Help?

[CRZZZ]

Will post my system then the problems i am haveing.

Motherboard: 1000MHz Athlon Processor and Motherboard (Jabil)
Processor: 1000MHz Athlon Processor (Jabil)
Memory: 128MB Memory Module
Hard Drive: 40GB 7M Ultra ATA Hard Drive
Monitor: EV910 19" Monitor (18" Viewable)
Video Card: 64MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce2 Ultra Graphics w/TV Out
CD-ROM: 20x Minimum/48x Maximum IDE CD-ROM
CDRW: 12x/8x/32x Recordable/Rewriteable CDRW
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Live Value with Digital Audio Output
Speakers: Boston Acoustics BA735 Digital Speakers with Subwoofer
Modem: 56K PCI Modem

OK i screwed up and Bought a gateway (this is what everyone tells me anyway)

My problem is this: I get Lockups running many different OS's after about 10 minutes..win2kpro,winME,and Win98se...

I bought this Computer for gameing mainly and at the time is was a very good system..

I have read the above check list and non of the solutions produce any results.

When it locks up under Win98se or Winme i get a Green bar(ME) or Blue(98SE) that looks like this
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
across the top of my screen...(colored of course)

I was told Video ..SO i go buy a GF4 ti4600...it worked for about 10 seconds after bootup and now the computer wont even startup with it in (i get a beeP) and i have made sure it is seated properly ...well i put old video card back in and it works ...SO i move to RAM ..no help(RAM at 740 er something) ..i run with cvr off to make sure i get adapute air..still nothing

Sometimes it just reboots(mainly under Win2K) ...i have nothing program wise on my system except 1 game (landwarrior) i have reformated till i could throw the system on the porch..
can anyone Help ?

Next question:

after all this trouble i am thinking of building my own system(while i am a nOOby i am also a computer engineering student) ..what with my processor would be the best upgrade?....i mean what would be the best MOBO i could use with it (instead of buying a new one) or should i just start from scratch? and if so what would be the dream combo of MB and CPU for gameing mainly?

thnx for any help

 

[corkyg]

The green line lockup is usually video. I just went through that with a client and solved the problem by replacing her video card with a Radeon 64 DDR. Also - your 128 MB of RAM is minimal for what you want to do. I would double it to 256. 128 MB is not enough for W2K.

 

[CRZZZ]

hmm no i have over 700 megs of RAM...lol and put in a 128MegDDR GeForce4 ti4600($450)..althought it wouldn't run with the GF4 i did put in another 64Meg GeForce2ti and same thing ..thats why i am ruleing out Video as Primary problem..also swicthed soundcards from the Creative to a Muse becuase i was also told that Creative and AMD just don't always seem to work well...but that didn't fix the problem either =/

oh i might add that only thing different in system specs is the RAM..the rest i put back so i could call Gateway and ask what they thought..lol stay on phone for an hour with them and then they say Reformat...BAH!!!...

 

[Harvey]

The bad news is, you bought a Gateway. The good news is, Gateway has toll free tech support. Let them walk you through the problems.

I have a friend who made the same mistake (buying a Gateway). He won't do it, again, but in the mean time, they've taken good care of him when he needed the help.

I suggest getting the help from Gateway to get your beast up and running. You may even find there is something defective that needs warrantee replacement. You will then have a machine worth selling to someone, hopefully for enough money to buy the parts for a machine that will be more to your liking. You've already got a good start with your vid and sound cards.

Good luck.

 

[HappyPuppy]

Don't know if if pertains to your problem, but Win98/ME don't play nice with over 500MB RAM.

Have you checked the heatsink to see if it's plugged up with dirt?

Install MBM and check your temps and voltages.

Are the fans or fan running?

Have you tried setting thei BIOS to default?

 

[CRZZZ]

On the amount of RAM it did it with 128Megs same as it did with 700+...

On the Gateway Tech i did that thier only solution was reformat even though i told them i just had and had several times with the same results...i do plan on calling them and telling them either fix it or send me a new one....

on the New system: yeah the new vidcard is why i just figured i might go ahead and do it

On the Heatsink and fans i took the Heatsink off Q-Tiped it fans i Blew out and tested to make sure they were running smooth and effortlessly(wow spell check that)...on the BIOS it is a Gateway and you are limited to only things like what device boots first and things like that ...you can't adjust clock speed or anything