Computer freezes

[adrienc9]

I have a buddy's computer that I am working on and I am frustrated! Originally he had 2 problems. It was constantly freezing on him. Then his video went completely. I changed out his video card and got the picture back. Then the problem was the freezing. He had a lot of junk on the windows 98 system. I formatted the hardrive. When I went to load windows 98 back on to it it freezes every time I get to the first screen where it tells you how much time you have remaining. I took the hardrive and put it into another computer and loaded win 98 onto it. Every time I try to boot this hard drove in the other computer it freezes at the enter network password screen. I thought maybe it was the RAM that was the problem so I changed that out. Since then I have changed the Mobo, Processor, and the PSU. I don't think there is anything else left to change! That is why I posted this in the hardware section. Any ideas? The system is:

ASUS P2B mobo
Pentium 266
Win 98
Cirrus Logic PCI graphics card

 

[xenosoul]

Try using a different windows 98 disk. I used to have problems similar to the one your having and a different disk solved the problem. I dont really know why that is, but at one point I went through like 3 disks on one computer I had owned. If not try installing windows xp if the processor is over 500mhz (a 350 will work but its pretty slow). Try that and let us know if that solved your problem.

 

[adrienc9]

I was able to load windows xp and I got farther. I was able to boot up in safe mode but the computer is not really sufficient for xp. I am going to try to get another copy of 98 or 2000 and see if that works. I will let you know how I make out. Thanks for the help.

 

[adrienc9]

I tried 3 different disks of 98 and all were exactly the same. I have no idea what to do now!

 

[xenosoul]

Try installing windows with the bare minimum hardware.. Ram,Video Card, Processor, Hard Drive

 

[daappleby]

Check your RAM. could be a bad stick. Also could be a hard drive issue.

Also check the proc temp, overheats cause all kinds of fun issues.

 

[adrienc9]

I have taken every other piece of harware out and same thing. I have bought new RAM and same thing. The hard drive works in another computer just fine. It seems like a driver issue or something. I am confused!

 

[Slayer]

Sounds like the problem is not freezing, but overheating. Not sure how heatsinks are mounted on those processors as i am not familiar with the older ones, but you need to either get a good heatsink for it or find out why the one you have isn't working. You said you changed the processor, did you use thermal compound on it before you put the heatsink on it? did you check how well the contact was? how good is the airflow in the case? see how hot the air blowing out the back is. definately sounds like an overheating problem.

 

[adrienc9]

If it was overheating, would it freeze at the exact same spot every time?

 

[Slayer]

well the first time you turn on the comp if it starts out at room temp then it will take it just as long each time to overheat. or wehn windows is booting up theres certain points where it uses 100% of cpu processing power. Something similar happened to me with a laptop that the fan died in. not sure if thers any temperature sensors in the case or by cpu but if there is see what it is (try bios) and look online to what that specific processor temperature should be.