You all know Windows RG, right? This really sux. I'll start from the start. A couple weeks ago I was using my machine just fine, when it suddenly powered off and wouldn't turn on again. I took it to a local repair guy, and he showed me how messed up it was. He said I probably damaged the motherboard with static when i was modifying it, which corrupted the PSU, which malfunctioned and melted the chips off my hard drive's motor board. My parents didn't trust me to touch it anymore, so they had him put in new parts- a PCchips mainboard, and an identical hard drive, and then a new Nvidia Geforce4 graphics card because "your old one is too slow for this board." So I took it home, and things crashed every other second. It nearly always started up with problems. So I got a new CPU ($200 dammit!). But it still spontaneously locks up during 3D games with a high pitched tone, freezes when I try to watch quicktime in my browser with an "Upgrade now" dialogue. Some programs display invalid page faults the instant I try to launch them, every single time! (outlook express, norton systemworks) It also wont recognize my printer as being plugged in. This machine worked exactly perfectly with no problems with all the same peripherals and software (except some newer anti spyware stuff) before I got this new hardware. Now the repair guy says the motherboard is probably too fast for windows 98, so I should go buy XP. My mom is wiggin out and doesn't trust him anymore. Is this guy giving me bullshit? Is there any component that can be damaged to cause this other than the motherboard, graphics card, ram, hard drive, psu or cpu? (or is the new PSU just really bad?). Should I just trash this windoze crap and use linux? This is a really bad situation. I'd be greatful if anyone could help.
Windoze 98 in RG syndrome
- Thread starter spinifex
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ZeekeDaGeek
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I'm not an expert in computer systems, but I will say that I have Win 98 running on machines that are as slow as 120 MHz to as fast as 1.6GHz w no problems.
IMO you should get the "technician" that set up this box to straighten it out since you paid this person.
Anyone that won't stand behind their work isn't worth a hoot.
It seems like he's got some hardware conflicts or something.
If this person is a paid "professional" he should fix these problems.
As far as the upgrade to XP, if you WANT it that's one thing, but I don't think it's NEEDED.
Just my $.02
DaGeek
IMO you should get the "technician" that set up this box to straighten it out since you paid this person.
Anyone that won't stand behind their work isn't worth a hoot.
It seems like he's got some hardware conflicts or something.
If this person is a paid "professional" he should fix these problems.
As far as the upgrade to XP, if you WANT it that's one thing, but I don't think it's NEEDED.
Just my $.02
DaGeek
if he really did tell you that your new hardware is too fast for win98 than I would be suspicious too, that is BS. a professional pc tech would have considered price budget before he started doing anything. he is resposible for correcting his mistakes, otherwise i would think about getting a lawyer.
tylertherobot
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It sounds like it could be your Ram, and is it a Geforce 4 MX something? MX are a lower end version of the card, but Ram sounds like the most likely culprit, if he put the same ram from your old machinein the new one. It could also be aproblem with the power supply.
Linux won't fix hardware problems, althought it's faster than windows, but I'd read up before you even run it on dual boot, You can just jump from using Windows to using Linux
Linux won't fix hardware problems, althought it's faster than windows, but I'd read up before you even run it on dual boot, You can just jump from using Windows to using Linux
Linux: I suppose I should have said it used to be dual boot with Red Hat 9, before it died. I wasn't doing super well with linux, but I could use unix and emacs effectively. Unfortunately, I'd want to play www.isketch.net and it's $40 to get a stupid crossover plugin.
Ram: It's new ram, picked out specifically for the new motherboard. I hope I can trust he chose the right kind.
PSU: A brand new ATX 300 watt. Made in China? Other markings: A+GPB P4-12V cRU RU CE CB.
Graphics card: Yep, it's an MX. Geforce4 MX440 8x with 64mb DDR ram. He suggested I download new drivers for it, which I haven't done yet.
