Irregular PC lockups

Have you checked to see if your fan/heatsink are seated properly. The problem that you're having could be as a result of a heating problem, which is common in newly assembled computers like yours. Are you sure that the fan/heatsink that you have is compatible with that board and processor?

Since you didn't mention the OS, I will assume that you're running Windows 95/98, so check to make sure that there aren't any IRQ or I/O Port conflicts in the device manager.

Basically, the locking upproblem is either a resource conflict or a heating problem. You will have to do some further diagnostics to eliminate one of the two and then we can take it from there.

This may seem obvious (esp if you have already done this), but make sure you have flashed your BIOS in the new motherboard. Even if it is brand new, many are produced before the first errors are found (and a patch is issued).

The next thing I would try is updating your graphics card drivers. The game lockups sound like a problem switching display modes.

Are you using the same RAM from the old motherboard? If new it might be a bad chip or if old it might be the wrong speed.

Also, trydisabling the motherboard cache in CMOS. It will make things very slow, but it will tell you if the cache is bad. We had a batch of motherboards that all came in with the wrong cache and had lockup problems (took us a month to figure it out).

MB upgrades can be a pain in the petooti. The thing to do is to go into your device manager (I hope your on a win9x platform), and start deleting resources. Leave your mouse, hdd (maybe), and video stuff, but the rest is fair game, especially the motherboard resources (AGP->PCI bridge, PNP BIOS, etc.).

After you've deleted all of that stuff, restart and let win9x detect your stuff all over again.

Some additional information would be useful, i.e. Mobo type, graphics card etc.

Well if you just did a swap without reinstalling (a clean install recommended) the OS on the new motherboard problems like this will and can occur. I recommend a complete reinstall of the OS for best results with a new motherboard.

hello,
i would check the integrity of your ram. since it locks up mainly when the main game loads, as you have stated. might want to replace the memory with a higher quality of ram or upgrade to more memory. Im sure this will make a noticable difference for you.

tech4life A+
etech@worldshare.net

Check all the jumper settings on the motherboard. CPU voltage settings are easy to overlook and will cause problems like you describe. Also boot into safe mode and remove all amy old IDE, PCI and AGP drivers; and make sure you install the correct one for this board. If problems persist try another motherboard.

TRY TURNING GRAPHICS ACCELERATION OFF. MANY TIMES WINDOWS SENDS COMMANDS FASTER THAN THE VIDEO CARD PROCESSES REGARDLESS OF VIDEO RAM OR PC RAM AND ESPECIALLY WITH A GRAPHICS INTENSIVE PROGRAM WILL LOCK IT UP OR CAUSE ERRATIC ERRORS. THIS WILL NOT NOTICEABLY SLOW DOWN YOUR SYSTEM BUT SHOULD HELP REDUCE ERRORS. ALSO LIKE ONE OF THE OTHER ANSWERS SUBMITTED, MAKE SURE YOU'RE NOT OVERHEATING AND THAT ALL OF YOUR HARDWARE IS CORRECTLY RECOGNIZED.