My New PC freezes almost during every session

[Ragz]

This is my rig:

Intel D850MV Mobo
P4 1.7 Ghz
NEC PC600 128MB RDRAM
Creative Labs Soundblaster Live
Creative Labs DVD with Dxr 5
Seagate Barracuda IV 40GB x 2
Diamond Viper V770 Ultra TNT2 32MB
Win 98 SE
Generic Motorola chipset PCI modem

Now each time I boot the machine it hangs and after a subsequnet reeboot it works fine. I play MS Flight SIM 2000 on it and at times it just freezes. I Reboot and its fine. This happens almost 5-6 times per day. I am looking for a solution to end this misery. I have considered upgrade of the video card, although i am using 23.11 detonator Xp drivers from nVidia. I will upgrade to 23.12 today. In my opinion all drivers are current.

Do u think this could be a hardware problem or a software one. I used to run this exact same software on my older Intel SE440BX with P2-400 and never ever had this problem.

thanks,
Anurag

 

[Duvie]

Look to see if there is any irq sharing going on...may want to avoid ths...

Personally I don't think any of the 23 version detonators are safe for tnt2 cards, but that is just me...I would try jumping back to 21.83 or even jumping down to like the 14's....IMO those newer drivers have no advances to the card you have an may be an hinderence...

 

[Ragz]

I wonder if its the 23.11's since this was ALSO happening when I was using the original OEM drivers for the diamond card downloaded from download.com. Infact I upgraded the drivers to 23.11 because the OEM drivers were old and the system would freeze anyway. Initially I was using the diamond card with AGP set to 2x on the 440BX mobo, and now I am on AGP 4x (changed the jumpers on the video card) on the 850 mobo and still facing problems. I plan to get a Geforce 4 ASAP anyway. Moreover, do u think its the display card that is the problem? As far as IRQ's are concerned, there arent any NEW devices that I am using compared to the old setup, except for the modem which is on a PCI slot as compared to the older ISA modem.

Anurag

 

[Amused]

When building new rig, here's what I do:

I put together the bare minimum to get the rig to boot (mobo, CPU, video card, 1 HDD or Raid Array, CD and floppy if you need it) and load the OS. I then load any drivers required for what I have installed.

Then I test for stability.

After that, I add components and drivers one by one, testing for stability each time.

If and when I run into a problem, I'll know exactly what is causing it.

When building a custom, essentially untested config, it's not a good idea to slap the whole thing together all at one time. That leaves too many things to troubleshoot if anything goes wrong.

 

[Ragz]

hmmm....am i too lazy to do the whole thing from scratch again or what?

 

[bacillus]

I'm a little confused here as you state in you system specs that you're using win98SE but futher on you say you're using XP drivers for your videocard!

 

[Ragz]

I was recomended to use the detonator 23.11 by someone ...and also when i went to the nVidia site and clicked on drivers for win98/me for TNT2, these turned up. geez...i feel silly now...what should I do? I do use win 98SE

Anurag

 

[zigCorsair]

Video drivers sound like the most likely issue, but I wanted to point out that I and someone else on this board have had system lockup problems when the mouse drivers are out-of-date/wacko.

 

[bacillus]

suggest you fully uninstall the XP drivers, reboot & let windows install its generic vga driver then install the relevant win98 driver!