PC sometimes stops starting up

[luke]

Jetaway V266B SocketA
AMD Athlon 1800+ (1400mhz)
MEM 500mb (PC133)
350W PSU
WinXPsp2
80gb IDE
Bios Award v6.00 PG A10 09-23-2002

My old PC sometimes stops starting up with a blue screen saying restart or see it fixed plus a few more sentences, & other times freezes and have to restart.

Generally OK after restart.

Today startup stopped with a blue rectangle, about a third of the screen in the center, & large letters saying something about RUN OUT OF SCAN.

I removed & reinserted the CPU, mem sticks, cards and all cables, but still sometimes does it.

Any help apreciated,

[ctjoyce]

Hows the airflow in there? It may be overheating. Also blue screens are due to memory problems. Check to make sure that both sticks are the same speed, cas timeings etc. But if I were you I would hop over to newegg and pick up a pair of 512MB sticks to throw in there.

Cheers
Cameron

[congo]

Removing the CPU from it's socket is pretty much a "no no" in my books as it doesn't solve anything and only serves to disturb the heat transfer compound between the heatsink and CPU. The CPU's pins are non-corrosive and shouldn't ever give any trouble.

If you copy the error and drop it into a google window, chances are someone will have written about it. I googled your error and it led me to this, which is pretty much what I expected to see.

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;315614

Your monitor can't handle the refresh rate or the screen resolution your have set probably. Reduce your refresh rate settings and make sure the box that says "Only show modes that your monitor can support" is ticked.

If that doesn't work, then reduce your desktop resolution and the resolution that your applications run in. This could also be a hardware fault, but try the above first.

Get the latest mainboard drivers for that board, which will probably be the via 4 in 1's, lemme check....

http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?Pa ... CatID=1070

Get the second download (hyperion 4 in 1), as the first hyperion drivers have RAID as well, and some other difference.

I have had personal experience with that mainboard, quite a few years ago. I got rid of it quickly. I had a difficult time getting it to run right at he time, but you would have had a lot more experience with it of course.

Don't waste any money on it.

How is your new PC running Luke?

[luke]

Thanx again Congo, reliable as always for good help.

The new PC is working well and I am trying to get used to advanced equipment. What a difference.

The UK VFR fs9 addons are really good now after the very helpfull "HorizonSim" people ironed out my faults.

The split screen I get on fs9 with fsNav is unresolved, seems sure to be Nvidia video drivers problems, but when it appears I hit ALT + Enter for full screen and back again and works fine.

The old PC never gave much trouble before, I did all the recommended things you sent, and will see if it reappears.

The very old Video card is a SIS 8mb only & tired.

No money is spent on it as is a standby for the wife and for saving on its HD via my archaic  networking which works well even the ICS although only one way.

I renewed the dried-up heatsink paste of the CPU.

Book says "Chipset VIAKT-266A" and have downloaded the second you said. Will compare with the present one and if need be will install, BUT how is it done?     luke

[ctjoyce]

You put the new bios on a floppy, restart the computer with the floppy in. It will then automatically update your bios.

Cheers
Cameron

[Scorpiоn]

I hope you didn't run the PC before putting some new heat transfer compound on CPU .  It might be okay, but it's not something I'd gamble on.

[bm]

No thats a horrible board Mine never worked properly either - learnt allot about PCs though (Athlon 2000XP)

I replaced it/and non-brand ram with an Asus A7N8X-X/Geil and no probs thus far

Birdy

[congo]

[quote]Will compare with the present one and if need be will install, BUT how is it done?

[luke]

Roger, realised the Bios bit.

Downloaded both the "second one"
VIA_Hyperion 4in1_v456v and
the third "VIA_4in1_443v".

Will try and see,

[congo]

It may be looking for a network connection that is unavailable. You could try disabling the network card to see if that's the problem. In other words, if the network can't be found, the LAN card's search for the network will need to timeout before it can do much else.

I get around that by disabling my LAN device unless I need it and have my network up.

If the other PC's in the network , Broadband Internet connection etc, are up and running, you shouldn't get the delay either, or not as much of one.

The shutdown has a problem, not sure what it is.
Your new system should run extremely well. Can you install a fresh XP with SP2 only on a second hard disk for testing? If you do that, and install your drivers's properly, it should absolutely fly. If it doesn't, something is wrong in bios or elsewhere.

Shutdown can take a while if there are automated routines running, such as cache cleaning software that may be clearing temp files etc., or erasing the swap file.

It's also possible that Anti-Virus or even Virus activity could cause such problems, personally, I've found the cure to be very much worse than the disease.........

[luke]

Roger,
will startup this one with 2nd running to check, then will disable LANs as are not always needed.            luke

[congo]

Try to do things methodically so when you do get an improvement, you can isolate the cause of the problem.

Essentially, we have just about the same system, so I just timed my Shutdown and Startup.

Shutdown... from clicking the TURN OFF button to power-off =

[luke]

Stoped in 20scs and beeb to welcome 25scs.

LANs disabled, loading "Sagem" tiscali BBand modem,
AVG free, PCProbe, sound volume & safely remove hardware.

Will experiment later.                  luke

[luke]

Install the "VIA_4in1_443v" mobo drivers on the old PC and started OK 3 - 4 times OK with no freezes in between.

Will monitor it and shout again if stopping reappears.
Thanx again,    luke

PS the new one without LANs starts 25scs, stops 20scs.

[congo]

If it were mine I wouldn't run any of the items I highlighted from my startup or services, I would call them manually if needed.

I think you have 6 network access manager programs running........ why? You don't need any do you?

4 antivirus routines there............. mmmmmmm k, if this is the cure, I don't want it.

ctfmon is a text/speech handler that isn't needed unless you use voice recognition software.

DSL mon is a network stat counter that isn't needed if your ISP has a used bandwidth or quota checking page.



The "Starter" program looks cool, I'm gonna see if I can try it out, but don't run starter in the startup.