You're right. It's his fault. It even crashed a few things when he started it up in the shop for the first time. I should have stopped this then, but I thought Norton SystemWorks could clear that up, until I installed SystemWorks and it crashed too. It's almost funny how arbitrary programs will predictably crash every time I try to launch them, until I restart and it chooses new programs to not launch.
So now how do I approach him? My mom is getting all emotionally unstable about it because we can't afford anything more done to the machine. I liked it the way it was back then, and I'm sure we could get old hardware cheaper than this new stuff which is supposedly "too fast." But XP would be nice. He tells me to buy it online-- look for a damaged disk or a deal bundled with hardware. I suppose I could afford it myself instead of asking my parents to buy it. But I was fine with 98... It's a hard decision... But reasonably, I plan on getting a tabletPC anyway before I graduate, so I'm not gonna need this machine as much. I'll trust Zeek and bring it back. This guy needs to fix it. Thank you for your advice, everyone.
Ram: It's new ram, picked out specifically for the new motherboard. I hope I can trust he chose the right kind.
PSU: A brand new ATX 300 watt. Made in China? Other markings: A+GPB P4-12V cRU RU CE CB.
Graphics card: Yep, it's an MX. Geforce4 MX440 8x with 64mb DDR ram. He suggested I download new drivers for it, which I haven't done yet.
You're right. It's his fault. It even crashed a few things when he started it up in the shop for the first time. I should have stopped this then, but I thought Norton SystemWorks could clear that up, until I installed SystemWorks and it crashed too. It's almost funny how arbitrary programs will predictably crash every time I try to launch them, until I restart and it chooses new programs to not launch.
So now how do I approach him? My mom is getting all emotionally unstable about it because we can't afford anything more done to the machine. I liked it the way it was back then, and I'm sure we could get old hardware cheaper than this new stuff which is supposedly "too fast." But XP would be nice. He tells me to buy it online-- look for a damaged disk or a deal bundled with hardware. I suppose I could afford it myself instead of asking my parents to buy it. But I was fine with 98... It's a hard decision... But reasonably, I plan on getting a tabletPC anyway before I graduate, so I'm not gonna need this machine as much. I'll trust Zeek and bring it back. This guy needs to fix it. Thank you for your advice, everyone.
Download the latest nvidia drivers before you go to court 
Also run a memory test http://www.memtest86.com Just to make sure it's not your RAM.
Also run a memory test http://www.memtest86.com Just to make sure it's not your RAM.
I took the memory test. After nearly 3 hours with 17 passes it found no errors (I expected it to stop at some point... o well). I got the new graphics drivers too (but haven't seen any difference). The more I use it, the less it seems to crash. It doesn't crash things on startup anymore, media players work without seizing explorer all the time, and it seems ok now. However, Norton SystemWorks crashes every time I try to use it (hahaha... stupid thing's supposed to fix it, not be the only thing that's broken). Things didn't crash much even before I got the new graphics drivers, but I've been using it for a few hours now and the only thing that's crashed is systemworks:
NMAIN caused an invalid page fault in
module <unknown> at 0000:00d134e0.
Fatal exception occurred!
blah blah blah.
It seems after years of using 98, I can heal it with my aura.
So it's not legal bait now, but then the guy's so nice it would be hard to get anything against him anyway. I'm sending back my melted hard drive, so if I'm lucky they'll replace it and I can get some more OS on here to play with, which should reveal any true hardware problems. Any other nice little tests to do? I thank you all for your time and attention.
NMAIN caused an invalid page fault in
module <unknown> at 0000:00d134e0.
Fatal exception occurred!
blah blah blah.
It seems after years of using 98, I can heal it with my aura.
So it's not legal bait now, but then the guy's so nice it would be hard to get anything against him anyway. I'm sending back my melted hard drive, so if I'm lucky they'll replace it and I can get some more OS on here to play with, which should reveal any true hardware problems. Any other nice little tests to do? I thank you all for your time and attention.
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