I spoke too soon, it froze again a few minutes ago. My next moves are to pull the SoundBlaster card, swap the G200 cards, and if those remedies fail, get a new mobo.
most issues i've had with computers have been sound-related make sure the card you're using is compatible with your OS - it seems obvious, but this has happened to me before where a new MB with built-in sound didn't like win98se. it liked 2k, and 98 first release, but not 98se and when i checked the driver details, it turned out that 98se wasn't listed as being supported...how random is that!!!? also the BIOS sounds highly suspect - ESPECIALLY if your MB just came out. IB TWS has some issues with LINKSYS NIC's...i've used a d-link NIC card for over a year before switching to a MB with integrated NIC and haven't had any issues with either one... btw, CRUCIAL's memory is top-notch. mushkin is good, too, although i got two bad sticks from them once, but their customer service was OUTSTANDING and they overnighted me a replacement no extra charge. i've only bought from each vendor twice, but both are highly regarded. btw2, matrox tech support is outstanding. before you pull the video cards, be sure to post to a forum there about the problem you're having. usually they will know off-the-bat if it's a common problem caused by the g200...
The key is to encircle the fault. Are your CPU cooler and power-supply recommended by AMD? Do you control the CPU temperature? Screensaver disabled? Remove the NIC. Disconnect all USB devices. Disable autostart for all programms and tools. Maybe reload the OS.
Agree: Crucial and Matrox support are both top notch. On the computer that hangs, I don't trade with it. Just Qcharts, mail, IE, etc. But it can hang when all windows are closed, or just running 1 program. Computer #1 is the problem. I'll see if there's an update for the Abit mobo BIOS, but it ran fine for 6 months with no hardware changes. Here's my setup: Computer 1 Abit KG-7 AMD 1800xp Crucial SoundBlaster card D-Link NIC Windows 2000 Pro Matrox G200 quad 2 Seagate HDs Computer 2: Soltek 75-DRV5 everything else is identical
Yes, yes, yes. Swapped the NIC. No USB devices at all. I reformatted and reinstalled. Thanks for your suggestions.
After reading all these posts I have to ask. Is anyone experiencing this problem on a Pentium system ? Looks like all AMD's so far.
Never had any such problems on a Pentium system (aside from Windows 98 SE, which crashed sometimes on my old system). Thats why I stay with Intel (CPU+chipsets) + Windows 2000 Pro. Never change a winning team... I believe that there are a lot of fine running AMD systems out there, but I never saw one by myself in real life. All my friends and colleagues who have AMD systems at home would swear that their system is running fine, but when I broach the subject again they admit that their systems freeze or chrash from time to time. They even think thats normal. They can't think of a PC who does not crash and curse at Windows... I must admit though that their main reason to choose AMD was the price and also it seems that their decisions for board and other components are based on the price. So maybe you can get a stable AMD system when choosing the components carefully and are willing to spend some dollars more for good quality components. However I am sitting here in front of my main PC and this system never ever crashed or freezed. Not a single time in over 9 months. It has a Pentium 933, Asus TUSL2-C board with Intel chipset, 384 MB IBM RAM, IBM harddisk, Cornerstone dual head graphics card (Matrox chips) and Windows 200 Pro. Not the fastest system, but it does its job very good! My other systems are IBM business PCs (about 3 years old) based on Intel CPUs and they also never made any problems.
Actually my point was not to change the NIC, but to remove it completely and see if your system still freezes. Maybe you are lucky and find the source of the problem with the clues you get here on this forum, but its also possible that all the good suggestions will not help. If this would be my PC I would disassemble the whole thing and then re-assemble it piece for piece. Just install the minimum OS, without any network components. After each step I would run the system for some days and see if the system freezes. I would even start with minimum RAM. Then add one piece after the other. Will take some weeks, but you already spend alot more time in the meantime...
Ninja, You may be right about all the good suggestions not helping. It locked-up again just a minute ago when I was typing a response. The only problem is....this in my main pc!!! If a new mobo doesn't solve the problem, I'll put everything on my other computer and try your suggestions. Thanks for your ideas. So far I've: reinstalled OS, swapped ram, swapped NIC, removed sound card.