Damien

Christ - I posted the original solution for this about a year ago! I can't remember exactly what to do, but just do a forum search - that should unearth the answer.

I'm not sure what you mean by Athlon Ram -there is no difference in the SDRAM used for a Pentium or an Athlon. All you need to do is ensure that you're buying the right spec ram for the speed of your FSB. Now, have you checked what voltage that motherboard is pumping into the processor? There may be a problem with one of the voltage regulators on his motherboard. If it works fine with yours then I would begin to suspect that this is the case or that you haven't set the jumpers correctly (if the board doesn't auto configure). Also check processor settings under the bios. You say that you think it could be the motherboard reporting the wrong temperature, however if the machine is crashing on the bios screen, then you are more than likely suffering from an overheating problem. I would take that motherboard out and get it replaced as soon as possible, if it is pumping too many volts into the chip, it won't last very long!!!

Works fine - even with VGA looping - do a forum search though, as there are a number of steps towards getting it to work properally - if you do a search on my name - you should find some advise I put up a while back.

I think an air conditioning system for a 550MHZ pc is a little over the top! Check to see if there's anything blocking the airflow (large bunches of wires positioned in the wrong place are very good at doing this!) also clean your system if it's dirty - dust is very good at insulating components. Finally get a larger heatsink/fan - the global win VOS32 is a very efficient system and is quite cheap. One final thing - make sure the core voltage for you're cpu is on the correct setting - I think it should be 1.7V for an Athlon of your type - although don't quote me on that!

At the end of the day it comes down to how much you want to spend and what you use you're computer for. If you're budget conscious then ATA 100 is a good system to choose as the drives are cheeper. Ultra 160 SCSI only really comes into its own when you're computer is acting as a network server, as the increased bandwidth allows for a faster data transfer rate. You'll only see a real difference when several devices eg. two hard drives + and cdroms are being accessed at the same time. With a single drive machine, you probably won't see much benefit from the ultra scsi setup.

Try up[censored] your bios see if that helps - other wise buy Win NT or 2000, then you'll be able to make full use of this site (NT Compatible anyone?)

Well there could be a number of reasons as to why this is happening:- 1. You may have some software installed that is conflicting with the other software on your system - try a reinstallation of Windows, see if it solves the problem (a pain I know, but the only sure way to find out), if on a basic installation the system behaves ok, start installing your programs one by one until the computer starts to fail - then remove the last program you installed or check for an update - this will be the culprit. 2. You may have a hardware failure - faulty memory would produce a fault of this kind. If you have two sticks of Ram try taking them out in turn, if the problem goes away then you know one of the Dimm's is faulty (of course there is a very unlikely possibility that both are). If you only have one Dimm installed then try borrowing some memory from a friend etc. repeat above procedure. 3. Are you overclocking anything? Components overheating are also likely to yield this type of problem. 4. Could be a faulty expansion card - try removing all but the video card - does Windows still fail? If not then replace them one by one until something goes wrong. 5. Less likely - but could be a faulty CDROM drive etc. Try disconnecting these - does the problem go away? 6. Check your memory timings etc. in the BIOS. Try and find out the CAS settings etc for your memory type - are these set too aggressivly - if ram is made to run too fast it starts corrupting data. If you can find out the manufacturer of your ram (printed on the little chips or on the circuit board) - you might be able to find the speed etcl. by doing a serial number check on the manufacturer's website. Hope this helps, Regards, Damien (please excuse any typos - late night !!!) [This message has been edited by Damien (edited 25 November 2000).]

Yep had the same problem with all newer detonator drivers - thank god the TNT 2 is in my secondary machine (nice and stable Matrox G400 max in my primary system!) - Nvidia drivers suck!

Cheers - i'll take a look. I was using ontrack, but as you know the damn thing needs regestering before it will do anything useful & I am running NTFS so win98 won't help!!!

Cheers for the help guys - there isn't anything on there that is mission critical, it's just that I'd rather try and get the stuff back (saves time etc.) I'll try ontrack. I don't think Windows 2000 comes with Fdisk, I'll try it though.

