URGENT! Please Assist! Errors & Faults!

Can someone please help me? I am having fits with my home computer, a modest Compaq 5304.

Recently, I decided to clean off the hard drive, reload my software and do a few upgrades to my computer. The upgrades included an increase in SDRAM from 64mb to 320mb, a new PNY GeForce2 MX-200 PCI graphics card, and a new AMD K6-2 533 CPU to replace the old Cyrix II, which performed at only 250mhz. In addition, I replaced the original CPU fan because it had become very noisy and I feared a failed bearing was in the near future.

The hard drive cleaning and software reload came first, and was soon followed by the new fan and the memory upgrade. I experienced no problems with the machine following those tasks.

Next came the graphics card. I did have a few minor issues disabling the original onboard graphics driver, but Compaq tech was extremely helpful and after following their instructions, installation of the new graphics card was quick and without any problems whatsoever. The new card produced an immediate improvement over the old graphics performance, though it didn’t necessarily speed up every game like I expected it too, namely Delta Force.

Finally, I installed the CPU upgrade. It was a very simple task, and there were no problems at all. The AMD K6-2 533 I purchased was guaranteed stable at 550mhz so I set the multiplier on the motherboard at 5.5x and completed the install. After the install, I turned the machine on and it worked fine and was noticeably much faster.

And everything was fine, for a few days. After several days, I decided to complete the installation of a few of my games, and that is where my troubles began.

Initially, I began having trouble with just the games. They would slow down, or bring the machine to a halt altogether. Then, I began having "general protection faults" or "illegal operations" in other programs. Finally, I began having problems when booting up.

At first it was just the startup programs committing "illegal operations" and they would be immediately terminated. I remedied this temporarily by disabling all my startup programs and by removing Backweb, which appeared to be a chief offender. But, things got worse. The machine began failing to boot up completely. Instead of opening Windows, a blue screen would appear with the following message:

“A fatal exception OE has occurred at 0028:C0005338 in VXD VMM(01) + 00004338. The current application will be terminated.â€

When I would hit a key, the screen would go black and everything would end there. If I tried this several times in a row, it would be the same result every time. But, the strange thing is, if I waited about ten minutes, the machine would seem to boot up just fine without producing the error message! This, of course, with all the startup programs still disabled.

Even when the machine boots up fine now and even with all startup programs still disabled, I still am having problems with some applications slowing and halting the machine. And, once when I got the message quoted above, it was followed by a second screen, a white one, which stated that I had to reinstall Windows.

Here is what I’ve done to try and remedy the problems:

1. I have run chkdsk and scandsk programs. There’ve been no problems reported or found.

2. I have run the disk defragmenter religiously. No bad sectors have been found.

3. I have removed the games that seemed to mark the beginning of my troubles.

4. I have downloaded and used EasyCleaner and another registry checking/cleaning application.
5. I’ve reloaded Windows 98SE.

Is anyone familiar with these problems? From what I’ve read, most of the general fault errors have to do with virtual memory. I am not quite sure what to do to check or repair that. Also, any one of the upgrades I did to the machine could be causing this problem, correct?

If you have any advice or information, I would sure appreciate it. Also, I know some well-meaning and more experienced users will simply say "Ditch the Compaq and get a real computer!â€, but that’s not an option for me right now. So please, if you have any recommendations relating to the repair of these problems on this machine, I would sure appreciate hearing from you. The only thing else I know to do is reformat the hard drive and start all over….again.

Computer Specs:
Compaq Presario 5304, 4.3gb Hard Drive, AMD K6-2 533@550mhz (previously Cyrix II), 320mb SDRAM (previously 64mb), PNY GeForce2 MX200 PCI Graphics Card, Windows 98SE

 

MS T,

A search on google.com gave me this bit of information:

AMD & Temperature

We've received information that running the (older) AMD K6-2 chips over 60ºC (140ºF) will produce a FATAL EXCEPTION OE ...0028:C0005338 IN VXD VMM(01)+00004338 (or similar) errors. So if you are running a K6-2 chip, it's another area to check!

I found that on this site. You may want to check your temperature. Maybe run at a slower speed to see if that helps. Also you can try leaving the cover off your system and keep a fan on it to see if it helps.

Mike

 

Hi MS Turkeyhunter.
I'm not thinking a reformat will solve this one? Some reading here. And bottom of this page.

Daizy

*edit*
Oops Mike....ya beat me to it.

 

Thanks! I think y'all hit the nail on the head...

Before we go any further here, MS in MS Turkeyhunter stands for Mississippi, not MS as in Miss, Mistress, Mrs., M'am, Dame, etc... So please, too friendly winks from the guys will only get you a black eye!

Thank you for your replies. Me thinks that may have answered my inquiry most directly!

So, the first thing to do would be to slow down the CPU. Do you think slowing it to 500mhz would be sufficient? Secondly, I probably should at least put a fan on the GeForce2 and maybe upgrade the one on the CPU, right?

Man, I really appreciate the answers I get on this board. You all are great! Thanks!

 

Oh, one more thing...

Do you think I've caused the CPU permanent damage?

Also, could this have also contributed to the other "general faults" and "exceptions "?

 

Did you use heat transfer enhancing compound between the heat sink and the CPU? It's absolutely necessary.

Beyond that, there is an outside chance that you have some bad RAM. Test by the pulling half out, blah, blah, process of elimination.

 

Heat transfer enhancing compound? No, I didn't...

Heat transfer enhancing compound? I didn't know that it was necessary. I just thought it was an adhesive to keep the heatsink from getting knocked loose. I thought the spring would be sufficient enough.

I don't think the RAM is bad. But, how would I check?

 

MS Turkeyhunter,

Sorry, I guess I assumed too much with the name.

Do make sure you have the compound for the processor. You can start at 500 and see what happens. Like Zephry says, it's a process of elimination. As far as the RAM, just go one at a time if you can. Try each by itself, or in pairs as required, and see if they work.

Try the processor speed first then move on to the fans. Is the GeForce card running hot? If it's not too hot, you may not have to worry about it. The same can be said for the processor.

Keep us updated.

Mike

 

Yeow ..... just read through this one, its a doosey alright. Not so sure that heat is the culprit here. There are some architecture problems with the k6-2's that cause this or a similar VMM-VXD error with certain hardware combinations. I'll assume that you can ? adjust your core voltages with that MB - the 533 ran at a different voltage than the 500's and there were a couple of different 550's if my memory serves me correct. Thats where all the K6-2 and K6-2+, K6-3 stuff came in. Not sure any of these matched the Cyrix CPU core voltage either.

I've tried MS commercial tech support on this problem to get a patch and never got anything other than a promise of a priority callback. Sorry I can't offer any help, just condolences.

And for the black eyes - (with a handle like that you're going to get some puppies shaking their tailfeathers all the way down the Pearl River - hehehe!) Guess it beats MR Magnolia though.

 

I responded...but in the wrong place.

Please don't kick me out...I just messed up a little!

I posted a response, but in the wrong place. See I think I fixed it...) for my latest piece of mind.

 

I figured MS was for Microsoft. Hunting should be pretty good over there.