Help with old Emachines etower 333k

[kevinc5680]

Can anyone point me in the right direction. My younger cousin inherited an old emachines etower 333k and asked me to beef it up for him. I installed a Maxtor 20GB HD, 256MB of RAM (2 x 128), and a Belkin wireless PCI card so it would work with my Aunt's Belkin router. The system has Windows XP Home Edition and after adding the upgrades, I went into Windows to configure the wireless card and I was successful in installing it and getting a signal from the router. But everytime I booted the system up, it would freeze up at random areas. I wouldn't do anything specific for it to freeze up. One time it was while I was browsing the internet with Internet Explorer. Another time, I was in the control panel. And another time when I was about to reboot the system in the start menu. My guess is that it needs a BIOS update, but before I begin going through countless steps, I wanted to get some feedback. Unfortunately, there isn't another option for another computer, he is in middle school and needs something simple to browse the internet and do homework. I'd appreciate any help! Thanks.

[azzey]

Is it a fresh install of XP?

If not, did it work fine before?

[mjc]

Were you using the Belkin wireless program or the Windows XP wireless program?

I've always had headaches with the Belkin wireless client. One of which is that it can be a bit of a memory hog/resource hog.

256 MB isn't really enough RAM to run XP and the wireless client and much of anything else.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Sounds like the addition of the 3 items has taxed the power supply to it's limits. eMachines is not known for putting in sufficient supplies to add much at all.

Try removing one or more of what you added, and if it stops, don't assume it's what you removed. Alternate with something else. If still ok, it's the PSU.

But again, what was on this pc for protection prior to introducing it to the network for: A/V, Firewall and other malware fighters such as SpywareGuard,, etc?

Edit:
What mjc said too ;)

[kevinc5680]

This was a fresh install of XP. I got the hard drive, removed the old one and installed XP on the drive. I removed the old RAM in the system, which I believe was only 64 MB and put 128MB in the only two slots in the system giving me 256MB. According to some info on the net, this system cannot go above 256MB. The system has only two PCI slots and one had a dial-up modem, the other was empty. I added the wireless card there. This system was never used for the internet prior to this because they have high speed and this system wasn't setup for that so there isn't any viruses/spyware. Should I remove the dial-up modem for power reasons because it's not being used? Also, I do have an extra power supply if it needs to be replaced.

I am using the provided Belkin software. The first thing I'll do is get rid of that then and see if that helps. If that and removing the modem doesn't work, I'll try using an older windows. I know this system was setup for Windows ME before. Do you think Windows 2000 would be okay, or should I go with 98?

[Fruss Tray Ted]

If the eMachines psu is not propietary and the other one is more powerful, sure, try it. The other ideas are good also before going with an older os.

Still, more ideas would be to test the RAM with Memtest, test the harddrive (I know, you said it's new) with manufacturer's softwares, do a barebones boot detaching all unnecessary peripherals.

The freezeups sound like some piece of hardware is on it's way out, corrupted drivers or similar. So the os should be the last resort, even though XP will run doggedly slow with 256mb RAM, that's double what HP was originally selling their xt933 systems with, which came with XP Home. :eek:

[kevinc5680]

It runs surprisingly smooth with XP considering how slow the system is. Tomorrow is when I'm going back over there to take a look at it. Would updating the BIOS help any? If so, where would I get a BIOS update for this system? And how do I test the RAM with Memtest? I'm assuming this is a program I can download. I appreciate all of the pointers, I'm pretty good with computers, but this is a problem I have yet to run into and it could be a number of things so I figured you guys can help!

[mjc]

I doubt it, for the BIOS update...those machines were long out of date by the time XP came along. If I remember correctly, the last update was to handle any potential Y2K problems or maybe it was for a hard drive fix... (Yeah, I've dealt with that model before...)

If you don't have an 8.4 GB limit on the hard drive, you've got the latest BIOS in it...

[Sylvander]

See if Windows XP Upgrade Advisor (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/upgrading/advisor.mspx) reports any incompatibilities.

[kevinc5680]

I'll try and download this today, I just hope the system doesn't freeze up before I can finish the test. I do appreciate it though, anything like this will help!

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Memtest (http://www.memtest.org/)
Midway down, the bootable floppy or precompiled iso for a bootable cd would work if you have a burner.

Knoppix (http://www.knoppix.com/) may also help to see if it's os related problem by booting to that instead of Windows

[kevinc5680]

I just got back right now from my second attempt at getting this system to work. I removed the dial-up modem and made sure everything was snug. I ran a memory test and everything passed okay. Then I began navigating through windows to see if it would lock up. It still locked up, but it did seem a bit longer in between freeze points. I did notice that when I had to access the DVD-Rom drive, a freeze usually followed which leads me to believe that it is the power supply. I'm going this weekend with the replacement power supply and I'll also run the Knoppix while I'm there to see if either of those work.

[mjc]

If it is 'freezing' when accessing the drive, if you let it sit long enough, does it come back?

Depending on the drive caching, especially if there isn't enough memory available to hold the cache, Windows can grind to a halt until the disk is read...

[kevinc5680]

I waited about 2-4 minutes one time and it didn't come back. The mouse doesn't move, the whole screen just locks up.