Buggy POS!!!

[linehand]

I receintly upgraded my old PC:
Asus P3BF Celeron 500 128mb Trident 4MB Video; was running ME & IE 5.0 rock stable.
New PC:
Abit KT7 Raid (same 128mb pc100 ram) added ATI Rage 128 Pro Video, finally got it up and running after installing latest VIA 4-in 1 drivers; reformated 20G Maxtor 7200 (not using Raid yet) installed ME and IE5.5 w/latest updates from MS web site.
Buggiest POS I have ever used! Screen will randomly freeze! for any or no certian reason! ocasionaly will go black! I can sometimes surf the net an hour or two........... and sometimes can't hardly get Outlook opened up and it Freezes! I dont know how much of my freezeup problem is hardware? AMD or VIA chipset? ME was solid on the P3BF, Maybe IE5.5 is part of the problem? although it will also freeze up sometimes just using a windows app. I'm ready to scrap this POS and try for something more stable! Any ideas?
Different OS? Go with Netscape? Dump the ATI AGP card?
I'm open to any ideas!
linehand

 

[BreakApart]

Your not gunna like my recommendation... Reformat and use the PC with minimum installed software(i.e. default IE, don't load Office at all, just use the basics, and see it still crashes)

Your system suffers from a bad case of too many "possible" bugs to fix as is...

Personally your choice of hardware, and software is FULL of "potential" problems...

Abit boards-are NOT known for stability-(they are OVER-Clocking boards) NOT: business user stable boards...

IE5.5--is FULL of bugs, many people regret touching this version.

ME-still too new to know for sure that it isn't causing any problems, so we can't rule it out either.

HEAT--how good is your case cooling? MAXTOR 7200rpm drives run hot. Along with a warm/hot Athlon you need proper cooling for sure..

Screen going blank sounds like video card/drivers... Heck could even be the 4in1 drivers buggin out... I have never used that video card so i can't comment on its quality/stability...

I recommend you format that drive or find an extra drive for testing... Install ME and all your drivers, no extra software at ALL!!! Then install perhaps (1) game-(Q3, Halflife, or another heavy duty FPS) Let the game run for a good hour or 2 and watch the system. Is it running extra hot, or crashing or even locking-up(freezing). If it runs great then you can be fairly sure the system is setup correctly. So the problems now lean toward software...

First Person Shooter games can really test your system for proper cooling and general stability(drivers installed correctly). Many people here have also commented that a FPS game can really show the stability of a system. Heck even reviewers use FPS to test the true stability and performance of any given system.

If all goes well then install (1) program at a time and retest. Do NOT install IE5.5 it has known problems you may wish to avoid all together... After installing Office, turn off "fast find" and remove the Office "startup folder" link.

Hope this helps...

 

[zzzz]

Is your power supply amd approved?
Also try kt7faq for more info..