I tried a downloaded win XP disc too.

Worm wrote:Only when I'm running an install or something from a 16/32 bit intereface btw. I have no cast on the thing and a heatsink. Maybe it's thermal.

Aha.

Try a different CDROM driver. If it's a generic ATAPI device, try the good old OAK CDROM.

My guess NOW is that it happens, in DOS mode, when you're trying to use the 16-bit CD driver, or hitting a region of memory that's been corrupted by the driver.

Of course, if it's Win2K or XP, instead of 95/98/ME, then this theory is shit.

Bruce

Only when I'm running an install or something from a 16/32 bit intereface btw. I have no cast on the thing and a heatsink. Maybe it's thermal.

Worm wrote:Randomly freezing doesn't seem like a problem with the motherboard to me, because when I previously had trouble with the motherboard it would give me the same result each time. Someone give me a hand here.

Randomly freezing sounds like a thermal problem to me.

Bruce

Okay here is exactly what happened with my computer.

I was fucking around with it for a speech in school. I put back in the processor with the motherfucking heatsink attached well I wasn't thinking and trashed it. I figured, tiredly mind you, it's only a motherfucking pin. So I threw it in that motherboard and it wouldn't work any. Then I bought a new processor and put it in, it still wouldn't work. After spending some money at a computer store for them to use their "diagnostic tools" to tell me "It's fine" it wouldn't install windows or anything.

I sent it to someone who actually knew more about computers than me and he said the motherboard was fucked, this guy has real diagnostic shit, doesn't just see if the thing gets past BIOS. So I bought another board (30 dollars, could this be my problem?) and put that in. That fixed many problems it, will actually run installations and shit, but it still fucks up during the installation. So maybe this motherboard got fucked up to a lesser degree because I'm buying shitty ones? I replaced the memory, the CD-ROM, the hard drive, and that's pretty much it.

Now, I don't think putting the processor in the motherboard that I fried by putting a bad processor in it would have fucked the processor. Though maybe this all could be because my board is cheap and shitty? Randomly freezing doesn't seem like a problem with the motherboard to me, because when I previously had trouble with the motherboard it would give me the same result each time. Someone give me a hand here.

Ben Curtis, aka Steven wrote:Dude, you should throw that crap out and get a Dell!


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Got any weed dude?

I like the way this guest account took the time to fake a proper signature.

On a semi-related note I had finally gotten my box running adequitely after years of ownership by replacing the busted fan, cleaning out all the damn spyware I'd managed to accumulate over time, and finding a ram defragger to compensate for ME's hideous memory management. That lasted about three months, before someone tricked me into playing City of Heroes (which, for the record, is nowhere near as good as anyone is trying to pretend it is).

I've got things running fine, stable, everything's a go for a guaranteed couple hours of repeatedly punching gang memebers in the face without any fear of crashing. But everybody on the message board everywhere is saying that the thing absolutely, positively, cannot run without the latest Direct X iteration. Whatever, I figure I might as well upgrade.

Install DX, reboot my computer, suddenly Windows decides to reject the update, fail entirely and, upon re-rebooting "fix" itself by resetting my registery to around Christmas of '02 . Now my computer is trying to run programs that aren't installed, doesn't recognize half the shit that is installed, and is suddenly less stable than a former Soviet Block nation. I've got no idea how this happened, and even less how to fix it. Fucking machine.

I'm actually thinking about it. But they ship their computers without AGP slots and shit.

Dude, you should throw that crap out and get a Dell!


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Got any weed dude?

When it doesn't freeze during an installation it gives windows protection faults and shit when I try to run the OS. I originally fried a motherboard when putting in a bad (see: broken pins) processor (see: dumbass) and that had this memory I reused in the new motherboard. So I'm replacing that memory with some DDR, once it arrives. Anyone else have any ideas?