[JohnAC]

Ok I have the weirdest problem. I have a PII 400mhz, 256mb ram, Windows 98, Geforce 2 AGP, Crappy ensoniq sound card, etc... blah blah blah..

I installed a new 40gig 7200 rpm Western Digital drive like 3 months ago. It worked great, no problems with my computer for a month, so I have no idea if its related to the drive or not...

Month after I install the drive, the computer starts freezing every once in a while... not randomly, but when I would load certain things.

Heres when it freezes:
SOMETIMES when windows starts, just before it finishes loading the startup portion of the registry, and the desktop is displayed, it does like a 2 minute freeze. Then it goes into windows as normal afterwards. The mouse and keyboard lockup during this freeze (I have a USB mouse)...

Other times it freezes are when I load the Visual C++ help files, in which it freezes for only about 45 seconds. It does the same freeze when I load Visual C++ sometimes in the middle of it....

Also, at other random times maybe, it does it when I'm LOADING something... emphasis on loading...

When its doing these freezes, the hard drive light is not blinking, I don't hear any activity. I have no idea what to do...

Heres what I've already tried, that has NOT worked:

1) Reinstall windows 5 times.
2) Take all hardware out, and rearrange it in the PCI slots.
3) Remove ram chips, and dusted the thing out, and then put them back in, in a different order.

Now what in the freak is going on... I need help!!!!!!!!

 

[Der Rabe]

Just for what you have stated I would suggest upgrading you bios some older motherboards have trouble reading large hard drives. So see if there is a new version for you bios and then if so flash it to the latest and greatest version. If you are not too sure what I mean post asking how and we will try to explain to the best of our abilties.

 

[JohnAC]

I just upgraded to the latest bios a month ago, and I DID use the correct one.

 

[JAMMAN]

Is the new 7200 rpm drive an ata 66 or 100? Can the mobo support this? Welcome to the forum, we will figure it out!

 

[twas]

Welcome to TSF JohnAC,

You've probably already done these but, it's where I'd start.

Click on [Start] --> [Accessories] ---> [System Tools] ---> [System Information].

Open [Software Environment] ---> Click on [Startup Programs] and check for: 1.) "Scanregw" and to see if an Anti- Virus is running a complete virus scan of your HD. 2.) Also look for programs that you're not familiar with (other than any MS programs) - if you find any make a note of the file path, name and file extension and then check them out in Windows Explorer.

Then Click on [Running Tasks] and repeat step 2 above.

BTW, there is nothing that will slow down a HD like being badly fragmented and if your like me and do a lot adding and deleting files or installing and un-installing programs then you need to defrag very often, I have "Scheduled Tasks" every day at 3:00 AM.

One more thing your probably familiar with is a little utility named RegClean it's free and can be downloaded at


Well good luck.

:ufo: :ufo: :ufo:

twas