How to Make System Completely Stable

[CedarTeeth135]

Lately I have been having a lot of crashes. Do any of you know any programs or walkthroughs that might help me make my system/Hardware more stable.



I wasn't sure what to put this in, so it landed in "General Hardware."

 

[Carrot44]

We will need more info of whats all in your system. Especially cooling.
Also what are you doing when it crashes.

Ken

 

[CedarTeeth135]

Well, my specs are in my profile.

It can just crash out of noware. I'll leave the computer on with IE running and I come back to find it frozen.

Cooling is fine. 1 case fan, HSF on CPU with Arctic Silver, and a fan over the MOBO's chipset. Temps are 49 C on loadup.

 

[NOX]

Originally posted by: CedarTeeth135
Lately I have been having a lot of crashes. Do any of you know any programs or walkthroughs that might help me make my system/Hardware more stable.



I wasn't sure what to put this in, so it landed in "General Hardware."

Yes, firstly dump Win98SE. In the past I have had win98(se) running very stable with all my games and software applications. However, every once in a while I would experience BSOD, or random lock-ups even more so when overclocking etc. Once I upgraded to Win2k all that seemed to become non-existent. So with that said Win98 would be first to go if you want more stability.

Also, make sure you have adequate cooling. Two case fans should be more then enough if you are not seriously overclocking. A good CPU cooler is also a must. Make sure you have one that is recommended by the CPU manufacturer or buy others with a similar setup as yours.

It also depends on what kind of instabilities you are having? Crashes can occur for a number of reasons; can you name a few examples? That will help.

 

[nortexoid]

your cooling is fine.

1) dump win98 in favor of win2k w/ SP2, or winxp, or a good linux distro.

2) update all your drivers to the latest manufacturer ones (the nvidia detonator/references ones will be fine tho - probably better than the manufacturer's even actually).

3) don't overclock anything, including your vid card.

4) u might wanna try repartitioning/formatting and cleanly installing your OS and apps from the scratch again.

5) check for viruses

all your hardware compoennts seem to be of good quality, so i doubt there's anythign wrong there..but u might have flakey memory or a PSU...also, make sure your BIOS settings are set to normal...optimal settings might be too stressful.

 

[WarmAndSCSI]

Just ditch Win98 SE and install ANY other OS (except for Me) and you should be just fine.

 

[CedarTeeth135]

Drivers are all updated

Nothing overclocked

NOT REFORMATTING. (Just did it, Pain in the ass)

Just scanned for viruses


I guess I should just go ahead and get XP, but should I get home or professional. I remember reading that Home doesn't support dual procesors. Is that true? I've been planning on building a dually Sledgehammer when they are released.



I always remember being told that SE was the OS to have. I guess i am mistaken.

 

[Deskstar]

Get Win 2K Prof or Win XP Prof. Then judge your stability; if still unstable, start changing hardware but not before changing OS.

 

[Thor86]

Do yourself a favour and go to your local computer shop and ask if they can get you a copy of Norton System Works 2000 or 2002 to purchase and install that on your machine and see what it tells you. You'd be amazed at what this can do to fix corrupt systems especially Win9X. I'm sure it won't cost half as much as Win2K or XP.

 

[starwarsdad]

I would stay away from XP until after they release SP1. I would stay away from XP Home altogether. For a MS OS, 2000 is the best thing since sliced bread!

XP Home will not support multiple processors. It does not support networking either.

 

[herbage11]

XP Home has worked flawless for me. I dont have a need for duel processors or networking so it fits the bill. Reason I went w/ it is because a game I play a lot (High Heat 2003) claimed to only support XP home and not pro. I would also agree to get Systemworks 2002. It has a lot of handy tools that may be able to fix your crash problem.

 

[jose]

Run Linux

 

[WarCon]

Try turning off 4x agp in bios. Update your 4 in 1's, and DirectX 8.1.

You should read up on the infinite loop error, this may be what your experiencing.......Infinite Loop definition.

There are many causes for this bug and it isn't OS dependent. Sometimes upgrading OS's does fix it though. But if it is being caused by a weak powersupply then the bug may still happen in XP. Certain combinations of parts seem to be slightly more susceptible. This page is a little old, but outlines the problem pretty well.

Good luck figuring it out.