This problem will make you want to pull your hair out. Here it is. Socket 7 mobo with K6 500 processor. Win ME started freezing at desktop. Thought the hard drive bad. Tried 2 more. Installs ME just fine and when then desk top loads the first time it freezes, even on the 2 new hard drives. Tried new video card, same. shut off floppy, cd rom, audio, tried new ram and all with the same results. Here's the kicker I put in an old 2 gig drive loaded with win 98 and it works fine. Played around about a half hour, no problem. Thought I would Try to load XP everything installed ok but when it went to load first time, black screen with XP logo it froze there. Anybody have any ideas.
Win 98 works fine ME freezes
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Hi Cable Man
When installing a Win9x system, it's best to disable any Bios Antivirus during the operating system installation (you can re-enable it later). This is one possibility. The symptoms you describe somewhat match that scenario. There are quite a few others - likely driver issues. During the installation, the system is running only with the standard, lowest-common-denominator drivers, on reboot, the system attempts to run more exact-match drivers for the hardware. And perhaps the matches weren't quite so exact. WinMe is quite fussy about drivers, too - as a new "Windows Driver Model" was more prominent in WinMe (you'll notice that many of the drivers have a .wdm file-extension, as opposed to the older .vxd file-extension common in Windows 98).
I wouldn't normally recommend XP on a socket 7 board - I can't imagine it will accomodate enough system memory to be useful. If it can go to 512mb, then it might do just fine. If the processor is a K6-2 or K6-III, it's performance might be tolerable - it certainly won't be speedy.
Are you just having fun with older parts, or did you have a particular task in mind for this project? [Nothing wrong with having fun with older parts, just to see if they'll still run = I once modified an old IBM-AT case, put in a socket 7 board, a K6-III cpu & donated the whole works to a preschool ... it ran things like "Winnie the Pooh PreSchool" -- it was lots of fun, and it ran for years more].
Anyway -- as a likely answer to your original question, it sounds like your Windows 98 disk had the most compatible drivers for the hardware.
Have fun with your project
. . . Gary
When installing a Win9x system, it's best to disable any Bios Antivirus during the operating system installation (you can re-enable it later). This is one possibility. The symptoms you describe somewhat match that scenario. There are quite a few others - likely driver issues. During the installation, the system is running only with the standard, lowest-common-denominator drivers, on reboot, the system attempts to run more exact-match drivers for the hardware. And perhaps the matches weren't quite so exact. WinMe is quite fussy about drivers, too - as a new "Windows Driver Model" was more prominent in WinMe (you'll notice that many of the drivers have a .wdm file-extension, as opposed to the older .vxd file-extension common in Windows 98).
I wouldn't normally recommend XP on a socket 7 board - I can't imagine it will accomodate enough system memory to be useful. If it can go to 512mb, then it might do just fine. If the processor is a K6-2 or K6-III, it's performance might be tolerable - it certainly won't be speedy.
Are you just having fun with older parts, or did you have a particular task in mind for this project? [Nothing wrong with having fun with older parts, just to see if they'll still run = I once modified an old IBM-AT case, put in a socket 7 board, a K6-III cpu & donated the whole works to a preschool ... it ran things like "Winnie the Pooh PreSchool" -- it was lots of fun, and it ran for years more].
Anyway -- as a likely answer to your original question, it sounds like your Windows 98 disk had the most compatible drivers for the hardware.
Have fun with your project
. . . Gary
Thank for the reply Gary, this unit belongs to my neice. She is in the first grade and she has had this same computer since right before kindergarten. It had worked fine with Me installed right from the start. This all started a couple months ago with ME freezing at desktop, after a restart it would be ok. Now we are at this. She uses learning games on here it has never been on the net that I know about. Games like learn to spell, beginning math and such. I have checked the heating, bios says it never gets above 102 with fan running about 4985. All is clean inside, also forgot to state every thing does the same in safe mode. XP freezes at logo screen, I have been told that Win 2000 might be a good choice if it is driver related because it uses less drivers. I know nothing about 2000 so I haven't tried to locate a copy yet. I have shut off the Bios virus program and almost every thing else in the Bios at one time or another. I have been fighting this a couple weeks now.
Thanks for any and all help.
Dan
Thanks for any and all help.
