A7V - stability problem - games are OK but OS not

[Loto]

I am having lots of trouble with my computer. It freezes when I open programs in Windows98SE. Sometimes I get flickering dots on the screen followed by green lines all over. Then everything freezes and I have to reset the computer. This happens if I use for example Explorer, Add programs, System under My Computer, Notepad etc.

BUT I can play games without any problem. The system really kicks some butts then. Rage Rally, MDK2, Fortune Soldier are games tested. No problems!

What I have done so far is update the BIOS, update all drivers for the A7V and V7700, the 4-1 driver is the latest. I have tried all kinds of settings in the BIOS. Nothing makes the system more stabile. I can?t but the system in Normal mode ? it is locked in Optimal in the BIOS. I have no IRQ conflicts and I have tried to assign IRQs to each PCI slot used but I did not help.

Please, what should I do? I am ready to return it to the web shop dealer.

My system:
Aopen HQ08 Fulltower 300W
Asus A7V
AMD Atholon Thunderbird 900@900
512Mb (2x256) SDRAM 133 PC Original cas3
ASUS V7700 Deluxe GeForce2 GRS 32Mb (AGP-port, PCI1)
Sound Blaster Live Platinum 5.1 (PCI4)
IBM Deskstar 75GXP 46Gb (I think it is on the third channel on ATA100 controller)
Pioneer DVD105S
Nec CR-RW
Shihatzu 10/100 Mbit TP Retail (PCI3)

BIOS version 1005c (updated from 1004d)
Windows 98 SE

 

[Priit]

Have you tried to reinstall Windows ?

 

[Loto]

Yes! I have reinstalled it from scratch five times, formatting the hard drive. I just didn't help me, but I am willing to try again.

 

[Loto]

Yes! I have reinstalled it from scratch five times, formatting the hard drive. I just didn't help me, but I am willing to try again.

 

[gtd2000]

Best thing I did was get rid of SE
Win 98 nice
Win ME nice
Win 98 SE terrible - don't ask me why though - same machine throughout!

 

[Loto]

Thanks for the help! And thanks to all who writes in this form, you have really helped me. It turned out that it wasn't really a Windows98 problem. It was na IRQ thing.

I opended the computer and changed the order of the cards in the PCI slots.

This is my new PCI config and it works great.

PCI 1/AGP Asus 7700 Deluxe IRQ9 (Selected in BIOS)
PCI 2 Empty
PCI 3 Sound Blaster Live Plantinum IRQ5 (Selected in BIOS)
PCI 4 Network card
PCI 5 Empty

Also I have reserved the IRQ12 for the mouse in BIOS. I am not sure if that helps any but, hey, the system works great so I will stick with this configuration.

Furthermore, I have my DVD Pioneer S105 as master on the second IDE-port and the NEC CD-RW as slave on the same port.


/It really rocks.