Could be the cmos battery, but if your other bios settings such as memory timings, system clock etc. are being retained then I would somewhat doubt this to be the case. You may however have a faulty chip on the motherboard, it's possible that something like a micro fracture could be causing the IDE controller chip for example to sometimes fail - and then work again as the board heats up, the metal expands and the broken contact is restored. Try checking the drive on another computer - try leaviung it for a while, restarting etc. a few times. If all is well, the motherboard might be the problem. If all is not well then obviously your port of call should be the drive or the cable. [This message has been edited by Damien (edited 21 November 2000).]

It's happeneing because windows can't find the drivers for what ever is controlling your hard drive. Initially it boots up using the bios drivers, then switches to its own 32 bit versions. If they ain't then then you'll get this message. I don't think there is any way around this bar reinstalling. I know it's a bit of a pain, but as jduimage image says, reinstalling is a much safer thing to do, you'll probably come across countless problems, even if you do get the current installation working in the other machine. [This message has been edited by Damien (edited 16 November 2000).]

No way, Win 2000 works just as well on an AMD chip, I don't know why you guys had so much trouble, but as long as you choose a good branded motherboard (Abit KA7) or something from Asus etc. Then you should have no problems, just ensure that you have the latest Via 4 in 1 drivers installed. Athlon chips are far cheeper than their intel equivants - you can get an Athlon 1.2GHz for $490 - compare that to $670 for a Pentium III 1Ghz and you can see what I mean! Check out Sharkey Extreme if you don't believe me! I have an Athlon 800 with Abit KA7 - no problems at all under Win 2000 - everything stable and very fast.

If someone could post the Liveware 4 drivers - that would be great. I'd love to buy the new 5.1 card, but unfortunately money is too tight at the moment (the strains of undertaking a university degree). looks like it's goint to have to be a Christmas present. If anyone does get the chance to try the new drivers, could they tell me whether they work properally when a SB AWE32 is installed as well as the Live. With Liveware 3, none of the mixer apps work, I get a memory reference error. Disable the AWE32 and all is fine. Unfortunately removing the AWE32 is not an option as it hosts my Yamaha DB50XG daughter card. I've heard of a new videologic card which has a daughterboard connector - I think it's called the sonic Vortex 2. Would one of these work properally in conjunction with an SB Live? Thanks people, Damien

Donald2b - where did you get the 400W power supply from? I've been looking for something beefier for a while now - could you point me in the right direction? Cheers, Damien. [This message has been edited by Damien (edited 03 October 2000).]

I have to agree that putting Windows 98 back onto you're machine is a very silly thing to do. For a start Windows 2000 and the NT kernal will soon replace all previous Win9X verisons - including ME. So you're going to have to upgrade all over again at some point. I find Windows 2000 just as fast as Win 98 - faster in some operations. It's also far more stable - I used a 98 machine recently and couldn't believe how flakey it was. Well there we go. I suppose some people are just looking for continual punishment - good luck - you'll need it!! [This message has been edited by Damien (edited 03 October 2000).]

No problems at all, in fact a few things work that were broken in the betas - WINAPE (Amstrad Emulator) now works again - crashed the system before. I don't think they're any faster, but perhaps more stable (if you can more stability from an already sound driver set) - and of course they're the first non beta release with monitor customisations. [This message has been edited by Damien (edited 19 September 2000).]

You probably won't find a huge amount of difference between the two processors (except for price). I would choose the Athlon - I have an 800 and find it very fast. All this stuff about Via boards is BS - I'm happily running an Abit KA7 under Win 2K, with no problems at all. Just make sure you install all the latest drivers and you'll be fine.

