or bios conflicts with 2000.

Buy a cheap IDE drive and do the win2000 Pro install separately all the way through to SP4 with patches and updates. If it still fails, start removing hardware and applications until you isolate the problem.

There are some good dual boot installers that will allow you to choose the order as well (partition magic).