This has me banging my head against the wall. A few weeks ago I built the wife a newer machine - Epox 8K7A motherboard, AMD 1600+, 512 MB Samsung PC2700, a fresh install of Windows 98SE. At the time I had a Sparkle 250W PS. This setup had three problems:
1. Sometimes would not load Win98 during a reboot and sometimes would permanently freeze when loading games.
2. Mouse control erratic - moves fine one way but not the other, you have to push it several times to get the cursor to move. Games are unplayable. Doesn't do this 100% of the time though.
3. Windows Explorer hangs, say if you're looking through some folders and move one of them, hangs for maybe 30 seconds and then everything is fine again.
Despite these problems, the system itself seemed relatively stable - I left it running continuously and if she didn't play games it stayed running fine indefinitely.
So I replaced the Epox, which I had bought used, with an Abit KD7-E and a new Antec 350 W PS, thinking it was either the PS or MB. The booting and crashing problems look like they're gone now - at least it hasn't happened once yet in three days time.
But the mouse problem is still there, tried a different mouse and same thing. It was not having the Explorer problem but now that's come back too. This is so frustrating because it's different hardware now. What should I try next? I have everything but the bare minimum cleared from startup, the only thing that loads is Norton AV (but I have the same problems with it disabled too). Could it be having Internet Explorer 6 installed on an older OS?? Or my memory or CPU?? Wouldn't a memory or CPU problem manifest itself some other way though instead of mouse trouble? By the way, this computer used to be a PIII 550. The memory, power supply, CPU, motherboard and a Plextor 40 Max SCSI CD drive are the only things now that weren't in the old machine, which never had any problems like this. I doubt that the problem is in the motherboard now that the same problems are occuring with it installed. Nothing is overclocked and the memory settings are just stock.
I'm chomping at the bit to format the drive and add Windows 2000, but she needs to go through and thoroughly copy some work from some old programs that aren't compatible with 2000 so I can't do that for a week or two.
1. Sometimes would not load Win98 during a reboot and sometimes would permanently freeze when loading games.
2. Mouse control erratic - moves fine one way but not the other, you have to push it several times to get the cursor to move. Games are unplayable. Doesn't do this 100% of the time though.
3. Windows Explorer hangs, say if you're looking through some folders and move one of them, hangs for maybe 30 seconds and then everything is fine again.
Despite these problems, the system itself seemed relatively stable - I left it running continuously and if she didn't play games it stayed running fine indefinitely.
So I replaced the Epox, which I had bought used, with an Abit KD7-E and a new Antec 350 W PS, thinking it was either the PS or MB. The booting and crashing problems look like they're gone now - at least it hasn't happened once yet in three days time.
But the mouse problem is still there, tried a different mouse and same thing. It was not having the Explorer problem but now that's come back too. This is so frustrating because it's different hardware now. What should I try next? I have everything but the bare minimum cleared from startup, the only thing that loads is Norton AV (but I have the same problems with it disabled too). Could it be having Internet Explorer 6 installed on an older OS?? Or my memory or CPU?? Wouldn't a memory or CPU problem manifest itself some other way though instead of mouse trouble? By the way, this computer used to be a PIII 550. The memory, power supply, CPU, motherboard and a Plextor 40 Max SCSI CD drive are the only things now that weren't in the old machine, which never had any problems like this. I doubt that the problem is in the motherboard now that the same problems are occuring with it installed. Nothing is overclocked and the memory settings are just stock.
I'm chomping at the bit to format the drive and add Windows 2000, but she needs to go through and thoroughly copy some work from some old programs that aren't compatible with 2000 so I can't do that for a week or two.
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