Topic: Q:COuld my mobo be my problem?

[Wan]

Hi

My pc problems have brought me to this board. Perhaps some1 out there might have an idea where my pc problems stem from.

My pc was acting strangely by haning up a fair amount and then failing to reboot but booted after a few tries. I tried to scandisk and defrag but was unable to complete the scan why i dont know. So i decided to recover my system but ended up having to carry out a comepelte format. Having got everything up and running i started to reinstall all drivers and software etc but on each occasion my pc would freeze after afew minutes (this would happen at any time whether it was downloading broswing or anything really). Though it appeares to happen more often and quicker when i am downloading at 50kb/s or so. When this haapens i note that the hd light indicator had kicked in and was constantly on. So this lead me to the conclusion that the hd was the prob and when and bought a new one and reinstalled again. The freezing stills happens. FFS.

Does any1 know if my mobo could be at the end of its life or is any other issue (hardware or software) that could be at fault?

I have also thought that my pc may be oeverheating but this has never happened b4 so i am not sure what the result of overheating might be.

Your help would be most appreciated.

Andy

P.S.  I have just been reading some posts and thought i would add some general info on my pc.

ASUS A7M266  Mobo not overclocked (at this moment)
AMD 1200 Athlon
512mb
Geforce 4 GC

The problem described above didnt occur prior to my reinstall.  It had problems but the freezing in its current form has only occured after i installed some Win ME software a friend gave me.

Thanks.

[Sandra]

Hi Andy and

Does it run ok in Safe Mode ?
I assume you are on XP as you mentioned trying a restore, can you confirm this and give some details about your setup, cpu, mobo, graphics card and ram etc ?

[Sandra]

I see you added some information at the same time as I was asking you to do so  

So you are on ME not XP then  
What was the software that you installed from your friend for ?
I assume that you didnt reinstall this after you bought the new drive and installed ME again ?
Do you have any USB devices connected ?
Does everything say its ok in Device Manager, ie no yellow ? or ! ?

[Wan]

Hi Sandra.  I have includes some details in my first post.  I added info just b4 ur post i think  Thanks for taking some time out for me and my probs.  Most grateful.

Nope i havent tried to see if the pc runs in safe mode.  It hasnt come up with the option when i booted up.

Its weird i have been on my pc for a while now and it hasnt froze.  I shall wait a bit longer and use as per normal.  Reboot then try downloading something and see if thats the prob.  

Watch this space

Cheers
Andy

[Wan]

Lo again Sandra.

I shall start at the begining to give u a full picture.

I tried use the win ME recover cd provided by my pc supplier and picked the first recover option.  this didnt work so i tried each sucessive option up to the last reformat option.  at each time the recoverey was complete rebooting came up with a error saying it couldnt find a file.  i think it was called vm32.vxd or something like that.  i was going to try and reconfigure my pc the way i bought it i.e. replace orignal GC (as i assumed that since the file looked like something to do with video )and remove dvd writer.  but it didnt do this when a firend of ine gave me a winME installation disc.  this allowed me to run my pc etc after resintalling everything.  so knowing me i wanted to watch the latest episode of 24 and starting d/l.  this is when the pc froze for the first time and has doen ever since.  though as i said b4 the freezes seem to occur a few minutes after i start d/l at high speed.

hope that assists your background info Sandra.

THanks again.
Andy

p.s. it still hasnt froze again but will try a reboot right now.

[Wan]

oh i forgot to say i have a recovery disc i borrowed from work and it has xp on it.  maybe this is a last option to try?  

[Sandra]

 i think it was called vm32.vxd

I think you are correct in assuming its a graphics driver.

I would think its a driver issue, not necessarily that same one now though.
Your original restore disc would have either had the drivers on it for the original hardware on your pc as you bought it or they may have been on the hidden partition which isnt accessible without the restore cd.
I cant see why a download speed should affect it though  

I cant find the model of mobo that you said yours was on the ASUS site, you said it was an ASUS A7M266  
Hopefully this was a typo as there is an ASUS A7N266-VM
I think that it may help if you get the drivers for it from :

http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=A7N266-VM

I definately think its missing some drivers or has installed some that arent the best for your mobo  

[Wan]

I see you added some information at the same time as I was asking you to do so  

So you are on ME not XP then  

YUP MY ORIGINAL OPS WAS winME

What was the software that you installed from your friend for ?

winME DISCS  (I think i am limited to using the 4 options on this disc.  All which didnt work).

