Did you update the BIOS? A few more things to try: 1) unplug floppy drive 2) disable power management in BIOS 3) clear CMOS 4) set CPU to lower base frequency 5) put PCI card into another slot 6) swap processors between two systems
I was having the exact same problem but I just switched my OS from Windows 98 (Second Edition) to XP Pro and it's way better now.
Ninja you can't be serious about data integrity of AMD cpus and Intels. Don't you realize what a total (and very public) fiasco a data integrity problem would be for AMD? That would put them out of business. All these problems are with people not properly maintaining their systems as well as getting a good third party utility program like Norton system works. Most crashes before win2000 ,or any 32bit emulated (WinME, Win98 even Win xp to some extent) happened because of the registry key file path misplaced or an over written DLL.Win 2000 pro or XP pro is more like UNIX , hence safeguards against these items from happening and they are pure 32 bit (no driver problems).But over all a good utility would clear most problems up for the novice who should learn about these things if his/her money/retirement/livelihood depends on a computer. But to say the difference is AMD and Intel is grossly misplaced.
Maybe AMD has more problems but my PC at home that locks up from time to time is INTEL PIII based. I've been too lazy/busy to try switching NIC's and memory. I've gone from W98 to W2K and still have the same problems. I'll try to get around to swapping NIC's within a week as I'm more curious than anything to see if this solves things. If that and new memory don't solve the problem, i'll just upgrade to a MAC
And another thing, I should have replied to the original post of Qcharts . That very problem of Qcharts and excel opened at the same time and freezing is an example of file path name misplaced with an over written registry key. It is also possible of a memory leak (looping statement that equals divide by zero) in Qcharts with either a shared DLL with excel or an over written registry key which could also be a conflicted software wise with a device driver. You would have to go systematically through the installation process one at a time to see what exactly is the problem.You might want to read my prior posts about my 6 monitor setup running Folding@home and sims on Mathematica 24/7 and trading futures when I get the chance without ever having a problem.
Plumber, If you're referring to my original post, yes I've had it freeze with Qcharts and Excel open. But I've also had it freeze with only Windows Explorer open. I'll check out some of your prev. posts.
With only windows explorer open, that is a pure windows conflict problem. The norton utility may be a solution but the question(many questions actually) is was explorer accessing any device drivers? Background programs will also access device drivers as well as the sequence you loaded windows and the chipset drivers . This is not an AMD vs. Intel issue but more of a "maybe you should have gotten one built for you " issue. I don't know , I am only guessing at you level of knowledge on these things so don't take me the wrong way.
There is more than likely your problem. The sound blaster cards are notorious for conflicting with NICs and other devices . Remember that every time you hear the mouse click or chime it goes through the sound card . Sorry I haven't slept in 22 hours but chances are , pretty good chances too, the sound blaster card is the problem. Check out the web site and find the updates . When they are always coming out with frequent updates this is a red flag on their firmware or software.