I had a compaq workstation computer 3 Years Old, win98, celeron 500, 128mb Ram. 6 Gig HD, Philips 800series Cd Burner. I went out of the country during Thanksgiving and when i came back, my comp. was never right again.( My brother may have left it on during the week because I know he did use it while I was away, but he is Computer literate, he does tech Support for a software company, so I have to believe he knows what he is doing). It started freezing up randomly, shutting down without telling it to, and just acting crazy. The first thing that seems to go is the CD-Burner, it was just start going crazy, the lights on it would light up like there is a CD in it, and that its burning even though its empty. Then the whole comp freezes shortly after. So I disconnected the Burner by unplugging power cord. Still had the problem.
Then i thought it was a HD, failure, so i got a 20gig hd from my bro, put Win98 on it and it still had the same exact problems. Next i figured it could've been my mother board or processor. So went and bought a Barebone kit, AMD Athlon 1.2gig, and KS75A Motherboard. Put in my old Cd Rom, Both HD's, and the old 2x64mb ram. Still freezes up on me. Then I started getting Bad Checksum errors when first turning computer on. Had to reset the settings in Bios everytime got the Bad Checksum error, in the begining after Bios checks RAM, then Master and Slaves. Now I figure its the Ram, I go out and buy Micron 256ddr CAS=2.5, Hook up the old burner and start using my comp. Only playing a song in winamp and 2 browsers open, Comp freezes again, but this time not permanent. Starts freezing for about 20 seconds, then works for about 2, then freezes again, then worked, then froze....
So unplugged the burner again, and started using the comp, and now havent had it freeze up yet....but it still not acting correctly. My Connection to the internet through the LAN still stalls, which it seemed to start doing ever since i got the New System. It will be working one second, then just stall for about a minute where no program has access to the internet, then everything loads up.
My next step is to try new Nic Card. My question is, does anyone know what a possible problem is or what they think may have happened over the week of Thanksgiving.
Some other points to make is, only programs loaded @ startup is NortonAntivirus, AIM, but doesnt sign on, and program for my wirelss keyboard (which i just installed in Jan. After having all the problems). Any help is appreciated, I've spent about 500 bucks so far, and I am about to call it quits, and go by a prebuilt-Compaq again.
Then i thought it was a HD, failure, so i got a 20gig hd from my bro, put Win98 on it and it still had the same exact problems. Next i figured it could've been my mother board or processor. So went and bought a Barebone kit, AMD Athlon 1.2gig, and KS75A Motherboard. Put in my old Cd Rom, Both HD's, and the old 2x64mb ram. Still freezes up on me. Then I started getting Bad Checksum errors when first turning computer on. Had to reset the settings in Bios everytime got the Bad Checksum error, in the begining after Bios checks RAM, then Master and Slaves. Now I figure its the Ram, I go out and buy Micron 256ddr CAS=2.5, Hook up the old burner and start using my comp. Only playing a song in winamp and 2 browsers open, Comp freezes again, but this time not permanent. Starts freezing for about 20 seconds, then works for about 2, then freezes again, then worked, then froze....
So unplugged the burner again, and started using the comp, and now havent had it freeze up yet....but it still not acting correctly. My Connection to the internet through the LAN still stalls, which it seemed to start doing ever since i got the New System. It will be working one second, then just stall for about a minute where no program has access to the internet, then everything loads up.
My next step is to try new Nic Card. My question is, does anyone know what a possible problem is or what they think may have happened over the week of Thanksgiving.
Some other points to make is, only programs loaded @ startup is NortonAntivirus, AIM, but doesnt sign on, and program for my wirelss keyboard (which i just installed in Jan. After having all the problems). Any help is appreciated, I've spent about 500 bucks so far, and I am about to call it quits, and go by a prebuilt-Compaq again.
