Help with lockups

[macgyvr]

This PC had a legit copy of Windows XP (Though the hard drive it resided on pooped out) I dont have the CD for it, but I did have a Windows 98 SE CD lieing around.

As for Vista, this computer is way too slow. The only thing in it the meets the minimum requirements is the CPU. I'm waiting until Vista matures and Microsoft combs out the really bad security holes/stability issues and then when that happens I'll build a PC meeting the recomended requirements. I've helped people out with their Windows Vista computers. Windows Vista does some pretty weird things.

I'm pretty sure the computer has no viruses. I think those third party patches I installed made Windows 2k freak out to be honest. That and the second time I think it caused stability issues with Windows 98 se being on the same drive (Which had nothing to do with the third party patches, just the different things mightve confused things)

And I looked on newegg, but I just saw copies of Windows XP intended for a classroom ($200-300 CDN) Which is just nuts, since I dont need a classroom license. Just for my home PC.

Again, thanks for your help. I think there's no point trying to fix that thing for now.

If your computer had a legit copy of XP on it, then it still has a legit license for XP. You don't need to buy another one. You should have a COA sticker on the case. Call the manufacturer and tell them you need a recovery disk for the machine. They usually cost about $30 to have them sent, maybe less. If that doesn't work, you can install any copy of Windows XP, even if the key isn't valid. When you go to activate, use the "change key" option to enter the key on the COA sticker (you cannot use it to install). You'll have to call Microsoft, but the process is painless and only takes about 10 minutes. They will either give you a new key, or activate the existing one on the COA.

[clueless_furball]

I'm pretty sure the video card isnt overheating (no dust in there really) and well, Id imagine the lock-ups would happen more often. Since it seems really finicky what videos it'll lock up on. Or it'll lockup over and over and over and then behave for awhile and then randomly lock up without warning. I mean, if it really was the video card overheating, it wouldve done it with XP. When it was running XP it would hum a long. without a problem.

I actually read about this issue (out of interest since I like this stuff) And well, it's not ussually apparent, but 98 SE uses a totally different GDI system than XP. The XP one allows for things like Flash to run properly to summerize, because there's some kind of hardware interaction thing that works differently. That probably why if I want to lock up my system just for kicks, all I have to do is press the HQ button on a Youtube video. It freaks out Windows 98, because Windows 98 just doesnt know what to do. I blame Adobe. They are probably aware of the 'bug' but they dont care for fixing it for 98 users... Well, because supposidly no one uses 98 I guess .

No sticker with numbers on my PC. It's a Pentium 3 beige box, bought from a friend.