Random lockups on VP6

I am having random lockups on this system.

It began 6 months ago when it was running dual P3's with XP Pro. It
would hang on shutdown and eventually would not boot. I attributed
the problems at that point to a bad CPU since removing one of the
CPU's made all the problems go away.

Since it was now single-CPU configuration, I then installed Win98se
and relegated the system to running kids games. It was stable like
this for the last 6 months.

Recently I began having more lockups where the screen would get a
little overwritten and the sound would loop, if it happened in a game.
This was followed by the PC randomly hanging when I would attempt to
run any application.

Things I've tried:
1) Removed all non-essential cards. Only video card and memory
installed. Computer still hung. Concluded problem is either
corrupted driver or windows system files.

2) Moved memory to a different bank. Hung on boot.

3a) Wiped the C: drive. I wiped it and re-installed Win98se, with the
motto that "when in doubt, blame Microsoft". This did not resolve the
lockups.

3b) Attempted to install linux (Mandrake 9.1 version). The computer
would hang at different locations during the install. Sometimes I'd
made it to the formatting stage. Other times, it would hang on the
2nd stage install, where the installation program is being loaded into
memory. So I concluded it was a hardware issue.

4) Ran Memtest86. Some errors were reported, but there were specific
to a particular address location, which the Readme with Memtest warns
may be false. I replaced the memory module with a PC100 stick that
worked fine in a different system and throttled my system back to
7.5*100. Ran Memtest with this module and similar errors were
reported as with the previous module. Concluded memory is OK.

5) Ran Scandisk in DOS mode and checked for bad blocks. No bad blocks
were found.

I am beginning to believe that there is an issue with the motherboard
since all the hardware appears to be working (haven't tried a new
video card, though). The floppy connector on the mobo failed within a
few months of getting the board, so it is not as if this board is
defect-free.

Is there anything else I can do to verify whether the board itself is
bad or identify the bad hardware?

Thanks in advance.

-Greg

> "Greg" <> wrote in message
> news: om...
>
> I am having random lockups on this system.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> -Greg



The VP6 is one of the series of Abit boards that included
some dodgy capacitors. This didn't just effect Abit, there
are several manufacturers that were hit with this problem.

Open up the case and have a look at the tops of the
capacitors. Are they bulging, even a little? Are any of
them leaking at all?

Do a Google for 'vp6 caps' (or be creative), there are
several websites which detail the problem. If you're
handy with electronic components, you can even replace them
yourself. Homie, a regular poster to this group, offers
a service to replace them for you at a reasonable cost.

My VP6 is running fine at the moment, but I'm sure it's
time will come.

Good luck!

--
AZC


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