QUESTION

Here's my system:

Intel Triton Pentium TX Board with Intel 233 MMX
4 GB Western Digital hard drive
168-pin DRAM (SDRAM? Not sure.) memory
Soundblaster soundcard
Diamond Multimedia 2000 Pro with 4 MB video card.

I had the pleasure of entering your website and found it both entertaining and informative. I thought I would take the plunge and build my own system. Now I'm not sure whether I can swim!!!!

I set the jumpers in accordance with the motherboard manual.

My problem is the system locks up sporadically.

The operating system is DOS 6.0. I've been unable to load Windows 95 because of the sporadic lock up during the boot. I was able, after repeated attempts to, load the CD drivers, but it has not completed the load so far.

The BIOS is recognizing the memory, recognizing the floppy and hard drive, and the autoexec.bat file loads fully or partially, depending on when the system locks up. I have to continuously press the reset button.

At times, it will lock up as I type a command at either the a: or c: prompt. Is this the result of a faulty motherboard, bad cable to the floppy and hard drive, or am I setting the jumpers incorrectly?????

Help!!!!!!

-- Harry Lazos

ANSWER

When dealing with a situation like this, you've got to eliminate as many variables as possible and make your system simple until you figure out what's going on. There are many reasons for a system to lock up. Since it locks up in DOS, start from there. Leave your CD-ROM drive disconnected for the time being. It complicates things. Also, remove your sound card. Now you should have a fairly "clean" situation. Stop loading any drivers for your CD-ROM drive and your sound card in DOS (in autoexec.bat and config.sys). Now, see if you still have problems.

If not, you have narrowed it down to your CD drive or your sound card. Simply add them back to the system one at a time, CD drive first, and reboot. Check for problems. If you can get your system to work with just CD and no sound card, install Windows 95 and see how stable it is. Sound cards are often tough to set up because they use a lot of resources.

If you have problems in DOS without your sound card and CD-drive attached, then you may have some issues with your motherboard or memory. It could also be your hard drive, video card, or your BIOS settings. Basically, see if you can borrow some parts from friends of yours. Swap parts out one at a time, and note whether you still do or do not have lockups. Faulty memory chips can often be a source of lockups and they're easy to check if you can just throw in some borrowed memory. Also, try swapping out your floppy and IDE cables as well. Spare cables are cheap, and useful.

If you can't borrow parts from your friends:

To test your hard drive:
Disconnect your C: drive. Boot to DOS on a floppy. Try out some stuff. Do you still lock up when you type in commands? If so, your problem isn't the hard drive.

To test your floppy drive:
Disconnect your floppy drive. Boot up to your C: drive in DOS. Try out some stuff. If you still lock up, the floppy drive is okay.

I think you can see where I'm going. Just keep yanking stuff out. The only issue is that your motherboard will NOT boot without memory or a video card installed, so the only way to test them is to borrow extras from friends (or work).