Dan
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Hi again
You might want to test the hardware basics before your next installation, to make sure you don't lose time to faulty hardware. MemTest86+ can test the memory --- http://www.memtest.org --- and test whatever hard drive is the right size and in good working condition --- http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287
If it doesn't need to be on the Internet, try Windows 98 2nd Edition, if you have it (you mentioned Win98 earlier - if it's '98se' - then you're set). 98se is amazingly compatible with hardware, and has a ton of built-in drivers right there on the CD. The kids games are easy to reinstall, so you might as well start fresh with a clean disk, format using FAT32, and if anyone has a "Security Update CD Febuary 2004" in your neighborhood, borrow it: you'll be as up-to-date with patches as you need to be for a non-Internet-connected Win98se computer needs to be in about 20 minutes. Then, should any of the patches from Feb. 2004 - to mid-2006 become necessary, you can always grab them later.
If it eventually has to venture out on the Internet, it might have enough oomph to run the AVG antivirus program - but you'd probably have to hide it behind a hardware firewall, since a software firewall might be just too much for the system to handle. Since youngsters need to be supervised on the web anyway, one way to go is to leave the older computer cut-off from the Internet, and have any Internet time done on mom and dad's computer, with all the parental guidance right there.
You mention 102 as a temp - I'll assume you are referring to Fahrenheit [since things would be pretty toasted at 102 Celsius] -- that's pretty good for an Amd K6/K6-2/K6-III. Check in the Bios to see if there's a menu with voltages reported, and see if they look within range - system hangs and restarts can sometimes be a symptom of a power supply not doing it's job well enough (can happen after many years of use).
And - just on a personal note: three of my kids' favorites from their Kindergarten/First Grade years were "Arthur's Reading Race", "Stellaluna", & "Sheila Rae the Brave" - these run very well on older Windows 98/Me machines, and are sometimes available for about $5 in the bargain bins, or online (used or new) at places like amazon.com --- Here's Arthur --- http://www.amazon.com/51291-Arthurs-Reading-Race/dp/B00003IEKI --- here's Stellaluna --- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...t_details/002-2276889-2344864?ie=UTF8&seller= --- and, well, it turns out that "Sheila Rae the Brave" is a bit harder to track down, but keep your eyes open for it (sometimes shows up on eBay and such). Wonderful programs.
Best of luck
. . . Gary
[P.S. --- Almost forgot: each of the children's CD titles that I recommended are based on books = grab a paperback edition of the book, and they'll be reading both electronically & the old-fashioned way - curled up & cozy with a paperback]
You might want to test the hardware basics before your next installation, to make sure you don't lose time to faulty hardware. MemTest86+ can test the memory --- http://www.memtest.org --- and test whatever hard drive is the right size and in good working condition --- http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287
If it doesn't need to be on the Internet, try Windows 98 2nd Edition, if you have it (you mentioned Win98 earlier - if it's '98se' - then you're set). 98se is amazingly compatible with hardware, and has a ton of built-in drivers right there on the CD. The kids games are easy to reinstall, so you might as well start fresh with a clean disk, format using FAT32, and if anyone has a "Security Update CD Febuary 2004" in your neighborhood, borrow it: you'll be as up-to-date with patches as you need to be for a non-Internet-connected Win98se computer needs to be in about 20 minutes. Then, should any of the patches from Feb. 2004 - to mid-2006 become necessary, you can always grab them later.
If it eventually has to venture out on the Internet, it might have enough oomph to run the AVG antivirus program - but you'd probably have to hide it behind a hardware firewall, since a software firewall might be just too much for the system to handle. Since youngsters need to be supervised on the web anyway, one way to go is to leave the older computer cut-off from the Internet, and have any Internet time done on mom and dad's computer, with all the parental guidance right there.
You mention 102 as a temp - I'll assume you are referring to Fahrenheit [since things would be pretty toasted at 102 Celsius] -- that's pretty good for an Amd K6/K6-2/K6-III. Check in the Bios to see if there's a menu with voltages reported, and see if they look within range - system hangs and restarts can sometimes be a symptom of a power supply not doing it's job well enough (can happen after many years of use).
And - just on a personal note: three of my kids' favorites from their Kindergarten/First Grade years were "Arthur's Reading Race", "Stellaluna", & "Sheila Rae the Brave" - these run very well on older Windows 98/Me machines, and are sometimes available for about $5 in the bargain bins, or online (used or new) at places like amazon.com --- Here's Arthur --- http://www.amazon.com/51291-Arthurs-Reading-Race/dp/B00003IEKI --- here's Stellaluna --- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...t_details/002-2276889-2344864?ie=UTF8&seller= --- and, well, it turns out that "Sheila Rae the Brave" is a bit harder to track down, but keep your eyes open for it (sometimes shows up on eBay and such). Wonderful programs.
Best of luck
. . . Gary
[P.S. --- Almost forgot: each of the children's CD titles that I recommended are based on books = grab a paperback edition of the book, and they'll be reading both electronically & the old-fashioned way - curled up & cozy with a paperback]
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