ssmokee

Good to hear. I was soooo close to not even mentioning that because I thought the chances were so slim. Was this your first build?

I do the same thing when installing a 98se image originally built on different hardware (has worked great for me). Would you happen to know of an equivalent method for win2k? It doesnt have an HKLM/Enum key in the registry. I am aware of sysprep, but Im not real fond of it because when I tried it out, it changed all the various settings I spent ~30 min setting up back to their defaults .

I was able to with an SB AWE32. I forget where I found it, but it was a util named AWEUTIL.COM. Anyways, I set it up pretty quick (on top of the normal autoexec.bat setttings for a SB16) and I did get the full wave table synthesis effects (tested using doom2 and decent). I think this is all I needed to get it going (no idea what the "SET SOUND=A:\DOS" actually does though). SET SOUND=A:\DOS SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E MODE:0 SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6 LH AWEUTIL.COM /S

More wild accusations with no detail to back them up (yeah, like no one saw that coming ). Would you care to provide a link to one of these posts you claim exist? As for the rest of your post, you will have to do a lot better than that to get under my skin.

Could you expand on the NOAUTO a little? ie. what paths, and what wont it autoload. Will it just boot to a command prompt, then you type "win" to fully load the windows GUI or something?

Take it back for a refund or an exchange if its not too late. If it is too late, try dropping the resolution and detail levels down to try and attain playable frame rates.

If you actually have one, I guess it would. Also, if you were able to write like a guy experienced in the computer area, rather than a PR rep on damage control, it would help immensely. Your excessive use of buzzwords like "technology" is another problem. People that are actually experienced and knowledgable in their given field rarely (if ever?) resort to buzzwords and market speak to create the illusion that they know what they are talking about. Your posts contain nothing but vague statements with no detail to back them up. Example, from all the from all these dead AMD based laptops you claimed to have encountered, not once did you mention anything like a model number, CPU type (was it a simple DTR replacement chip, or a ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) model?). For people are actually experienced and knowledgable in the field, details like model numbers are more often then not remembered when it comes to troublesome/faulty equipment (nobody likes to beat a dead horse). The only thing you made absolutely clear was that AMD CPU sucked (died frequently), and that the competitors manufacturing was poor compared to intels (classic marketing FUD tactic). One question. With all these dead laptops, one detail is obvious. The army (which ever one you claimed to be in...too lazy to check) didnt test any of them before hand to see if it could withstand the harsh environmental conditions (150F degree heat, sand storms, etc). Does this amry you work for regularily put untested equipment into real world use where it is needed and depended upon? In conclusion; get a clue, THEN speak with authority.

I think this is the most likely cause. What are the specs of the other system? If you already have one running a K7/P4 system, that should be a good indicator that it will take the punishment. The only other thing I can think of from what you described is maybe you installed the heatsink 180 degrees off correct orientation? Uncommon, but quite possible on a first time build or something. With the board mounted in the case, and the case standing normally up on its feet, look at the CPU socket at the very top edge of the board. You should see a small portion of the socket that is elevated from the rest of it. Now look at the base of your heatsink and along one of the long edges you will see a depression. As you can probably guess by now, if you dont install it the correct way it wont sit flat and wont make adequate contact with the CPU core.

Go into device manager and expand "Display adapters" and tell me what you see. Are there two devices listed, or only one?

The boot and close screens are 8 bit colour, but they are using an old VGA resolution of 320x200. If you want to open up the higher resolutions and colour depths on the desktop you will have to locate a display driver for that western digital whatever. I had no idea western digital ever made graphics adapters....

Let me guess, youre the Iraqi information minister?

What crap have Sis, ULi/ALi, and nvidia put out? The only stupid thing I recall nvidia doing in their chipset was removing the APU. IMHO a lot of this stems from people expecting too much from their $40 motherboards and $10 power supplies. If you really want quality, you will have to do research, and you will have to pay for it.

