98se random crashes

[cdoublejj]

98se randomly crashes for me i was wonder if it because i have 300 and some odd mb of ram or when i install i chose the option for big drives but didn't have special floppy so i just continued the install any ways. the drive i used for my sound card is dos based is that it?

[dencorso]

The amount of RAM is OK for 98SE. You gave too little info to go on. Do you get a BSOD? What does it say? Or does it just freeze or crash? Or do you get an "Windows Protection Error"?

[cdoublejj]

just lock ups no response what so ever and it is not app specific i was messing around with the sound drive i clicked the dos driver wich ran before windows started the next boot but also did a manual drive install at the same time pointing to the same files i was messing with personally i don't think it is the sound drive it seems to work fine but i will pull the sound card and see if that is. i was thinkingthat 64mb of pointer space might have been the problem i too much ram or what ever so i'm glad it's not that.

[eidenk]

Whereas the amount of RAM you have is not an issue it may well be that your RAM is faulty. Random freezes/lockups are often due to faulty memory if I am not mistaken.

Perhaps you could run memtest86+ to confirm or eliminate that suspicion :

http://www.memtest.org/

[dencorso]

And post your system's specs to give us a start point on which to think.

[cdoublejj]

oh sorry

asus k7v

700mhz slot a amd

384mb ram cheapy and random sticks

15 gig hdd

ati 7500

Turtle Beach Vortex AU8820B2

does it matter if i have an odd amount of ram like 256mb a 128mb and a 16mb or does it not matter as long as it is under 512mb

[dencorso]

Which cpu is it? Athlon Argon, Pluto or T-Bird? Is it oveclocked? And the FSB?

Don't guess, in doubt, run CPU-Z to establish this info.

And I do think eidenk is right: the ram is my first candidate culprit.

Not the amount of it... I'm writing this in a 3 GiB Win 98SE system.

But plain old bad RAM. Lets get that out of the way, so:

1) Run a 24 h straight memtest86+

if that results OK, then,

2) Run a 24 h straight Windows Memory Diagnostic, set to the extended test suite.

If the machine passes both, then I'll be satisfied it's not the RAM.

Next it'll be time to stress the CPU, but first things first, OK?

[cdoublejj]

good news i found me some errors now i don't have to worry about picking at my machine for the prob, I just need to digg through my pile of ram and test her again and make sure she is stable.

the asus k7v can't overclock worth poop from the reviews i read a long time ago i tried OCing ita few mhz through the bus like 5 or 7 mhz and it wouldn't even post.

i've been switching out a lot of sticks still getting errors i think my middle ram slot is damage using the other 2 only still gave me 1 error wich is ticking me off it seems like anything over 2 128's in my 2 outer slots gives errors it's crummy mobo any ways.

EDIT AGAIN: fixed it with with a good 9 hour no error memtest and 10 hours of prime 95 runs real smooth now

ANOTHER EDIT:well it is STILL crashing i only have 2 cards installed, maybe bad caps on the mobo? almost worth another slot a mobo and fresh install but i'm wee bit poor right now.

Edited August 2, 2009 by cdoublejj