Ever since I upgraded my system a few weeks ago I have had problems with it locking up in windows. Now while playing games like Quake 3 and others the system works fine and never locks up. It locks up when operating in normal windows......usually when am browsing the net. And yes I have tried both Netscape and IE. Also I installed the original windows 98 and then downloaded the service packs and critical updates from microsoft. Would that be the same as running windows 98 SE then? Anyways my theory is that the problem is coming from one the following pieces of hardware.


1) My Mouse! The lockup almost always seems to occur when am double clicking something or "using" my mouse. It also seems to stutter at times while scrolling the pointer across the screen. The main reason though is that when I run the program PS2 Rate and try to set my mouse I get an error message saying that windows doesnt detect a PS/2 Mouse. Shrug. Also on one occasion when I rebooted my computer I got an error right away from windows saying it couldnt find my mouse. But after rebooting again everything was fine and I never got that message again. Am using a Logitech first mouse plus, non USB version. Currently am running the Mouseware 7.? drivers that came with the actual mouse. I also tried installing the newest Mouseware drivers 9.? as well but nothing seemed to change.


2.) A conflict with my Geforce 3d Prophet DDR. On occasion I get a message when I first boot up my computer saying that ***system detected a conflict for Ip address "lists my ip address" with system having hardware address 00:40:10:0E:49:79*** In my device manager it lists my Geforce and my Cable modem both on the same IRQ......#11. Oh btw windows decided to pack like all the rest of my hardware on IRQ number #10 to boot. Soundcard, Other networking card, my Ultra promise ATA-100 controller and some other misc stuff that comes from the motherboard I guess. Anyways since I susptected a conflict between my cable modem and Geforce was causing my lockups I went and physically installed my cable modem into another PCI slot and rebooted windows. When I checked my device manager again it still had the Cable modem and Geforce on the same IRQ......11. So I put the modem into yet another PCI slot but still it listed the same thing. WTF. Now is windows just confused and for some reason telling me its on the same IRQ but in reality its on a different IRQ? Either way though it didnt solve my problem.......since am still locking up. Also another thing I noticed that during the bootup phase where you can hit esc and it shows a list of your hardware and other things. Well half my hardware was missing from my list.....both my networking cards and my soundcard and maybe a few other things. So I went into bios and turn OFF plug N play operating system and rebooted and checked again and it listed everything fine then. I thought perhaps that was the problem but it wasnt......system is still locking up So right now I still have PnP OS turned OFF. Should I leave it that way or does it not matter really much.


3.) CPU and/or Geforce overheating? Could it be because my Geforce or CPU is running too hot? I have a Athlon T-bird 1000 and bios lists its tempature at 46/115 degrees or something close. Now from what I understand that is normal. But my IO voltage for my Geforce is at 3.55. To me that seems kinda high, and my Geforce is very hot to the touch. Is this normal?

4.) Motherboard. Am using a Asus A7V with the latest 4in1 VIA driver package. Although I didnt update the actual BIOS. Could the culprit be my motherboard because of that? Though I really dont want to update my BIOS unless am 100% sure thats the problem since I get paranoid about doing that. Curious.......how many people actually do update their BIOS?

5.) Ram or HDD. Kinda doubt its either of these guys. I have 1 256mb stick of 133 cas2 corsair ram. I didnt mess with any of the ram settings in BIOS. I just left them all as default. My HDD is a 60GB IBM Deskstar running at ATA-100.


Does anyone have any idea? Am at a lost at what to do right now. These lockups are driving me crazy. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Here are my complete system specs:

Atlhon T-bird 1000
Asus A7V Motherboard
Geforce 3D Prophet DDR
256mb of 133 cas2 Corsair Ram
60GB IBM Deskstar ATA-100 HDD
Sound Blaster Live
2 Nic cards
PlexWriter 12/10/32A CD-RW
Creative PC-DVD Drive
Full Tower Case with 300 Watt PS and 4 Fans.

With as many problems as you posted, I would suspect you have a hardware problem someplace. That hardware problem could have caused a software module to be corrupted.

To eleminate software; use MSCONFIG to disable everything. Then reboot. If things work OK, enable one item at a time until you find one that causes problems. ETC. ETC/

If you still have problems with everything disabled, you should reload Windows.

Good Luck
Carl

It's funny, I just built a system like yours 2 weeks ago and am experiencing similar problems. My system never freezes while playing games, but does occasionally while browsing the web (it freezes while I use IE 5.5 and Opera 5) and once while using the recycling bin. I've downloaded and installed all of the latest drivers, patches, and bios with no change in results. I've ran 16-20 hour CPU stability tests and had no problems and the operating temperature is within normal parameters. Since this was a clean Windows install with only 2 games and a few other typical programs installed (Office 2K, Photoshop 5.5, etc.), I suspect that it might be some sort of driver or software conflict. Anyone out there experience the same thing or has any ideas of what the problem might be?

My system:
Athon T-bird 1GHZ
Asus A7V
Crucual 128MB CAS2 PC133 SDRAM
CL Geforce2 GTS 32MB
IBM 30GB Deskstar HDD
Sony 8/4/32 CD-RW
Logitech Mouseman
SB Live!
3com 10/100 NIC
Enlight 300W AMD Approved Case w/ 2 Antec fans
Nothing Overclocked

So many problems, You can manually specify which irq's you wish the sys to use, and when you upgraded your sys, did you upgrade your power supply too?, the power supply can cause probs with every part of your pc

Video cards doesn't like to share IRQ's, it appear to me that when you are browsing the net, your network card is sollicitated and have a conflict. Try to change your network card of PCI slot, it will probably change your IRQ, if not, try to assign a manual IRQ to your network card.

i have a very similar setup
800mhz duron (not oc'd)
256mg CL3 micron pc133
leadtek ddr geforce
maxtor 13gig 7200rpm ata66
sblive!
us rob. hardware modem
kenwood 52x truex cdrom
300w p/s, 2 case fans (80cm, 120cm)

i would undoubtedly flash your bios. i couldn't quite get everything to work together until i did this. if you don't like it you can always revert to the bios version of your choice. it's really very easy. i've done it on every system that i've owned.

<font color=red>booyah, grandma, booyah..</font color=red>

Where to start with all those problems listed. The temps you listed for the CPU and Video card are OK, this is right where they should be during Quake 3 play, should be cool to the touch during idle though. Be sure to have some extra case ventilation other than the fan in the power supply. As for the stability, I would look in the Asus manual and see if is lists the Promise ATA-100 controller as sharing a PCI slot with an IRQ, or if it possilby needs it own IRQ. If it shares a PCI slot, like the Abit KT7-Raid, than move whatever card you have in that slot to another one. Is your Corsair memory one stick of 256mb, or multiple sticks? Look in the manual and make sure Asus does not have a preference on memory installation, like one memory slot needing to be filled before a second or third, usually it is the slot closest to the CPU. You might also check ASUS's website to see if they are having problems using single 256mb sticks of memory. Download the latest drivers for everything and install them. You might try removing all cards except the Video card and see how it runs playing Quake 3, if stable add one card at a time until it is unstable, loading the latest drivers as you re-install the cards. This will help you eliminate a bad component. Be sure you have the VIA drivers installed before you do anything. It is very normal for Windows to list many devices under each IRQ, as some IRQ's may have 5-7 devices listed under device manager. Don't give up, many people have problems at first, but once you figure it out you will feel good about solving it and you will fall in love with your new found speedy computer.

Probably an IRQ conflict. Disable the serial ports and parallel ports in BIOS (if you aren't using them). Windows will then reassign those IRQs.