[RESOLVED] win me system hangs??? what next???

[kcrcoo]

i recently built up a new system and decided to go ahead and explore win me. the (main) problem i have is that the system mysteriously hangs during a wide variety of operations. (there are also myriad compatability issues with a lot of my favorite apps (all used to run on win98se fine), but that's another issue all together.) the biggest problem is the hanging. here's what goes on: i'll be doing just about anything (playing games, ftp-ing, dun, etc.) and it will work great for a random, but always short, period of time. then the app will, without warning, either simply dump me onto the desktop, or give me the blue-death with the msg "windows protection error. system halted. you must restart your system.". either way, when i attempt to reboot, everything appears normal until the win me splash screen disappears. then, instead of being replaced with the me desktop, i get the blue-death again with the "windows protection error" msg as above. if i let everything sit for a little while, i can then reboot. becuase of that, i suspected cooling issues, but i had installed 2 case fans in anticipation of this and both are working fine. the chip fan also is installed properly and seems to be running fine. i've also ensured that almost every upgradeable device or driver on the system has been updated to the latest set (m/b bios, v/c bios & drivers, s/c drivers, modem, etc...) don't know what else to try except returning to 98se to see if it gets better. i've never run 98 on this particular build and at this point i am skeptical that it will work either... (fear of more ms headaches...) am i missing something here??
this is the breakdown for the hardware:

intel vc820 motherboard
intel piii 933 slot1
512mb rdram pc800
seagate 18gb barracuda 7200rpm
pioneer 105s cd/dvd rom
hercules prophet2 gts-pro w/64mb ddr
soundblaster live! x-gamer
diamond supramax 56k int
internal 250mb zip drive

[jeffsr]

A protected mode fatal error usually means a protected mode .vxd file is missing or corrupted. Try going to system file checker and review you system files. You may find one missing or corrupted. If not the try reinstalling ME. Good luck

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Jeff Lawrence

[willys]

Do you have liveware 3.0 installed? Did you uninstall the origanal sb live driver? There seems to be a conflict with higher pentiums and sb lives.

[kcrcoo]

i did not uninstall the original drivers, i allowed the updated sb driver package to simply overwrite them. i did not install any of the liveware applications in any instance becuase my experience with the "frilly" utils that most manufacturers bundle with their hardware is that they are buggy and most often useless anyways.

[kcrcoo]

jeffsr-
i did check the system files as you suggest. i didn't see anything that appeared out of the ordinary... i can (& will) check again for certainty.

[jeffsr]

Then if all the protected mode files are OK, then your next culprit is most likely heat. You have described a classic heat related scenario. Let it sit and it's OK. Make sure the CPU fans are working. and you've got good contact between the CPU and the heatsink..

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Jeff Lawrence

[kcrcoo]

i actually have had a little success by playing around with the configuration of both the sound and video cards. i hadn't heard anything like what willys mentioned about the sb/pentium problem, so i yanked the sb live! and put an older sb pci128 into it, swapped drivers as cleanly as possible and that seems to have fixed the mystery of being randomly dumped out of applications. for the problem with reboot and stuff, i looked at the faultlog and it indicated a couple of video related .vxd's. i had the latest hercules drivers for the card, so the only feasible option i saw was to try the nvidia reference drivers for the board. that solved my reboot lock-ups... seems fine now with exception of some very isolated weird application behavior.
thanks for the help guys! very useful input pushed me in right direction... thanks again!

[This message has been edited by kcrcoo (edited December 16, 2000).]