PC reboots when surfing

Hope someone can help me out here.
Not sure where to post this, as its an Internet, windows and graphic card problem.

I have 2 PC's networked together via a Linksys router and sharing a cable modem connection, both using IE6.
All is ok on the Win XP laptop but the desktop Pc running Win98 se started having problems when surfing the net. Its works ok for a while then without any error messages or warning the screen goes black and the PC restarts. If I connect to the windows update site the same thing happens. So I have been using this site as a tester site.

I searched around on google and it was suggested that it could be the graphics problem, and to change the advanced graphic settings, I found out that if I change the hardware acceleration to Basic settings, I can surf ok and use the windows update site.

The problem with this is that I loose all the graphics card software controls in advanced settings.

Things I have tried include: updated graphics card drivers, flashed the bios to the latest version, updated the via 4 in 1 chipset & AGP drivers, but every time I put the hardware acceleration back to full the problem reoccurs.

If anyone can help me out here I'd be really grateful or is it time for a new graphics' card.

System is
MS-6380 ATX MSI K7T266a Pro 2-RU Motherboard
Athlon XP 1700
512 mb ram
Matrox Millenium G400 max AGP Graphics card

 

Just a shot in the dark here, but try Internet Explorer Repair.

 

Hi morg

Without looking up specs for your v-card, I assume it's match in performance to your processor. Unless your doing on-line gaming, I don't see a correlation between surf'en and hardware... with maybe a hint of router somehow. This ONLY happens when IE is loaded? A specific site(s) or any site? Do you run any PC based games on your box, which are much more demanding on v-card... any problems? I'm more suspicious of IE or router if problem only occurs when IE loaded.

 

I agree with Dennis, no correlation!

You would be better to really cleanup. Temps, startups and especially spy/adware.

Sounds suspiciously like spy/adware to me!

Here are the steps for a really deep clean, do it or no! Your choice! it is not as hard as it looks.

Even if it does not fix the problem it will clean the slate, increase overall performance, so no waste of time.


Do a Ctrl Alt Del and let us know what is running.
____________________________________________

Configure CleanMgr to max settings
Go to Start-Run and type

cleanmgr /sageset:1
The above need only be ran once (these settings will be remembered as the default until another sageset is ran).

It will present a menu select all except compress, then

Go to Start-Run and type

cleanmgr /sagerun:1
As long as /sageset above has been ran on this computer from now on the /sagerun is the only thing that needs to run.
____________________________________________

Cleanups
These are for 95 98 ME only!

Boot to DOS (not shutdown to DOS). While booting hit F8 to startup menu. Chose "command prompt only ".

Type these commands exactly hit enter at the end (do not type the notes that are in parenthesis like this).

del c:\*.swp (may get file not found, is ok)
del c:\windows\*.swp
deltree c:\windows\shelli*.*
deltree c:\windows\temp\*.* (answer yes to all) "ALL "
deltree c:\windows\tempor~1\*.*
deltree c:\windows\history\*.*
deltree c:\windows\spool\printers\*.*

Now CTRL ALT DEL to reboot the computer. After booting back to Windows, then a scan & defrag.

After this cleaning go after spy/adware

SpyBot <http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=download>
Run this twice delete all it finds, "ALWAYS" run this before AdAware.
Leave all it wants to leave after the second run.

AdAware 6.0 <http://www.lavasoft.com>
Run only after SpyBot!
Make sure to configure to Max settings, all files and compressed files. Delete all it finds

BHO Demon <http://www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm>
A BHO is like a autostart/startup that only runs when you run the Browser.
This program runs stand alone no install is required post me the items it finds other than the below. Normal entries here would be Acro….. (Acrobat Reader) or Nav…. (Norton Anti virus).

Mike

 

Thanks for the replies,


Deloris:
have already repaired and reinstalled IE

Dennis L:

I don't do any online gaming, Some sites work OK forums for instance, can't say which sites definitely cause the problem, but the windows update site is one of them, and this is the site I have used to test things out with. I don't play any graphic intensive games.

Flynn:

I have cleaned out the temp folders and the startups. I regularly use adaware and spybot both of which are the latest versions and are up to date. I also use spyware blaster and just recently started to use spyware guard and regprot. Haven't tried BHO demon, so will go and get it now and post you the item it finds.
I will also go through your cleanup procedure thanks for the info.

To bring you up to date a bit, I updated the graphics card bios,and turned up the acceleration to test it, same problem occurred, decided that as I had the graphics card software running I'd check in the options there. The only thing that had a tick in it was use bus mastering, so I removed the tick and tried again, all was working ok, great I thought, but I then I checked out the card with MSi Info View and it show that the cards AGP data transfer rate is 2x not 4x as it should be. Went into the bios to check the settings there and the card is set to AGP mode 4x now I'm getting more confused.

