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this has to be my most irritating computing experience i've ever had.

I just installed a new AMD Athlon XP 2400+ to replace my XP 1900+ on my Abit KR7A-133. Everything was going great, and i tried to overclock a bit but didn't get too far and decided to wait for a later date to try again (i set the settings back to default). Windows XP Pro started to lock-up, and i figured it was probably the fact that it was a very old install and i had made some serious hardware changes. So i installed Win2K Pro to see what happened. It was still locking up. In "fear" windows was being a bitch, i installed redhat 8 and the problems still persist.

Here is what i know isn't causing the problem:

-Temperature... It idles at 32C w/ a SK7.
-OS... I have had the same problem with 3 different OSs

Here is things it could be:

-IDE... Greg suggested i had an IDE problem
-Sound Card... my sound card seems to have stopped working with all OS' (Sound Blaster LIVE 5.1)
-Motherboard / CPU incompatiblity
-My TV Tuner causing chaos?
-RAM? I don't think it is bad, but it is possible.

Here is something you must know... the only times it locks-up are when it is idling. I am never making contact with the mouse and KB...
Example: I turn to pet the dog, go back and it has locked-up.
Example: I go downstairs to get a drink, come back, and it has locked-up. So far it hasn't locked up overnight

This is the weirdest thing that has ever happened... i hope someone knows what is going on!!! Thanks in advance.

I'd remove the sb live card from your system and then perhaps uninstall the drivers. See if that helps. I've had bad sound cards before and they do cause other weird troubles.


You said it only locks when it's idling but not overnight? It idles overnight too, right?


If removing the sb live card doesn't help, then I'd remove the other cards one at a time, to see if either is causing a problem. But it sounds like that live card.

SB Lives have know issues with PCI IRQ Channel sharing - causes lockups and random reboots. DEFINATELY pull the card and see if it goes away.

If it does, try moving the SBLive to another slot. See if the problem recurrs (it usually shows up when playing a 3D game and most games run fine without a sound card). Keep moving it until the problem clears up.

Or better yet, toss that SBLive. If your mobo has onboard CMedia sound use that instead. I was never so happy as when I finally got rid of my SBLive. I had a LOT of IRQ issues with it.

Other cards can have PCI IRQ channel sharing issues too. It's a good idea to pull ALL your cards (except video of course) and test it out. If it's stable, install ONE CARD AT A TIME. Test it and if you have any problems, move the card, then go on to the next card.

Yes, it seems to idle overnight, but it has only been two nights. Thanks for the help, i'll get that bastard ass card out right away.

It could be like blades says the sblive but I had that exact same issue before and in my case a ram change fixed it

Good RAM diagnostic here:
http://www.simmtester.com/PAGE/products ... wnload.asp

they don't seem to have that program for unix

I don't know what to do now... i walked away from computer 10 min ago and came back 4 minutes later and it had locked-up. This is so irritating. Two more things i know that aren't causing it... sound card and CD-ROMs. Could it be the HD IDE cable? would that have any effect? I dunno what i'll do if i can't figure this out, i can't afford another system now, after buying new cpu and heatsink. I have many other computers in my house with compatible ram, but none of them are mine (my brothers), and he isn't around this weekend. I guess my next step is to take everything out, but i ran this same setup with my XP 1900+ for 7 months rock solid, so i dunno if anything will help.

Just thinking... could this be power supply related? I wouldn't think because the voltages are fine, but i just don't know what else could be really.

Just had something weird happen sorta... When it last crashed, the clock said 15:07 (in military time for some reason), and when i rebooted it said 15:08... but it was really like 5 minutes before i had realized it had locked up. Shouldn't the system clock be keeping track of that? Maybe it is my motherboard battery or something? It is only 7 or 8 months old, but that struck me as something wrong. Perhaps when it locks-up nothing works.

Ironically as linux was shutting down and was going through the system checks, it said that "attempt to syncronize hardware with system clock: FAILED"

This probably means nothing though. Anyways, i took out my vidoe capture card, ATI TV Wonder VE, and plugged my CD-ROMs back in seeing as they weren't the problem and i need them. I guess the only thing left to try is ram?

Matt, I know this bs sure sux for you.

I'd remove everything but what you need and have the basics like the video card, cdrom, floppy and of course cpu and ram. Try that, then try one stick of ram in each slot. Try different ram if you have any.

I wouldn't think this is a power supply issue, but if you have another then you may as well try it and see.


Have you done a full virus scan?

Also, when you started over did you format? Could be some driver causing these problems or a corrupted registry from when you overclocked.

Good luck. Keep us posted of any results.

Does your Bios have any type of sleep modes? Power saving?

I had a problem with one of my systems, acted like a lockup but wasn't. It would go to sleep but never wake up!

Problem for some reason was it would not wake with keyboard or mouse input either one.
Just go to sleep, and only way to wake it was reboot!

Course it would not happen when I was using the system, but like you said, leave to get a soda and come back and lock city! I don't think it was locking when anything was running like anti virus or scandisk/defrag, but answer the phone when no back ground apps were actively running and she'd go to sleep to not wake up.

Really ticked me off for awhile, since I never use any power saving modes other than the OFF button!

Also I had the same type problem, mouse would run around the screen ok, but nothing else! That was a hardrive going to sleep and not being woke up also!

Might be an off the wall thing to check on. Maybe it's not really locking up, just going brain dead instead??