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System Halted

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by lucky4me90

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I recently upgraded to the AMD 1.7 ghz processor and the shuttle Ak31 mother board. I also have 512
MB of memory and is running Windows ME. 32 mb Nvidia video card, CDRW, and 40 gig HDD.
My problem is, at times when i am on the computer the system will say " System halted you need to restart your computer" I've already replaced a memory module that was bad. I've also tried to take out one module to see if i get the same problem. The system seem to work ok. Someone told me i need to upgrade to windows xp as windows me can't handle the xtra memory. I have checked the system information and everything is
ok so far. I need all the suggestions you can give me. Thanks

1 reply

by thechas

Yes, there is a bug in Windows 9X/Me where the system CAN have problems with more than 511MB of RAM.
This is VERY configuration dependant, as some users have no problems with 1GB of RAM.

Also, with the short product life of Me, there are a number of "un-repaired" bugs, and many device drivers are not well written for Me. (not that XP is bug free)
For a new high powered machine such as yours, I would tend to agree with your friend, an upgrade to XP will likely help your system.
As a benefit, you can go ahead and max out your system RAM if you so desire.

Short of upgrading to XP, there are a few things to check;
Do you have the latest chipset drivers for the motherboard from Shuttle?

Did you install DirectX 8.1? (Microsoft)

Do you have the latest Nvidia driver installed?

Is the drive 1 40GB partition, or multiple drives?
FAT32 can have problems with partitions larger than 32GB.

Have you performed a Windows Update for Me?
There are a few patches for some performance problems, and some of these cannot be downloaded except from Windows Update.

While I have not seen the problem with DDR based socket A motherboards, it might be a good idea to verify that the BIOS settings for CPU speed are correct. (just because the BIOS reports the CPU correctly, it may not set the bus and multiplier correctly)

Chas

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