Win98 Freezing!

[k28la]

Anyone who can help would be really appreciated. I'm running Win98FE, K6-2/300, 128MB and I freeze up quite often, usually in IE 5.01, but sometimes in other apps. This started around the time I installed an additional HD. I used the Western Digital EZ-Bios floppy and I think this may have something to do with it. Any suggestions? Thanks for any help!

[BADFlSH]

When you say you freeze, does your computer come back after a few seconds or do you have to restart? Also does the mouse continue to work but the programs stop?

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[k28la]

Everything freezes; the mouse, the screen, everything! I have to manually power down, let Windows do a scandisk, and wait for the desktop to come back up. IBM's solution is to use the recovery CD, but that'll wipe everything out, so maybe I'll just back up both hard drives, format them, and do a fresh install of Windows. If I go thru all this, it had better work!

[kame]

Did this just start happening?

It it was working fine before I would backup and reformat. It will save alot of time trouble shooting. Ya fix one thing and other one breaks. Format it and if it run smoothly back it up. So when a problem arise again just load up the backup.

[Sjarred]

I personally think that Western Digital's EZ-Bios thing sucks.

[k28la]

I agree, as it screwed up and I disabled it, but things continue to get worse, so.....?

[Bires]

Do you have access to a program like Norton's Windoctor (in Norton Utilities) or FixIt2000 or Nuts and Bolts? If you do-give it a try-it will catch programs that are misloading from your registry and taking up more memory than they should.

Also, I'm sure you scanned for virii..? If not-do so, you may have a rabbit or a Trojan that activates with IE5.

Finally, check the heat on your K6-300. If you have a first-line K6-300 it may be at the end of its life. K6's were never designed to run over 266, but AMD stretched it out by overclocking their chips to appease OEMs like IBM, Compaq, Toshiba.

[k28la]

Thanks for all the advice. I'm sure someone at work has a copy of some kinda FixIt software. Ran Scandisk and Defrag, as well as scan/update virus lists often. I had no idea about the K62-300 actually being an overclocked 266. Isn't that false advertising? Hell, P3-600 machines are getting so cheap I may opt for one instead, but will try what you suggested. Thanks again.

[BADFlSH]

Also try running system file checker to see if any of your windows files are corrupt or missing. go to start > Run and type sfc. You will need your win cd in the drive when you do it.

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[definition]

as far as i know k6-2 300 are POS. they run pretty hot so make sure thats not the problem. if you dont want to lose everything, you can just try to install a new copy of windows over the current one and see if it'll help. every setting should still be intact.

[k28la]

actually the thing has been real good to me but has been screwing up ever since putting in the new hd, so i'll have to disagree on that one. hell, i only paid $500 for this, and that was well over a year ago. anyway, i ran the sfc and extracted/replaced user.exe and so far all is kewl, so i'll cross my fingers.