I have to stop SETI for a while 'till I get my problem fixed. RC5 is even worse!!!

[CurtOien]

My computer has been crashing alot, mostly in IE, but in other things too.
Most errors are in run32DLL (or something like that name).

I installed Win ME over Win 98 and that helped some with the crashes, but it slowed SETI from 8hrs to 32hrs. When you moved the mouse CPU usage went down and when you stopped the mouse it jumped up to 62% and stayed there with nothing else running.

Did Fdisk/clean install of Win 98. I installed a minimal numbers of things.
Same mouse behavior. Even switched from PS2 to USB.
Then I installed SETI and the slow times and crashes came back.

Took SETI out and most crashes gone.
just got one in kernnel32

I had been running this same version of SETI for a long time with no problems.
After the format I installed the newest NON-Beta version.

Any thoughts?

Besides "Run RC5."

 

[Ken g6]

I'm guessing the program is rundll32.exe, which "runs a dll as an app". Any idea which dll?

 

[Ben98SentraSE]

CPU fan die? Power supply giving good constant voltage? Memory BIOS settings OK? May try less agressive BIOS settings and see if that helps. If you did a clean install of Win98 that would point to a hardware problem.

 

[CurtOien]

Thanks for the ideas. I'll look into them.

Ken_g6,
That would be the one.
I'll have to look into what it runs.
Thanks.
It may be the DLL that dials the DSL connection and disconnects it.
That is used by lots of programs that have been crashing and the timing seems to indicate this



First thing I'm going to try is Nortan AntiVirus instead of the McAffee. I upgraded it not to long ago and there is a chance this is the problem.

After my clean install of Win 98, my first trouble was while Installing McAffee. It seemed to conflict with my sound card and I was unable to install the anti boot secter virus part of the program.(not sure because I dissabled the Sound Blaster 16 bit emulator at the same time as I skipped the boot sector stuff) but I also noticed no place to Rem out the sound when it boots up.(they must have changed this)

If I enable the boot sector Antivirus setting in the bios my USB mouse will not load.

If this does not work I'm going to increase my cooling and If that doesn't work I'll raise the voltage. If nothing else I'll fry the d@mmed thing and get a new one.

 

[Ben98SentraSE]

Too much voltage can be just as bad than not enough so be careful- hate to waste good processors...

 

[CurtOien]

I tried SETI again and started crashing again.
I installed RC5 instead and crashed even faster.
Still don't know what's wrong.
Maybe CPU does not like to work at %100 anymore.

 

[Robor]

Try reloading the system with the bare minimum hardware... Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Vid, etc. Make sure it's stable and add things one at a time until you run into crashes.

Rob

 

[Bartman]

[l]http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=227802[/l] I've been haveing a stupid acting problem too.. after about 3 reinstalls of 98 and one of ME it's still there. I even lowlevled the drive 2x. It's gotta be hardware. The only thing I haven't swaped out is the hard drive and mobo. I've swaped the cpu,video,mem,power supply, cables and run with nothing but bare bones.

Is my Abit mobo AFU or what?

Bart

 

[Joe O]

Curt, Check your cooling. If you haven't already done it, try running with the case open. Try an external fan pointing at the CPU.

I ran across a similar problem. Replaced the heatsink and fan and it went away. By the way, the old fan was still turning, it just wasn't cooling.

 

[rleach2]

I agree with robor, you need to start with a bare minimum system, and add things one at a time, reboot, then add something else and so on. If it is a hardware problem you will eventually run into which piece is causing it. I have done this numerous times and it has worked. Even try it with bare minimum RAM, and add sticks as you reboot. Hope you get your problem figured out.

 

[sciencewhiz]

Curt, Are you overclocking? If you are, when you go down to the barebones system also stop overclocking and only start overclocking again as the last step (ie after you have determined that it isn't any other part)

 

[Elect]

I agree with sciencewhiz
Most problems are with overclocking, and then you get (mostly) the Rundll32 error ..
Isn't it a Conflict between some hardware ?

 

[Assimilator1]

Curt

I would avoid using NAV ,I've heard of many reports of that causing all kinds of strange problems.

BTW ,if you can borrow another stick of RAM ,swap it over to see if that helps(if the other things haven't sorted it).

 

[CurtOien]

Thanks again for all the ideas.

First I'll check my RAM.(easy to do)

If that's not it I'm going to add some cooling, flash the bios and reinstall Win 98SE.
Then I'll add things one at a time.

This is not overclocked because I never had time to put in the two intake fans I have for on the side (one on the CPU and one on the video card).

For now I have four fans (one in and three exhaust)
My Athlon 700 has the retail fan and heatsink.
When I got it from egghead the box was not sealed and it was about the time many counterfit (Overclocked) Athlons were on the market.
If none of these solutions work I will crack the CPU's case open and take a look at it.

Isn't that neat that you have to void your warranty to see if they sold you bad stuff?

Thanks

 

[Ken g6]

Ass1: Are you sure you mean Norton, and not McAfee? I've had no problems with Norton, but I've heard of lots with McAfee. And I always confuse the two (though not this time! )

 

[Hellburner]

Real men don't need AV products The only part of Norton Utilities I use is Speed Disk, I even stripped that down because it installs with about 3X as many files as it needs to run.

For the occasional virus scan I've found F-PROT to be quite adequate as long as you keep updated on the Macro.Def and Sig.def files. They even ID joke programs your "friends" may send you, you should see their faces when they realize they didn't get you

 

[Assimilator1]

Ken G6

Yep I mean Norton (though Mcafee might well do to)
2 recent examples ,someone wrote in to MicroMart saying they found out the writing problems with there CDR was eventually tracked down to NAV ,it worked fine after that was uninstalled.
Another mag ,Computer Buyer recently did a review of various Anti virus progs ,they mentioned that NAV 'is infamous for causing system crashes'.
Additionally a friend of mine who has his own PC buisness has also found many problems caused by NAV

 

[imported_Thunder]

Curt,

I'd like to weigh in with the camp that's leaning towards a thermal problem. About the only time I've seen kernel errors wiht my machines is when I've had a heat problem, so my gut is telling me to look towards that.

Assuming it's not something so simple as too many dust bunnies on the heatsink (a problem that's bitten me in the butt in the past ), then I'd look at the thermal interface from the CPU to the heatsink. I'm not familiar with the construction of the boxed slot Athlons, but if they use any thermal compound, keep in mind that the stuff does dry out, harden and begin to loose it's efficiency over time.

Anyhow, good luck with it. I certainly hope you don't find you have a remarked part.

-Brian

 

[Darkone]

Ive got Norton running on over 300 machines at work and have never had a problem

Its just the voices in your head again Ass1...

D

 

[Assimilator1]

uh huh

You must be lucky then hehe