Freeze problem

[chris k]

Bought a used pc for son for xmas. Worked fine. Playing games like Baulders gate, settlers4 it freezes screen after awhile. Had tnt2 video card, thoght might be the card so switched it out to voodoo3. Same problem.
Have to restart pc to continue. Sometimes after restarting, get black screen with blinking prompt top left corner...can't do anything..have to restart again. 750 athalon, 256 ram, win 98se.
Someone suggested overheatimg. Fans running fine. Only frezzes playing games so far. Latest version of directx installed and testing ok. Please help to get me out of doghouse.
Thanks,
Chris

[mjc]

Well if the latest DirectX is installed how about updated motherboard and video drivers...also when you swapped out the video cards did you follow through and make sure the old one was actually gone (check in Safe Mode)?

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

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

[BigBlue66]

Hi,

The black screen with the upper left-hand corner blinking cursor may have something to do with the BIOS. The system is not loading the DMI information correctly. Sometimes this can happen if somebody has tweaked the BIOS beyond the system's capability. Maybe the memory timing is off, or some other issue that would affect the system while playing games.

Just for the heck of it, and you can't hurt anything by doing so, but go into BIOS setup and choose to load Fail Safe Defaults. Try the games again and see what happens.

If that doesn't work, then maybe your video cards are not quite compatible with the latest version of DirectX. I suppose this would depend on how new your video card drivers are. With a Voodoo 3, I would imagine they're not that new. Maybe you will have to install an earlier version of DirectX. Just throwing out ideas here.

Another reason for freezing is bad RAM. The RAM may be fine for run of the mill computing, but once you start taxing it with game play, maybe it fails.

I am curious as to the history of your purchase. Do you have any sort of warranty on it? Buy it from a friend? Buy it off ebay?

Try what MJC suggested and a few of my ideas and post back with your progress.

Good luck.

Big Blue 66


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Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.
- Pamela Vault Starr

[ranchdog]

Hi Chris and Welcome

Excellent information in the above posts.

When I receive the black screen that tells me that
my system failed to go all the way thru the PQST
sequence. So I power down, leave things to cool
off a bit, and allow memory to clear itself.

The "old" tnt2 and voodoo3 are still pretty good
vid cards, however, fairly graphic intense games
kill 'em. The voodoo3 works well with the Detenator
drivers. They can be found at www.bootdisk.com (http://www.bootdisk.com)
Look at Drivers/popular/video/. Previous video drivers
need to be un-installed so that you don't have a conflict.

Heat is always an issue. Need to make sure that case
cooling itself is sufficient. I still use a voodoo3
in a unit that I bang around with and the chipset on
it really gets hot. So I added a fan to the card on
the backside, which would be the base of the chipset.

Quality RAM is important for a little gameing as
generic stuff just can't get the job done. Intense
games may take a skosh more that 256MB. But Win98
likes to play with that amount.

A HS/F that will really get the job done for the CPU
is also an important item. For peace of mind if
nothing else. Basically a 750 should get the job done but if
pushed hard with games it may want to drag its feet.
Especially if it runs a *little* warm.

Drivers... Memory... Heat

Have an awesome day. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif




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....How long is a minute... depends on which side of the Bathroom door you're on. ......Indecision may or may not be my problem......
..........

[iropnman]

Originally posted by chris k:
Bought a used pc for son for xmas. Worked fine. Playing games like Baulders gate, settlers4 it freezes screen after awhile. Had tnt2 video card, thoght might be the card so switched it out to voodoo3. Same problem.
Have to restart pc to continue. Sometimes after restarting, get black screen with blinking prompt top left corner...can't do anything..have to restart again. 750 athalon, 256 ram, win 98se.
Someone suggested overheatimg. Fans running fine. Only frezzes playing games so far. Latest version of directx installed and testing ok. Please help to get me out of doghouse.
Thanks,
ChrisHI THE ADVICE GIVEN IS GOOD BUT I WOULD ALSO RUN A SYSTEM FILE CHECKER BECAUSE IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU MISSING SOME FILES TOO. YOU RUN A SYSTEM FILE CHECKER BY LEFT CLICK THE START BUTTON GO TO RUN LEFT CLICK WHEN THE WINDOW POPS UP TYPE IN SFC THEN ON THE NEXT WINDOW LEFT CLICK ON THE SETTINGS BUTTON IN THE MIDDLE OF THAT WINDOW YOU WILL SEE A LIST OF FOLDERS THAT HAVE A YES AND NO BESIDE THEM HIGHLIGHT THE ONES THAT SAY NO THEN HIT THE INCLUDE SUBFOLDER BUTTON FOR EACH ONE AFTER THEY ALL SAY YES THEN HIT THE APPLY BUTTON ON THE BOTTOM THEN HIT THE OK BUTTON AND THAT WILL TAKE YOU BACK TO THE FIRST WINDOW THEN HIT THE START BUTTON AND WILL RUN A SYSTEM FILE CHECK WHEN DOES NOT FIND A MISSING FILE IT WILL PROMPT YOU TO RESTORE IT FROM YOUR WINDOWS DISK. SEE IF THIS WILL HELP TOO. IRONMAN

[Jumby]

Ironman, CAPS are bad.........very bad.

[ranchdog]

Useing Reply w/Quote option when it isn't needed
is bad...... very bad.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and use
Post Reply.

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....How long is a minute... depends on which side of the Bathroom door you're on. ......Indecision may or may not be my problem......
..........