Is this system just too old to make work?

Vampirrella

Golden Member
Apr 5, 2001
1,211
0
71
I am trying to revive an old mobo / cpu combo i found a few weeks ago in my garage all boxed up with dust on it. But after trying it the win98SE way and then the win2k method, both come to a screeching stop when the setup files are starting to load up.

The hardware in question are:

ABIT BX6 Rev.1,
CPU Intel Pentium II 300A running all stock on 300 mhz for now. (this mobo/cpu combo OC'd nicely to 504mhz but for troubleshooting purposes im leaving it stock)
RAM: 256mb pc100

Hardware wise everything is connected and working great. The board post on boot up fine. The correct memory is shown, the cdrom drive is found and the harddrive as well. I have updated to the most recent released BIOS update, that will allow the system to recognise 40gb drive and bigger... and it sees my 40gb drive fine.

So now trying to load win98se first, after loading the setup files about 30% it stops saying:

"Standard mode: Fault outside of MS-DOS extender"

In google i looked it up and it said this:

This error message occurs when the Kernel generates a processor exception during initialization (before it has installed its own exception handlers) or when the Kernel determines that it cannot handle an exception. The causes are the same as those for the "Fault in MS-DOS Extender" error.

It does not say what to do or if i can get around this issue.

Now in win2k, during the setup file loading process it will quit about 10 secs into the load process and halt with a Stop error.

So even tho i have the most recent bios version and all the hardware seemingly works, am i screwed and cannot make this system run afterall? (I was hopeing to just make it a decent browsing machine for in the garage on my workbench incase i needed to look something up while working out there ect)

thx for any ideas in advance!

 

Minotar

Member
Aug 30, 2004
147
0
0
Could be many things. What is the integrity of the hard drive? It could be a bad sector or anything on there. It could also be the ram or the processor. Sounds like that processor has had some major overclocking on it... Maybe it is having problems? If you have some spare ram laying around try that or pick up some quality PC100 ram real cheap... As for Win 2K or WinXP, you may not be able to use those OS's because not all bios' that are older support those Operating systems. I know this from experience. I would try a complete reformat then try installing DOS 7 full install then install Win 98. Perhaps, there are some problems with DOS, itself, which can cause problems installing older OS's as well. Good luck with all of this!
 

daniel49

Diamond Member
Jan 8, 2005
4,814
0
71
my first thought was harddrive also but bacillus link did mention ram too??
how many of these parts been sitting out in the garage for 5 years and how many new?
 

Vampirrella

Golden Member
Apr 5, 2001
1,211
0
71
UPDATE:

I was able to track down the problem. It was indeed the memory. I had placed the 2 128mb sticks in the WRONG banks! And it was making the system totally unstable. Silly me.

The system works great with win2k SP4 now, no probs anymore.

Oh and all the hardware i have in this system is OLD except the 40gb maxtor HDD and Linksys wireless adapter card.

Old school specs:
--------------------
Abit BX6 rev1
Pentium II Celeron 300A @ 504mhz OC'd
Generic 2 x 128mb PC100
Elsa Erazor TNT2 32mb
Maxtor 40GB 7200rpm
24x cdrom reader
Linksys Wireless adapter card
win2k w/ SP4

The ultimate old-school garage browsing machine :)

Thanks again for everyone's input!

PS: Sorry if this was posted in the wrong forum. It prolly should have been in General Hardware, but i initially thought my issue was an OS prob, not hardware.. oops

 

Zugzwang152

Lifer
Oct 30, 2001
12,134
1
0
Originally posted by: Vampirrella
UPDATE:

I was able to track down the problem. It was indeed the memory. I had placed the 2 128mb sticks in the WRONG banks! And it was making the system totally unstable. Silly me.

The system works great with win2k SP4 now, no probs anymore.

Oh and all the hardware i have in this system is OLD except the 40gb maxtor HDD and Linksys wireless adapter card.

Old school specs:
--------------------
Abit BX6 rev1
Pentium II Celeron 300A @ 504mhz OC'd
Generic 2 x 128mb PC100
Elsa Erazor TNT2 32mb
Maxtor 40GB 7200rpm
24x cdrom reader
Linksys Wireless adapter card
win2k w/ SP4

The ultimate old-school garage browsing machine :)

Thanks again for everyone's input!

PS: Sorry if this was posted in the wrong forum. It prolly should have been in General Hardware, but i initially thought my issue was an OS prob, not hardware.. oops

hehe, good job finding your mistake. i've dealt with a lot of systems running w2k on 400-450mhz celerons and 256mb ram... so bare specs shouldnt have been the problem.
 

thegorx

Senior member
Dec 10, 2003
451
0
0
supports ultra DMA/33 ?
I'd get a drive controller card if you want your to drive to spin faster than a crawl