I'm going to to reduce the acceleration down again and put the tick back in bus mastering and then see what happens re AGP, will let you know the outcome.

I also checked out the graphics card IRQ in device manager its allocated to 11, sharing it is the netgear networking card, could this be a problem.

If you have anymore ideas please let me know.

Thanks for all your help so far

 

Hi mflynn
Here is the info you wanted when I press ctrl, alt, del, the following is running:
Systray:
Mini pad(a notepad I use that lets me drag and drop text from websites) explorer:
ZoneAlarm:
Vettray
Stimon:
Regprot:
Starter:
mssvol:
Vetmsg9x
Spyware guard
When I connect to the net the following runs:
Net run (which start all my Internet related programs)
Pop up killer
Cookie Wall
Mailwasher
Startpage IE

Followed you cleanup procedures.
Download and run BHO Demon the only thing it found was Sdhelper.dll Which is related to Spybot S&D.



I then put the hardware settings back to basic and put the tick back in bus mastering, when I rebooted I got a black screen with green lines across the top of the screen, had to reset the computer which then went to safe mode, I restarted and it booted to windows. I checked the AGP it was still at 2x. Checked the windows update site, clicked on scan for update and the computer restarted itself, went through scan disk etc and it booted into windows.

Changed the acceleration back to full, restarted same black screen with green lines, reset, went through scan disk, into safe mode, I restarted back into window took the tick out of bus mastering, rebooted into windows, checked the Microsoft update site all working ok, but I have still only got 2x agp showing in msi infoview.

Still baffled.

 

Hi morg

Here is some obscure information (click down once) but it pertains to your graphics card and w98. Observation.... I'm running Geforce4 Ti 4200, downloaded new release drivers this past weekend. Found out when I run monitor at 85 hertz refresh, many of the card options were not available, lower refresh rate, options became available. With some settings, gain some, lose some.

 

Morg

Sorry late getting back to you. Busy at work!

It is good that you did all the cleanups, but it is now clearly a video problem.

Dennis has some execellent advice try it.

Even tho this is looks hardware related if the advice Dennis gave does not help you may try the following.

You definately have a Video problem but it could be agravated by a startup program. So Download Startup control panel

Startup control
http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

This gives simple and full control of what starts at boot up. After install there will be a Startup icon in control panel. Why this over Msconfig? Msconfig only allows unchecking/disabling of items. Startup Control panel allows deleting items or moving from startup to run as a service etc.

Use it to disable all except the nessesary Virus and Firewall for a few days if everything is OK then put them back 1 at a time.

I am not saying any of these have a real problem but in combo with a flaky video card one could be the straw that breaks.

In the meantime I will review this entire post and do some research on the video driver you are using.

Mike

 

OK, think there is some help for your dilemma. I've used this fix on several Via chipset systems with a similar problem even though I don't think Via is the real culpit here. Read this carefully and give it a whirl, you can also change these renamed files back to their original state.

Detection of the tape drivers associated with Microsoft Backup under Windows 9x seems to cause this problem. Removing MSBackup will not solve this problem in itself, and so it is necessary to remove, or preferably rename, the following files.

[C:\windows\inf ]
pnpwfdc.inf
pnpwide.inf
pnpwtape.inf
pnpwppt.inf

[C:\windows\system\iosubsys ]
drvwq117.vxd
drvwppqt.vxd
drvwcdb.vxd

You can rename these files to anything you like (I recommend appending .old to the filename) - you're just stopping Windows from find them.

Alternatively, if you require these files for use with your tape drive (eg. with a Ditto Max tape drive) then you can append the line "DMABufferSize=64" to the "[386Enh]" section of the system.ini file.

This can also be due to the Netgear 310TX NIC. See Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q261766 for details.

 

Morg -

Well?

 

Hi sorry its taken so long getting back but I've been rather busy, and didn't get an email to say someone had responded.

Dennis L thanks for the info, had already tried changing the refresh rate, made no difference.


mflynn: I already use startupmanager2, on this machine and have tried stopping everything I can but it made no difference.

Rockster2U: will try your suggestion and get back to you.

Since my last post, I found out that the new via 4in 1 hyperion
drivers on the msi site say :
"Win95/98/98SE are now relatively old operating systems, and drivers are no longer optimized for those operating systems. Many users of VIA chipsets who run Win95/98/98SE report that using an older version, such as VIA 4in1 version 4.35, they experience a more responsive system. "

So i reverted back to the previous drivers, but that made no difference.

I also reverted back to a previous bios, when I knew that worked when I had no problems with the card and surfing. But this made no difference.

