Hi All,
just built a new PC...Had a bad MB brought it back and finally got that resolved. Since then, been having reboot, illegal operation, problems on an intermittant basis. So, I thought that maybe since I laid my old hardrive on my new MB, I should try reinstalling the OS to start fresh.
Well...I tried installing Windows ME after formatting HD. After install I just get into a reboot loop. (tried reinstalling 4 times) No matter what I try, it keeps looping. I reformatted and tried installing 98...first time on boot, I get 'Explorer performed illegal operation and will shut down' errors. Get same error even in safe mode. Formatted and reinstalled again. Booted fine, tried to install @home network software. Back to the 'illegal operation' error. Here's my system:

AMD T-Bird 1Gz
Soyo K7VTA MB
196 MB RAM (2 different DIMMs, could this be problem)
USB optical mouse (could it be looking for serial?)
ATI Radeon 32MB DDR AGP Video Card (I suspect it could be this, just a hunch)
PCI Ethernet Card

Any help???

Hey bpp,

Not quite sure what you mean by "two different dimms", but I would suggest removing one of them and then try booting and installing or whatever you were trying to do. That might just pinpoint incompatibility between the chips.

Usually, illegal operation errors are due to memory problems. Not always, but often. Try re-seating the chips as well.

Cheers,

Big Blue 66

I'm sorry...should have been more clear
I only meant that I bought a 128MB PC100 DIMM which is in the first slot, and I took another 64MB DIMM from my old computer and stuck that one in there. I'm not sure what type that one is. It may be PC133.
I'm going to leave only the 128MB DIMM in there tonight.