FOr some reason I'm unable to select my monitor under Win 2K, I used to be able to then one day it just dissappeared out of device manager. I can't add it again using add/remove hardware, and plug and play detection doesn't pick it up (which it should) Under display properties, all I get is default monitor under the monitor's heading - and I can't select another one. I don't want a default monitor, i want to be able to select my Eizo 21" - anyone got any ideas? ------------------

Okay, the procedure for installing the Hollywood drivers for a dxr3 are as follows: Firstly uninstall the dxr3 or old hollywood drivers and applications from add/remove programs. 1. Download the NT4 drivers for the DXR3 card from Creative's website. 2. Download disk 1 of the Hollywood Plus Win 2K drivers. 3. Extract the Hollywood Plus file into a directory of you're choice. 4. Go into device manager, the dxr3 should come up as eith an Unknown Multimedia Device or as the Creative DXR3 (Windows 2000) or as a Hollywood plus (using the old drivers) - anyway once you've found it, click on it, and press the button to update the drivers. Specify the directory where you unpacked the Hollywood Plus drivers. You should now be able to install the card as a Hollywood Plus. 5. Now install the Creative NT 4.0 drivers - this sounds strange, but unless it's done, the video will be choppy and the computer will eventually crash. 6. Install the Creative dxr3 player application. 7. Success you've finished - remember to reboot when requested. There is one other thing, although the Hollywood + drivers work great under Win 2K, there are still several problems, specifically caused when using a matrox G400. On a Matrox card, you may find that a. Later beta drivers don't install b. TV output no longer works On all cards, you may find that you are no longer able to select you're monitor - the monitor device has dissappeared from device manager, and the display properties page has default monitor listed with the selection box blanked out. To solve this, go into device manager, select view all devices (top left of screen under view). Under non plug and play devices disable the enc2 video filter (can't remember the exact name, but you'll recognise it). Close device manager. This should stop all problems, and indeed DVD is fine on a TV, not sure about the overlay output though, this device may have something to do with this, but I haven't tried it myself since I prefere my telly. Hope this helps, Damien.

Cheers Mike, we may need this info in the future - I can't believe that for such an advanced operating system Windows 2000 was unable to correct you're problem.

Have you checked the cables on the scsi drives? Sometimes they can work themselves loose just enough to allow detection but not booting. ALso are you're drives properally terminated i.e. the last drive on the chain with the terminator jumper activated? If win 2K cannot find the installation - it probably means that the system cannot find the drive. Have you undated either the SCSI bios or the MB's bios recently? Sometimes an updated bios can have detrimental effects of scsi cards - I had an experience recently with my Abit KA7 with the new bios my Adaptec 29160 wouldn't boot. ------------------

I don't think that the problem is caused by the WDM drivers, rather it seems to be a hardware configuration problem. Unfortunately in order to help you we'll need a little more info i.e IRQ's, types of components in you're PC. To start you off, ensure there are no IRQ conflicts etc. and there there is an empty slot below the graphics card. Try relocating the sound card in different PCI slots, this might change the resource allocation under windows. If you're running WIN2K, are you running under ACPI? If so try reinstalling the system as Standard PC (instructions on how to do this are avalible in this forum - do a search). Check that you're not for some reason underclocking or overclocking the PCI bus - check the divider settings under the bios - PCI should run at 33 MHZ or if FSB=100 then on a 1/3 divider. ------------------

I was wondering is anyone is experiencing the same problem as me. When I'm online, and wither try to play a gam over the net or stream sound from a radio station, or indeed visit any website with sound, the computer locks up after around ten seconds, with a continual loop of the sound being played. This also happens if I run my MP3 player whilst browsing the net. The computer unlocks for brief moments, but usually I havbe to press the reset button. This only happens when I play sound whilst online, other wise the system is absolutely fine. Is this because I have a crappy win modem? (Hayes Accura), I've also tried a zoom modem in the machine, same result. If I got a hardware PCI modem would the problem stop? There are no hardware conflicts and the system is using ACPI and is running WIn 2K service pack 1 with all the latest device driver and motherboard driver updates. I would appreciate any help as this problem is really beginning to bug me, it's been happening since day one, but I'm getting really fed up with it now (6 months later) Cheers for any help, Damien. ------------------ [This message has been edited by Damien (edited 24 August 2000).]

Well I guess no one knew the answer, I do now however. If anyone else experiences these types of problems, it is indeed caused by the presence of a win mnodem in you're machine. I was quite suprised, especially considering I have an Athlon 800 and everything is scsi (so the cpu shouldn't have much to do anyhow). I swapped my Hayes Accura for an external U.S Robotics 56K message modem (full hardware modem - horay!), and now everything's sweet and rosy. This maybe of help to some of you, just remember take heed as not all modems are alike.