That is very good, because via based boards are known to have problems with minor random errors in memtest. Its a generic power supply, so its labelled wattage rating cant be trusted. It isnt uncommon for generic power supplies to have problems with K7/K8/P4 systems. I wouldnt bother removing anything yet. The easiest way to diagnose a bad power supply is to do what I mentioned earlier and use speed fan to monitor the voltage levels. If they vary more than +/- %5 while the computer in under load, then you have problems. Worth a shot, but unlikely to be the problem. That would be ideal.

I installed the k-lite codec pack several months ago and had the same problem, so I just stopped using it. Since it didnt work for you either, I would simply suggest not installing it again. But, if the random lockups have always occured, I dont see why you would think k-lite codec pack or other video codecs are the culprit. Just because it can power an older system, doesnt mean it can power the newer system. The amount of electrical power a desktop system requires has increased a lot over the years. Other than using speedfan or something to check voltage levels at idle and load, I would strongly recommend downloading the latetest memtest86+. Download from the link that reads "Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip)", then unpack it and burn it to CD. Or if you would rather just boot memtest from a floppy, get the "Pre-Compiled package for Floppy (DOS - Win)". Once memtest starts, let it complete atleast 3 full passes. If you can leave it running memtest over night, even better. Well if you want to see if this problem is windows 98 specific, I cant think of a better way than installing something other than 98. Edit: Using a linux live CD such as Knoppix might be a good idea, since it would let you keep you 98 install intact.

What is the make and model of the power supply you are using? Have the lockups always occured, or did they just start recently? Have you tried reinstalling windows? A couple of other things I would suggest doing is downloading a program like speedfan and take a look at your CPU temperature, and all the voltage readings as well. Try looking at everything both in idle and under load. You can use programs like super pi, or the benchmark function of 7-zip to stress the CPU and have it draw more power. Check the CPU HS/F closely for dust build up. Also, running the computer with the side panel removed might reveal if this is a heat related issue. If you take the side panel off and the lockups cease, high temps are the most likely culprit.

I think he was just using that as an example, suggesting that the nvidia card might have the same issue.

I think you might be setting the bar a tad low for what should be considered "techy".

I know, it may seem like I'm being very dense this morning, but can you explain that comment a bit further? I was referring to the Mega Bytes per minute speed reported by ghost. Expanding on what I said in my last post, if I have the sata drive hooked up to the sis180 controller *AND* load emm386, performance tanks. I cant remember the exact speed reported by ghost, but I am sure it is between 100-200 MB/minute. If I dont load emm386, then ghost just hums along at 800-1000 MB/minute. I just have the one hard drive so Im going from partition to partition like you are. I always use high compression, but I dont really know how that would affect image creation and restoral speeds.

TV tuners dont need much bandwidth, so there is no immediate need to move to PCIe.

You are using a different model chip than is described on the site. If you run sandra you will likely see that SSE is already enabled anyway.

The Asrock 939dual-sata2 would let you use your AGP card now, and let you upgrade to PCIe later. It isnt a neutered AGP slot either...full 8x/4x. Review here.

If the guy went with a cheap motherboard, there is probably a good chance he cheaped out on the PS also. You could try installing something like speedfan to take a look at the voltage levels.

The problem is not amount of RAM. 384MB is enough to have winXP run decently. The problem is not CPU speed. A 2.4GHz P4 is more than enough for winXP. The problem is L2 cache, which that celeron has very little of. What you have there is most likely a northwood core celeron. The willamette and northwood core celerons were notoriously s***ty because their L2 cache was chopped down to a measly 128KB, while full blown P4 parts had 256KB (willamette) and 512KB (northwood). In short, the L2 is just too small.

Try putting the audigy card in another PCI slot. If you look into the motherboard manual you will see (somewhere in there) that the onboard sil3112 controller shares an IRQ with a specific PCI slot. Your audigy card is probably in that slot. Does the same laggy startup sound occur if you use the onboard sound rather than the audigy?

This is interesting. I think I may be affected by this when using DOS 7.x on a sis180 sata controller and sata drive. If I load emm386 the drive gets bumped down to PIO mode 0 (~3 MB/s), but if I dont load emm386 the drive stays in UDMA mode whatever. Using ghost under DOS the difference in speeds is very very obvious. If I use my sil3112a sata pci card instead of the native sis180, then I dont have this problem at all.