Win2K and random lockups?

[level10boy]

Hi, I have this problem where Win2k will randomly lock-up on me. I'll be happily working and suddenly no applications will respond then the mouse gets stuck, then a single beep occurs and by this time the system has totally frozen. I have experienced the exact same problem with Win2k on another machine to such a bad extent that Win2k could no longer be installed on the machine. However the problem never occurs with Win98 so it must be a combination of incorrect BIOS settings and drivers with Win2K, or something. Anyway this problem is a real headache in my life and I would be really greatful to anyone who knows how to fix it as it seems it could be quite a common problem to Win2K.

Here are the main components of my system

CPU AMD Athlon XP 1900+
MOTHERBOARD Soltek, SL-75DRV4, VIA KT266A, ATX
MEMORY (Crucial 512MB DDR PC2100 CAS-2.5 ) x 1
GRAPHICS CARD Gainward GeForce 3 PowerPack !!! Ti/480 Golden Sample
HARD DRIVES (Maxtor DiamondMax 40GB (HD-001-MD) ) x 2
DVD/CD-ROM Pioneer DVD-106S Region Free! - OEM
SOUND CARD Sound Blaster Audigy Player

latest VIA 4 in 1 are installed 4.73a
latest official Detonator XP drivers
latest Audigy drivers
Win2k SERVICE PACK 2 INSTALLED

Thanks
:frown:

 

[Mitzi]

Hello and welcome to the forums

First off, I'd suggest checking the Event Viewer to see if any errors are logged there.

Control Panel->Administrive Tools->Event Viewer->System Log.

See if any entries have a red cross next to them and report back.

Cheers!

Edit : Fixed italics

 

[level10boy]

Thanks for the welcome, you were right about checking the event viewer, loads of red-crosses where my system had locked-up. Under the Source field it always says "Service Control Manager". Does this ring any bells.

Thanks again.

 

[Staver]

Try to copy and paste the entire error messages with codes. That way we can research some possible problems and/or fixes.

 

[Mitzi]

<< Try to copy and paste the entire error messages with codes. That way we can research some possible problems and/or fixes. >>



Yeah, we'd need the whole error message (double click on Service Control Manager) - it really could be anything so we need more info.

Cheers.

 

[level10boy]

The whole error message is as follows when I double click the error log:

"The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:
ppa"

The entry in the log is as follows:

"Error 19/03/2002 11:03:45 Service Control Manager None 7026 N/A D2"

That really is all the information I could get that was relevant.

 

[pamf]

Did you apply that athlon and agp registry key thing? There's a problem with win2k and athlons which results in random lockups.

You can get it here: http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/utilities/largePageMinimum.reg

 

[level10boy]

I have tried that AGP patch but what I forgot to mention was that I have never had a single crash or hick-up when playing games since I built this new system. Amazing I know. The problem only occurs when working in the windows environment. I will however put the patch back on as I took it off recently, probably because it didn't do anything.

Thanks for all your replies, keep em coming please, as I'm desperate.

 

[level10boy]

Just been over at the Tomshardware forums, and it seems many many more people have had the same problem with Win2k. Most of them found it was down to IRQ conflicts. This is interesting as I have about 4 different devices sharing IRQ 11 including graphics and sound card in Win2k. Also another issue was ACPI. I dual boot with Win98 thats how I can tell that the problem is specific to Win2k and noted that my sound card uses a different IRQ to the graphics card in Win98.

Any thoughts.

 

[DaiShan]

anandtech FAQ regarding irq's and win2k run through that and see if it helps you, also are you running any usb devices? if so first try to make sure you don't have any cards in pci slot 4 or 6 (if possible) then check www.usbman.com for a little info on usb related lockups.

oh and btw, is your name from level 10 transmissions?

 

[level10boy]

Thanks for the links, DaiShan, I've a read a little and it all sounds very fishy to me. All the devices sharing IRQ 11 may be the cause of my instability in relation to ACPI. I don't actually have any USB devices installed but all USB functionality in hardware is enabled. Still needs more research so expect a reply soon. What is really strange is that I'll wake up in the morning turn the computer on and always expect a couple of hangs within the first hour or so of operation. Then during the day the system will usually run fine. And no my name is not a derived from level 10 transmissions.

Thanks again