Crashing

[kenkuhl1]

I recently upgraded my computer. It has:
An ASUS motherboard with an Intel 200mhz pentium CPU. It has been overclocked to 250mhz.

128 MB RAM

MS-ME.

S3 ViRGE PCI (325) Video card

Ensonic Lightspeed audio

Quantum 1.2gb IDE & Fireball LM 15gb IDE

Toshiba 24x CDRom Dr 3.5 & 5.25 FD

F=ma ethernet network card. I am on Cable internet.

I am running Office 97, Quicken 2000, Front Page, PrintMaster, American Heritage Dictionary, Outlook Express, and Internet Explorer.
When I changed over to the new motherboard ME had been newly installed on both harddrives.

My life on the computer is now a series of daily blue screen crashes. This probably happens mostly on the internet. I'll start to a site and get the blue error screen. Sometimes I can hit a key and just be bumped back into ME, other times I have to reboot.

Sometimes the bottom command line will lock-up, but the desktop is fine. When this happens I ctrl/alt/del all of the programs closed, then close Explorer last. Sometimes I get away without an illegal close, most of the time I don't. Many times when I close down, it will not complete the close, so when I boot the next time I get an illegal close and Disk Scan. I have started closing using Restart and turning off the machine when it starts booting. Sometimes it will not make it into restart before it locks up.

My mouse works sluggishly, or sticky, Jerky, when anything is going on in the background. When other activity ends or slows down it works fine.

I have re-installed ME several times. This helps and for a short time I can get something done, but then I am back to the crashes.

I am not sure where to look. I don't know if the problem is hardware or software. My diagnostics don't turn up hardware problems. I suspect it is software. I was hoping someone might give me some insight an suggestions.

Ken

[mjc]

You say your CPU is a 200MHz oc'd to 250MHz, a 25% increase in speed--not bad if it will run stable, which it doesn't look like it is doing...I would jump back a little on the oc'ing and see if stability returns.

If you overclock by increasing the speed of the FSB then you are not only overclockoing the CPU but evrything, all the PCI cards, the drives, the memory. Couple that with an OS that is known to have some stability issues and you end up with the symptoms you described.

Here (http://www.pcguide.com/opt/oc/index.htm) is a link that lays out the risks, benefits and some of the reasons why and why not to overclock.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/highrise/11/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[BigBlue66]

Hey Ken,

MJC is absolutely correct. Turn that puppy (CPU) back to what it's supposed to run at and buy more RAM.

Cheers,

Big Blue 66


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Woe is me.

[danleff]

Win ME with a 200 mhz processor?? Wouldn't Win 98 be a better idea? If not double your RAM!!!!

[krayzie]

What is your primary drive. If it's the 1.2 I'd make sure windows is the only thing installed on it. Whatever program you use to surf the 'net with make sure that it is storing the temp. internet files to the 15Gb drive.

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"MS-DOS, the only Microsoft OS that doesn't crash, or have bugs. Maybe they should have someone else write Operating Systems for them again."

There are no stupid questions, just stupid people.

[Randy_tx]

I am continually surprised that ANYone would install Win Me on ANY speed system........the problems have been well documented....to add overclocking to the mix......well, what do you expect http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif. The reason you are crashing so much on the internet (IMO) is the combination of Win Me running slower that it likes utilizing a overclocked chip & not enough video card to handle the bandwidth....is that a 4 mb vid card or 2 mb??

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Will XP save Me ?

[kenkuhl1]

Thanx for all your comments. It is more than I have gotten elsewhere.
You are all right I am sure, although the motherboard had been running fine in my son's machine before he gave it to me. I had suspected the OCing. I'll try to answer all the reponders:

I could kick myself for getting ME. I took a calculated risk. I had heard bad things about all the MS OS I got in the past. I suppose if I am going to use MS WIN's I take my chances. Right now my only choice is to go back to WIN95, and I am not sure I want to. Later, I may be able to get WIN98

The video is a S3Virge w/4MB. The CPU is a Intel P MMX.

The External Bus Frequency had been set to 83mhz. The sys info said this was running at 250mhz. I reset it to 75mhz (the MB's manuals highest setting). It now says it is running at 220mhz. The system seems more stable, but I have experienced a crash, and several blue screens which did not crash me. The mouse is still some jerky.

If you all have anyother suggestions, I'm open to them.

Thanx, KenK

[Reid]

Running the bus at 75MHz on some systems can cause the PCI bus to run above the design specification and it may be running the memory faster than it can handle. Have you tried putting the bus back to 66?

I was disappointed with Windows ME on a new Athlon 850 system, so I can imagine it running on a 200 MHz Pentium. I'd run WIN95 if I had your systm.

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reido@my-deja.com

Friends don't let friends install Windows ME