I'm at a loss here. Please Help.

[Tihmmay]

I recently gutted my computer, and practically rebuilt it from the ground up. Here are the current specs:

AMD Athlon 1.2 GHz /w 266 MHz fbs
MSI KT7 Master Motherboard
1 stick of 256MB PC2100 DDR RAM
Diamond Vyper 770 TNT 2 Ultra 32MB (video card from old computer)
IBM Deskstar 7200rpm 40GB Hard Drive
Phillips Acoustic Edge 5.1-Channel PCI sound card (PSC706)
TEAC CD-burner /w SCSI card(PCI) (from old computer)
Mitsumishi 40x CD-ROM drive (from old computer)

Here is my problem. When the Computer starts up and finally opens to the desktop, everthing seems to be fine. However, after a minute or two, all the icons go white. Quickly after this, the whole thing locks up, and I have to reboot using the reset button.
I've tried everything I can think of. I've reformatted, defragmented, scandisked, loaded new drivers ect...
Of course it doesn't do this right after I've reformatted and loaded everything back up. Oh no, it waits until I have a false sense of security before it starts doing this. After load up a game (any game, I've tried diffent ones each time) and play it without any problems. It seems to work fine for the whole rest of the day. The next day, however, is when the problem starts up again.

Please, someone, anyone help. I'm at my witt's end. Thank you.

[Whyzman]

What OS?

May all your dealings in life be win/win!

Whyzman

[Tihmmay]

Win98 Second Edition.

[bassman]

What kind of virus protection do you run?

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If I tell you to think for yourself, then you're not doing it.
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This is not directed at those asking questions in order to gain knowledge. That shows you are thinking.

[yawningdog]

You're quite sure your processor supports 266fsb? For some reason, I can't seem to recall the terms 1.2ghz and 266fsb used to describe the same machine. The slowest processor I've seen that supports that bus is 1.33mhz

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Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach him to use the net, and he wont bother you for weeks.

[BigBlue66]

Excellent point about the processor.

Additionally, do you have any conflicts showing up in Device Manager? Kind of sounds like an IRQ conflict to me. It will play nice for awhile until two components try to share the same IRQ. Make sure that PCI steering is enabled and working. Also, try different PCI slots with your components.

Good luck.

BB 66


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"Right turn Clyde!"

[PostCode]

I'm not familiar with the motherboard itself, but here are afew things to try...btw, there is a processor out there that is a 1.2GHz/266 fsb T-Bird.

In the BIOS, scan through the Chipset Features and Advanced Setup for AGP based features. Look for the 1x/2x, 4x settings, speed settings for the bus, and support for older AGP standards. If my memory serves me correctly, 2.0, 2.1 and such. AGP Driving Control, AGP Aperture Size, and such. Play with the values. Try to find a setting that supports your video card more completely. A few other things..if you can assign a IRQ to Video, then do so. This will also be in the BIOS. Disable Video BIOS Cachable if it's enabled as well as Video RAM Cachable. A few other settings to look for is AGP Master 1 WS Write and AGP Master 1 WS Read. Not sure if these are in your BIOS, but if they are, try disabling them. Remember any changes you make with pen and paper for reversing them.

What you might also try is setting the BIOS to FailSafe Defaults or similar setting. Then if all goes well, slowly fine tune the BIOS for performance. Hope this helps.

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[Tihmmay]

I reset the BIOS defaults, but that didn't seem to work either. Fortunately, I think I may have stumbled onto the solution. I went ahead and tried to download drivers again. This time it seems to have worked. Apperantly, I had a couple of bad downloads with the other drivers I was using. Everything seems to be working fine now. I just hope it stays that way. Thanks for the help, and for not making me feel stupid like some other forum sites that I won't mention. I'll be sure to post again at this forum site if any more problems come up. Again, thanks.