In fact something has made the problem worse, now I am only on 1xAGP although its set to 4xAGP in the bios.

At the moment the graphics card software is all there, I am surfing the net OK and can get to the windows update site and download the updates, and the acceleration is set to full.

I have tried so many thing to get the AGP back to 2 let alone 4 , but can't seem to be able to accomplish this. The other thing I did was to change the networking card. Someone suggested to me it could be my PSU and to change this. The PSU i have at the moment is a remnant from when I had a P11 350, I renewed everything else except this, its a 230W.

Once again thanks for the help, any more suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Morg

I think that the suggestion by Rockster sounds like the best thing to do now.

BUT! I would suggest you do the following!

1. reinstall the new chipset drivers since you noticed no difference in performance. (this warning appearently does not apply to your MB)

2. same for the BIOS, put back the latest.

3. and if you have not done this then do it right before Rocksters steps.

a. boot to safe mode
b. in control panel system device manager remove the video controler.
c. shut down (not restart)
d. boot to safe mode once again, do nothing
e. now reboot to full/normal and reinstall the latest video driver
f. when all are complete then do Rocksters proceedure

The logic here is to let the Video controller clean install after the new chipset and BIOS updates.

Mike

 

Thanks for the quick reply, will do everything you suggest and let you know the outcome. What about the new PSU do you think I need one.

 

I don't think so! If you had PSU problems then you would have other symtoms.

A weak PSU would give symtoms like the following.

sometimes the cpu will not post but the PSU is on evidenced by the lights on the front panel and the sound of the fan.

just freezes no error reports just freezes

reboots with no warning

then of course other errors like pagefaults etc.

if jou have none of these then it is likely ok

Mike

 

I'd certainly encourage it. My experience has been that some high end 300 Watt PSU's will adequately handle Athlons and most Motherboards, however, I won't use anything less than 400. And, with some MB's, 500 Watt PSU's are critical to stable operation.

 

Hi there,

Well I put back the bios to the latest version, reinstalled the latest 4 in 1 drivers, this made no difference to the agp speed.

Went to device manager to remove the video controller but I couldn't find one, under sound,video and games controllers all I have listed is the soundblaster card,joystick(which I never use),Microsoft digital sound system,and a sound blaster Audio PCI legacy device, which is disabled. But no video controllers.


Anyway I then un-installed the video drivers, shut down and reinstalled them. All seems to be ok, I am back to 4xAGP, video card software is all there, bus mastering is on, and graphics acceleration is set to full, have surfed around the net and gone to the windows update a few times without the computer shutting down.

I am keeping my fingers crossed it will last, the only other thing I have changed is I replaced the netgear networking card with a linksys one.

Should I still change the inf and vxds files Rockster2U or leave things as they are for the moment.

Just a quickie whenever I reinstalled the drivers windows finds a new device, PCI to Universal serial bus, but I can never find the drivers for this, and just cancel it, so it sits in device manager with a ? besides it, can you tell me if I need it, and any ideas where I would find the drivers.

Anyway, Thanks a lot mflynn and everyone else for the help you have given.

 

NO! I would not tinker! So do nothing else just run like this a few days.

I think reinstalling the MB 4 in1 drivers the the BIOS and then reinstalling the drivers after this did the trick.

There should now be a Video controller device in control panel.

As for the USB, leave it at least untill you are sure about this situation, especially if you have no USB devices.

Get back to us in a few days to tackle this (PCI USB).

Mike

 

Hi Mike

OK will leave everything as is and post back in a few days, thanks again for your help

 

I'd certainly agree that you are well advised to leave things alone for a couple of days and see how that puppy behaves.

However, the Via xxxxx PCI to USB controller ? and your disabled legacy sound device (assuming its SB16 dos emulation driver) would bug the H out of me. Lets still wait for a decent test drive without making any other changes but don't disregard these permanently. You should be able to find the USB contoller driver on your Win98 disk or its already in C:\Windows and you can enable LPT sharing on your SB16 legacy device (control panel) to circumvent what sounds like a nagging IRQ conflict that you previously eliminated by disabling the device. Not my idea of a fix.

As to my other suggestion for your green line lockup symptoms - it won't hurt anything, but wait a couple of days to test drive what you've accomplished so far- just don't lose the fix becuse its a great one.

Good Luck

 

Hi Rockster2U,

Thanks for the reply

Everything still working OK.

Re the PCI to Universal serial bus driver this has been a problem since I first upgrade the machine. I've tried looking for the file on the win98 disk, the windows folder and every other disk I have with no joy.

As far as the sound card is concerned I think I could just enable that and it would be OK, can't think why I disabled it. Will try re-enabling it in a few days.

I still cannot see a video controller there though.