I assume that you didnt reinstall this after you bought the new drive and installed ME again ?

Yes i used my friends disc instead of my own winME recovery disc

Do you have any USB devices connected ?

Yes i have a few.  Mouse, BB modem and digi player.

Does everything say its ok in Device Manager, ie no yellow ? or ! ?

there is one yellow ! mark next to my mouse.  i will install this straight away.  no other ! marks in the devices when i double click.

there is also a big yellow ? sign next to other devices.

I have also just rebooted and started a download.  my pc froze within a few seconds of starting this d/l.  Could it be my modem?  

 

Cheers
Andy

[Sandra]

We keep overlapping our posts

I think that XP is a far superior OS to ME and often has less problems when installing it as it has more drivers built in than 98 or ME has.
Unfortunately an XP restore cd will only restore a hard drive that has the missing bits on a hidden partition in the same way that your original drive has ME on it.
You would need a full version of XP to install XP on your pc  

[Wan]

 i think it was called vm32.vxd

I think you are correct in assuming its a graphics driver.

I would think its a driver issue, not necessarily that same one now though.
Your original restore disc would have either had the drivers on it for the original hardware on your pc as you bought it or they may have been on the hidden partition which isnt accessible without the restore cd.
I cant see why a download speed should affect it though  

I cant find the model of mobo that you said yours was on the ASUS site, you said it was an ASUS A7M266  

Yeah it is an A7M266...heres a link   http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=A7M266&Type=Latest

Hopefully this was a typo as there is an ASUS A7N266-VM
I think that it may help if you get the drivers for it from :

http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=A7N266-VM

i think i have installed all the correct drivers.  i went to the site and d/l something called a 3in1 VIA driver.  this is what i had installed my my pc for a long time and didnt give me any problems.  i was also guided to d/l AMD driver for APG minport or something becaseu when i bought my new GC i noticed it was working in PCI mode.  i have also reinstalled this but cant be sure if it was the driver i had b4 my probs

I definately think its missing some drivers or has installed some that arent the best for your mobo  

My mobo said its a AMD 760 chipset but i downloaded the AMD 761 chipset driver.  

Despairingly yours

Andy.

[Sandra]

Yes i have a few.  Mouse, BB modem and digi player.

there is one yellow ! mark next to my mouse.  i will install this straight away.  no other ! marks in the devices when i double click.

there is also a big yellow ? sign next to other devices.


I have also just rebooted and started a download.  my pc froze within a few seconds of starting this d/l.  Could it be my modem?  

Could you replace the USB mouse with a ps2 one ?

Disconnect the digi player for now.

The yellow ? next to the other devices means that ME cant indentify what they are and so hasnt installed the drivers for them but hopefully that shouldnt be a problem as that would just stop that device working and shouldnt make the pc freeze.
You could however remove them from the device manager and as long as it doesnt need to reboot afterwards you could see if it freezes on you again while downloading.

Is your USB BB modem connected directly to teh PCs USB ports or into a USB hub ?
Most USB adsl nmodems run almost at the limit of 500ma available at the USB port and if you are running from a hub, it should ideally be a mains powered one  :doggie:

[Sandra]

i think i have installed all the correct drivers.  i went to the site and d/l something called a 3in1 VIA driver.  this is what i had installed my my pc for a long time and didnt give me any problems.  i was also guided to d/l AMD driver for APG minport or something becaseu when i bought my new GC i noticed it was working in PCI mode.  i have also reinstalled this but cant be sure if it was the driver i had b4 my probs

According to your link Andy, those 3 in 1 drivers are for NT not ME  

I would get the 4 in 1 drivers from here :

http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=403