Computer errors/restarts repeatedly

[kiehn]

We've had problems with this Hewlett packard
since we bought it 4 years ago. It has been
refortated and fdisked more than a dozen times.
I run scandisk and defrag weekly.
It has never been this bad. We constantly
get explorer errors, lockups, internal errors,
fatal exceptions, windows protection errors, the
computer restores a backup of the registry
2-3 times a day because it says its bad, it
restarts itself constantly, goes into safe
mode constantly. If I knew where to buy a
used system that I could easily transfer all
our files and still have the current programs
that came with the system like Microsoft word
I would do it in a heartbeat. Any ideas or
suggestions besides a hammer.
Thanks Sue

 

[Willoughbyva]

Could be many things causing this. I would start with a memory tester like Memtest86. http://www.memtest86.com/.

Have you updated the drivers for the machine? If not look for some updated drivers.

Start with the memory tester and post back. I am sure people will help narrow the problem down.

You might want to post the model number of the machine. so people can look up the specs.

 

[crisp82]

If it isn't hardware problem then i would keep it and upgrade to Windows 2000. So much more stable then 98.

 

[kiehn]

Thanks for your advice, I'm open to any idea's being I slightly
computer illiterate.
I did download and run the Memtest v3.0, twelve times. The first
time my computer locked up during the test so I restarted and ran
it all night long, it ran 11 times and passed without errors, which I
find strange being I've actually had my computer tell me it was out
of memory after I shut down a game I was playing and I had to
restart the computer.
The system is a 1999 Hewlett Packard 4533 Pavilion, AMD K6-2 64K
with two ram sticks, 128 and 64 equalling 188 ram. It came with
a HP win 98 SE installed and a HP CD to reformat if needed which
I've used 99% of the time. Being we've alway had so many problems
with it I had my brother-n-law install the traditional win 98 and we
lost some of our programs that came with the HP win 98 so I went
back to the HP win 98 SE.
I think I've answered the questions posted, I'm a little nervous about
updating drivers being 90% of the time I've tried to update anything
on this computer it freaks out and I've ended up reformatting in the end.
In the last year or so we can't even install or run a anti virus or firewall
without the computer freakin. Thanks again for your expertise suggestions
and ideas, Sue

 

[amdskip]

I would try windows 2k, do not put xp on it, not enough machine there to run it.

 

[Willoughbyva]

There are some updates to your machine. Try here and see if you can find what you need. One was for Bass/Treble out of memory error.

I would update the drivers and see if it still had problems.

Edit spelling

 

[crisp82]

Try upadating all possible drivers. Sounds like a hardware conflict to me. If all esle fails, backup your data and then install Win2k/pro