Original Post
It took me about 6 years of building my own systems to get a ''feeling'' of what was caused by buggy code, and what was caused by crappy hardware. Random crashing & rebooting & lock-up are signs of crappy hardware.
A few rules for you if you built that system:
1) Repalce the CPU fan.
Do this more often than you change oil on your car, they make those fans as cheap as f%#$ing possible. They operate at full capacity for about 2 months. (Not sure about athelon fans yet, just got one a little while ago - they spin fast! I actually cut my finger open...)
3) External Cooling
Buy a small fan (~1ft in diameter), open the case, blow 
Case fans suck just as much as CPU fans
2) Do not Over-clock
Many people have ''success'' stories for immediate results, ask them again in six months...
3) Underclock
I''ve had a few crappy MB''s (and some RAM) that didn''t do 100MHz very well, step down to a 66Mhz bus speed (you can up the multipler to get back near you''re cpu''s actually speed, don''t go over! - I hated doing this too, but I stopped crashing)
4) Check Voltages
Make certain you have the core & IO voltages on the MB set properly
5) Unconditional Format
If you decide to re-install windows, Format the entire HD with the /u option. If it makes bad noises while formatting, call the manufactor and get a warrenty replacement if you can. (that 800MB is probably too old... a 4GB drive should be at the edge of its warrenty now - depends some are 1year some are 3year)
One bad sector leads to another, and windows does not handle newly-gone-bad sectors (NT server might, netware does...)
6) Reboot
Reboot after installing _any-one-thing_ even if it doesn''t say too. The SB Live!, & SB TNT2 v2.0 drivers didn''t not work on my system together... one thing at a time to find out what causes it to crash or lock-up.
7) Windows 2000
I''ve had a lot of stability problems with win98; I had to turn off cursor acceleration on one machine running w2k; otherwise it''s worked much better. (Make sure drivers exist for all your stuff first, and WQHL certified is always a good thing)
Advice for future purchases:
I''ll never buy from a trade-show again. I got screwed by buying a crappy ASUS mb from a trade-show, they only had a week return policy, it took me two weeks to determine the MB was bad (I was busy, I didn''t work on it for two weeks ). I haven''t been able to successful contact ASUS for a replacement either...
There''s no good national chain to buy parts from, CompUSA sells old stuff at today''s component prices. I''ve never bought online, ''cause when I''ve been in the mood (or need) to buy stuff I''ve wanted (or needed) it _now.
Try to find a franchise (Computer Builders Warehouse is one near me), their prices will be a littler higher than the trade shows or online, but you can easily return or exchange it.
Case fans suck just as much as CPU fans
2) Do not Over-clock
Many people have ''success'' stories for immediate results, ask them again in six months...
3) Underclock
I''ve had a few crappy MB''s (and some RAM) that didn''t do 100MHz very well, step down to a 66Mhz bus speed (you can up the multipler to get back near you''re cpu''s actually speed, don''t go over! - I hated doing this too, but I stopped crashing)
4) Check Voltages
Make certain you have the core & IO voltages on the MB set properly
5) Unconditional Format
If you decide to re-install windows, Format the entire HD with the /u option. If it makes bad noises while formatting, call the manufactor and get a warrenty replacement if you can. (that 800MB is probably too old... a 4GB drive should be at the edge of its warrenty now - depends some are 1year some are 3year)
One bad sector leads to another, and windows does not handle newly-gone-bad sectors (NT server might, netware does...)
6) Reboot
Reboot after installing _any-one-thing_ even if it doesn''t say too. The SB Live!, & SB TNT2 v2.0 drivers didn''t not work on my system together... one thing at a time to find out what causes it to crash or lock-up.
7) Windows 2000
I''ve had a lot of stability problems with win98; I had to turn off cursor acceleration on one machine running w2k; otherwise it''s worked much better. (Make sure drivers exist for all your stuff first, and WQHL certified is always a good thing)
Advice for future purchases:
I''ll never buy from a trade-show again. I got screwed by buying a crappy ASUS mb from a trade-show, they only had a week return policy, it took me two weeks to determine the MB was bad (I was busy, I didn''t work on it for two weeks ). I haven''t been able to successful contact ASUS for a replacement either...
There''s no good national chain to buy parts from, CompUSA sells old stuff at today''s component prices. I''ve never bought online, ''cause when I''ve been in the mood (or need) to buy stuff I''ve wanted (or needed) it _now.
Try to find a franchise (Computer Builders Warehouse is one near me), their prices will be a littler higher than the trade shows or online, but you can easily return or exchange it.
