I got a barebones system where all you added was a hard drive and cd drive. Installed windows 95 worked fine for a couple hours. Then it would freeze when you got to the windows startup screen every time. Formated and installed windows 98 and it did the same thing. Sent it back and they installed a new motherboard (at least they said they did and they sent a empty m/b box back with the system).

It worked fine for about week then started freezing at the same place, if you hit restart it would always startup.
Now it's started getting worse and worse you'll have to press restart like 6 times before it starts now and it's started freezing after you've been on for a little while. I’ve tried many things like different memory and a different hard drive.

Specs.
850 athlon t-bird
128 mb ram
20 gb hard drive
windows XP
onboard video, sound
Please help I built this system for my mom.

I’m guessing it’s the M/B.

I assume your fans are working ok? Especially CPU fan. Have you gone into BIOS and made sure everything is correct there? Also, try this...
Right-click on "My Computer", then choose "Properties". In the window that appears, select Performance, click on the Graphics tab to change the acceleration (for more severe problems, choose None). When you are finished, restart your computer.

it could be a lot of things.

first thing I would try is replace the RAM.

and as per Jumby's above post- while you have Device Manager open, see if there are any yellow or red flags.

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sea1_69@hotmail.com

homepage (http://www.seanweb1.homestead.com/3.html)

[This message has been edited by sea69 (edited 02-04-2002).]

In reading your specs, I see Win XP and 128 Mgb RAM. I think XP really needs more then that.
Any body more familiar with XP then me might have something to add to that.

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Bass,

You are correct for XP Professional, 128MB. As for XP Home it requires 64MB.

HERE'S (http://www.microsoft.com/office/evaluation/fastfacts.htm) the Microsoft Link to their fast facts.

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May all your dealings in life be win/win!

Whyzman

Microshaft can say anything they want but in reality, winXP Pro is not happy at all with under 256Mb's RAM, and as far as that goes.. even win98se needs 128Mbs RAM to run right.

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif

of [b]course[/b they're not gonna say that in their specs!

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

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sea1_69@hotmail.com

homepage (http://www.seanweb1.homestead.com/3.html)

[This message has been edited by sea69 (edited 02-04-2002).]

Sea, I think they're out to lunch too! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

bjam2, random freezes can usually be traced to RAM, Power Unit, or Heat.

What MB are you using?

Oops, Sea, I see you missed on of the brackets...and I jumped in before you could edit...Sorry! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif So, here it is for you ]! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif
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May all your dealings in life be win/win!

Whyzman

[This message has been edited by Whyzman (edited 02-04-2002).]

I htink the first place to check is BIOS, things like RAM settings, CAS latency, (use CAS3 if in doubt) VGA Pallette snoop should be disabled, internal and external cache both enabled, Video and BIOS caching disabled (for troubleshooting) maybe a couple of others, I'd have to dig up some board specific info.

Also check into video drivers, that can cause lockups, especially with XP being fairly new, drivers may still be buggy.

Try a selective start up and don't let anything run, then add one thing at a time until lockups start again. [F8] at the "Verifying Pool Data" line during boot should give you a boot menu, or hold down [Ctrl]. For using selective start up you'll need to let a couple of things run, check my site posted below and look for the articles in the MS Knowledge Database, a couple deal with start up/shut down problems and illegal operation errors. Those should have instructions on selective start up troubleshooting.

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I have tried almost everything with the bios there is to try.

I have swapped out everything except the processor and hard drive I think.

It did the same thing with Windows 98 and with Windows Me installed.