PC freezing up

System

Forget my previous post as when I reread yours I realised I hadn't actually executed the installed updates. Have just tried to do that.

The 4 in 1 one seemed to go through ok although I am getting some error "is_delis" I think it was.

The ct5880 doesn't seem to execute.

The viasound one said it was updating internet options but didn't really do much. (I clicked on the setup icon, not sure whether that was the right one as several files installed).

However since then, I've frozen 3 times. I also got a blue screen which is a first, with an error message OE:0177:BFF8E64B

Is there anything I can do to reverse what I've just done in case I've just done something wrong and made the crashing situation worse?

Joe_Bloggs

The CT5880 was the creative sound chip. I guess you don't have that chip.
A blue screen is good in that it puts you in contact with the rest of the blue screen computing community.
Can you underclock your PC to 7x to see if this influences stabiity?

You can always disable sound in the bios to simplify matters. I always to disable a lot of stuff incuding serial ports and parallel ports to free up resources.
J_B.
PS (I'm off to work).

System

Joe - I went into the bios but couldn't find anywhere to change the multiplier. I did however find the fsb which was set to 133, so changed that to 100 in the hope that this would achieve the same as decreasing the multiplier. Seems logical to me, but what do I know?!

Will see how it goes...

ps am appreciating all your help!

Joe_Bloggs

No processor/memory will do 133MHz fsb on this board according to MSI Clearly it can be pushed a little for a while to 133Mhz. It might be failing due to the Northbridge which contains the memory controller or the ram itself.
J_B.

System

Crashing more than ever today.

Is this Northbridge anything I can adjust?

Could it be the processor itself that is faulty?

Joe_Bloggs

Did you download the manual here?
The bios settings are explained. The multiplier can be set in the submenu frequency/voltage control.

The manual is archived as an executable file that expands into pdf files readable by adobe acrobat reader.
It might be best to check your memory out at 100Mhz fsb with memtest86 booting from floppy before bothering with winME.  
Do you get better stability by running winME in safe mode? This eliminates a lot of driver problems but does not look that good. Press the control key on booting up else F5 to F8 if that fails.
J_B.

PS I've just read your warranty post. A memtest86 test
that fails before their eyes should be convincing enough.
Prime95 from http://www.mersenne.org/prime.htm is a windows utility that is meant to run for many hours/days and can test when things are fragile. There are many other benchmarking programs that illustrate a likely stable system.