|
This is my work computer, one of three all configured similarly. There are also several other computers from the same era in various configurations around, but those ones run Win98. This machine has an ISA interface card to a piece of test equipment. That's why it's so old. The other PCs don't have this issue. Problem description: When the computer is idle, the system will hard lock, usually after about two hours. There is no screensaver enabled. ACPI is not enabled. No scheduled tasks. There isn't even a defragger installed on here. If I open Firefox with an animated GIF, the system will never freeze, even after a week of it. Attempted fixes: The voltages displayed in the BIOS were very unstable, so I replaced PSU twice. The second PSU actually popped and blew it's internal fuse. It was pulled from a dead system, so it might have been bad anyway. The third PSU is a no-name 300w unit, and is working fine, the numbers are more stable now but still jump around. Replaced mismatched RAM with a different set. Passed a 3 day run of memtest. Re-seated all interface cards. Recent changes: No recent changes. Change is bad. -- Operating system: Windows NT Workstation 4.0 SP4. I don't know why SP6a isn't installed. I don't want to break anything. Yes it's old as balls. System specs: Machine is a generic beige-box with no branding. Motherboard is an Asus P3B-F. Processor is a Pentium 3 450MHz (slot 2 style!) and the fan does work. RAM is 2x 128mb PC100 micron. Video card is an ATI Rage 3D pro. Every one of our systems has one of those lol. No sound card. Has a 3Com PCI network card. 4GB Hard drive. There is only 289mb free on this drive. I know a modern machine would die with that, but I think that might be alright for NT. I can delete old calibration log files to recover another 800mb if it's helpful. Location: USA, Colorado. I have Googled and read the FAQ: Yes, Not much on google about this motherboard specifically. Many people with similar problems on newer systems.
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2017 07:49
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 8, 2024 04:57 |
|
|
With something that old any piece of the hardware could be causing an odd issue like you're experiencing. And if you want to maintain it and don't want to break anything I'd just leave a .gif running 24/7. If you want to tinker more then I'd run the portable zip edition of CDI to check HD health: https://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html If the HD is okay then you could delete those logs and reboot and see if it does anything differently. PS it's always interesting to see those old W95/NT/W3.1 machines still running.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2017 00:14
|
|
